Pros
Stylish design
Highly customisable
Great audio high quality and have set
Cons
No Xbox One compatibility out-of-the-box
Too giant for transportable use
No wi-fi assist
What is the SteelSeries Siberia Elite Prism?
The SteelSeries Siberia Elite Prism is a mid-range wired gaming headset that’s designed for Windows and Mac computer systems, PlayStation consoles, and mobiles and tablets. It prices round £170 at retail, and contains all of the cables and adaptors you could join it to a spread units. The SteelSeries Siberia Elite Prism presents every thing you’d anticipate from a headset at this value, together with a microphone, Dolby Headphone know-how, and programmable audio settings, in addition to a few of its personal options, similar to customisable LED lights, noise isolation, and the flexibility to share audio with a second set of headphones. The SteelSeries Siberia Elite Prism can also be notable for its model and luxury — these are a great-looking set of cans which are snug and nicely made. There are solely actually just a few issues to criticise — the shortage of Xbox One assist (though you should purchase an adaptor to repair this), the massive measurement of the headset itself, and the shortage of wi-fi connectivity. The SteelSeries Siberia Elite Prism is likely one of the greatest and most versatile gaming headsets available on the market for the value, and some of the trendy besides.
SteelSeries Siberia Elite Prism: Intro and Design
Swedish peripheral maker SteelSeries has been quietly placing out among the greatest gaming headsets available on the market. With its outsized ear cups, versatile headband and vibrant LEDs, the previously-released Siberia Elite was the corporate’s most distinctive audio providing, and some of the trendy too. This “Prism” version of the Siberia Elite takes SteelSeries’ most well-known headset and makes just a few tweaks. There’s a brand new, slimmer microphone that supposedly presents clearer voice communication than earlier than. The openings of the reminiscence foam ear cups at the moment are bigger, which SteelSeries says makes them extra snug for a spread of ear sizes. The headband incorporates a new diploma of curvature to make them extra nice to put on for various measurement heads. And lastly, there’s additionally an upgraded USB sound card, though precisely the way it’s been improved isn’t clear from the accompanying documentation. Although model is clearly a matter of private style, there’s no denying that the SteelSeries Siberia Elite Prisms look much more trendy than most of their rivals. The likes of Turtle Beach and Astro make wonderful gaming headsets, however their choices principally seem like they belong on the top of a professional gamer competing in a sweaty conference centre someplace. SteelSeries’ Siberia Elite Prisms, in the meantime, seem like they could be simply at house on the top of a DJ as they might a gamer. See additionally: Best Gaming Headsets 2015
As nicely as wanting good, the Siberia Elite Prisms are exquisitely nicely made. The giant reminiscence foam ear cups are gentle and opulent, the scarf magically rests throughout your head with out the necessity for any adjustment, and the microphone neatly retracts into the headset when not in use. Overall, you get a reassuring feeling of high quality everytime you put them in your head. The solely factor which may disappoint is simply how large they’re. They’re appropriate with transportable units with a 3.5mm enter, however they’re so large that you simply wouldn’t need to carry them round with you, and so they look so large you’ll get some unusual glances on public transport in case you do put on them out and about. While there’s nothing refined concerning the measurement of those cans, there’s rather a lot to love about how subtly it’s been designed on the subject of options. Rather than utilizing buttons, every of the sunshine rings on the ear cups is used for controls. The proper earpad twists to boost or decrease quantity, whereas the left mutes and unmutes the microphone. For causes that solely actually make sense to Microsoft, the Xbox 360 and Xbox One have bespoke audio connectors, so the Siberia Elite Prisms aren’t appropriate with these consoles. You should buy an adaptor for round £20 to make them work with the Xbox One, however keep in mind that there are different headsets at this value, similar to Astro’s wonderful A40s, which provide Xbox One compatibility out-of-the-box. See additionally: PS4 vs Xbox One
SteelSeries Siberia Elite Prism: Audio Quality
The SteelSeries Siberia Elite Prism headset comes with various completely different cables and adaptors to assist you to join it to your units. The headphones have a brief 1.2m cable that’s hardwired to the left earcup on the high and has a proprietary connector on the backside. On PC and Mac, you join the headset utilizing a USB dongle, which acts as a sound card to course of Dolby ProLogic IIx and Dolby Headphone audio. If you have already got a sound card in your machine that you simply need to use, you’ll be able to join the headset utilizing the 2 3.5mm audio connectors — one for audio, the opposite for voice. You’ll want both a PC or Mac to actually get essentially the most from the SteelSeries Siberia Elite Prisms. These are the one platforms that use the USB sound card, which is what offers Dolby sound processing. They’re additionally the one platforms which assist SteelSeries Engine 3, a bit of software program that means that you can create customized sound profiles for the headset, in addition to modify the color results of the LED lights which illuminate the outer rim of every ear cup.
