Introduction

The SteelSeries started off with just the simple SteelPad line of gaming surface products. These were a great success and therefore created a fuzz about SteelSeries as a "Gamers Brand". A while after the initial success, the SteelSeries product line was expanded to include both mouse mats and headsets optimized for gaming.

Last year SteelSound introduced the 5H headset, which was a fairly large headset compared to most on the market at the time. The headset was an instant success due to the quality of the design and the decent audio performance. Ever since the release of the original 5H there has been a a lot of talk about the SteelSound products. Everybody could agree on them being quality gaming headsets but for the non-hardcore gamer they were simply too expensive.

But then late last year SteelSound decided to put a brand new series of headset on the market, which were more compact and cheaper than the 5H flagship line. There are currently two small cousins of the 5H, the 4H which I will be reviewing today and the 3H which is a tiny multi purpose headset.

Package

As with all of the SteelSound headsets the 4H comes in a transparent plastic box, which is made of some thick heavy duty plastic. This allows the user to inspect the headset for any external damages before opening the box.



As with all of the SteelSound gaming headset products this 4H is made in cooperation with some of the top gaming teams around the world.

The headset comes with a small bundle. It consist of a commercial for other SteelSeries products and a trial for their SteelSecurity. Of course there is also a little notice about not wearing the headset while playing loud music and stuff like that.

Closer Examination

The headset itself is made of plastic, although the internals of the headband are made of some sort of metal, probably to increase durability.

As you can see from the picture above this headset is fairly compact, which makes it a bit easier to transport.


The ear cups of the 4H are quite ordinary in design. It's clear that SteelSound has made a few tweaks to their original ear cup design which dates back to the SteelSound 5H. The vents are now a bit bigger and cloth covering them seems lighter allowing for better airflow. This is nice because then your ears won't reach boiling point after a couple hours of use.

The overall build quality of the SteelSound 4H is really good without being bulky.


The pictures above show that SteelSound has addressed some of the real problem areas, durability wise, on the 4H. The point where the cord attaches to the ear cup is reinforced with a rubber tube. Another little durability tweak is the adding of a little plastic cord stress relief, this should prevent the two cords from splitting up and possibly reduce the stresses on the cord itself.


The headband adjustment mechanism is retained within the two ear cup holders. The rails that the adjustment mechanism uses are made of metal, which of course is both light and durable.

As with any SteelSound headset this one has a retractable microphone that can be tucked in the left ear cup. This is nice and makes the headset both easy to transport and easy to manage.



The microphone is quite easy to adjust because of the way the microphone boom is constructed. Instead of being made of a plastic tube SteelSound has gone for a more elaborate construction. As you can see from the picture above the microphone blends in very nicely with the ear cup design so it's kind of hard to notice when you don't use it.



The microphone boom is a mixture of metal disks and rubber disks making it extremely flexible and durable. The metal and rubber disks are retained within a flexible plastic tube. I have always been a big fan of this particular microphone construction due to the simple fact that it's really easy to adjust it so that the microphone gets the optimal pickup.



The cord controller has both volume control and microphone sensitivity control. The volume control is located on the side of the cord controller making it easy to adjust the volume. On top of the cord controller there is a little switch where you can control the sensitivity of the microphone. This can come in handy when you are playing in a noisy environment, such as a LAN. On the back of the cord controller there is a little clip which can come in handy if you plan on using this headset with a portable device.



The mini-jack connectors of the 4H are nothing special. The connectors are probably the only thing that's a bit lower quality compared to the rest of the headset. They could have been made more durable quite easily.