Others by stefan @ 2012-07-02
The 7H Fnatic Edition Gaming Headset from SteelSeries comes with a catchy color scheme, a retractable microphone and can be disassembled in 4 separate parts for travel. The on-wire remote allows us to mute the microphone when needed or to adjust the headset volume; the included cable is dual braided for durability and includes an extender.
At first I would like to thank SteelSeries for offering the 7H Fnatic Edition Gaming Headset for testing and reviewing.
"From day one, SteelSeries has been focused on making high performance gaming gear used by the most demanding, top professional gamers worldwide and peripherals that provide superior quality and a competitive edge to gamers of all skill levels. We believe, as most gamers do, in winning, not trying!
What originally began with two people who recognized the need for superior, high-quality/performance gaming gear that would give gamers a competitive edge, has grown into a global leader in gaming and entertainment gear sought after for their high performance capabilities.
Fast-forward to today, and we’ve come a long way since our first glass mousepad. We have global offices in North America, Europe, and Asia, providing an integrated portfolio of products designed specifically for gaming. Fueling our growth is you, the gamer!
While we are proud of our technology and product innovation, we are even more excited about how these products are developed to meet the needs of gamers. Many companies may claim to develop superior gaming products but few actually do. Instead, they spend countless hours with lab engineers trying to force fit a new technology with bells and whistles and mediocre functionality for the end-user.
At SteelSeries, we develop our products with a small internal team and a vast network of technology partners, channel partners, game publishers, and gaming communities around the globe. We aren’t afraid of being challenged and implementing new ideas. Our main goal is to always to listen to the collective feedback of our professional gaming community.
We won’t bore you with cheeky slogans, trying to underline our authenticity as gamers. We fully acknowledge that the best professional gamers in the world know more about what they want and what will make them better, than we do. We are proud to be working with our partners, but we can’t take credit for their invaluable input and feedback. Instead we tell it like it is: they help us. We want to know what works and what doesn’t. For this reason, SteelSeries creates innovative solutions that provide a competitive advantage for all gamers.
Critical to our company’s success is also our reinvestment in the gaming communities and the individuals who support them. As a result, our corporate philosophy is to take a substantial portion of our revenue and put it back into the gaming community to help spur industry growth. We support our community in numerous ways, ranging from co-hosting tournaments like Iron Lady and King of the Hill, and supporting gaming competitions of all sizes, to promoting the top and up-and-coming gaming teams/organizations.
Put simply, SteelSeries does not claim to invent or reinvent the gaming industry. Nor do we focus on one specific product, copy other companies or follow the crowd.
Instead we leave it to you, the gamer, our customer/partner/inspiration, to decide if we are deserving of such declarations and accolades. What we do promise, however, is to remain committed to you. We will continue to work with you and the gaming community to make the best products possible and give you that competitive edge. We will continue to do our best to support the growth of the professional gaming industry and give back to the gaming communities. By doing so, we don’t just talk a good game, we win!"
MEET FNATIC
Ever since the birth of what we know as playing computer games professionally, there has been Fnatic. Having lodged the quickest Painkiller, Unreal Tournament and Quake Live players, the most clever WarCraft III, StarCraft II and World of Warcraft players, the most avid Dota, League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth players, and last but not least the most experienced Call of Duty and Counter Strike teams, Fnatic is known for scooping up talent before you even knew it existed. Fnatic houses players from across the globe, have won multiple world championships across game genres and are one of the most accomplished gaming teams in the world.
NOISE CONTROL
It’s no secret that concentration is essential for a great performance. Background noises can be disturbing when you’re trying to aim at an opponent or complete a mission. The SteelSeries 7H Fnatic Edition headset is the solution you’ve been looking for with its optimized design and SNDBlock ear cushions, drowning out the noise isn’t the only way to maintain control.
SNDBLOCK EAR CUSHIONS
The 7H Fnatic Edition is equipped with unique SNDBlock ear cushions that are made of both cloth and leather materials. The ear cushions provide sound isolation from an inner leather layer and comfort from the outer cloth layer.
SUPERIOR SOUND
The rich and detailed sound that the 7H delivers is powered by 50 mm drivers for a superior soundscape. It’s crucial in gaming that sounds are both clear and recognizable. The sounds of footsteps in an FPS game or a notice in a MMORPG game can be the difference between winning and losing. The soundscape for the 7H was precarious to achieve. In order to be both an awesome headset for gaming as well as a powerful headphone for music, applications and VoIP, the 7H was tested and perfected by gaming professionals and musicians to achieve great sound for all ears.
PERFECT FOR TRAVEL
The feature to disassemble the 7H Fnatic Edition into 4 pieces including at each earcup, headband, and the cord, makes it ideal to travel with.
