SteelSeries 7H Headset Review (PC)

Another headset from Steelseries that yet again proves they are top of the game.

Here I am again, in the very happy position of a man reviewing a Steelseries headset. This time the 7H. Building on the very well received 5H, this headset answers the question I asked myself once (I did, honest). What would happen if you crossed the clever break apart design of the Steelseries 5H with the superb sound quality of the Siberia V2. Well, the 7H is the answer.

Very similar in design to the 5H, this is a full sized headset with whopping cans to cover your lug holes. The design is slick and for the most part sturdy. The cans have two sets of ear pads, cloth and leather. The cloth ones (my personal favorite) are designed to allow a bit of sound in. In may case that means i can hear my wife shouting at me! The leather ones cut almost all external noise out, but they do make your ears sweat after an hour or so.

For me, this is nearly the perfect headset.

The headband is comfortable, with a padded strip to ease the pressure on the top of your head. The cans are pressed tightly to your head, but not so tightly that it hurts. The cans can actually be taken off the headband so that you can store these in much less space than normal.

As with the other Steelseries headsets I have seen, this has the rather funky retractable microphone. I love this part of the design. It is great for a couple of reasons. When it is retracted, you almost don’t see it, so there is no reason you can’t use these as a pair of headphones. It also means that you can get the microphone exactly where you want it, you are not fixed with just close to the mouth – not so close to the mouth

The next part of the design is the lead. Normally this does not feature to highly in a review. On the face of it it is a sturdy, braided lead that is more than long enough. It has a small “remote” that lets you adjust the volume and mute the microphone. This is probably the only bit of the headset that feels cheap and tacky. This brings me to the one part of the whole headset design that I really, really don’t like. The lead is plugged into the left can using what looks like a micro USB plug. The idea is that it allows you to unplug the lead for easy packing. It also has the benefit of being a kind of quick release should you snag the lead as you turn your head. The lead comes out of the headset rather than you dragging your PC off the desk. The trouble is, it seems a weak connection. I am actually afraid of being remotely rough with it. For instance, I picked up the headset by the lead and the lead disconnected pretty easily, sending the headset crashing onto my kitchen floor. An arse clenching moment! Forgiveable in the grand scheme of things, but get rid of it for the 9H! Let me caveat this slightly. As a general consumer, this is very unlikely to cause any problems. As this is aimed at hardcore gamers and consumers alike, I think you may find the latter have some issues.

So onto the sound. As the earphones are almost identical in spec to the Siberia V2. It has the same dynamic range and the same 50mm speakers. This means that it sounds fantastic. When you consider the cost (£70 at the time of writing) this can compete with much more expensive headsets in terms of sound quality. Some may complain about a lack of bass, but I found not issue with it at all. For games, music or films this performs flawlessly. The microphone performs equally solidly. The recipients of my dulcet voice told me that they had no issues with the quality of the audio. There was no crackling and very little background noise, making the Steelseries 7H ideal for Skype style applications.

For me, this is nearly the perfect headset. It builds on the best bits of the 5H and the Siberia V2, whilst adding a few new features. For the most part it has stunning build quality; it looks great and sounds even better.

Some Specs

• 50mm speakers
• Impedance: 32 Ohm
• Frequency: 10-28,000 Hz
• SPL@1kHz: 112dB
• Cable: 1m + 2m extension
• Jacks: 2* 3.5mm
• Retractable microphone: 50-16,000 Hz, unidirectional
• Breaks into 3 parts for easy transport

The Scores