SteelSeries Arctis 7 Wireless Gaming Headset – DTS Headphone: X v2.0 Surround for PC and PlayStation 5, PS4 – Black
Longer Battery Life
With 24 hours of battery life the Arctis 7 lasts through your longest gaming sessions without needing to stop and charge.
Premium Woven Ski Goggle Fabric
The elastic fabric perfectly contours across your entire head, comfortably distributing the weight and eliminating pressure points.
AirWeave Ear Cushions
Athletics-inspired performance fabric AirWeave ear cushions keep your ears cool and dry.
Durable Steel Headband
Premium lightweight steel headband construction for build quality you can feel.
Specifications
| Compatibility | PlayStation / PC / Mac: Wireless via USB |
| + | Switch: Wireless via USB in docked mode only |
| + | Mobile: Wired via 3.5 mm analogue |
| Speaker Drivers | Frequency Response: 20–22000 Hz |
| + | Sensitivity / Impedance: 98 dBSPL / 32 Ohm |
| + | Total Harmonic Distortion: < 3% |
| + | Volume Control: On Ear Cup |
| Microphone | Frequency Response: 100–10000 Hz |
| + | Pattern: Bidirectional |
| + | Sensitivity: -38 dBV/Pa |
| + | Impedance: 2200 Ohm |
| + | Type: Retractable |
| Wireless | Type: 2.4 GHz lossless |
| + | Range: 12m / 40 ft |
| + | Battery Life: 24+ hours |
| Box Contents | Arctis 7 Headset, Product Information Guide, Wireless Transmitter, 4-pole 3.5mm cable, Micro-USB Charging Cable |
| Weight: | 352 g |
| Size: | Arctis 7 |
| Dimensions: | 18 x 20.1 x 9.1 cm; 353.01 Grams |
| Model: | 61505 |
| Colour: | Black |
| Batteries Included: | 1 Lithium Polymer batteries required. (included) |
| Colour: | Black |
| Dimensions: | 18 x 20.1 x 9.1 cm; 353.01 Grams |
| Size: | Arctis 7 |
Comfy headset light and doesn’t heat your head up to 100 after long hours gaming.
Mic seems great i don’t even have to pull the mic out of the headset for it to sound great.
Send me free stuff thanks.
It is very comfortable thanks to the strap that at first I almost did not want to buy it due to the strap. However, strap was easy to adjust (far easier than I expected) and it only took me two attempts to get it just right. The strap also makes the headset feel a lot lighter on the head as you do not have anything hard pressing resting on the top of your head. The earpads bend all sorts of ways so you can get that perfect angle you want to have it on your ears to suit the shape of anyone’s head.
Comfort aside, the hot swap batteries work so well, shockingly I do get the advertised +-10 to 9 hours of usage per charge per battery. The batteries charge very fast in the transmitter base and tend to be fully charged long before your current charge is empty on the battery you are using (fun fact: the design of the batteries is pretty much identical to that of the much loved G7 Logitech gaming mouse, so if you have used that then this will feel all too familiar!)
In terms of sound quality this is far better than any headset I have ever owned and I think you actually will not be able to find a headset that can beat the sound quality on this device!
The reason I say that is that the drivers in this headset are clearly designed to perform well regardless what you toss at them – music, movies or games it just can take it and then some!
Using the official SteelSeries software you can get the most out of it though and can setup mutiple set sound profiles so if you prefer it one way for one game or for music and then another way for a different game or for movies for example you can just rightclick on the SteelSeries app and select the profile you have setup in advance.
The sound really changes drastically depending on the settings you put in the app but regardless of settings you can really hear how well these drivers perform. The output is just such a high fidelity regardless of what you are listening to that nothing can outperform this headset.
There is also a clear distinction when you enable and disable the surround sound not just in games but also even in music. If you are listening to any music that has an orchestral background for example the surround really helps you hear the depth of the orchestra versus the surround off it will sound a lot more bland.
This is also why this headset shines in that any audiophile headset a- will not have a built in microphone (which all my friends on Discord say sounds extremely clear) and b- will not perform equally good on all sound usage. Audiophile headsets tend to perform best at music but then if you give them a game or a movie their performance just is not as good as a gaming headset.
