SteelSeries H Wireless Gaming Headset Review

[PAGETITLE=Introduction][Top Ad] A lot of gamers continue to pass over wireless peripherals because they think that since it's a wireless device, it must suffer from excess latency, which will ultimately affect performance. I'll be the first to admit that I thought the same way, and up until last month was a devout wired gamer. After looking at the SteelSeries Sensei Wireless mouse however, all bets were off after it impressed me with outstanding, latency free operation. It was then that I knew another email to SteelSeries was in order to see if we could review the crème de la crème of its popular H-Series headsets, the H Wireless. Thankfully the fine folks there agreed, otherwise I wouldn't have anything to write about, and you wouldn't have anything to read. All joking aside, the H Wireless stereo headset promises to be virtually latency free while providing some killer surround sound thanks to three separate Dolby virtual surround sound technologies. It's also designed to work with any platform, whether it's a PC or Mac, an XBox or Playstation, hooked up to your home theater system, or even a mobile device. The H Wireless headset features some pretty understated styling that's not far off from the rest of the H-Series. Unlike some headsets that can be taken on the road, but are so ugly that you'd probably never step out the door wearing them, the H Wireless looks like just another set of cups from the outside, and not a gaming headset. There's a lot to cover, so let's start with the rather large over the ear cups. Each one features some very cushy foam wrapped in faux leather, while the laser straight orange stitching continues on with SteelSeries' colour scheme, as does the interior lining. Both cups rotate so that they can lay flat when worn around the neck, or if you're like me most times, allows for one cup to be on the ear while the other sits behind so that I can still hear what's going on in the house, like my young son falling out of his bed in the room above. Ouch! The left cup contains the retractable, unidirectional microphone, which goes a long way in helping the H Wireless blend in when used on the go with a mobile device. The arm of the mic is flexible and when fully extended, sits at the corner of the mouth. The end of the mic is also wrapped with an LED ring that glows red when muted. Moving over to the right cup we have the volume and menu control wheel. Simply rotate the wheel to control the volume, or push it in to access the menu on the transmitter/receiver. Once in the menu, rotating the wheel will navigate through the options and pushing in will make the selection. Along the bottom edge of the right cup is the power button that fires up the headset with a long press, but also mutes the mic when pressed quickly. When powered on the white LED light set into the button will blink. Next to the power/mute button is a rubber capped set of ports that can share audio with a second device, and allows the XBox chat feature to be used. Rotating the glossy cover on the left cup counter clockwise gives access to the reachable battery, which SteelSeries claims has a life of about 20 hours based on typical usage. Behind the cover on the right cup is the port for the mini-USB cable so that the headset can be connected directly and to charge the battery. The inside of the headband has more soft foam to help cushion any downward force. On the outside of the headband is some SteelSeries branding with the logo above each cup and SteelSeries embossed on the rubber insert across the top. To match the clean styling of the headset, SteelSeries has gone with a similarly understated transmitter/receiver. This little black box houses an OLED display and shows the various menus and current status. Rotating the large nob moves through the current menu and pushing it in will select the current option. The small button next to it functions as the back button to move to the previous menu. Around the right side of the box is the battery charger, which has been integrated and helps to cut down on clutter. On the back side are ports for analog in, chat out, the power connector, a mini-USB port, and optical in and out. Included with the H Wireless is a USB cable, an optical cable, analog, chat and mobile cables, a second rechargeable battery, and a power adapter along with whatever type of plug you need to get this bad boy to work in your neck of the woods. There's also a manual and a SteelSeries sticker, but in order to fit all of that in we'd need to stretch things out over two pictures. Who has time for that? We don't, so we decided to dive straight into the setup and testing. [PAGEBREAK][PAGETITLE=Setup & Testing][Top Ad] As stated near the beginning, the H Wireless provides three different Dolby surround sound technologies, each of which aims to deliver the best possible sound experience regardless of the original audio. When used with an XBox or PS3/PS4, users will be able to enjoy 5.1 virtual surround sound, while PC users can take full advantage