With the Sirus, Cooler Master Storm has a good looking gaming headset in its portfolio which, according to the manufacturer, should be able to score reagarding quality as well as comfort. Furthermore it support true 5.1 audio which should help generating a more realistic impression of todays games. 
On the following pages we will show you the strengths and weaknesses of the Cooler Master Storm Sirus Gaming Headeset.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Wearing comfort/ergonomics |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Acoustics |
| Page 3 - Specifications | Page 7 - Conclusion |
| Page 4 - Test conditions |
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Preview
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Wearing comfort/ergonomics |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Acoustics |
| Page 3 - Specifications | Page 7 - Conclusion |
| Page 4 - Test conditions |
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Specifications
Headphones
- Frequency: 10 – 20‘000 Hz
- Impendance: F/R/C 32 Ohm, Sub: 16 Ohm
- Cable length: 3 m
- Speaker size: F/R/C 30 mm, Sub 40 mm
- Plug: Cooler Masters own and USB
- leather or cloth earpads
Microphone
- Frequency: 100 – 10‘000 Hz
- Characteristics: Uni-directional
- Sensitivity: -46 dB +/- 3 dB
Delivery
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Wearing comfort/ergonomics |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Acoustics |
| Page 3 - Specifications | Page 7 - Conclusion |
| Page 4 - Test conditions |
Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]
Test conditions
Regarding our Headset respectively Microphone tests we subjectively describe acoustics, microphone quality as well as ergonomics. The endresult therefore relies also on the tester himself. We're doing our best to ensure comparable results if different reviewers were testing different products. We think these review can be seen as a help if you like to buy a specific product and can therefore be seen as subjective consumer advice.
Music
- Eminem - recovery
- Medina - You and I
- Adam Lambert - Whataya Want From Me
- Lady Gaga - Lovegame und Pokerface
- Diverse House Mixes
- Senteced - Mourn
- Apocalyptica - Master of Puppets
Movies
- Event Horizon
- Repo Men
- Moon
- Halo Legend
- Starwars Clonewars
- Transformers
Games
- Call Of Duty Modern Warfare III
- Starcraft II
- Overlord II
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Wearing comfort/ergonomics |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Acoustics |
| Page 3 - Specifications | Page 7 - Conclusion |
| Page 4 - Test conditions |
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Wearing confort and ergonomics
Even after hours of wearing the Sirus, there is no sign of pain, in fact the headset is astonishingly comfortable. Because the earpads are very big the CineVibe can be used by wearer of glasses without giving any pressure marks. The earpads are made either of of leather or cloth. With the leather earpads you gett better noise isolation but you'll sweat more quickly. With the cloth pads it's the other way round. The microphone is attached to the left side of the headset and it comes with an inflexible bail which equipped with a noise cancelling function, which will reduce unwanted side noise.
Software
In general the Software is nicely designed but there are some points we have to criticize. There is for example the fact that certain submenus can only be accessed via a right click on specific items. This absolutely not intuitive. We first had to read this up in the web. Once one has found all the features you start to realize that there are quite a lot of feature implemented. In our opinion it would have made much more sense to provide the software with better usability then with features only a few will use.
Another thing we hope the manufacturer will change is that there is only a note that you'll first have to download the driver software from the internet and no CD or USB key in the box. At the time of testing the driver-software didn't work properly. It has only be possible to use two of the eight drivers. After searching the web for other drivers we fond some that enabled all eight drivers, but guess what: we didn't find them on the Cooler Master website.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Wearing comfort/ergonomics |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Acoustics |
| Page 3 - Specifications | Page 7 - Conclusion |
| Page 4 - Test conditions |
Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]
Acoustics
Headphone
Cooler Master equips the Sirus with four drivers on each side. The ones which are in charge of Front-, Rear- and Center-Audio measure 30 millimeter in diameter. The bass drivers have diameter of 40 millimeters. Due to the fact the the F/R/C-drivers has quite an impact on audio quality. Therefore it doesn't matter wheter you play a game, watch a movie or listen to music. The audio quality is everything but not crystal clear. There are for example neither clear highs nor medium tones and the basses haven't been crisp they're producing more of a boom boom noise. The overall result is a sound quality that offers a lot of potential for improvement. Another advantage the Sirus should have over a good stereo headset is, that enmies in for examples a shooter should be easier to locate. But because of the poor audio quality you'll be better off with a stereo headset for the same price. It's audio quality will enable you tho hear noises earlier.
Microphone
From a technical point of view the microphone is very good. The bail where the microphone is attached to isn't flexible at all which might be a bit disturbing. Even the distance to the mouth is quite far but never the less the people on the other end of the line will understand you lound and clear. So no more sreaming because your opponent wont hear you.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Wearing comfort/ergonomics - Software |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Acoustics |
| Page 3 - Specifications | Page 7 - Conclusion |
| Page 4 - Test conditions |
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Conclusion
Plus points first: the Cooler Master Storm Sirus is a very comfortable gaming headset with a good microphone. But unfortunately, that's about it. If you listen carefully to the audio quality of this thing, then you'll hear that there is a lot of room for improvement. We would wish that Cooler Master was using better drivers and that they did better fine tuning on them. Like this there would be clear high as well as medium tones and crips basses instead of undifferentiated boom boom noise. Especially because of the price tag which is quite steep with estimated CHF 140.- (est. EUR 117.-) it would be nothing more than appropriate that there was decent sound quality.
Nevertheless wearing comfort is very good. The ear pads are super comfortable and the headset fits perfectly. Even playing with the headset on and wearing shutter glasses doesn't make you feel pain. You can play almost for as long as you want and it's still a pleasure to wear the Sirus from this point of view.
What also needs to be improved is the software. Instead of adding an awful lot of features Cooler Master would have been better of with making the software easier to use. Therefore we really hope that the menu gets much easier to understand otherwise the software will remain disappointing.
We very much regret that regarding the audio quality the Sirus simply cannot
compete with other headsets, which are available for the same price. Also the
software should be improved. If both these major point would be better than the
Sirus could esily get a five start award but with these downsides it's only two
stars.
| Page 1 - Introduction | Page 5 - Wearing comfort/ergonomics |
| Page 2 - Preview | Page 6 - Acoustics |
| Page 3 - Specifications | Page 7 - Conclusion |
| Page 4 - Test conditions |
Discuss this article in the forums
Author: m.buechel@ocaholic.ch