Steelseries H Wireless Gaming Headset
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2014-05-07
·
2,834 words · ~14 min read
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Buy an unlocked Intel 4th gen Core i7 or Core i5 processor and get a free copy of
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Rome 2: Total War. Click now to learn more. Welcome friends to my unboxing and
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review of the Steel Series H Wireless. It's a bit of a spoiler alert thing
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here, so if you don't want to know the results of this video, then you better
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stop watching now. Oh, you probably do. Anyway, it's the
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best gaming wireless headset I have ever
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encountered. So, let's start with opening up the box and having a look at
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what's inside. Now, Steeler's whole thing with this is lagfree,
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uninterrupted wireless performance. And it really
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actually is uh more on that in the range
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test. So, the first thing we find inside is the H wireless themselves. And then,
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well, we'll talk more about those in a moment. Next, we find the base station,
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which has a volume knob as well as a button on the front, a back button on
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the front, an OLED display that's actually quite vibrant. Then, it has a
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little battery port. And finally, on the back, analog in, chat out, power in, USB
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in, and because it has a built-in DAC, as well as optical in and optical pass
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through, again, utilizing the built-in DAC. Next up, we find all of the cables
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that you could Oops. possibly need regardless of where
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you are in the world to hook this baby up to whatever you could possibly want.
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Now, let's start with the construction and the looks of the unit. The materials
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actually feel very premium and it has a much more subdued aesthetic compared to
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the recently released Siberia Elites. I think they're targeting the, you know,
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the mature gamer. I guess I guess I guess a gamer would have to be at least
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mature enough to buy these to be earning their own money because at $300 they are
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really, really expensive. but they do
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look good. In terms of features, we'll start with the weight. They come in at
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around 325 gram, which is about the same as the Corsair Vengeance 2100. They
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feature Dolby Headphone, Dolby Digital, and Dolby Prologic 2, so you can use
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whatever virtual surround technology you want. Although, personally, I prefer
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good old-fashioned stereo. They have compatibility with pretty much whatever
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you could possibly want with via the analog as well as digital inputs. So,
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you've got PC, Mac, Xbox, PlayStation, phone, AV system, uh whatever, whatever
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you feel like. The uh one feature that they're touting as a as a big deal, and
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I actually kind of agree with them, is the fact that it has swappable battery
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packs. So, it comes with two of these battery packs as well as a charging port
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in the base station. So, you get up to 10 hours with with each of them. So,
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let's say that's optimistic and you get up to eight hours with each of them.
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What you can do is you can actually charge the other one while you're using
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the first one and then they charge in a couple hours and you can swap them for
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virtually unending battery life. I think that's a really cool feature. And then I
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also think their shareport feature is really cool as well. Now because these
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are designed to be used not only in front of a PC but also in a living room
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and they, you know, they look like something that might make sense in a
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living room as more of a multimedia headphone. This is great because you're
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not necessarily going to have a whole bunch of sets of wireless headphones. So
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now with this little 3 and a half millimeter jack down here, you can bring someone along for the ride and they can
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listen to whatever movie it is that you're watching or whatever game you're
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playing at the same time as you. I think that's really, really cool. Now, in
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terms of comfort, the H wireless fits me like a glove. I actually really really
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like them for this. The headband is a little bit narrower than I would
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normally like, but the very soft foam on the bottom does compensate for this. And
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there's actually that same soft foam on the ear cups. You can see it's an
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extremely slow rebound when you press it in. So, there isn't really any breakin
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time. They're comfortable right out of the box. The pleather on the ear cups is
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also a couple grades above what you will typically find on cheap commodity
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headsets and really feels closer to
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natural leather than than again most of the other pleather products that I've
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encountered. The weight is about the same as the Vengeance 2100, which I
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think I already said, but because that weight is closer to the center, closer
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to my head instead of being further out, I find that they don't slip around when
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I move my head in the same way that the Vengeance 2100's do. That leads us to
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our range test. Now, I did five