But where previous gaming headsets failed at music, this one really shines especially with the simulated surround sound using DTS X v2.0 it just somehow processes the stereo sound in such a way that your ears perceive it as being far deeper than a regular stereo headset.
I have used other surround headsets but DTS-X v2.0 just is a massive improvement in the technology over previous surround headsets.
The specs speak for themselves if you compare them to audiophile headsets you really see how great the drivers are in this headset added on to this what DTS X v2.0 can get out of them is why so many people rave about this product.
The sound is that sharp I have had a few hacking accusations due to hearing one faint footstep, suddenly turning round and chasing the kill (honest!) Worth it.
The only 2 complaints I have however – The main one is if there is too much wifi interference your headset will keep connecting and disconnecting which is really frustrating.
Example being visiting my parents and my room has the house CCTV in, as well as my xbox, the headset kept periodically disconnecting due to all the wifi interference.
No issue in my living room however.
So not ideal if there is a lot of that or if you have a box room
2nd the volume wheels are located on the back of the headset. If you are leaning back and playing the wheel will move which can result in a nasty loud (or quiet) shock, having to re adjust the wheel mid game is also not ideal.
However after a few adaptations no problems whatsoever. Fantastic headphones for sound and comfort. Totally recommend them from a gamer myself. The bluetooth feature is also.cool as you can hook.your.phone up simultaneously and play music or take a phone call.
But yeah I’m happy
These were recommended to me by like 5 different people and I definitely do not regret spending a little over my original budget.
Depending on what sort of game your are using these for i found they where best suited for solo story driven games as multiplayer games i could get used to them, however saying that you can customises the sound for more multiplayer use but i personally struggled to get used to it but besides that brilliant headphones comfy, amazing sound quality, long battery life , easy to set up and all round amazing headset brillaint for solo storyline games.
Mic: Not too good but not too bad neither. Literally sounds average lol.
Pros:
– Is decent for casual use
-Great for adjustment and comfort, it stays in place.
Cons: – When you breath it can be loud/definitely noticeable,just try not to breathe heavy lol.
– Idk if this is a con but when the mic is close it becomes loud and basically inaudible (great for toxic players lmao)
– Bending the mic it felt like there was a creak idk
Headset:
Pros:
– Really comfortable, you’ll never ache wearing these
– Buttons on the side for mic options are placed greatly
Cons:
– Headset material is plastic, feels kinda cheap but not too cheap.
– Inside of the headphones is like some sort of silky material. Idk if all gaming headsets are like this but it just feels cheap lol
Audio:
Pros:
– Pretty balanced, bass is there for music
– Can hear people well through headset
Cons:
– Cant find anything, I guess if you like music with hard bass then youd find the bass 3/5
Overall: 4/5 Stars because it’s only 40 and the headset comfort is great + mic is decent. However, the headset felt kinda cheap in some parts and the mic is abit sensitive. The audio is balanced (as some people may like) but I like abit more pound to the bass although it ain’t bad so I cant complain. Maybe I’m picky but I’d pay about 30 for these not 40.
Noise cancellation on these are good. I feel that the ear cups themselves block out a lot of background noise and only very loud noises breakthrough. I wasn’t primarily looking for noise cancellation so can’t complain about this.
Sound quality is very good on these headphones. Did require some setting up in the SteelSeries application but once finished tweaking they sound amazing.
I would have given this 5 stars, but I’m marking it down, because when I sit down on the porcelain, the microphone cannot pick up the noise of my plop….it gets muffled unless I really push one out and give myself a hernia or eat Indian food for a week. So I am marking it down.
Highly Recommended.
The comfort is pretty good, as some people get is sweaty ears with a headset, but to be honest its helped with not getting sweaty ears cause of the matrieal, just be carefull when you look down with the headset on, it might slide of your head as it does not securley stay on well. Mic quality isnt the best for pc, but luckly i have a mic set up on its own, but other then that is a quality headset for PC.
Pros
– Once setup the sound is really crisp and clear with balanced mids and bass.
– battery easily lasts 18 – 20 hours between charges
– I can walk around my entire house with the headset still connected – so easy to go make a sandwich or get a drink between matches.
