Performance

Testing the performance of a headset is quite hard because there isn't any benchmark that one can use. What I have tried to do is put this headset through its paces in various games and while listening to MP3 both via my PC's audio card (Creative X-Fi Extreme Music) and my portable MP3 player (Creative Muvo2).

When testing it in games I listen for how accurate the directional audio is and how good it is at reproducing bass heavy sound such as explosions and the sound of high powered guns. While testing it with listening to MP3s I try to figure out how precisely it can reproduce the different tones and bass such a drums and such, in a large variety of music all the way from techno to classical and rock.

Gaming Performance

I started off by testing this headset in Battlefield 2 which is a FPS game. The sound reproduction was quite good although it was a bit hard to hear from where the enemy was coming. One thing that amazed me was how clear the sound reproduction of explosions where, I didn't expect the performance to be so good with a headset that costs somewhere around $50. The treble was good enough to reproduce some vivid gun sounds.

In CS:S the headset performed just as good as in Battlefield 2 although it's a bit hard to hear where the enemies are coming from, compared to the 4H and 5H. Again the sound quality amazed me, I really didn't think that a comparatively speaking "cheap" headset could produce such a vivid sound scape.

Music Listening Experience

When listening to music there isn't that big a difference between this headset and the considerably larger and more expensive 4H. The 3H performs alright, nor good or bad. The bass does a good job at keeping up with the music but the mid tone and treble could be a bit louder and more precise. I have tried this headset both with my PC's audio card and my MP3 player, and I must say that this headset performs almost equally with both. Overall I think this headset delivers a music listening experience considering the low price.

Comfort

The SteelSound 3H is quite easy to adjust, you can adjust the diameter of the headset by expanding the two adjustment mechanisms.



The only part of the headset that is padded is the ear cups. There isn't that much padding but still enough to make this headset quite comfortable, the reason why the minimal padding doesn't hurt comfort that much with this headset is due to its weight. Because it's so light it doesn't feel uncomfortable to wear over an extended period of time.

Because the ear cups are so small, the headset rests on your ears, collapsing them, but even though the headset does press on your ears it isn't uncomfortable at all because it's so low weight.