Icemat Siberia Multi Headset Review

There’s nothing better than sitting back and listening to music and hearing it as if you were sitting right there at a live concert, letting the music flow through you, send electrifying currents down your spine. The hardware on your ears all the way to the quality of the recorded tunes you’re listening to makes all the difference in the world. Icemat.com has produced the Black Siberia Multi Headset, which not only totes a pair of “cans”, but a uni-directional mic as well. This interesting feature included with this headset could be directed towards gamers, VoIP users, and teleconference enthusiasts. If that isn’t enough to take a look at, Icemat also has a Black Siberia USB Soundcard, which can be used in place of onboard sound or a PCI soundcard. My ears are very tough to please, so through the course of the review, we’ll see how the sound quality of all these components compares and holds up.

Initial Impressions
When I first opened the shipping box, I was greeted with a nice looking box with a plastic window that allowed me to see the headset fairly easily. So, even before I tore open the packaging, I could easily see how big this headset was and what I’d expect to be fitting over my ears.

There was one thing about the USB Soundcard box I noticed right off the bat: a “compatible with a Mac” stamp on the package. That’s certainly a plus for Mac users out there. However, there was one downside to the product’s picture on the box: since the item itself was solid black, the photograph of the USB Soundcard didn’t show up so well, so I wasn’t quite sure what would actually appear when I opened the package. If you dabble in painting, graphics or sewing, you have probably already figured out that that solid black objects never present well. Don’t fret, though. If black isn’t your color, Icemat has also has white available for both the headset and the USB Soundcard.

Products & Specs

Pictured here is everything included with the Headset.

Headset:
Frequency response: 18Hz – 28,000Hz
Impedance: 40 Ohm
SPL@1kHz, 1V rms: 104dB
Jack: 3.5mm and a 3.5mm to 6.3mm adapter
Cable length: 1m/3.3ft
Volume regulator cable length: 1.8m/5.9ft

Microphone:
Frequency response:
80Hz – 15,000Hz
Sensitivity 1V/Pa@1Khz): -38dB
Cable length: 1.8m/5.9ft

USB Soundcard:
USB 2.0
Virtual 7.1 Surround Sound
12 Channel Equalizer
USB Cable Included

Using the Headset
Upon donning the Black Siberia headset, I was surprised at how snugly it held on to my head. The “cans” first hold the headset in place like any other headset, but the headband on top is unique in that it is very, very easy to adjust and fit to your head. The only downside to the headband is that it may press down on your head with a bit more force than expected, making it a little uncomfortable at first. It doesn’t take long to get used to, however.

As for the comfort level of the “cans” themselves, there is enough soft padding to make this a non-issue. The only thing that some listeners may find annoying is their size. For some ears, they may be too small, and their ears may not stay inside the round opening in the “cans”. It may have been more ideal to have these “cans” oval rather than perfectly round. Nevertheless, they are comfortable, and a large bonus is that your ears won’t get uncomfortably warm. I’ve noticed with a number of headsets that this is sometimes a problem, but with this pair, you can use them for hours without it ever being a problem.

Operating the headset itself is quite simple. Plug it in and turn up the volume. Or, plug the volume regulator in to the sound card, then the headset into the volume regulator. The control over the volume using the volume regulator is quite good. The sound volume responds quite well.

The sound quality in the headset is excellent. Sounds being piped through these “cans” come through surprisingly clear at very, very low volumes and up through very, very high volumes. The quality of sound is not an issue with this headset; rather, the quality of sound is largely dependant on your audio source.

The lows and highs come through very clear and were not at all distorted or splatty. A few times during testing through various pieces of audio equipment, I had to take off this headset to make sure the audio wasn’t coming from my sound system. Impressive, no?

My current setup consists of a Creative SoundBlaster 5.1, connected to a Behringer Eurotrack sound mixer, which in turn pushes audio out to a set of Logitech Z-2200 speakers. Tested through each piece of equipment in stages, the audio quality of the Black Siberia remained constant and pleasing to the ear. Now that this headset has proven itself through commonplace audio equipment, it’s time to give the USB Soundcard a try.

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