of 7.1 virtual surround. Connecting the optical cable enables Dolby Digital, along with the Chatmix and Livemix features that either adjusts the game volume automatically, or keeps game volume and chat volume at a user defined preset respectively, so that the in-game volume doesn't wash out your teammates. Choosing USB audio out on the other hand allows for Dolby Headphone or Pro Logic IIx technologies. I'll be connecting the H Wireless to a PC and selecting USB audio since it'll probably be the most common connection type. Doing so is as easy and plugging in the USB cable and power adapter and moving through the no nonsense menus below. First, add the source, which is whatever type of device the H Wireless is connected to. Next define the input based on the cable type being used. Then do the same with the audio output. In this instance, since Chatmix and Livemix are not supported with USB audio, there's a small notice that says these features are disabled. That's all there is to it, except that in order for the surround sound technologies to kick in, Dolby needs to be enabled. Once turned on in the menu, the unmistakable Dolby double D logo is shown on the main screen. There are a few equalizer presets as well, but those who want to fine tune the sound can also make manual adjustments. To test out the H Wireless, we decided to run the gamut and watch a movie, listen to some music, and of course, get our game on. This was all done using the Immersion equalizer preset. Keep in mind that this testing is subjective and I'm about as far from an audiophile as you can get. A trained ear takes years to develop, and I'm sure that rather than nurture my hearing, I've destroyed it over time. Our in flight movie was the Blu-ray retail version of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, as well as a lower quality rip of the same movie with only 2 channel audio to see just how well the H Wireless handles upscaling sound from a less than ideal source. It was amazing how close the sound from the rip matches the retail version. There was a noticeable difference when watching 10 seconds of one version, then immediately switching to the same 10 seconds of the other, but most would never even know that the audio is being upscaled without something to compare it to. The sound on the rip was a little bit thin when compared to the retail version and lacked a small amount of that big movie theater sound, but it should still impress just about all users. For music we decided to test with the original soundtrack of the 2013 movie, The Host. While the movie was panned by critics, I didn't entirely hate it (yeah, I'm a sucker for a love story with a twist), but loved the orchestral soundtrack enough to run out and buy a physical copy. Music doesn't sound good in surround sound, so that was switched off resulting in a fantastic listening experience. I found myself picking out small details that I couldn't hear with my regular headset. I'm sure it could have sounded even better if I chose to fiddle with the equalizer, but even with the Immersion preset, it still sounded wonderful. No SteelSeries review would be complete without some game testing. The Borderlands series has always been one of my favourites, and given the obscene amount of time I've spent playing the sequel, I figured it would be the perfect one to test with since I'm very familiar with the audio. I play as a Mechromancer exclusively, so Death Trap is usually off pounding on Psychos while I bring the pain elsewhere. I had no problem hearing him causing a ruckus from behind me, or when a Psycho breaks away and tries to jump me. The amount of low end punch from the H Wireless is a little less than what I'm used to because I like to really rattle my teeth, but explosions and melee strikes still gave that satisfying kick, while providing crystal clear audio across the board. The recording quality of the microphone was equally as good. While it didn't sound as warm as my usual headset, it was incredibly clear, and it did a fantastic job at filtering out the noise from the two systems that sit three feet to my right. Some might be wondering if there's any latency, which is likely to be a real sticking point with prospective buyers who just happen to be hardcore gamers. I'm happy to say that there was no real world lag noticed with no slowing of the audio followed by a fast tempo period as the signal tries to catch up to what is being displayed. Everything that was displayed on the screen, whether sitting front row center, or from the next room over was delivered to the headset with consistent, spot on timing. SteelSeries claims that the range on the H Wireless is 40 feet and in my small-ish, wooden frame house I could go anywhere on the main floor and even onto the back deck without any loss of audio. The signal also remained strong while upstairs or downstairs so long as I didn't tuck into any corners, which I'm not very likely to do. In...

SteelSeries H Wireless Gaming Headset Review

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