– mic is clear and is one of the better wireless mics I’ve heard.
– the software is generally light on resources so won’t slow your games down
– the chat/game mix feature is a life saver and really helps you make small adjustments or even mute entire channels without issue.
– no rgb (if you don’t like that)
Cons
– you really have to set the sound up to get the most out of it. Out of the box sound was very tinny with next to no bass for me
– the volume knob is easily knocked and can cause some crackle
– no rgb (if you like that)
– battery is not replaceable like the arctis 9
And setting it up is pretty easy.
The sound quality is good out of the box, and very easily tuned in Steel Series engine to make it that bit better. While these do not claim to have a noise cancellation feature, because of the lovely air foam around your ear you can barely hear around you (much to the annoyance of my girlfriend having to shout in my ear)
As a wireless headset these are fantastic in that aspect, the signal has never cut out and I have never experienced issues while using these with my set up the range is impressively long and I can walk around my house without losing signal or experiencing any jittering while taking to my pals. I love the pass through you can use for external speakers as well so while your headset is turned off it will route the music/film to your speakers which means no more messing around in windows with the sound output – fantastic!
I love how you can switch between chat or game audio makes discord a dream
+Music sounds good
+Good microphone audio quality (friends commented on the improvement over my logitech webcam mic)
+range is good
+nice having the receiver tho it does take up a USB slot.
-Not comfortable when around the neck, too bulky.
-Not enough adjustment for large heads.
-Micro USB not USB C so it’s a pain to plug in
Overall not worth the high asking price I’d say they should be under 90 for what you’re getting, but all the wireless gaming headphones are overpriced so they’re better than the Corsair.
Found these for a decent price, and honestly couldn’t be happier.
I work from home and game, so spend a minimum of 10 hours a day with these on my head, listening to music, making calls, playing games, in all areas I can’t fault them (and no static noise).
They’re surprisingly light, very comfy, good sound quality, good battery life, retractable mic, there’s nothing not to like.
These headphones feel lightweight but with cheap material the feel on ear is not that pleasant. The ski band is a good touch though. But all that pales to nothing when it comes to audio quality, and the Steel Series is ok, I got these at 120 quid and frankly they are just about worth the money BUT if you are expecting them, naively as I was to deliver Astro a40/a50 sound quality they don’t, not even close. The sounds is clear, sharp, good for PvP but you loose the richness of sound that Astros provide that creates that immersive gaming experience.
My search continues, these will do fine while I continue my search for something that delivers the sound and build quality that should come with high end gaming headsets.
+ Reliable and good sound quality (adjusted it on the software)
+ comfortable ear cups
+ volume for game and chat individually (great)
+ easy to connect (dongle)
+ easy 8h constant usage
+custom preset
Cons
– does not connect wirelessly to phones as it does not has Bluetooth built in. To connect to a phone you will need connect using a 3.5 mm (head jack) or using an adapter to connect the usb dongle to your phone.
– no noise cancelling
I’ve tried a pair of Razer Nari Ultimate (RNU) prior to these and overall the Arctis 9x are far superior.
Stand out feature of the Arctis 9x?
Being able to connect a 2nd device via Bluetooth like your phone and use it simultaneously whilst gaming. So you can listen to music or take a phone whilst you enjoy the sound coming through from your game. The buttons work well and they are comfortable. Battery life is good too.
The ear pads could be thicker for those of us with bigger ears – although these are easily replaced, the RNU was better here and the RNU has this immersive vibration option to make things feel more intense – most of the time this was good. But RNU has a terrible microphone which made talking to people in game/party chat an extremely frustrating experience. And it’s a know problem with the RNU so stay away from them. They also have connectivity issues with regular sound distortion affecting gameplay.
After much deliberation on spending so much money on a gaming headset for the Xbox, reading and watching countless reviews the Arctis 9x proved the winner and I wasn’t disappointed. The connectivity with the Xbox is easy to set up and stable.
Sound: This is clear and well balanced. You also have 4 EQ presets you can switch between or you can go further and customise these on a computer. This is a cool feature. You have the chat mix / game volume dial, master volume dial and mute switch. The dials are a little sensitive but are ok.
