Continued: SteelSeries 4H Headset:

The microphone design is also identical to that of the most expensive model. The microphone is retractable and can stay entirely hidden inside the left headphone while not in use. You can adjust the position freely, the microphone will stay right where you will pull it to. The cable is shielded and protected by a metal spring and inside a clear plastic tube.

Although the 4H lacks some of the features of its most expensive brother, its performance is not limited at all. It appears that the same headphones are used on both headsets, since we could not discern any kind of difference on sound quality and/or volume while using both of the headsets through the same tests. We enjoyed using the 5H more because it felt more comfortable and we didn’t have a cable attached on each of the headphones getting in our way, but the 4H does not come behind in sound performance at all. All variety of sounds are still immensely clear and crisp at both low and high volume levels.

SteelSound 3H
Technical specifications:

Headphones
Frequency response	10 - 27.000 Hz
Impedance	50 Ohm
SPL@1kHz, 1Vrms	102dB
Cable	2 meters (6.5 feet)
Microphone
Frequency response	50 - 18.000 Hz
Pick up pattern	Non-directional
Sensitivity	-40 dB
Impedance	2.2K Ohm

Steel offers another gaming headset, the 3H. The 3H is the smallest and least expensive headset they manufacture, designed mostly for maximum portability.

The headphones can be folded towards the inside of the headset, reducing its size considerably for easy transportation. The headphones themselves are smaller than those found on the more expensive headsets of the firm and will not cover your ears entirely, they will sit on them. While the pressure is extremely low, it will only be comfortable for a smaller time period and will not seal external sounds as well as the more expensive headsets in this series.

The comfortable top cushions found on the other headsets are also gone and a simple rubber strip took their place. Thankfully, this headset is very light so it remains very comfortable, at least for the top part of your head.

The cable is not expandable, neither too long, and it is connected at the right headphone only. The connectors are still gold plated for maximum conductivity but there is no volume regulator or microphone control attached at all.

The design of the microphone is almost the same as the one we saw on the 4H/5H v2. But because of the much smaller headphone size, a few compromises had to be made. The microphone is almost entirely hidden inside the right headphone, only slightly protruding this time. The microphone cable is also not as long, but it’s still long enough to be near your mouth and the reception of the microphone remains excellent. It is protected by a metallic spring and is wrapped inside a slightly thinner clear plastic tube this time.

While the 3H headset is fairly comfortable and can be used for prolonged periods of time, it certainly lacks the comfort of the large headsets offered by Steel. It will be a great companion to a LAN party but may make your ears sore if you are accustomed to gaming with your headphones on continuously for several hours.

We used the headset while playing several games, watching a movie and listening to several music tracks. While gaming, we found the sound very clear and definite while staying at nominal sound levels. Different sounds and/or distances were easy to discern, however when we pushed the volume levels very high we noticed a slight decrease of clarity.

Unfortunately the 3H cannot seal out the noises of the environment as good as the other two headsets, but movie watching remained a very good experience. The sound was as crisp and clear as with the other two headsets while the sound levels were nominal but became slightly garbled when we pushed the sound level very high throughout scenes with a lot of sequential explosions and gunshots.

While playing audio tracks, the weakness of the 3H became clear to us. The sound reproduction of music tracks was very good, staying very crisp throughout most music genres at nominal volume levels. The headset was exceptionally clear when playing soft audio tracks at both low and high volume levels. On the other hand, when we tried to play a track with a lot of bass, the sound quality was good only through lowish sound levels. When we pushed the volume very high, bass distortion and lack of power was easily noticeable. Nonetheless, the performance of the 3H is most likely the best you can get from a headset at this price range, but it simply cannot be compared to the outstanding performance we received from the other two headsets.