Steelseries Siberia 350 headphones review

Target: gaming. 

Steelseries is one of the best known gaming peripheral brands in the PC world. Not only does the American company produce some of the best mechanical keyboards and competition mice around, but it has also specialized in the audio peripheral sector for some time with its headphones. Siberia, now traditionally recognized for their design and extraordinary sound and construction quality. After trying the miraculous wireless Hs, Steelseries is once again scrutinizing our demanding ear cups with the new version of its most iconic headphones, the Steelseries Siberia 350.

However, unlike other brands that aim for “multi purpose” headphones, capable of doing everything and, at times, nothing well, Steelseries has remained faithful to its core business: gaming. The Siberia 350 are in fact a headset designed and built for gaming and gaming only. Forget about additional cables for connecting to your mobile phone, commands for calling control or skip tracks. Under the beautiful cardboard cover, on which our headset is depicted, there is little room for frills (only headset and a warranty leaflet), because that's what's under the hood that really matters.

Le Siberia 350 are USB circum aural headphones, with 7.1 virtual channels, available in both white and black. The minimalist design is that of the award-winning V3, as is the comfort: a simple structure with two rubber-coated metal wires holds the two pavilions together, and, hooked to it with two elastic and resistant cables - Steelseries calls it "designer pendant light”- the headband allows you to adapt the headphones to your head, without the need for any adjustments. Perhaps those with a lot of hair might feel a slight sensation of pressure due to the adherence of the headband, but nothing that damages the excellent feeling of the headphones in an excessive way. No adjustments therefore, only a vertical tilt of about 20 ° of the pavilions, but great wearability and comfort. The pavilions have generous dimensions that can accommodate even the largest ears and, thanks to the abundant memory foam padding, provide exceptional comfort even in the longest gaming sessions. Furthermore, the good depth of the pavilions guaranteed by the thickness of the padding, which allows you not only to improve sound insulation, but also to keep the ear cooler, not in direct contact with the materials of which the headset itself is made. The constructive solidity is at the highest levels and although there are no noble materials such as aluminum, but only plastics of excellent workmanship, the perceived quality is very high.

If you exclude the switch for the mute of the microphone and the microphone on the left side, nothing else disturbs the design of the headphones. The USB cable has a length of 1,5m, a little short if you want to connect headphones to a console, but more than enough for use with a PC, an option for which these headphones seem to be specifically designed. It is also equipped with a small in-line wheel for volume control.

Outside the two drivers are equipped with lighting RGB LED "Prism", already seen on the homonymous headphones of the American manufacturer. The point coloring can be automatic and in this case the headphones will light up with the fading of the different colors of the RGB spectrum, or adjusted through the free software, not included, Steelseries Engine 3. The Engine allows you to manage and control all Steelseries peripherals. , and in particular for the Siberia 350, in addition to adjusting the color of the RGB lighting, also activating the equalization, creating customized settings or choosing from the Game, Film, Music presets (other more specific presets are still available in another menu cascade), activate DTS and adjust the microphone volume. Steelseries engine 3 also allows, with the Gamesense functionality, to customize the light response of the headphones for some specific titles due to particular game events. In Counterstrike, for example, the color of the headphones can change from green to red depending on the level of health, or indicate the number of kills per turn by flashing with different colors. Although not particularly useful in game, these are still particularly nice options to amaze friends or fans of your gaming channel.

Audio Quality - Gaming and Music

The Steelseries 350 are headphones designed primarily for gaming. The two large neodymium drivers are 50 mm (against the 40mm of many competing solutions) and with a response frequency between 10 - 28000 Hz. The good sensitivity combined with the listed characteristics, guarantees precise and powerful bass and crystal clear highs, the all with a really considerable sound pressure. The Siberia 350 also have an efficient 7.1-channel virtualization system, truly incredibly precise, which overcomes even the traditional problems of this technology, with a localization that is not always the right one and an annoying echo effect in some circumstances. As far as we're concerned, in this respect, the Siberia 350 are on the same level as the best-in-class Razer Kraken 7.1 reviewed here.

Being gaming headsets, the attention is shifted to the two extremes of the sound range, favoring the bass and the highs. The headphones go down really hard and the bass is full-bodied and dry, without annoying queues. The highs, on the other hand, are crystalline and metallic enough to make this headphones ideal for reproducing sound effects, especially in the FPS and TPS fields.

The tendency to enhance the extremes of the sound range, if on the one hand it makes them perfect in the gaming field, increasing the immersion of the game, penalizes music listening a little, which is a little off especially in the medium range, making you lose a little bit in terms of involvement. Listening is still pleasant with almost any type of music, as long as we repeat it, we choose to give up any audiophile pretense. Something can be recovered through the use of custom presets but it is a question of knowing how to fine-tune the settings (not even many) of the equalizer, a task that is certainly not for everyone.

On the left side of the headphones is the retractable microphone which has a frequency response of between 50-16000 Hz and a sensitivity of -42db. While not equipped with any external noise cancellation system, the microphone is extremely directional and allows you to almost exclusively capture your voice. The voice recorded with the Siberia 350 microphone is very good and for the recordings of your gameplay sessions, perhaps to be published on your channel, very effective, if your budget does not allow you to choose something more specific.