It’s easy to forget how good they sound until I go back to trying my friends 200 Bose headphones or JBL’s.
Comfort: The ski band is comfortable, no sweaty ears, the ear pads are comfortable, but with my big ears I do find I’m just touching the drivers with the tips of my ears. I’d prefer a little more space around my ears but this isn’t a big issue – and I can always get replacement pads that are bigger and thicker.
If you’re willing to pay this price for a gaming headset for your Xbox One / Series S/X then get these. They win awards for a reason and that reason is they are superb.
Has a ton of versatile functions like being able to plug into pretty much anything.
Best feature has to be the Chat/media dial on the right ear cup, meaning you can quickly control chat vs media sound levels.
Worst feature is the mute button, which is too small, hard to find quickly and badly designed.
Everything else is flawless.
I’m glad I did. They have some weight to them, which given the batteries is understandable but are not too heavy. On my head the grip is not entirely good enough to keep them on if I lean my head more than 45 degrees but I don’t do that very often and it’s worth it for the comfort.
They certainly are comfortable. I’ve done over ten hours with them on and while you do feel them they don’t irritate in the slightest. The headband balances the pressure evenly on the top of the head and the cups surround the ear without pinning it back. Said cups have a soft cloth feel and the plastic body isn’t a fingerprint magnet.
Charging is quick and a charge lasts around the time advertised, I generally leave them plugged in at my desk and the cable isn’t annoying at all as it’s long enough so that sometimes I’ll forget I’m plugged in.
I’m no audiophile so all I say about the sound is that, to my ears, they’re fantastic. Music is great, movies are epic and the stereo works well. I play a good amount of FPS’s were audio positioning is important and these help a lot with that.
Microphone quality is good. It tucks away inside while not in use and muting it is easy with the button on that side. If you need to silence a sneeze in a hurry these headphones provide.
Battery life is great. I use them a lot so I need to recharge every two days or so but with lighter use you could probably stretch it to a week.
Another nice touch was the inclusion of a cable to plug into a 3.5mm jack. This means I can plug them into my phone and use them as passively powered cans. I don’t use that a lot as I have earbuds for travelling but a nice option to have.
It’s been a good few months since I bought them and they still look pretty new, they still work great and I’m very happy I bought them.
Still need tweaking using the SteelSeries software to get the perfect sound for gaming but amazing quality from build, comfort to sound.
Be mindful with these being a wireless headset you may hear some static sound
It sounds fantastic compared to others I have tried and the microphone is loud and clear. The discord certification is useful too.
My favorite feature is the mixer slider so you can adjust the levels between your voice chat and your game audio just by rolling the slider on your right ear, it is magic.
After getting this to replace a shoddy logitech headset which was absolutely awful, I am nothing but impressed by this headset.
The sound quality is so crisp, and with its surround sound style you can hear footsteps in the game coming from different directions very clearly.
I had an issue after a few months where the receiver stopped working, and Amazon replaced the whole product for me. I am a fully converted SteelSeries product lover now!
The head strap provides huge range of adjustment, takes a little getting used to but much more customizable than my previous Corsair Void or the Turtle Beaches before that. Battery seems to be lasting well, not as good as promised online but I’ll still easily get 12-14 hours from it. Charges quickly and the LED indicator blinks different colours to show roughly how much battery is left which is nifty.
Base station is a little on the cheap side, hard to get it to sit flat out of the box because it’s so light and the cable has been rolled up – could do with a 50g weight in it to help with that. Range is excellent for my use – semi-deatched house, base station in the front bedroom and I can go anywhere including about all of the front garden and the back patio before anything gets fuzzy.
Retractable microphone is very, very convenient. No noise cancelling on this model (Artics 7), but sidetone helps a bit although it would be nice if you could boost it up a bit more. The chat/game mix is very useful but it would have been handy if the software properly explained what it does, it took me a few minutes to realise that actually you get 2 sound devices – chat and game – and can manually adjust the slider between the two. Really useful if someone is boring the pants off you on Discord and you don’t want to appear rude by muting up.
Overall well worth the outrageous price tag. You get what you pay for.
Use them every day, range on the receiver is amazing.
They were a little annoying to set up initially but you’ll catch on quickly with the given information.
