Cooler Master Storm Sirus 5.1 Gaming Headset Review
Author: Darren McCain
Published: Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Software and Testing
The CM Storm software for the Sirus is very easy to use. Each channel can be individually adjusted to meet your individual tastes. In addition the driver offers mute, a Smart Volume Normalizer, an active equalizer and four listening presets: Default, Gaming Mode, Movie Mode and Music mode. As I write this review I am enjoying a 5.1 mix in music mode from Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here that I have never heard sound better on my PC.
Testing
The driver version tested was version 7.0.1.12 with a firmware version of 0010. The driver is powered by C-Media's Xear driver/chipset. I also used the onboard analog outputs from my ASUS P8P67 EVO Motherboard to run the analog with no drivers installed. As a point of reference, I usually game with a pair of well-worn Tritton AX360's and a Buttkicker Gamer.
During testing I ran through a gambit of popular gaming titles from Team Fortress 2 to Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and a few lesser known favorites like Trine and Sanctum. The Sirus headset sounds great in both 5.1 mode and 2 channel stereo. Some minor tweaking made every sniper shot easy to locate in BF:BC2 and it was easy to pick out TeamSpeak over any gaming even with the default music playing. The bass was so impressive in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 I had to turn it down when rolling in a tank and the surround sound made even the footsteps of those pesky snipers easy to catch sneaking up on me.
Music sounds crisp and the sound stage is pretty good though the center channel gets a bit spread when listening to a stereo mix. 5.1 audio as featured on both Pink Floyd and The Blue Man Group is outstanding. I highly recommend tracking one of these albums down if you have a set!
During testing I ran through a gambit of popular gaming titles from Team Fortress 2 to Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and a few lesser known favorites like Trine and Sanctum. The Sirus headset sounds great in both 5.1 mode and 2 channel stereo. Some minor tweaking made every sniper shot easy to locate in BF:BC2 and it was easy to pick out TeamSpeak over any gaming even with the default music playing. The bass was so impressive in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 I had to turn it down when rolling in a tank and the surround sound made even the footsteps of those pesky snipers easy to catch sneaking up on me.
Music sounds crisp and the sound stage is pretty good though the center channel gets a bit spread when listening to a stereo mix. 5.1 audio as featured on both Pink Floyd and The Blue Man Group is outstanding. I highly recommend tracking one of these albums down if you have a set!
Tron: Legacy Light Cycle Race
To get a true sense of the 5.1 sound I fired up the lightcycle scene from Tron: Legacy and turned things up. Backed with a pretty solid soundtrack from Daft Punk, the scene has a subtle but effective use of all the channels. The music sounds great and the lightcycles rushing past just puts a smile on my face.
THX Optimizer
After a couple rounds through the optimizer I am sure the Sirus headset is able to recreate the positional sound of a full 5.1 system with more effectiveness than I would have believed. I also ran a few of the demos on the Lucas Files THX test disk. This DVD is an essential suite of surround sound demos I have used for years to test my home theater system and I highly recommend it.
