Testing Methodology
For testing we will be testing only on the PC platform since I feel that it gives better overall sound quality. We will be examining the headsets performance in Music, Movies,and PC games.
Before running these tests, the headphones were properly burned-in, in order to bring out the full characteristics of the sound. This is done in order to allow the speakers in the headphones to burn-in since they often sound different out of the box, than when you burn them in for 20-50hrs. After the burn-in period, all tests were conducted. Although, I must note that with this headset it sounded like they were burned in from the factory compared to previous Steelseries headsets I have reviewed. Quite a pleasant surprise.
Music
Music testing is done with the 7XB being driven by an Asus Xonar DX sound card, all music is formatted in FLAC at 256kbs bitrate. Different music albums were used in order to get a feel for how the set would perform on different music genres. I must note that testing was done with different “Exact SND” profiles according to which genre of music was being sampled.
The first album I used was Aly & Fila – Rising sun which is a Trance/ Techno album.When I first started listening, I thought this headset was terrible. But upon playing with the headset a little more I found the proper Exact SND profile that suited this music. The headset then came to life. Crisp bass was married to rich mids and highs. This headset is everything the 7H was lacking. I’m not sure if the speakers used are slightly different but there was a pretty good difference between the pair. The soundstage need a bit of work, but this was Steelseries best attempt at Trance music thus far.
Next up is the Folk album Bring Me your Love by City & Colour. This album is used in order to give a good sense of the mids and highs, as well as some input on the finer details in guitar chords and other sounds. Once again, a proper profile was found that greatly improved sound quality. But that isn’t to say that everything is perfect. The mids and highs were lackluster at times. Lows were fine throughout, but sometimes came in too strong for this type of music.Make sure you find the correct profile or this music can come in downright nasty at times.
For the next album/ genre there was a nice change of pace and we took a look at the punk album Full Circle by Pennywise . No matter what I did, I couldn’t really find a profile that properly fit this album across all ranges. Some were lacking when it came to bass, some on mids, and some on highs. I settled on one that was pretty good on the lows and mids but needed a little work on highs. Some higher vocals were more of a piercing sound rather than simply high. It seems like this headset just didn’t get along with this type of music no matter what I did.
Finally we took a look at the Rap album K.O.D. by Tech N9ne. This headset seemed to excel at rap music. Lows are booming and crisp, mids are solid, yet highs seem to be a little off. This lack of detail in the highs is nothing that would ruin your listening experience, but simply something that must be taken into account. Overall, I would say that rap music and this headset go hand in hand.
Movies/ Video
Lots of people use their headphones when they watch movies or their favorite TV shows. Testing is done by watching Blue-Ray rips of the following series at 720p or 1080p on the VLC media player.
Life-
This BBC/ Discovery channel is simply stunning visually and audio-wise. Everything comes in very clear through these headphones. Animals walking, waves crashing, everything sounded crisp and great. Certain profiles were pretty medicore, but once a proper one was found everything came in great.
Band of Brothers –
Being quite an amazing series, Band of Brothers was a perfect fit for a war experience.The snap of gunfire striking close by, sounds of Artillery landing near you, these and many more sounds were all replicated to perfection through this headset. Steelseries has a nack for delivering quality sound with video, and this headset is no exception to that. Although, there were a few instances where certain sounds came in a bid muddy, but not enough to detract from the experience.
But lets move onto what these cans are marketed for, gaming.
