Sound performance

Performance is always hard to measure objectively, because there aren't any benchmarks. So the following is just my interpretation of the sound performance of the 5H v2.

I have decided to test the headset through listening to MP3s and playing some of my favorite games. I used my PC's sound card which is a Creative X-FI Extreme Music.

Gaming performance

I tested the headset in both Battlefield 2 and Counterstrike Source. I found that the headset performance is right at the top while playing games because of the responsive treble. This makes it easy to pinpoint from where the sound is coming, which is very important in FPS (First-Person-Shooter) games such as BF2 and CS:S. One of the things that I find disappointing about the audio performance is the bass, it isn’t as powerful as it should be in order to give the explosions the right powerful expression.

I also did a little test in CS 1.6 just to test if it's true that they have tweaked it for exactly this game. Of course this test is extremely subjective, but I think that some of the sounds in-game are amplified in a way that makes it easier to hear players shooting and moving. I think that this headset performs a little bit better than its Sennheiser counterparts. Although it performs better than the Sennheiser PC160 it can't quite keep up with the 8 audio drives of the Barracuda.

Listening experience

I tried to test this headset with a large variety of music from classical to Techno/Hip-Hop. Even though the treble is very responsive it isn’t good at reproducing music, in short the treble is hard and cold. This makes the headset a medium performer when it comes to listening to your favorite tunes. Another thing that keeps this headset from being regarded as a good listening headset is the bass, or to be exact the lack of it. It lacks depth and power at almost any amplification.

Comfort

In this area there has been major developments since the v1. There is now twice the amount of foam making this evolution of the 5H one of the most comfortable headsets on the market. Because the padding is so thick, the ear cups cover your entire ear. This makes the headset rest on your skull instead of on your ears, making the headset extremely comfortable to wear even over an extended period of time.



The headband is extremely well padded with foam, just like the ear-cups. It's shaped after your head so that the headset remains in place even if you shake your head.

Durability

Like the old version of the SteelSound 5H, the new one is made from high quality polymer, which seems to be really durable. There has only been one major change when it comes to improving the durability of the headset and that is the internal connectors. They have been upgraded so that they can tolerate more abuse when dismantling the headset.