The mic isn’t the best on the market, but it’s the best you’ll get attached to a headset IMO
sound quality 8 out of 10
comfort 10 out of 10
software 7 out of 10
performs where it matters and works great. charge lasts a long time. wish it could connect to phone also, but it cant.
My issues are;
The ear cups SUCK. They are far too thin and allowed my ears to touch the inner material covering the drivers. I had to buy third party ones to resolve this. Never had this on any other headphone before. May be the cups, or the shape of the headset, Im not sure. YMMV.
Dont use it if you are expecting the virtual surround to be actually good. It isn’t and never is on any headphones. It adds a nasty echo layer to everything which sounds terrible if you are listening to anything other than games.
The software EQ is lacking. Install Peace or similar to actually get the most out them. This may end up coming down to personal taste of course, but they sounded “muddy” no matter what I did in the standard EQ.
After a few months the headband elastic is starting to sag and I’m not sure that there is enough velcro to correct it enough over time.
The reason I am willing to pay for these is because how long I had the Arctis3 for. Let me explain I normally by a headset after every 3-5 month do to the mic braking n the wire or one side only working.
The Arctis7 are pretty good if you play on pc or listing to music on your phone.
My issue with the headset is that you can’t use the wireless features on the Xbox one X and when you are using the wire for the Xbox I sometimes lose sounds.
If you are a game console player by the Acrtis 3.
The chat and game channels for pc is really useful for live streaming great all around mic I good my leaves a bit to be desired
Battery life is amazing I’ve had about 12-18 hours and it atm is still going strong
What can I say, for 65 this headset is amazing. Long life, last about 10 hours plus on a charge and only takes around 30 minutes to an hour to charge to full. Great quality, handy controls to toggle chat/gaming sounds on Discord and on PS4 chat. Has 5.1 surround sound so the directional functionality whilst gaming is excellent. Can hear shots coming from very specific directions, etc.
Very comfy. Headband doesn’t hurt the head at all and the cups at the ears are very comfortable with breathable pads so your ears don’t overheat or get sweaty.
I could have paid over 100 for this and would still feel it was worth the price. The best headset I’ve had.
Really happy with the purchase and would recommend them.
Great to hear footsteps in siege and doesnt lose quality at high volume.
Had some connection issues day or 2 after setting up but clear now.
One of the worst is the charge light not turning off when you are fully charged, its a well known glitch on reddit and it makes it hard to know when to actually charge your headset meaning it will just die randomly in the middle of a game.
It has great sound and bass, and very comfortable
Software is easy to use and good. The mic is good, clear and doesn’t pick up everything around me, not even the loud keyboard I have.
I still have my arctis 5 so build quality is good.
Overall, I am completely satisfied with my purchase (which was from Amazon Warehouse and half the price of a new set. The box they came in had a small dent on the outside and was unopened (BNIB) so there was nothing at all wrong with them. Result )
…(also, the music sound quality is phenomenal, clear as crystal music/audio playback )
You can definitely find better sounding headphones for the price, but they won’t be wireless – you’re paying a premium for that feature. For gaming, these are perfectly fine.
That’s the bad stuff out of the way. There not a 200/300 headset but what they do well is – the set up is easy, the sound is really sharp especially for playing FPS games, the build quality is fantastic, and wireless!
The next tricky bit is there are two volume buttons on the headset. You need to work both.
Here is what you need to do : go to their website and download the Steel Engine. This is the bit that make headphones sound like it should. If you don’t you will send the headphones back.
I had this headphones on playing a game speaking on Teamspeak and they members on Team speak could actually hear my son playing on his PS4 next to me.
Overall day 3 after going throught the pains to ghet this to work properly, i would say this is a good headset. I wont say it is the best, it is good. My old wired headset that cost me 40 is just as good and a better out of box experience
The build is solid you don’t get the metal hinges and yoke like with Pros but I wouldn’t say it’s a bad thing given it’s less weight.
Sound quality of both the Pro and Actis 7 are fantastic. Both have quite a flat frequency curve which enables them to reproduce fantastic audio quality. The Pros NEED some EQ love but the 7s are good straight out of the box.
