Icemat Siberia Combo (Black) | List Price: $95.00
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Brand: Icemat Audio
Binding: Electronics
Features: - USB Soundcard produces virtual 7.1 surround sound with 3D positioning for premium gaming
- Open-type phone design lets you hear outside sounds
- USB Soundcard equalizer lets you create a personal sound mix
- Unidirectional microphone comes with handy clip
- Compatible with Mac and Windows 98, 2000, ME, and XP systems
Great value for gamers and music listeners as well [Posted on 2006-07-01]
PC users, your ultimate (value for the money) headphone/headset is here.
Overall design is very good:
Icemat Siberia has circumaural (completely covering the ears), open-air (allowing air in, less heat build-up) headphones supported by two lightweight yet thick flexible wires and separate headband on thin elastic wires. Velvet ear cushions are more comfortable than leatherette. Two headphone units (inside earcups) are slanting positioned to fit the contour our your ears. All these make this headphone very comfortable (even for someone like me with glasses) to wear over long time (a couple of hours). Supporting wires on brand new headphone may be a bit tight and you feel some pressure around your ears but not uncomfortable. A little break-in will take care of that.
Single-sided cable runs on the left side. Headphone cable is 1m (3ft) long with 3.5mm (1/8 inch) gold-plated color-coded (green) stereo plug. A 6.3 (1/4 inch) adapter is included. The cable length is good for an audio device that is close to you, such as a MP3 player or a desktop PC with front audio output. An 1.8m (6ft) extension cable with volume control is long enough to reach rear audio output from the sound card in your PC sitting on the floor. Cables are reassuringly thick, it looks twice as thick as average headphone cables.
Unlike almost all other headsets, the microphone is not integrated into the headphone. Someone thinks it is inconvenient but I like this design. Microphone is a lavier type, meaning the best results can be achieved when clipped near collar. Headphone cable has a couple of tiny rubbery extensions to hold the thin microphone cable. Unidirectional pick-up pattern helps reject background noise. A L-bracket and some Velcro tapes are in the package so the microphone can be mounted on a monitor or desk. Microphone has a on/off switch.
USB sound card is in a separate package. The card itself is slightly wider than average USB drives. There are four buttons (headphone mute with a green LED, mic mute with a red LED, volume up and volume down) on it. Buttons are a little stiff with less tactical feeling, especially the mute buttons. C-Media USB virtual 7.1 channel audio chip is used inside. No extra driver is needed for Windows XP although enhanced driver included on a mini CD provides more features (e.g. virtual 7.1, equalizer, etc.). On one end there are color-coded 3.5mm jacks (green for headphone, pink for mic). On the other end is a mini USB connector. A transparent USB cable completes the package.
Material and finish are good but can be improved:
Personally I do not like high gloss finish on things that will be touched frequently. High gloss finish simply makes the faintest scratches show up. I am sure you will see tiny scratches all over the volume control box in the first hour. No real damages at all but annoying. Any other finish (satin, matte, crinkle) would be better and still looks cool. The plastic parts also feel less substantial than some good engineering plastics. Maybe the high gloss finish helps me feel that way :) Open-air design means some holes, cutouts and less material on the headphone. It would not survive if you stepped on it.
Performance is very good for the price:
Performance is equally good for music and gaming. I probably should listen some reference CDs on a good stereo system to better judge it instead of listening 128k/160k bps MP3s from a noisy PC. Sound is rich, crisp and clear at all range. I did not get blown away by the sound reproduction but there are probably very few headphones with better sound at this price range. For me, the better the sound is, the longer I can keep listening. In regard to this, Icemat Siberia is better than my middle-end Bose floor speakers.