VOLUME CONTROL
The 7H features a durable, double braided, nylon cord with a built-in volume and microphone control. You can simply adjust sound levels manually instead of having to adjust it in your software settings.
RETRACTABLE MICROPHONE
The uni-directional microphone can be retracted and hidden in the left ear cup. This signature SteelSeries headset feature allows users to operate the headset in any type of environment, whether in your own home or out in public, with out feeling ridiculous with a microphone projecting out of their cans.
Headphones
Frequency response: 18 – 28.000 Hz
Impedance: 32 Ohm
SPL@ 1kHz, 1 Vrms: 112 dB
Cable length: 1 + 2 = 3 m (9,8 ft.)
Jacks: 3,5 mm
Microphone
Frequency response: 50 – 16.000 Hz
Pick up pattern: Uni-directional
Sensitivity: -38 dB
The SteelSeries 7H Fnatic Limited Edition gaming headset is shipped in a cardboard/plastic enclosure, so we could see how the product does look like before unsealing the box:
Some of the main product features are also represented here, on the frontal side of the packaging:
A small product description, along with the product technical specifications is listed on the back side of the box:
After the removal of the cardboard external packaging, we will see a secondary transparent plastic box in which the main product along with the rest of the accessories are held:
Besides the headset, which is held securely to a plastic mold, all other bundle is packaged individually:
As documentation, we will find a small sticker, a leaflet, a secondary document concerning assembly and a Product Catalog:
The sticker is great for installing on our case or other gaming devices we may have nearby:
The leaflet we were mentioning earlier contains some warnings regarding volume levels safety:
The replacement of the ear cups is represented step-by-step on a small additional leaflet:
From the Product Catalog, we will find some other items that SteelSeries is selling like mice, keyboards, mouse pads and so on:
A secondary set of ear cups is offered, all-black:
The removal and installation instructions must be followed as represented, so we won’t break the plastic pins on the back side:
The cable is split into two important parts: one of them contains the headset connector and a small on-wire remote and the other one acts as a cable extender:
A closer look on the headset connector reveals a small SteelSeries logo:
The connector is USB, so it would fit on other devices like mobile phones; the manufacturer forbids installation on other equipment other than SteelSeries headsets:
The tiny on-line remote is very light and permits us to enable or disable the microphone interface, or to set the volume level for the headset:
By going further on the wire, we will get to the area where the cable is split:
The main headset cable can be linked to the included extender, if we need to. For matching the Mic/Headset ports, SteelSeries has marked the jacks:
Finally, we have the Mic/Jack plugs that must be inserted on our sound card; all the cable is double braided for extra durability:
The headset has a very catchy look thanks to the orange ear pads and headband:
The ear cups are built from a shiny black plastic on the exterior and the left cup also features a retractable microphone:
Also here we will find the USB connector:
On the lateral sides we will find the Fnatic logo, along with a shiny manufacturer logo:
The headset can be extended as needed for maximum comfort:
The opposite other cup shares the same design:
The pads are made from both cloth and leather; sound isolation is offered by the inner leather layer and the comfort is enhanced by the outer cloth layer:
The headrest shares the same design:
On the top we will find a debossed SteelSeries logo:
The manufacturer has mentioned in the product presentation that the headset is really easy to transport; to do this, we’ll have to press the clips from the inside of the headsets’ body, to release the headband assembly:
Here is how the headset does look when the ear cups are detached:
If we look inside the arm, we will see four contacts:
These contacts will touch the other circular ones on the head pad:
We have tested the 7H Fnatic headset in games like Aion, Dirt Showdown, L.A. Noire and Alan Wake; the sound quality was impressive (good quality bass, with no distorsions and voices could be heard clearly), along with the positional audio, but this, of course, is also influenced by the quality of the sound card we will plug the headset into. This time we have used the Creative Titanium HD sound card for testing, which is also known to deliver high quality sound into our preferred headset.
After playing a little while with the settings, we have also decided to try out the headset in Skype; we were surprised to see that on the other end the listener was hearing us at a very low volume, even if everything was set to max concerning the microphone. We started investigating and saw that the Titanium HD does not have a Mic Boost setting available, even in the latest driver versions so we have also tried the headset on the onboard audio CODEC; after enabling the boost feature, the problems with the microphone levels were eliminated and the person on the other end understood us without any additional buzzing or interferences.
Coming back to the design of the headset, we really enjoyed the orange colors for the ear pads along with the head rest. The product can be split into four parts thanks to its modular design, for easy transport and also comes with an additional set of ear cups that we can install really fast, by following the provided instructions. The cable is braided for durability and also comes with an extender.
The SteelSeries 7H Fnatic Edition Gaming Headset can be found online for prices between 110 and 115 Euros.
I would like to thank again to SteelSeries for making this review possible!