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different spots and then I used the same setup each time. So, I actually had a
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laptop and then the USB dongle connected to the base station in my office. Then,
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I tried the same room. So it's about a 10-ft maximum. The other side of the
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wall, I tried down the hallway. I tried the stair landing. So coming down onto
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the next floor, I tried the bathroom on the floor below. And then finally, I
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tried the basement. So the H wireless performed better than the Vengeance 2100
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and the Astro A50s by a long shot in my
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range test. However, unless you're the kind of person who's going to kind of
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wander around the house listening to music with your wireless headphones, which some people do, I suppose, that
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might not be that relevant. Leading into the listening tests, I want to talk
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about the maximum volume very briefly. It didn't get uncomfortably loud um or
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extremely loud. It got about as loud as I would go, but it should be noted that
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the dial on the back, which can be used not only to adjust volume, but also to
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adjust settings on the base station to hear. So, you can adjust them either
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here with uh with the knobs and dials, or you can configure and hear certain
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settings that you can adjust using the headphones themselves, so you don't even have to get up. Anyway, this is an
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independent volume control from your Windows system volume if you're using
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the headphones or headset on a PC. So, you could use some software tricks if
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you wanted to squeeze a little bit more volume out of them, but I found 60 to
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70% was good for day-to-day music listening or or like casual gaming. In
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terms of noise isolation, I really do think that's a strong point for these headphones. The faux leather ear cup
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covering does help with this compared to the cloth covering that is in use by
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both the Vengeance 2100 and the Astro A50s. both of which I was testing at the
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same time so I could get better context for each of the products. The I mean
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this is important because I hadn't really spent much time with wireless
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gaming headphones because I don't really care that much about gaming headphones
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for the most part. Um but more on that anyway in the listening in the listening
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section. The H wireless is fully driverless on the PC. So I was up and
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running in 15 seconds give or take once I plugged it in. There is a software
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application that you can use to make adjustments. But because this is a
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console optimized product, you can also adjust all the advanced features using
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the uh base station or the headphones themselves. So you can adjust your
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general volume. You can adjust your Dolby, the relative volume of game
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sounds and chat sounds compared to each other. Or there's even a setting to do
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that dynamically so that as chat transmissions come through your game
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volume can lower a little bit and your chat volume can increase so you can hear
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things clearly and you can adjust how much of a shift there is when that
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happens. So that's a pretty cool feature. You can also set up um any one
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of the preset EQ settings or even a custom EQ if you want, but the control
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wasn't very glam granular and generally speaking I like a fairly flat EQ. So, I
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just found myself sticking with mostly flat and adjusting things up a little
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bit in the mid-range. Finally, you can adjust your input source because it does
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have multiple inputs as well as assign profiles for each of those sources with
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respect to the EQ, Dolby, chat volume, and all that stuff on a source by source
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basis. So, it'll remember all that as you switch between different things.
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Which leads us to the listening tests. They were all performed, all three
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headsets, using the onboard DAC. So, we used USB connectivity for the best
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apples to apples comparison. And this one, I guess I spoiled the surprise a
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little bit, but it really is probably the best gaming headset I've ever heard.
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Um, it surprised both Brandon and Edel as well. We all had very low
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expectations because it is branded as a See, it's look, it's right there on the
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box, gaming headset, and they just tend to not be as good as multimedia
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headsets. Um, but honestly, I mean, I feel like for an extra $100 over the
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Siberia Elites, which were they were good sounding, but they weren't good. I
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mean, they were good. Um, these are worth it in terms of audio quality,
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audio fidelity alone. And the fact that they're wireless is just a bonus at that
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point. And I would really consider saving my extra pennies for something
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like this versus the Siberia Elites because I don't personally need
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multicolored onboard lights. I mean, I appreciate wireless freedom and I
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appreciate great sound quality, but I don't need like 16 whatever million
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colors and all that kind of stuff. Now, let's talk about sheer audio quality.
