Reviews by systemBuilder

This is a GAMING HEADSET review.  It is NOT a headphone review.  The website has this in the WRONG category, and I have contacted the webmaster.  The rating is based on price/performance of this GAMING HEADSET.
 
The SteelSeries V2 hasn't changed in about 4 years because the design is almost perfect.  The headset provides good Bass response with 50mm speaker drivers.  The old-fashioned design with a suspended canopy conforms perfectly to your head.  What you give up in style, you get 10x over in higher quality sound (no 40mm headsets can compete).  The retractable noise-cancelling mic works great.  I read about 40x reviews of this headset before deciding to purchase one for xmas.  I have had almost NO chance to use it since purchase, because my kids are using this headset 24/7.  I also got the 3D sound card but for most purposes, I don't use it.  The most common complaint in the 40x reviews I read, was that either the mic would break, or the electrical cable would short.  This wasn't very common.   This headset of offered in 6 colors but the black ones are sold at the lowest price and in the highest numbers.  If you look at the sales rank on Amazon, almost every SteelSeries V2 Siberia COLOR is listed in the top-20, which makes this a top-3 seller on Amazon, almost certainly.
 
My point of comparison is the Turtle Beach X22 headset with integrated amp, playing PC Games and listening to a Nexus 5 Cellphone.  Compared to that headset, this one has advantages of
(a) More Bass,
(b) Retractable mic,
(c) Noise cancellation,
(d) Soft old-fashioned canopy for increased comfort.  
 
The disadvantages are,
(a) Vinyl ear muffs (can cause sweating),
(b) The mixer (w/o tone controls) doesn't allow game sounds and phone sounds to be mixed at the same time
(c) Not as much room isolation as the Turtle X-22, the ear muffs are actually pretty porous.
 
When your kids play games they often want to chat with friends over the phone at the same time.  So the features of the Turtle Beach product are pretty crucial.  In general, I am happy with both products.  If I wanted good headphones for general usage (no equalizer), I would definitely get the SteelSeries V2 Sibera.  If I wanted good headphones for chatting and gameplay and isolation i a noisy room, then I'd get the Turtle Beach.  However if it were a really noisy room (i.e. Gaming Convention), I might get the SteelSeries V2 for the noise-cancelling microphone.  If these features didn't matter, I'd probably choose on price and the Turtle Beach X22 on sale is roughly the same price or sometimes $10 cheaper than the SteelSeries V2 Sibera.

I bought this headset yesterday to try it out, it was onsale for $67+tax at best buy.  Supposedly the X12, X22, and Z22 headsets all have exactly the same 50mm drivers and headset portion, just different colored plastics (green, blue, red) are associated with each product, and an amp/mixer with the X22 and Z22 models.  I am impressed by the sound quality, the 50mm drivers are superior to many other headsets and they are the same size as on the SteelSeries V2 which has had this feature for several years.  The remote control seems to have every feature imaginable (Bass, Treble, volume, mic-feedback-mixin, mic-output-volume).  I played some Jann Arden guitar music on these headsphones and sounded great.  However, when I turned up the Bass the limitations of the speakers became beyond 3/4 of maximum, after that the Bass became muffled, indicating that the speakers were either overdriven or overdamped.
 
My comparison is the SteelSeries V2 which does not have Bass/treble controls, although it does have a surround sound card ($80 onsale after xmas).  In side-by-side tests, the SteelSeries has a little more Bass out of the box, however, if you crank up the Bass control knob on the Turtle Beach PX22, it sounds the same when the Bass button is at 3/4 of maximum.
 
Because all the controls are analog and there are NO drivers for these headsets, I believe this is a foolproof headset and that will work with anything.  The equalizer and several extra cables are supplied allowing it to work with every major game console (PC, Phone, XBox, PS3/4).  If you just want to make phone calls, you can leave the heavy cabling of the mixer / USB / 4-way phone plug behind and use the first 3' of lightweight 4-way phone-plug cabling only.   You won't have a Bass tone control in this case, however.
 
The biggest downsides I have are (a) The ear cups are cloth, which is a selling point for some people who get sweaty with leather or leatherette ear cups, HOWEVER, the cloth material is not terribly soft and the foam underneath the cloth is rather hard, and not only that, the oval muffs are not as large as e.g. the SteelSeries so the comfort may be less than expected.  (b) The mic is a boom mic (not retractable into the headset) and does not have noise cancellation compared to the SteelSeries V2, so that is a downside. (c) I wanted to run the equalizer with my phone.  Well, the split between USB and 4-way phone plug only happens 12 inches up the cabling.  So if I plug the USB into a wall outlet on the floor, I have to leave my phone on the floor, whereas the headphones and remote can be operated 10 feet away.  That's a downside for usage with a phone.  (d) I wish the equalizer had a micro USB input for a micro USB cable and/or a phone cable so I could I had a choice of a lighter weight or shorter cable to supply power to the headset.
 
I am very happy with my purchase so far and recommend this headset very highly.  These Turtle beach products don't get much respect but I did notice that the sister product the X12 is the #1 selling headset on amazon.com and it has the same hardware. I think that because they share designs among all of their wired headphones under $100, I think that for the money I paid I there is no better headset.  If you don't need the XBox / PS3/4 versatility, save yourself $20 and get the Turtle Beach X12 instead!