SteelSeries Siberia Elite Prism Review

Final Thoughts

Price

There’s no getting around it, this is a premium headset and it comes with a premium price tag to match. At around £180 they’re very expensive in terms of consumer headphones, putting in them in the firing line of some of the best headsets I can think of; the Astro A40, Astro A50, ASUS STrix 7.1, several Sennheiser sets and more.

Overview

I really like this headset, I really do. It looks absolutely gorgeous and it’s by far one of the most comfortable and well-designed headsets I’ve ever had the fortune to pop on my head. Unfortunately for SteelSeries, I’ve never once bought a set of headphones or a headset based on their design, as its raw performance that I care about and rightly so.

The Siberia Elite Prism has what it takes to tackle the big boys in this part of the market, its sound quality is nothing short of amazing, but it comes with a few minor drawbacks that hamper the enjoyment of the experience. The first would be the lack of volume over USB, this should be the premium part of the listening experience, as you can tap into the EQ and the Dolby settings, but it’s just too darn quiet to really get lost in the moment of your favourite movies as you crank up a Hanz Zimmer score, or when you’re playing a single player game of GTA V and you want to hear your favourite radio station mid-rampage. Of course, using my amp soon brought the headset to life, but at the cost of some features and I see little point in paying for USB features, only to sideline them for something a cheaper headset could achieve. Then the fact I feel obligated to push the EQ up to get the volume and sonic performance I’m happy with is a pain, as I found myself settings quite a few profiles for different types of music, different games and it just seemed silly, given I’ve got headsets that sound great from the moment I connect them, until the moment I’m done, with zero tinkering. Again, that’s not to say this is a bad headset, I think it’s great overall, it could just be a little better with the volume options improved.

The microphone performance is great, the Dolby feature sounds as good as any virtually surround is likely to get and remarkably convincing, the build quality is exceptional, the design is gorgeous and while expensive, the headset does fall in line with other premium grade headsets.

Pros

• Crystal clear sound
• Can handle huge adjustments of the EQ without distorting the sound
• Good quality microphone
• Comfortable fit
• Stunning aesthetics
• Easy to use software
• Wide range of connectivity options
• Multi-format support

Cons

• Volume over USB is too low
• Dolby performance is great, but further hampers the volume

Neutral

• There are similar priced headsets that offer better out-of-the-box performance

“A great headset that would no doubt put a smile on your face if you bought one, it looks, feels and sounds incredible, but the volume limits are something many competing headsets don’t have to deal with.”

Thank you SteelSeries for providing us with this sample.