SteelSeries Siberia V2 for PS3

Testing and Conclusion

As we’ve had plentiful experience with the Siberia V2, including a prior review, we concentrated our testing largely upon the PS3 side of things. Yes this is a tough job sometimes.

To this end we fired up a slew of games to cover all possible environments.

Gran Turismo 5 is an awesome treat for the eyes and the endless growl of a highly-tuned engine should provide a fantastic test for how well the LiveMix enables the voice to be heard above a cacophony of cars. Given that the LiveMix in the 5XB was excellent, and the Siberia V2s themselves are fantastic, it was no surprise in the least that our fellow racers were still clearly audible no matter how close the racing nor how hard the tyres were squealing.

Continuing the theme of aural chaos Marvel vs Capcom 3 was up next and with so much going on at once it really pushes the Siberia V2s hard. Despite this everything was rendered with clarity and aplomb. From the thumping music, the cheek of a Deadpool taunt or the scream of Akumas Raging Demon it is a feast for the ears and the Siberia V2 for PS3 isn’t found wanting at all.

Of course reproducing a din with clarity is testing, but equally testing is managing to articulate subtle nuances when there isn’t a giant waveform to get the speakers pulsing. To this end we tried out the far more sedate Tiger Woods 2012 and we’re pleased to report that every bird tweet and breath of wind is represented with the delicacy one would desire.

One of the primary things about the Siberia V2 for PS3 is how well it handles everything that’s thrown at it. It’s not only games that sound good, but movies and music are all handled well too and even Skype conversations sound just as you would hope.

If there are any black marks against it they are slight. By virtue of being an open-backed headset if you’re hoping to deafen yourself without any audio leaking to others in the same room that’s not going to happen. Some noise will always leak out of a headset but open-backed ones are naturally more disposed to this than the closed-back style. Also this means that bass isn’t quite as pounding as you’ll get from a closed back set, although it’s by no means weak and feeble it just wont shake your fillings loose. However as a trade-off the open-back design does mean that the sound has a real sense of space to it which, personally, is worth the noise-spillage and only good bass performance.

So it’s exactly what we expected it to be. All the performance of the excellent Siberia V2 headset, able to be plugged into pretty much anything you can think of and by virtue of this you only require one headset to cover all possible uses. You do pay a premium over the price of the standalone Siberia V2s, as the SteelSeries Siberia V2 for PS3 come in around the £90 mark, but the flexibility is unmatched and the ease of installation the best we’ve seen yet for a console headset. To get better audio than this you’ll either need to spend a lot more money, or lose all that flexibility and we’re delighted to award it our OC3D Gold Award.

     

Thanks to SteelSeries for providing the Siberia V2 for PS3 for review. Discuss in our forums.