CM Storm Sirus S Review

Written by Chad

September 12, 2012

  For audiophiles, having the best audio equipment is very important to them, from the ripping sounds of the electric guitars to the heart pounding drumbeats to the relaxing acoustic tune of guitars, these give them pleasure to their ears. As for gamers, audio is crucial for their game experience, every gunshots, footsteps, explosions and dialogues is very essential which can lead to sheer victory or utter defeat.

And of course, we have those who are both a gamer and an audiophile, CM Storm released the Sirus S 5.1 Surround Sound Headsetto give music and game enthusiasts something that is the best of both worlds, now let’s see if the CM Storm Sirus S is worth your money. Now let’s take a look at the Sirus S’s specifications:

 

Headphone
  • Channel: True 5.1
  • Frequency Response: 10Hz – 20,000Hz
  • Impedance: F/R/C: 32 Ohms Sub: 16 Ohms
  • Sensitivity: >105dB
  • Driver: F/R/C: 30mm Sub: 40mm
  • Transducer principle: Dynamic closed
  • Ear coupling: Circumaural
  • Distortion: Less than 1%
Microphone
  • Pick-up pattern: uni-directional
  • Frequency Response: 100Hz – 10,000 Hz
  • Impedance: 2.2k Ohms
  • Sensitivity: -44 dB ±3dB
Hardware Requirements
  • PC with built-in USB port (for the LED lit earcups)
  • Windows® XP SP2 or higher / x64/ Vista / Vista64
  • Works best with applications that support DirectX 9.0c or higher

 

 

If you may wonder if there are differences between the Sirus and the Sirus S. The truth is, they are both the same model, with the exception of having no Tactical Mixing Console (or the fancy desktop volume control) for the Sirus S, replacing it with a simplified in-line remote volume control.

One of the things you will notice when you wear the headphone is that it’s really heavy, you might not even recognize that it is made with plastic due to the weight. There will be times that it can be uncomfortable after long periods, especially for people with small head size. But the good part is that the headphone is really durable as it is made of heavy duty plastic.

Design-wise, the Sirus S looks ordinary but thanks to the glowing red LED on both sides of the headset showing the CM Storm logo, it made the headset look more expensive. The ear-cups covers your entire ear, and the padding on the headband gives extra comfort while wearing the headset.

 

 

 

 

The Sirus S has two interchangable ear-cups; the micro fiber and the leatherette. The micro fiber ear-cups really gives a really comfortable feel when listening to music or watching videos while the leatherette enables you to enjoy noise insulation on your audio for that intense gaming sessions. When you remove the ear-cups, you will notice four speakers for each side which composed of 30mm drivers for the front, center and rear audio and 40mm drivers for the sub woofer, giving that true 5.1 surround sound experience.

 

 

 

Now going back to the volume control, all the speakers (front, rear, center and sub woofer) have their own volume control and a mic mute switch to toggle your microphone on and off. One small complain on the volume control is that the plastic mold feels a bit cheap and it usually gets bump on your table when playing, it would be nice if it has a clip to hook it on your shirt.

The microphone has an interesting feature, pull the microphone down and the tip will light up, indicating that the mic is on, push it back upwards to turn it off along with the LED light. You can even bend the microphone to adjust the distance from your mouth. The audio quality of the microphone is quite good, voice audio is clear and there is noise cancellation for much clearer sound quality.

 

 

And now for the sound quality of the headset, we tested the Sirus S on games. We tried playing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and we were impressed with the sound quality, from the footsteps to the ambiance sound up to the dragon’s roar whenever they are swooping above your grounds, and because of the surround sound experience, it makes you feel like you are actually inside the game. For the movies, we played the anime movie Redline and it was just amazing. The intense engine roaring along with the screeching tires and explosive sounds just blew us off with the 5.1 headset. The same goes with music, although there are times that some track songs doesn’t sound well since not all are encoded to be played on 5.1 surround sound. But with some tweakings on your audio settings and volume adjust on the front, center and rear speakers, you will be able to experience good music.

Overall, the Sirus S is a must have for everyone who enjoys music, movies and even games. It manages to produce really incredible 5.1 surround sound quality thanks to 4 drivers on each side of the headset (although at the cost of adding more weight to the headset). Despite lacking the control pod-like Tactical Mixing Console from the Sirus, the CM Storm Sirus S still retains the features from the original version.

The CM Storm Sirus S is now available with a retail price of PhP 5999.

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3 Comments

  1. doi

    what if i dont have a 5.1 sorund sound card just plain built-in motherboard soundcard will the 5.1 sorund sound still work?

    Reply
    • Chad

      The Sirus S has 4 cable connectors for the audio and microphone ports and a USB port to power it up.

      I don’t think you will be able to enjoy true 5.1 without 5.1 surround sound ports on your computer, but I heard that the original Sirus has a separate sound card usb

      I forgot to get a picture of the connectors but I found one from another website, but this is for the Sirus, the difference is that the Sirus S only has one usb cable

      http://media.bestofmicro.com/W/1/325153/original/CMSirus-connectors.jpg

      Reply
  2. doi

    by the way could you make an ss on its connections?

    Reply

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