If you’re utilizing a PS4
or a cell/pill, you join the headset utilizing a 3.5mm audio
adaptor, which transmits each voice and audio via one connector. On
the PS4, you connect with the DualShock 4 controller and use the System
Settings menu to regulate whether or not you hear all sport audio, or simply chat.
You also can lengthen the headset’s vary through the use of the 2m extension cable,
as the usual 1.2m cable isn’t very lengthy in any respect. See additionally: Best Games 2015
The SteelSeries Siberia Elite Prisms sound nice, and are up there with the most effective headphones on the subject of audio high quality at this value. The headphones definitely sound greatest in video games, which is what you’d anticipate from a gaming headset, however we discovered we would have liked to spice up the bass utilizing the included software program for films with the intention to create a extra immersive sound stage. The encompass sound choices on the headset are perfunctory. Like different headsets utilizing ProLogic IIx or Dolby Headphone know-how, they try and recreate encompass sound utilizing simply the 2 audio system within the headset. It’s a compromise that doesn’t actually provide any tangible profit in most video games, so we ended up selecting the usual possibility of stereo sound as an alternative. Audio high quality from the microphone is pretty much as good as you’d anticipate from a devoted headset — it’s definitely higher than what you get with the bundled microphone with most consoles, however nothing to write down house about. The skill to shortly mute and unmute voice communication utilizing the ear cup was nice although, as was the purple LED on the finish of the microphone itself, which helps you to see at a look whenever you’re going to be heard.See additionally: Xbox One vs Xbox 360
The SteelSeries Engine 3 software program isn’t essentially the most user-friendly package deal available on the market, nevertheless it has many of the options you’d need to management audio. You can tweak how the headphones sound and create profiles for particular person video games or duties, and you’ll modify the color of the glowing LEDs between 16.8 million configurations, or set them to a rotating sample. The SteelSeries Siberia Elite Prisms additionally boast a few neat audio options which are uncommon on a headset at this value. The first is the 3.5mm audio output on the headset, which means you’ll be able to join one other headset and share the audio with a pal. This won’t sound like a lot, and being bodily tethered to a pal can really feel barely odd, nevertheless it’s nice to have the ability to share the audio when enjoying with a pal. The second function is noise isolation, which implies that the headphones are large and thick sufficient to dam out lots of the ambient noise that will have an effect on your sport enjoying. It’s essential to notice that the headphones boast noise isolation, not lively noise cancellation, in order that they received’t block out the final hum of being on an airplane, for instance. However, they maintain exterior noise to a minimal, whereas the closed again design retains gaming noise down for anybody else who occurs to be within the room. See additionally: PS4 vs PS3
Should I purchase the SteelSeries Siberia Elite Prism?
The SteelSeries Siberia Elite Prism is likely one of the greatest mid-range gaming headsets available on the market. The audio high quality is nice, they’re trendy and nicely made, and the function set is expansive, with a few distinctive choices not discovered elsewhere. Our solely complaints are the shortage of Xbox One compatibility, though that’s Microsoft’s fault, slightly than SteelSeries’. The headset can also be very large, and whereas that provides to its total consolation for a spread of heads, it limits its practicality for transportable use. There’s additionally lots of wonderful competitors at this value. Turtle Beach’s XP Seven headset is on the market for underneath £200 and presents related sound high quality and extra audio customisation choices, though it’s arguably much less trendy than SteelSeries’s headset. Then there’s Astro’s A40, which is a good gaming headset and presents Xbox One compatibility out-of-the-box.
Verdict
SteelSeries Siberia Elite Prism presents practically every thing you’d need from a headset at this value, whereas its model and distinctive options set it aside from the pack.