For those of you that have not guessed it yet, I am something of an Audiophile (ok snob). When it comes to the audio on my TV, PC, Car Stereo, etc. it needs to be very good quality. This is especially true on the PC where the sound quality of the games I play can make or break the game experience for me (and many others). Recently Cooler Master released a new gaming head set under their CM Storm line up. As I have found Cooler Master’s recent endeavors into the gaming peripheral world to be of excellent build and quality I wanted to check the new Sirus Gaming headset out. According to the write up the Sirus is true 5.1 surround with three 30mm drivers for front, center and rear along with a 40mm driver for a sub-woofer. Of course that is not all that you get with the Sirus so let’s dive in and see if this $130 headset is worth your time and money.
The Box and Goodies -Cooler Master has done a great job on the box. When you look at it you will have no doubt as to what you are getting. Between the picture on the box and the clear plastic that lets you see the sound control unit you get the full picture.
Just in case you were in any doubt; just flipping the box over to the back will fill you in the details. The side of the box fills in some additional blanks for you (if you need it). As we mentioned before, the Sirus has four drivers in each ear piece and comes with its own control unit. This is also a USB audio card and provides direct power to the Sirus headset (but we will talk more about that later).
Reading further down the box we find that the specs on the Sirus are fairly impressive. The 40mm sub is capable of dropping down into the sub aural range of 10Hz which should give your low end a nice feel to it. The impedance is a tad higher than I would have thought at 32 Ohms for the front, center and rear speakers and 16 Ohms for the 40mm Sub. To give you an idea of the difference here; your typical home speaker runs at 8 Ohms while a decent Sub runs at 6-4 Ohms. However considering that the smallest sub is around 4 inches (that is 101.6mm) and most drivers are a tad more than 30mm the higher impedance is not too terribly bad. We will talk more about the specs and what they mean later though. Inside the box, in a cocoon of plastic is the reasons you are here. We find the Sirus 5.1 Gaming headset and all the toys that Cooler Maser has thrown in with it. These include two sets of Ear Cups (one noise dampening and the others breathable). You have two methods for connecting the Sirus to your system as well. You get the powered audio controller complete with control for the individual channels and an internal amplifier to boot. In addition to that you also get a set of passive cables if you already have an audio card you want to use. You will still need USB power to run the headset (there are all the lights and an amp as well).
