Subjective testing, conclusions

Needless to say anything related to audio is really pretty subjective, so rather than blinding you with numbers our best bet here is to simply discuss our own experiences with this headset to relay our feelings on their quality, positives and negatives from our own time spent with said unit. So, how did we get on with SteelSeries Siberia v2 and its additional mobile device adapter?

Comfort

Whether you prefer over-ear or in-ear headphones is always going to be a personal choice, and both options have their own pros and cons that we could discuss at length, but regardless of this the Siberia v2 happens to be pretty comfortable even when it comes to long-term use.  Of course, hot ears are an "occupational hazard" of over-ear headphones, but even over very long periods of use the Siberia didn't seem to be as uncomfortable as other similar headphones which I've used in the past.  Meanwhile, the overhead band which automatically adjusts itself to your head size can feel a little tight after a long period of use, but again overall this seemed far more comfortable to me than headphones which require manual adjustment and often prove to be difficult to get to the perfect setting for your particular brand of over-sized noggin.

All in all, I had no qualms about spending hour after hour with the Siberia v2 clamped over my ears, which is the key to what makes for a comfortable headset in my book.

Audio quality

Given the rather plastic look and feel of the Siberia, I have to confess that I wasn't holding high hopes in terms of audio reproduction despite the improved drivers available to the Siberia v2 compared to its predecessor, but thankfully for SteelSeries my final impression in terms of audio quality was one of more than pleasant surprise.

Overall, no matter what I threw at the Siberia v2 from gaming to music to voice audio, it handled it admirably, with plenty of bass (although you could perhaps argue almost overly so at times) and clear, clean audio reproduction throughout.  Aside from those very occasional moments where the bass overwhelms slightly, there's really little to criticise in terms of audio playback via the Siberia v2 for its particular price point.

Microphone quality

As is always the case with setting up a microphone under Windows, you'll need to spend a little time tweaking gain and audio levels as well as the position of the microphone relative to your mouth before you can really get the best out of it.  Provided you put this time in however, again sound quality is excellent, picking up your voice clearly without excessive background noise and the like.  This level of quality is certainly more than good enough to make the Siberia v2 a great headset for gaming, but it also allows it to act as a pretty good device for other voice audio recording tasks - Perhaps a voice-over for a YouTube video or the like.  Indeed, during my time with the Siberia thus far I found it to be the perfect tool for some audio commentary I needed to write and record for an online TV show in which I'm taking part - Sadly, it isn't yet available online as it's still in production, but rest assured the Siberia v2's microphone did as good a job of recreating my irritating voice as I could have hoped for!

Phone call quality

As we've already mentioned a little earlier, the bulky nature of the Siberia v2 hardly makes it an ideal portable headset for a mobile phone, but on the other hand in the home or office it perhaps holds more promise.  Certainly, audio reproduction is again as clear as you'd hope for while making a call on our iPhone 3GS, although the microphone audio level is perhaps a little low when it comes to speaking to the other party yourself, as I found myself having to raise my voice a little more than I would when speaking normally via the phone directly.  Overall though, it's certainly nice to have the option to use the Siberia with a mobile phone if it's so required, and it works well enough to be worth of consideration for a home or office scenario.  Please don't walk round your local shopping centre wearing a bright white Siberia headset though while chattering away, it's the last thing I want to see...

Conclusions

SteelSeries prominent place in the gaming headset market for some years now was never likely to be purely by accident, and our time spent with the Siberia v2 has certainly confirmed this, with our review sample doing everything that was expected of it with comfort, ease and relative aplomb, right down to providing practical cable lengths - Something which far too many manufacturers fail to do these days.

It's actually been quite some time since I used over-ear headphones on a regular basis, having preferred in-ear devices for some time now, but the Siberia has actually managed to buck this trend to become my headphones of choice during my day to day PC use for the time being.  The design of the Siberia v2, with its retractable microphone, also makes using this unit pleasurable even when you don't have any need for the mic, keeping it well and truly out of the way when you simply want to listen and not speak.  This well-planned design aesthetic extends to the volume and mic controls on the unit's cable itself, which gives you all of the control you need over both sound input and output without having to fumble with Windows or an application's own audio controls.

The Siberia v2 doesn't shirk its duties when it comes to actual audio quality either - Although as I've mentioned I sometimes felt the headset's bass was a little too strong to the point of almost becoming muddy, the overall quality of audio playback was excellent, while recording via the microphone was equally impressive once you've taken gain and mic position into account.  While the Siberia's primary focus may be as a gaming headset, the v2 is equally adept at listening to music or movies or recording voice audio for other purposes.

While I'm less certain of the Siberia v2's credentials as a mobile phone headset on account of its size and slightly too quiet microphone, I can't really fault SteelSeries for making that option available via the relevant adapter on its web site, and it works well enough for occasional use within the odd conference call or a scenario where you need to talk on the phone while using your hands for something else.  Get your minds out of the gutter before you parse that previous sentence on a deeper level...