Overall if you don’t need bluetooth and don’t really need changeable batteries then the Arctis 7 is THE headset for you.
The range on the bluetooth is very good, I can get signal 2 rooms away from the pc which is excellent for VoIP and mobility.
Downloading the steel series engine is a must.
In game the sounds you dont need to hear are less loud and sounds you do need (like footsteps and gunshots) are clearer compared to conventional speakers and cheaper headsets. Compared to hyperx cloud 1 this is a better headset for shooters imo.
The virtual surround sound is great for movies and I find it well balanced for music as well. You can optimise it to your needs via the engine software.
This could be a pro or a con, but the mic is very responsive and sensitive, whilst in a VoIP call the listener could hear people arguing in the street outside my house. This can be adjusted in discord settings but it works well for me because I speak fairly quietly.
I did feel some fatigue on my ears after around 4 hrs of continuous use, but its not healthy in any instance to use a headset that long regardless. The battery life is excellent and recharges very fast. The design also reduces headphone hair which is a perk.
PHYSICAL OVERVIEW AND IMPRESSIONS:
Out of the box I was impressed with the look and feel of the headset, the ear cups feel very comfortable and I appreciate that they’re fabric covered and not imitation leather which I’ve found tends to disintegrate rather quickly.
The adjustable top worked great for me, I was able to find the perfect level of comfort with only a minor adjustment out of the box. It maintains the size you set the headset at perfectly so you won’t need to keep altering it.
The Microphone being retractable and also adjustable to any position around the left side of your face is really a nice feature and the Microphone includes a light visible in your peripheral vision which only shines when you have the Mic muted (using the tactile button on the rear of the left ear cup) this is a nice touch.
The headset feels quite light considering it contains two large drivers, batteries and no doubt a lot of electronics. SteelSeries have done well to choose construction materials and methods that are light so that there is some weight budget left over for those heavier electronic components.
With those good aspects out of the way there are a few downsides to the physical parts of the headset which I will now list.
1. It doesn’t have a USB-C charging port and instead opts for Micro USB.
2. There are so many buttons and dials on the ear cups (both sides!) that you will almost always click a button or move a dial inadvertently when putting the headset on or off. This is annoying especially if you put them back on only to have the volume now set much higher than before.
So with that out of the way lets get to the meat and potatoes. How do they sound, what’s the battery life like and how good is the wireless performance.
OUTPUT SOUND QUALITY:
Firstly sound, out of the box these sound like garbage. And I’m not mincing words here, they sound very tinny and everything you listen to sounds like it’s coming through an FM radio. I’m no audiophile and I only own one other pair of headphones which are strictly intended for music but even I can tell that these sound very poor out of the box.
But it is mostly fixable. Firing up an application like EqualizerAPO (Free and Open Source) and searching online for an appropriate Equaliser profile (or dialling one in yourself if you’re feeling adventurous) changes the sound quality on these immensely. It’s like a night and day difference. They really do go from sounding bad to sounding great. Not excellent or perfect, but great.
MICROPHONE SOUND QUALITY:
The microphone is the main reason that I needed such a headset to begin with, to be competitive in online games you need to be able to converse with your team mates. I play my games in quite a noisy room and so a Microphone close to my mouth with some kind of noise cancelling was paramount.
In this regard the headset delivered exactly what I wanted. I recorded myself speaking and it sounds to me crystal clear. It will of course pickup wind noise if you have a fan blowing directly at your face but that’s to be expected. Overall I’d give the Microphone audio quality a solid 8 out of 10 and the noise cancelling is more than adequate.
Something to note here is if you install the SteelSeries 3 software you can set it so that the headset will broadcast what it hears on your Microphone directly into the headset so you can hear yourself talking. This is a must-have feature for a closed back over-ear headset like this one which will assist you in talking at a normal sound level to your team mates. I found this worked without any kind of discernible delay, it’s a faultless implementation.
The last thing to mention about the Microphone is that the headset does have a dial on the right ear cup which allows you to adjust the mix between the system/game sounds and the chatter from your team mates. This feature relies on the game or software you’re using being able to send game/software audio to one audio source and the chat audio to another.
