The well known PSU and case supplier, Cooler-Master has had a subsidiary gaming company quietly operating for the better part of three years. CM Storm has made beautiful looking cases, with a liberal splashing of red LED’s, and polished black metal. The CM Storm’s ‘Scout’ case looks extremely similar to an Antec 900, perhaps it’s evil twin, considering that the Antec case features a more peaceful lighting scheme, of blue LEDs. Anyway, I digress. Gaming Audio has become quite a competitive market, with the growth of E-Sports promoting the heavy usage of headsets.
A little later to the game than gaming peripheral specialists, Razer and Steelseries, CM Storm has decided to release it’s own headset, titled the ‘Sirius’. From initial testing, the plastic frame is quite stubborn, those with abnormally large heads should take caution. The plastic outer layer for the earmuffs do provide a relatively noise insulated environment, while adding excess weight to the headset. This could be an issue in longer play sessions, but generally, the headset is quite comfortable to wear.
The Sirius ships with a simple analog/USB attachment system, a minimal fuss, no frills way to use your headset, as well as a dual USB powered ‘Tactical Mixing Console”, a device designed to provide absolute control over the Sirius’ 5.1 surround sound capabilities. The disc-shaped object features a volume knob, backlit setting labels, microphone, and navigation buttons. They allow you to control the eight drivers located within the headset, allowing you to fully harness the awesome power of this beastly headset.
Two methods of connecting the Sirius
While the audio seems fine, sounding like a mid-range pair of PC headphones, possibly on par with a mid level pair of Audio Technica cans, the 5.1 surround sound is good enough to overcome the shortcoming of most other 5.1 or 7.1 cousins- the sound is actually clear enough to hear the direction of gunfire, or footsteps. Perhaps the lower mids are a bit lacking, but after fiddling with the headphones for a while, it seemed to correct the issue. In all, the Sirius looks like a very respectable first entry into the world of audio by CM Storm.