Steelseries Siberia V2 Frost Blue Review (PC)

USB Headset that will stand out from the crowd

Today, I am reviewing the Siberia V2 Frost Blue from Steelseries. Now, I have in the past reviewed the Steelseries Siberia V2, so rather than rewriting the unchanged bits, I thought I would just copy them over and talk more about the bits that have changed! To start, here is what I originally wrote about the Siberia V2. All of the comments are still as valid now as they were then! “Slick looking and very comfortable, this is a triumph in design. SteelSeries have remembered that people will be wearing these for very long periods of time. The large cans have nice, soft, thick padding and the head strap is sprung loaded so that it does not apply too much pressure on the top of your head.

If you want to stand out from the crowd, but still want to have uncompromised sound

Speaking of the cans, this headset really can deliver the goods sonically. With a superb range (18 -28,000 Hz), you get enough bass to feel like you are in the middle of a warzone, but with enough clarity in the mid and upper ranges to hear all of the speech and other sound effects perfectly. The same can be said for listening to music or movies. Crank the volume up and you will be hard pressed to distort the sound! The microphone is neatly hidden in the left can, but can extend about 3 inches out and can then be bent to any position. Again, a great little design feature that just gives the Siberia V2 an edge. I will admit, that when I saw how small the microphone was, I was a bit concerned that the sound quality would be pretty poor. How wrong was I? In game I was assured by other players that I came through crystal clear with pretty much no background sounds. Not being one to take other peoples word for it, I decided to record a few training videos for work using the microphone for the voice over. Again, it was brilliant. Even with my washing machine going in the background, the Microphone only picked up my voice, the active noise cancelling meant there was almost no background noise at all.” None of that has changed. The V2 is still the most comfortable headset I have ever used. I still can’t fault that. The frost takes the style of the original and turns it up to eleven though. The headset is mostly frosty white, with the ear pads and the padding on the headband a light grey. What really stands out though, is the blue glow from the actual cans. Inside each one is an array of blue LEDs. Using the ever excellent Steelseries engine, you can change the intensity and function of these. From static, to pulsing to following the sounds from your PC. A full on disco on your head. Whilst this is merely a cosmetic change, it just makes these feel even more special. What is more than a cosmetic change is the inclusion of a USB connecter rather than a standard headphone and microphone jack. This means that you don’t needs to have anything resembling an awesome soundcard on board (I have a laptop, so that is great for me). The onboard soundcard is really very good. The Steelseries engine provides a simple and clear way to control the EQ and the light show on the sides. Sadly or some, this is stereo only. Personally, I think this is a shame, whilst it is not to everyone’s taste, virtual 5.1 or 7.1 would have been a nice to have. However, this time around there are a few flaws, at least in my mind. The first one is a bit of annoying for me. The lead from the headset ends with the USB soundcard. The issue here is two fold. The lead is very short. I HAD to use the provided extender to use the headset with a pc on the floor. The USB end is also pretty big, forcing me to remove one device from the second USB port on my laptop. If the soundcard element could have been higher up on the lead – maybe combined with the volume and microphone controls – then this would have been avoided. Yes, it comes with a 6ft extension lead, but I feel that it would be better to have just had a longer lead in the first place!! The other thing, it is not cheap (about £75 at time of writing). That aside, this is a great headset. Once you have an USB extension lead, most of my gripes are sorted. It sounds amazing, looks stunning and is still the most comfortable of all of the headsets I have used (and I have used many in the last few years). If you want to stand out from the crowd, but still want to have uncompromised sound – the Siberia Frost Blue is definitely the headset for you. Some tech specs Headphones

• 50mm Drivers
• Frequency response: 18 – 28,000 Hz
• Impedance: 40 Ohm
• USB Soundcard
• Cable 3ft + 6ft Extension
• 16 LEDs

Microphone

• Frequency response: 50 – 16,000 Hz
• Pick up pattern: Uni-directional
• Sensitivity: -38 dB
• Measurements: 125,5 x 68,3 x 38,7 mm / 4,94 x 2,69 x 1,52 in
• Active noise reduction: Up to 20dB

The Scores