For the games I play we use Discord chat which is able to send the voice chat to the chat channel of the headset and then any game I’m playing can target the game channel. These audio channels are clearly defined in all the software you use once you install the SteelSeries 3 software and this is a clever feature for quickly adjusting your audio balance without having to minimise a game to alter audio settings and it too works faultlessly.
BATTERY LIFE:
The headset boasts 24 hour wireless battery life and I’ve found that to be a completely accurate statement. The battery life is great and if the headset does happen to run out of power you can simply plug it in with the included cable and keep using it while it charges.
The headset doesn’t get noticeably warm even while being used during charging so the only inconvenience to charging it while playing is the cable dangling down your left side.
WIRELESS PERFORMANCE:
Whenever purchasing a wireless anything (Keyboard, Mouse, Headset etc) it’s often been the case that the manufacturers stated performance and range estimates are wildly optimistic. It seems most companies idea of testing consists of placing the product in an open field with no other wireless transmitting devices or perhaps any trace of civilisation at all.
So it will come as no shock to say that the stated 12 meters is likely only possible with a direct line of sight between the headset and its transmitter/receiver unit. I found through obstacles (one floor or a single wall) the range is about 3 to 4 meters.
But I will say if you’re staying in line of sight of the transmitter/receiver or you’re within those 3 to 4 meters the sound quality (when adjusted as noted above) is perfect. It suffers from no drop-outs or quality degradation. That is to say the bitrate remains high and the latency low.
So I have no concerns about the wireless performance of the headset for any of its stated usage scenarios (PC or Gaming Console). If you’re in the same room as your gaming machine you shouldn’t have any problems at all.
CONCLUSION:
I like this headset a lot when taking its cost into consideration and while its out of the box sound quality is poor after a few tweaks to your audio equaliser it does sound great. I think the price at 119.99 (as of review) is about right for this headset. Just keep in mind you may only be able to adjust your equaliser settings on a computer. You may not have that capability on a games console like an XBOX or Playstation.
Now if you were to spend that same amount of money on a wired headset you will definitely get better sound quality (especially out of the box) but the convenience that the wireless feature provides is to me at least, worth the sound quality sacrifice.
If there was one addition I would like to see in the package it would be some kind of carrying case. Just a drawstring cloth bag to store the headset in when not in use to keep it from getting dusty would be a nice value addition in my opinion.
PROS:
+ Good value for a wireless headset with Mic
+ Great sounding microphone
+ Tactile buttons that are easy to feel for
+ Quite light and feels comfortable for extended play sessions
+ Great wireless performance
+ Great battery life
CONS:
– Out of the box sound output quality is very poor
– Volume dial placement can lead to unintended adjustments
– No USB-C port on the headset for charging
The headband is comfortable and adjustable, though I’ve not had to change it as it fits perfectly. The receiver for wireless signal is great, and has line out capability for speakers (You will need a thin 3.5mm for this to work, as the output and input jacks are both rounded into the circular reciever and are not flat; fatter 3.5mm cables will fall short of a connection and not work, as I found out!).
The Wireless function is excellent, I can get a decent signal in my old, victorian-built home. I recently streamed a PC build and wore the headset all evening without much slipping of the headset.
Overall, it’s well worth the cost.
But very comfortable to wear, easy to set up, and have great sound quality.
Best of all, this headset has absolutely no issues running under Ubuntu Linux, so top marks for portability!
Sound clarity is brilliant, even over 10–15 metres of office space, no bluetoth to worry about its all private wifi.
The additional functionality of being able to take calls and listen to podcasts etc from your phone, by simply plugging it into the arctis controller on your desk is a great touch.
You can also be on a call and listen to music at the same time, lovely option for those boring calls.
If you plan to use these with an xbox x or s, don’t throw the cables out. That’d how you connect it to the xbox, not wirelessly!
BAD: (Because it’s not that bad)
These ARE NOT actually 7.1 (which I knew) but simulated. However, at least in windows, they only show up as a 2 channel device, which means some software will downmix the audio to the headphones, losing detail. I’m hoping this is fixable in future software.
I can’t be certain if this is why the surround isn’t as good as other DTS headphones that do show as multi-channel but for this price and what I’m using them for (gaming, some music, some Netflix) there is an acceptable difference with simulated DTS on.
