At first we would like to thank SteelSeries for offering the Siberia 350 Gaming Headset for testing and reviewing.

 

About SteelSeries:

"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!"

Product Features:

 

Be in the Game

Get the edge over the competition with DTS Headphone:X 7.1 Surround Sound. Experience the truest virtual 3D environment with the most accurate placement of audio cues.

 

Audio Reimagined

Hear your enemies before they hear you. The Siberia 350 perfectly reproduces in-game audio so you hear every bullet, spell, footstep and environmental cue exactly as the game developers intended.

 

Retractable Mic

The crystal clear microphone ensures your teammates hear you loud and clear. Simply retract the mic to keep it safe during travel to LANs.

 

Suspension Design

Our iconic suspension headband makes its return in the Siberia 350. This design offers an ideal, lightweight, self-adjusting fit. Just place it around your ears and the headset adjusts to the perfect fit.

 

Feel The Difference

Game for hours on end in luxurious comfort, thanks to the deluxe, memory foam padded design. Siberia 350 features improved earcups that comfortably wrap around your ears.

 

Total Isolation

Keep the noise out. The large circular earcups are built to fit comfortably over your ears, creating a perfectly-contained soundscape.

 

Reinforced Design

Things happen in-game and in real life. That’s why we built the Siberia 350 with premium materials that are strong enough to withstand anything life throws its way.

 

Intuitive Audio Controls

Never ALT-TAB out of the actions to fix your settings. With its on-cable volume controls and mute switch under the left earcup, the right settings are always in reach.

 

Make it Yours

Get the most out of your Siberia 350 with SteelSeries Engine 3. Take control of the illumination settings, manage an unlimited number of gaming profiles, and personalize the detailed 5-band equalizer to get the right sound for every game you play.

 

Prism RGB Illumination

Full Prism RGB illumination to match any gamers’ battlestation. Make your headset one of a kind with 16.8 million color illumination.

 

Product Specifications:

 

Speaker Drivers

 

50mm Neodymium Drivers, Onboard USB Soundcard

Headphone Frequency Response: 10 - 28000 Hz

Headphone Sensitivity: 80 dB

 

Microphone

 

Microphone Frequency Response: 50-16000 Hz

Microphone Pickup Pattern: Unidirectional

Microphone Sensitivity: -42 dB

Microphone Impedance: 2200 Ohm

 

Connection

 

Cable Length: 1.5 m, 5 ft

Connector Type: USB

 

Package Content

 

Siberia 350

Quick Start Guide

 

Right between the Siberia 200 and the Siberia 650, SteelSeries has positioned the Siberia 350 headset, which also features DTS headphone technology and while borrowing design elements from the 200 model, this is an USB-only headset so compatibility is only available for PC and Mac platforms. The product is offered inside a medium-sized enclosure, with a photo of the product highlighted in the central area:

 

 

 

In the corners, we will be able to spot some of the supported technologies:

 

 

 

 

Some more details regarding the included memory foam padding and the DTS headphone technology can be checked out on the side:

 

 

 

 

On the back box area, we do have a more detailed explanation of the main headset components:

 

 

 

Need to read the technical specifications of the Siberia 350? No problem! We just have to look on the bottom layer:

 

 

 

After removing the top packaging layer, we will end up with an all-black cardboard box:

 

 

 

The Siberia 350 headset sits inside a custom plastic mold along with a black SteelSeries envelope:

 

 

 

The envelope does contain a Quick Start Guide along with two handy case stickers:

 

 

 

 

Siberia 350 employs the iconic SteelSeries color scheme, is light, compact and prolonged use is not an issue with this model:

 

 

 

As we can see on the exterior of the cups, the design of the Siberia V3 Prism can be also spotted here; the plastic frame employs a debossed SteelSeries logo:

 

 

 

A circular plastic mesh covers the multicolored LED lighting system:

 

 

 

The plastic frame also has the channels noted (L/R):

 

 

 

On the inside of each cup we do have a black leatherette memory foam padded design (with a slight orange internal accent); also, we could remind of the custom texture of the internal fabric which covers the 50mm neodymium drivers:

 

 

 

The left cup does share the design with the right but also features a Mic On/Off switch:

 

 

 

 

SteelSeries has equipped the Siberia 350 with a unidirectional retractable microphone which features a frequency response between 50 and 1600Hz and its shape is easy to adjust:

 

 

 

 

The iconic suspension design is also available with this headset, so the headband adjustment is done on-the-fly:

 

 

 

 

 

On the top area of the headband we do have another manufacturer logo:

 

 

 

The USB cable has a length of 1.5m and on the wire we do also have the volume controller:

 

 

 

 

The cable ends up with a gold-plated USB connector for optimal contact:

 

 

 

Right after connecting the headset to a spare USB port, the LED lighting system will show up:

 

 

 

Since we do get to work with an USB headset, this one is also backed by the Engine 3 unified software utility, which enhances the product functionality:

 

 

 

The interface is similar to what we have seen along with the award-winning Siberia Elite Prism model:

 

 

 

We are allowed to turn the DTS headphone effect on and off depending on the audio material we are listening to:

 

 

 

The DTS headphone effect does also come with some custom presets:

 

 

 

If these are not enough for you, we can adjust the 5-band EQ (as opposed to the 10-band on the Elite Prism):

 

 

 

Plenty of presets are available here too for fast adjustment:

 

 

 

Lastly, we do have the option to adjust the microphone volume and enable the microphone auto optimization (same feature as the auto microphone compression found on the Elite Prism):

 

 

 

 

Regarding the color of the earcups, we have a separate menu available:

 

 

 

We only have the option to choose between Steady and ColorShift, while the option “Audio Volume Trigger” or “Breathe” modes are not available:

 

 

 

The Siberia 350 headset is very easy to set up and work with thanks to the Engine 3 utility, while the volume controller is placed on the wire. If we look at both Siberia 650 (Elite Prism) and 350, we can see that the latter is a “lite” edition of the more expensive model, which does feature a less thick padding system, no analog interface and also less options we can configure throughout the software. However, the most important settings like the adjustable headband, DTS headphone, retractable unidirectional microphone, RGB illumination are available so we can enjoy the product with the same quality but at a much lower price.

 

We have tested the headset while gaming in GTA V, LoL, Hitman, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter but also in different TV Shows as Lucifer or Better Call Saul. The headset performed admirably with and without the DTS effect turned on, obtaining similar results as the Elite Prism which practically means that this is not a headset we would recommend to people which are very hyped about the bass. The bass is there, of course, but fine-tuned so it won’t create headaches during longer periods of time which is basically a good thing; on the Elite Prism higher bass levels could be easily obtained by hooking up the headset on our dedicated Sound Blaster ZxR sound card via the analog interface so we would bypass the dedicated sound card.

 

The LED lighting system is very nice to have and can be customized with ease thanks to the Engine 3 GUI; however, we are really missing out the “Audio Volume Trigger” mode which would activate the LEDs depending on the audio content we were listening to.

 

Given the lighter design and also the missing features versus the 650 model, the price is considerably lower at 112.22 Euros, which makes it quite affordable for the mainstream crowd.

SteelSeries Siberia 350 Gaming Headset is Recommended For:

 

 

We would like to thank again to SteelSeries for making this review possible!