Icemat Siberia

The Siberia is created by Icemat who have become infamous for their trademark frosted glass mouse pads. Icemat are actually a subsidiary of SoftTrading which is the same company that owns Steelpad and the SteelSeries line of gamers’ accessories.

The headset is available in white or black; in this round-up the black headset will be used. The headset was well packaged and easily examined through the clear window on the blue coloured box.

The build quality of the headset seemed a little flimsy and could easily break if mistreated or sat on, it has a good sturdy cable though that can probably be trampled on or caught up in the wheels of a chair a few times before breaking. The Siberia seems like a nicely designed headphone that according to Icemat is unique though in reality it’s very similar to a few hi-fi brands' headphones, AKG in particular come to mind.

Click to enlarge: The Icemat Black Siberia

This headset retails for USD$79 (approximately AUD$103, accurate at time of writing) at the Icemat Online shop. Detailed specifications for the headset as found at the Icemat website:

Headphone
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: 3.5 mm (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

Sound quality

For starters the Siberia is an open backed headphone, which means that it allows sound to come in and out of the headphone enclosure quite easily. This is useful if playing at LAN and shouting is the preferred method of communication over in-game microphone relay.

Click to enlarge: The Siberia features an open design

In general the sound is quite clear and doesn’t have any glaring issues. It has a generally bassy sound. Music was enjoyable and the headset was easily powered by a portable music player. In-game sound quality was equally good and the Siberia’s ability to provide positional audio was excellent. Due to it being an open design the sound is very natural and not closed up and “in your head” sounding.

Click to enlarge: Holes in the earcups allow sound in and out

One common problem with a lot of headsets is their in-line volume control crackling when the volume is adjusted. Thankfully the volume control used on the Siberia is very smooth feeling and does not cause any crackling or noise when adjusted, at the very low volumes it appears that the left channel is louder but it balances out when listenable volumes are reached, this is a problem found in many volume controls so not a huge concern.

Comfort

Like all the other headsets in this round-up, the Siberia is a “circum-aural” headset, which means that the cups completely cover the ear, rather than rest on top of the ear, at least on paper. In practice this was a little less than ideal as the cushions are actually quite shallow and touch against the front and top of the head. Depending on how large your head is this may become a little uncomfortable after a while, as I constantly felt the headphone touching against my ear/head/face.

Click to enlarge: Shallow cushions

The headband is self-adjusting and once put on it stretches to fit your head. This is convenient as it will always be a perfect fit unless you have a head that is either off the scales too large or too small, which shouldn't be too many people. Strangely enough the uneven clamp on the ears had a positive side effect that the bottom/rear of the headphone remained fairly open and free and provided good airflow, keeping the ears relatively cool during use.

Click to enlarge: Self adjusting headband

Gamer features/practicality

When it comes to the Siberia’s ability to be a gamers’ headset, it truly excels. There has obviously been much careful thought into the design of the headset. Their prime feature that also appears to have been introduced first in this headset is the cable management system and lapel microphone.

The Siberia’s cable is made up of 3 distinct sections. Firstly the main cable that is attached directly to the headphones. This cable is only one metre short and thus, if gaming on a laptop or using the headphones with a portable music player then this is very convenient, negating all the extra cable that will inevitably cause clutter/tangles. Next in line is the 1.8m extension cable that includes the in-line volume control and adds extra reach. Finally there is the separate lapel microphone that can be clipped on to the main cable so they sort of become a unified cable.

Click to enlarge: Lapel microphone and in-line volume control

The microphone is clear and has decent pickup; it is unidirectional so mostly only detects where the microphone is pointing – this is generally a good thing and leaves unwanted noise behind. Clipped to a shirt collar or attached to the monitor using the provided holder yields good results.