Hands on Review – Steelseries Spectrum 5XB
If you have seen the brand new and delicious looking SteelSeries Spectrum 5XB headset and thought “My God, they sure as Hell look funky but how good are they?” then you’re in the right place buddy. Our resident hardware technician Alex has put these poor bastards through the gauntlet to get you the most honest and accurate review around.
They put up a damn good fight against Alex’s tough diet plan and gym circuits. Here’s his verdict.
Key specs:
- Compatible with both the Xbox 360 and the PC
- Features the formidable SteelSeries Audiomixer
- Super transportable as it breaks into three pieces
- The cord is tough as a bastard
- Features the SteelSeries signature retractable microphone
- For those who don’t understand the jargon numbers on the SteelSeries site, technically, these are pretty damn good.
How about it then?
Test 1: Warzone catch up
When I’m in the middle of a warzone, bullets flying, shells falling and soldiers screaming, I like to catch up with my mates, have a chat and find out how their off screen lives are going. The SteelSeries LiveMix claims to improve balance between chatter and in-game audio so I’m going to push this as far as I can and see how it does.
I was surprised at how much of a difference this makes, I was expecting an inaudible change but the SteelSeries team have blown my metaphorical socks off with this trick. From barely being able to hear them over the horrors of war my chat became prominent without losing quality of the in-game audio - for some people. For the quiet ones, the LiveMix turns the game down and lets you hear the chat clearly, but leave it off if you have a shouter on your team, it cranked their voice so loud it almost made my ears bleed.
Test 2: The epic session
You need headsets to be comfortable - if you’re going to sit down to a marathon you need to know your partners in gaming aren’t going to make your ears too hot or anything like that. I investigated this by playing a bunch of games for ages. I love my job.
Hot damn these are seriously comfy. The cloth ear cushions are really snug and you don’t feel confined as the headphones aren’t too tight or too big. As a whole this means whole headset sits really nicely on your head, not only that, the breathable cloth texture and the ample ventilation mean that you won’t get too hot when you’re fragging away. I’d say this is definitely in my top 3 headsets for comfort.
Test 3: “Say what?”
Team deathmatch revolves around communication, well, that and kicking the useless guy. There’re a few things as annoying as shouting assistance down your mic and helplessly seeing your teammate get vaporized by a shell when he misheard “Left!” as “You should probably stand still, that’d help”.
As such I’ve tortured this mic. Shouting, screaming, high pitched, low pitched, whispering and occasionally just talking. Beautifully, SteelSeries have pulled through yet again. Their microphone quality is becoming as signature as the innovative retractable design. Few headsets can stand up to this quality and should bow down before it.
Test 4: What the hell is that? Are you strangling a cat?
Background noise is the single most aggravating thing for me; the last thing I want when I’m lining up my shot is to be put off by some kid to run screaming past his Dad somewhere on the other side of the Atlantic, or for someone to have music blasting through their chat for the whole server to hear. I did all sorts to these poor bastards, music pounded in the background; loud, quiet and all different levels of bass, I had people talking around me and I had dogs barking away. Also, my dear mother ran the hoover around while I played.
No one heard a thing. Not a sausage. At this point I was starting to get annoyed, there has to be a flaw, I’m yet to use hardware without a flaw. But hats off again to SteelSeries, it seems like they’ve come through again.
Test 5: Gravity is such a pain.
So yeah, I accidentally dropped them. I was going to test their durability anyway but this seemed a good chance as any.
No damage from what would have obliterated another piece of hardware. Good times. As this headset can be taken apart into three pieces for transport you’d expect it to break apart on impact so I was pleasantly surprised to see these holding strong. No matter how carefully you look after your stuff, one day you will drop the thing and if you do, you want something as well built as this; it’s solid and sturdy without sacrificing the quality, light weight or comfort.
Test 6: Keep it down!
One of the reasons we wear headsets is to keep the game nice and quiet so we don’t bother people. The SteelSeries Spectrum 5XB does a really good job at this – and you’d be surprised. While you can hear almost everything going on outside the headset with barely any dampening, there’s hardly any audio leakage. The result is an immersive experience where you don’t have to worry about pissing anyone off.
Test 7: Oh Snap!
Something I really was drawn to about this headset was that it can be dismantled into three parts for transport and storage. I’ll be honest here, at first I was drawn to it because I was sceptical, but it really does work, it’s not difficult, it doesn’t feel like you’re breaking the set, the pieces come apart naturally without much brute force and this is very cool.
Overall then...
SteelSeries have done yet another blinding job with this one. Multi platform compatible (Xbox 360 and PC) and durability, light weight and transportability make the Spectrum 5XB good at what it does. You feel like you can trust this kit, everything you’re promised works, the LiveMix (in most situations), the AudioMixer and comfort create a package that is better than what you’d expect at this RRP of €89.99 (Approx £77).
Design wise it’s appealing to the eye, a very round set with few corners in a cool black featuring green trims and detailing. Personally it’s my favourite second favourite headset design right after the SteelSeries Siberia V2.
I only have a few niggling complaints about this set. The LiveMix can be a bit awkward at times and leaves a lot to be desired, but as a whole it works the vast majority of the time. The cable however is infuriating, don’t get me wrong, you’d need boltcutters to get through this thing - there is no way Schnookums the cat will bite through the cable – but it trails all over the place and has to be plugged in so many places. Finally, my set had this aggravating background buzzing noise, but it turned out this was just a faulty set and the SteelSeries guys were more than happy to replace it so it’s a non-issue now.
Overall I’d definitely recommend the SteelSeries Spectrum 5XB. The few flaws are more than made up by the crystal clear audio and generally functionality of the set.
Hot ear blasting
- Super soft and super light for super comfort.
- Crystal clear audio in both directions.
- The AudioMixer is absolutely blinding.
Ear Torture
- If you aren’t really tech savvy it might take a while to hook it up with all the connections you need to make.
- Plugging the AudioMixer into the bottom of your controller leaves it sometimes feeling bulky in your hand.
- The LiveMix works well for quiet teammates but if there’s a loud talker you’ll regret having it on.