USB sound card seems to provide slightly better sound probably due to less noise in its digital processing. The virtual 7.1 channel, in my opinion, is for fun only. Equalizer and sound effects are useful but most good media player software has those too. You get weird sound if you doble equalize the signal therefore I prefer doing extra processing at the last step (in a media player) if it is necessary. Also if you do not hear or record anything using the USB sound card, default sound playback /sound recording device in Windows control panel may still use the your old sound card. Plug in the USB sound card first then playback sound usually will be fine. So is it (USB sound card) worth buying? Not really if you already have a decent sound card. Buying it in bundle with Sibera headphone is not a bad choice as it costs very little extra comparing to buying the headphone alone. Added note: the bundle price has been increased significantly ($30) since I placed my order probably due to a different supplier.
Now on the microphone, a lot of people complain it being very weak while some say it is good. What I found is that it is not weak and fairly good. When used in close range like most other headsets with integrated boom mic that is only a few inches away from your mouth, recording is very good. I mounted the mic on my monitor which is at least 1.5ft away from my mouth, the mic still picks up pretty well although not as loud. Mic volume is on the highest setting and Mic boost or AGC (Auto Gain Control) should be on. I have good results from using Windows Live Messenger and Skype. Somebody on Skype heard my wife's sneezing in the kitchen some 25 feet and several dry-walls away:) When Windows XP built-in USB sound card driver is installed, AGC checkbox is avaialble in advanced mic property dialog box. When C-Media USB driver is installed, AGC is gone and Microphone boost (+20db) option shows up. Just think you should known.
Recommended if you listen music from a MP3 player, CD player, stereo, computer or anything with a 1/8 inch stereo output for long time, use voice chatting, VoIP applications and play PC games. Icemat Siberia shines in all these applications.
Reasonable Sound, but breaks easy [Posted on 2007-10-20]
The sound is reasonable; i would say my sony studio monitor headphones give a more accurate sound than this does, but then it is biased towards gaming. However they broke within a weak of traveling, as they are very fragile and not easy to pack except to take a rather large solid case to put them in. Do not recomend to get these if you wil lbe traveling with them.
Great quality at this price [Posted on 2007-11-14]
The first thing I noticed about this headset is the incredibly rich sound. The bass is deep, the treble is crisp, and the mid-range is decent. I was not immediately 'blown away' by the sound. BUT, I now prefer to use the headset over my desktop speakers (Aiwa SC-UC78) whenever possible because the mid-range sounds are better articulated, the sound isn't as hollow or 'tin-can-like'. Then again, you're not going to get great life like reproduction at this price range. The open-air design is also great as it allows me to hear what's going on around me while either playing a game or just listening to music. These circumaural headphones are also VERY comfortable to wear, and the microphone works very well.
The USB sound card is handy, and generally does sound good. However... "virtual 7.1 surround sound"??? How is anyone supposed to get 7.1 surround sound out of a stereo (2 speaker) setup?... you don't! It's great gimmick, but this only really makes a difference on the software interface side of things. So, if you're expecting a true 7.1 experience out of this little sound card, you're better off just getting the headset alone.
Final scores (out of 5):
Sound - 4
Price - 5
Value - 5
USB sound card - 3 (due to poor/gimmicky software driver interface)
Overall - 4
Not to bad [Posted on 2008-01-01]
This headset is so far the best one ive had. The sound comes through clearly and the mic works fine. The only problem ive come across with this headset is that the mic doesnt work in some of my games such as TF2 or CoD4. But over all a good headset
Great Sound Not Sound Design... [Posted on 2008-01-29]
I've had these headphones for less than a year and the sound quality has been great. However the design of the headphones is subpar. The earpieces seem abnormally weighty which you'll notice after wearing them for a few hours. The padding on the earpieces will shift over time as well because they're simply attached with double stick tape.
As if all that wasn't bad enough, the dual bars that go over your head with the separate head rest are all very flexible to the point of being flimsy. Given the weight of the earpieces any rough handling can see these headphones break. This factor alone probably doesn't bode well for the frustrated gamer who wants to throw off their headphones.
The included microphone? It couldn't have been more pathetic. It's small and in my limited use (stopped working in 30 days) was largely ineffective. So the only decent aspect of this pricey headset combo was the sound it's too bad they couldn't have made it more sturdy and lighter as well.
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