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Bass performance at very, very low frequencies. So, this would be my one
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criticism. You know, those frequencies that'll tickle your ears and make your
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head vibrate, those may feel a fair bit
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lacking, but I would still say that bass performance is very good. It's tight and
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it's punchy and it's good for general battlefield ambient sounds and great for
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listening to music. But if you're one of those people that really enjoys that
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rumble, then they might not be quite as appealing to you as they are to me. The
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mids are also not as strong as some would like, but I found that was able to
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be taken care of with a very small bump to the mid-range using the EQ. And I
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would go through and I would probably set that bump on all of my different
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inputs. The highs are crisp and clear without being fatiguing to listen to,
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which is a bit of a problem that I tend to have even with good headphones just
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because um my my hearing is a little bit more sensitive in that range. So, I
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quite enjoyed listening to these. Um but you do have to take all of that what I
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just said with a grain of salt because while I do have a fair bit of experience
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with wired audio file grade headphones,
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I don't have any experience with audio filegrade wireless headphones. So, the
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only thing I could really compare these directly to was other gaming headsets.
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So, I I mean, I guess the pricing is something that doesn't really make
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sense. Do these sound so much better than something like Audio Technica
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ATM50s? No, probably not. Um, probably similar,
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but those are a wired headphone and so I don't have the proper context for
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wireless audio file headphones to know if these are a good value at $300. But
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what I can compare against is other gaming headsets. So, the Astro A50s to
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me are um they don't make nearly as much sense. They're the same price as the H
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wireless. They don't really have any features that the H wireless doesn't have, and they just plain don't sound as
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good, and they don't have as good range and all that stuff. But where things
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start to get quite interesting is comparing the H wireless to the
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Vengeance 2100's. If you're a strictly PC gamer, then a lot of the features of
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the H wireless might not make sense for you. So, what you're getting is you are
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getting noticeably better sound quality. So, that is a thing, but I don't know if it's a twice as much thing. You are
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getting the swappable battery feature, which is really cool because the Vengeance 2100 has a built-in battery,
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and when you run out, you you tether yourself to your computer using USB, and
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you run it as basically a wired headset. Um, you are getting the varied
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configurable inputs, including console compatibility. So, it's nice to be able
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to switch between those. The 2100 does not have that, strictly a USB dongle.
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Um, for me the comfort was better and the overall feel was more premium, but
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at twice the price, um, it's, yeah, it's
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up to you whether you can justify it or not, especially considering that the
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microphone really didn't blow me away on this one. It sounds pretty hollow. It
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lacks that that AM radio sound that is typically achievable with a microphone
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so close to your mouth. I'll give you guys a listen to it here. This is my
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audio test with the microphone on the Steel Series H Wireless. I hope you
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enjoyed it. And then I'll talk a little bit about why I feel like with a
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wireless headphone or headset, um, the built-in microphone is so important
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compared to with a wired solution. Because if you have wired headphones,
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even if they have no microphone at all, there are many other solutions. You can
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run another wire for a clipon. You can put a mod mic on it. You can put a
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desktop mic on your desk. Well, with wireless, the expectation is that you
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can move away. You can leave. And so
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adding another wire is not a reasonable solution in this case. So I feel like
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the the built-in mic has to be good enough. And this one's not that great.
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But it's usable. It's not staticky or um
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or distorted sounding like the Astro A50s. And they do get major points for
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the retractable mic. I hate boom mics. I find they get in the way. I don't like
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how they can't easily be adjusted to the very corner of your mouth, which is the
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optimal positioning. Um but it just plain doesn't sound as good as the
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Vengeance 2100 mic. I do like the mute button implementation on this particular
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headphone though. I think I went and turned them off when I meant to turn
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them on there. But anyway, you do a quick press of the power button rather
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than a hold. And there's an indicator light that is not bright enough to be
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distracting, but bright enough to be easily visible that shows you whether
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your mic is transmitting or not. So,
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thank you for checking out my unboxing sort of and review of the Steeler H
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wireless. Don't forget to like this video if you liked it, dislike it if you
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disliked it. Leave a comment and let me know. Are they just off their gourd? Is
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$300 just plain too much for a gaming headset? Or is, you know, would you be
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shopping for something like an Astro A50 or something comparable? And now would
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you look at the H wireless and consider it? Especially given that according to
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Lionus's review anyway, it's just plain better in every possible way. Would love
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to hear what you guys think about that. And last but not least, don't forget to
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