The microphone suffers a little from being a bit too happy at picking up high frequency ‘S’ sounds, whch is typical of most noise cancelling mics I have tested. I don’t know if this is tunable in the software but if it is, I promise to try and remember to update this review.
The software isn’t really helpful for set-up, perhaps there is a manual there somewhere but some tooltips would be nice!
GOOD:
Let’s start with the EQ presets. I should hate them but coming back to price, and that EQ is hard (for some) the ‘out of the box’ software EQ settings are really rather good! The EQ is fully adjustable, even from a preset, so you can fine tune it.
The chat/voice game mixer is also fantastic in the way it works. In the operating system, you actually get two devices, one for the actual game/video/windows sound and a mono device that you can set discord/teamspeak/mumble/skype (etc) to use. After that, the dial on the headset is a fader which you can then put the bias from full game to full voice comms.
The microphone is very flexible and gives a good range of placement and the noise cancelling really does seem good. What’s also fantastic is the microphone mute is a proper on/off type pushbutton, rather than a press to toggle.
The extra band that suspends the frame is elastic and very comfortable, I don’t feel the weight of these headphones on the top of my head that much at all. Also, the foam of the ear pads isn’t too hard, so I don’t feel pressure on my ears (and I’ve not got small ears, and also wear glasses and I’m not feeling my ears pressed into the glasses but outside sound is nicely removed)
There is a ‘live preview’ feature available in the software itself, which is useful for setting up your levels, rather than having to do this in the operating system. However, this lets you know what your operating system hears, there is a small amount of latency. So there is a ‘party trick’ in the software. A feature called ‘Mic Sidetone’ routes the microphone directly inside the headphones, with 4 levels from off to high, meaning you can test, or always get to hear yourself, without needing to set this in the OS)
On the subject of controls, you can adjust the auto power off setting from the software from 5, 10, 30, 60, or 90 minutes and, of course, disable this function)
A quick final note, the software allows you to save multiple configurations, which means you can fine tune your audio environment for different usage (games/video/video conferencing) and recall these settings quickly, rather than needing to find a ‘one setting for all’ or having to tweak the settings every time!
GREAT, but how do they sound?
Well, they don’t sound like a 400 set of headphones and they have no right to at this price! However, even without all the extra utility and gaming features, the sound is better than some playback only headphones I have bought at this price and up to the 200 mark. If you’re happy (and able) to play around with the EQ settings I think you’ll find a sound that fits what you want, I certainly have and in a fairly short space of time. I’ve already done some gaming, movie play back (Star Wars Episode 2 sounded really good after a couple of minutes creating a movie profile) and made my brain light up with some Prodigy, Disturbed, and Beethoven (yes, I’m that nerd!)
Final Notes:
The USB sound card is very clean, I’m not seeing any noise coming through that shouldn’t be there. The USB cable for this is about 1.5m so is long enough for anywhere I need it, without having too much cable to worry about. It also has a fairly effective anti-slip rubber ring on the base. There are line in and line out ports, which I have yet to test, so no idea if this just plays to/from the headphones, or if that sound goes in/out of the operating system as well.
You get an OK length USB charge cable, which is just long enough for me as I have my PC close to my chair but if you need something longer, go buy a good long Anker cable for it. You also get a ‘smart phone’ 3.5mm (if you’ve still got a phone with a 3.5mm) that connects stereo and mic to a usb input on the headphones, meaning you can go analogue if you need to (but again, I’ve not tested this as I don’t really need to)
VERDICT
Well, when my wife finally gives up on her Logitech ‘real DTS’ headset, she’s already said she wanted a pair of these and while I’d happily let her pay more, or buy her something more expensive myself, I think we’ll be owning a second pair of these in the not too distant future, so yes, I’m very happy with them!
Easy to set up and use, durable, and are comfy af.
Love these headphones just wish they would add wireless connection to phones.
(edit: charging port broke after about a year of use. seems to be a very common problem after i did research. However, for this reason i will not be buying a replacement from steel series.)
A bug with the charging light exists where even if fully charged, the headset will still flash yellow (for about 50% charge). To resove this, you have to plug it into your oc and run the steelseries software everytime you charge it.