SteelSeries 5XB Medal of Honor Edition

There are several different models of SteelSeries series 5 headset, but the latest addition to the club is this Medal of Honor special edition for the XBOX 360, kitted out in the colours of Electronics Arts' game.

Design: XBOX 360 issues

The XBOX 360 is no friend of headsets. The console just hasn't been designed for use with just a headset only, as an earpiece is supplied for keeping track of conversations, while the background noise from the game comes out of your TV speakers. As a result, gaming with a headset requires a rather awkward two-cable set-up, with connections to the console and the controller.

However, with the arrival of LiveMix (see inset), the console isn't hooked up directly to the headset. Instead, the Audio Mixer module plugs into the controller and then connects to the console, while the headset itself plugs into the Audio Mixer that's now attached to the controller. That may seem like a pretty good idea but it actually makes the controller feel a bit heavier. Plus, although the cable is long, it tends to pull downwards, which can prove tiring for your wrists after a while.

The headset's general design is exactly the same as the PC version, the 5HV2. The earpads are soft and velvety and the headset isn't too heavy, although in terms of comfort, it can't quite match the quality of a higher-end headset. The 5XB can be taken apart into three separate bits but no case is supplied as standard.

The special Medal of Honor finish consists of a matte camouflage paint job, the game's name printed on the outer shell of each headphone and the EA logo in white on the inside.

Audio: voices dominate

SteelSeries has obviously been very keen to make sure voices can be heard clearly ... so much so that everything else seems to have been completely overlooked. There's a noticeable boost in dB between 2 and 7 kHz and you can definitely hear your fellow gamers loud and clear—but that's all. On top of that, there's an unpleasant distortion over all the audio spectrum.

Apart from a small peak in the low-mediums, there's absolutely nothing at the lower end of the spectrum. In other words, if you're looking for total immersion in the game, you'd be better off looking elsewhere.

The microphone works fine, even if we would have liked to see a volume control. There are, however, separate dials for adjusting the volume of the chat and the game manually, as well as the Live Mix function (see inset).

Although designing a headset for the XBOX 360 is clearly no mean feat, SteelSeries could have made the 5XB more appealing with a few relatively minor improvements to the audio quality and the product's design and handling. We'll look forward to future versions.