HardwareHell

Specs of the headphones shamelessly ripped off the Icemat Website.

• Headphones
  • Frequency response: 18 - 28.000 Hz
  • Impedance: 40 Ohm
  • SPL@1kHz, 1V rms: 99 - 104 dB
  • Cable length: 1.0 m + 1.8 m = 2.8 m / 9 ft.
  • Jack: 3mm (6.3 mm converter included)
• Microphone
  • Frequency response: 80 - 15.000 Hz
  • Impedance: 2K Ohm
  • Pick-up pattern: Uni-directional
  • Sensitivity (1V/P@1 kHz):-38 dB
• Soundcard
  • USB: 2.0
  • Surround sound: Virtual 7.1
  • Equalizer: 12 channels
  • Jack: 2 x 3.5 mm (USB cable included)
  • Operating systems: Win XP/Win 2000/Win 98/Win ME/Mac OS

Testing rig

• DFI lanparty UT SLI-DR
• Opteron 146
• nvidia 7600gt
• corsair xpert 4400 2gig memory set

The headphones come in an attractive package with the usual silk screened info labels. Securely held inside, the headphones required the usual hack and slash to remove, That was annoying. The outer package was damaged, so its nice to see the headphones come through unscathed. Icemat was kind enough to also include their usb 7.1 virtual sound card module for this review as well.

The card allows you to experience the same quality and vibrancy of sound regardless of the computer it is plugged into. This is a huge boon for gamers who are on the go. Never again do yo have to sacrifice sound quality or let your gaming skills suffer because the PC is not setup exactly how you need it to be.
The card comes with drivers on a mini CD, so taking it all with you is remarkably easy. The headphones take up more space then the usb card and cd.

The headphones themselves are a studio design with an auto adjusting head strap. They are extremely comfortable for long gaming sessions ( I have worn them 11-14 hours at a stretch for testing purposes) And their vented ear design allows enough air movement to ensure that you do not have what i call sweaty ear syndrome or SES. A nasty occurrence when wearing earphones for long periods or in crowded and hot venues.

The headphones come with extra long cords and a in line volume control wheel which can be detached from the headphones themselves.

The extra cord also has a wire holder for the microphone which is not connected to the headset. This may seem odd, but i find it appealing to be able to play without having a microphone right there in my face or in the way at times. If needed, the microphone has an alligator clip for attachment anywhere. It works great for me on my shirt collar, and Ive never had issues with people hearing me.

This set is also marketed as a skype unit and (being a user/abuser of the skype system) I have again had nothing but good comments about the unit and its performance as far as quality of sound.

For the real test though we turn to games. Hearing what is going on is crucial to 99% of games, so I was keen to put these headphones through their paces. Briefly these are the games I tried the unit on.

• Counterstrike Source/Day of Defeat Source
• Supreme Commander
• Command and Conquer 3 (demo)
• Prey
• Quake 4
• Company of Heroes
• Tom Clanceys Ghost Recon
• Warhammer 40k Dawn of War (all expansions)
• Warhammer 40k Mark of Chaos
• Lux Deluxe
• Oblivion

Also trailers, Movies, and E3 demos for testing of range and clarity.

The sounds with or without the USB sound card enhancements were crisp, clear, and the headphones were able to reproduce the very subtle and the extremely loud. Explosions to whisper footsteps, the headphones were definitely able to convey the wide range of potential sounds you will experience in games. The USB sound card simply took that to a whole new level of clarity and fun. The 7.1 virtual surround was not always spot on, especially in Counterstrike and day of defeat. When I set the game to use 5.1 speakers there were dead spots behind where I was facing. This made for very interesting game play when I kept getting snuck up on. However once that was adjusted I could hear everything that moved. Unfortunately the games are such that if the headphones are comfortably loud in a fire fight it is difficult to hear footsteps at a distance. This however has plagued all speaker systems and headphones, and I’d hope that one day we would have an active dampening system to lower extreme decibels while amplifying softer sounds on the fly. Only then would these headphones be eclipsed as a gamers dream.

Conclusion
These headphones and the sister set from SteelSeries are must haves for gamers. Comfortable, reasonable prices, and incredible performance add up to a package that is hard to beat even with a dedicated 5.1 surround speaker system. Highly recommended for movies, Games and music, these headphones will handle most anything you throw at them. Only annoyance is the freakishly long cord. And the auto adjusting strap is a bit tight for larger heads at first. However the strap does break in with time.

Best buy for 50 bucks period.

HWH Gold Award and a 9.5