SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro - Review

When you think of SteelSeries, you will most likely think of their PC accessories, like mice and keyboards and for good reason, they are constantly delivering quality with each release. Their headsets however have been a little quieter in the praise department, not because they make bad headsets, but rather that they don’t make nearly as many, allowing them to have time to develop proper releases, rather than just releasing incremental upgrades. Their latest release is the Arctis Nova Pro series and it has been a number of years in the making, so we put it through its paces, to see if it was worth the wait.

As always with any headset, there are two factors that you have to consider, the first is vastly more important than the second, but the second is also very important. Those factors and form and function and sticking with the first, I am happy to report that the Arctis Nova Pro is one of the most comfortable headsets I have ever worn and I wear a lot. The basic layout of the headset matches many others on the market, there really isn’t a lot you can do with the layout; however it is in the construction of the headset where SteelSeries have brought forth their design ethos and it shows. Earcups, the parts that sit on your ears, are either going to be great out of the box, or not and here they lean very heavily into the great side of things, thanks to their elliptical shape and super soft padding. I have to reiterate that the padding is phenomenal because not only is it soft, but the faux leather material that they have wrapped around it, makes it feel like some high-quality cushion and never like a headset.

I have had headsets in the past, that have had soft foam and material inside, but the exterior material is a hard surface or even worse, scratchy and the result is a headset that is a challenge to wear and that is not the case here. The same also applies to the resistance band contained underneath the main headband, in some headsets it is nothing more than a piece of plastic, with a fabric covering, but here it is elastic and not some simple straight piece, but a custom designed piece, allowing for it to be flexible, yet firm. What the two elements bring to the headset is comfort out of the box, that is honestly ridiculous, for almost every other headset I have reviewed or owned, going from the box to my head, there is always an adjustment period. This didn’t happen here, of course I had to adjust the height of the earcups from the band, but outside of that, I haven’t had to do anything and it has been the most comfortable and enjoyable headset to wear, so much so that there are times when I forgot I had it on.

The headset that I was provided for the review, was the corded version and apart from the existence of a cord, it is identical to the wireless model, but there is a catch, it has a cord. That isn’t a bad thing when I was sitting at my PC, but as the headset was the Xbox supported variant, it made connecting it to the console a little challenging. Connecting it via the controller was no problem as the headset uses a standard 3.5mm connection, which also means it worked with my Switch, PlayStation 5 and phone, the later needed that dongle though. If I wanted to take full advantage of the headset though, I had to use the included GameDAC Gen 2, the device that looks like a little control hub that you might find on a spaceship. On the unit there are two USB-C inputs, one for general USB use and one for Xbox and while the cables provided are quite lengthy, at 1.5m each, my chair is a little further away than the cords could reach. Now if you are someone who has their console on a desk and connects it to a PC monitor, this may not be a concern you have to worry about, but it is something to be aware of.

All that now brings us to the audio portion of this review and by that I mean the quality of the audio and here things are a little more unbalanced. First we must address the sound quality of the headset itself and simple speaking, it is fantastic no matter what I was using it for, from music on the PC and phone, to gaming on the Switch or Xbox, it provided crystal clear sound. As this is a gaming headset, I did expect it to fail the low volume test that most gaming headsets struggle with and that is where you would have softer music playing and some of the headsets do not understand low volume noise, thankfully this is not the case here. Playing quiet music was no issue for the headset, it was able to pick up the sound being played, no matter the volume of its source and kept the output being nice and level. Using the GameDAC Gen 2 however, I was able to tweak the settings, allowing for me to ensure the music from the computer was exactly how I wanted it.

The same can be said for games, when making use of the GameDAC Gen 2, with a few presets included, the device also let me tweak individual parts of the equalizer, which would then be saved. This would allow for me to swap between them, so when I was playing a game like DOOM, I could get those base levels up high, but when playing something quitter like Freshly Frosted, it meant I could savour the sweet sounds. The speaker drivers are a respectable 40mm, so they are not the largest around, but are still large enough to provide good levels of sound, no matter how they are being used, but with all that good, we need to talk about the bad and that is the microphone.

It must be said that I do not like microphones on most gaming headsets, they are either massive and permanently attached, or they are ones that go in and out of the headset, meaning they are usually flimsy and that latter scenario is the case here. The microphone includes a bidirectional noise-cancelling option, which means even if you don’t have it pulled from its casing, it will still work and while suitable enough for say a call on Teams or Discord, in-game that won’t cut it. The quality of the mic is more akin to those external mics that people had in the late 90’s on the desks, the ones that look somewhat like PA systems. When I was gaming, it was hard for people to hear me, amongst the rest of the noise that people were enjoying from the game, not impossible of course, just a challenge. Once it is removed, the arm is flexible enough to be placed within the space you desire and thankfully there is enough rigidity in it, that it won’t want to move on its own. The flipside to that of course, is that as it needs to be flexible enough to retract back into its housing unit in the earcup, if you push it slightly, it will move and stay where it gets moved to.

Something weird happened with mine though, whilst it was hanging on my little notch where all my headsets go under my desk, it got bumped off and fell the 2 feet to the ground, onto the carpet. There was no exterior damage, no scuffs or anything like that, it was a minor issue, but it landed on the earcup that the microphone lives in. Thankfully, the microphone was inside the cup at the time, but what it did was stopped me from being able to pull it out, no matter what I was trying to do, it would not budge. As this was a review unit, I didn’t want to pull the headset apart, which also was something I was loath to do, but I had no idea how to get it out. In the end I used the plastic spreader tool that I use to separate my consoles and controllers when they get cleaned and while it used no force, it was still weird that I had to use something else to pull the microphone out after such a minor drop. I honestly believe it was a fluke of a scenario and not one that other people are likely to encounter, but it was so weird to have it happen in the first place.

Across the board, the Arctis Nova Pro is a headset that I would highly recommend to anyone who wants a quality piece of hardware, even with the microphone quality concerns. The comfort of the headset is something that I wasn’t expecting to be as fantastic as it is, as right out of the box it fit so well on my head. The plush earcups are so soft, even after weeks of using the headset, that if someone wanted to make a chair from the same material, I would be very ok with that. The GameDAC Gen 2 is insane, not only does it provide so much more control, even without the use of a PC, so Mac fans rejoice, its multiple input options means that you can have settings for many devices and never feel like you are resetting things over and over again.

If you are looking for a headset and you have the money to spare for this one, then I highly recommend it, the only real choice is if you go for the wireless or the corded option.

The Score

9.0

Review unit provided by SteelSeries

The Pros

+Right from the box the headset is super comfy to wear and provides rich and clear sounds, without any modifications

+The included GameDAC Gen 2 takes the headset and manages to evolve it into something special, with inputs for multiple devices and many settings to tweak

The Cons

-The microphone is not the best, it is not the worst I have ever used, but the quality of the voice from it is far less than it should be

-Using the GameDAC Gen 2 on a console will require you to sit either very close to your machine, or get some additional and longer cables for connection to it