SteelSeries - Arctis Nova Pro Wireless (Xbox & PC)

None of these, go with the arctis nova pro for Xbox. It can connect to any device and since it comes with two batteries you can hot swap and virtually have unlimited playtime. Best headset I’ve ever owned! I’ve purchased a few of the steelseries headsets and some from Sony (outside the newest) and these are by far the best.

Well i have the steelseries arctis nova pro x wireless for a little more than a year and it still feels like new. Ive only ever noticed the cracked hinges on my other arctis pro wireless which have fallen on the ground so many times, which is probably the reason for it.

I have seen the sound measurements for these and they are nearly identical to the NPW. A bit more bass for sure but that's about it. The problem i had with the NPW is that if you move your head the sound changed drastically. Feature wise i agree that they are probably the best on the market but apart from that if you don't need said features then just buy something cheaper.

Hello. Im looking for gaming headset that actually f'ing works. Right now im using my Razer Kraken Ultimate, they have 5 years, the cable is wide open in many places, and i can hear more on the left than the right. They were "fine" for the past 5 years but it's time to replace them since they have not a lot of life left in them. I also do realise that Razer headphones are more about the brand than the sound itself. I got myself Steelseries Arctis nova pro X today, and already have to return them, they arent very comfortable around the ears (thats the least annoying part) But the microphone is absolutely garbage, or maybe i got a faulty one? (a lot of people complained on it) Anyways nobody can hear me, i can play with settings all day long and it wont help, im also not really into having extra program or 2 on my PC just so others can barely hear me. Call me old timed or stupid, but i prefer wired headsets, i was thinking about steelseries nova 7, but they only come in wireless. (and its again steelseries with their microphones) What else could you guys recommend me? (If anything) Im mainly looking for good headset (mostly FPS games) with microphone that works, i do not expect the microphone to be top tier, i just want others to hear me speak. Budget would be around 220 Euros, max 250 if the headset is absolutely worth its price.

I just got these in today and compared to my original pro wireless (not nova), the sidetone is TRASH! It's so quiet, not clear, and reverbs my own voice like if i cupped my ears. Any fix for this?

Actually they are more expensive in Poland. The official retail price for Xbox version is $550 (1999 PLN). So I am not sure where did you see them for $450. Arctis Nova Elite costs $700 (2500 PLN) and it seems to be a better buy on paper but I don't like the fact that their transmitter (Omniplay) can be paired with their headphones only. Since neither is perfect, I am starting to think it's better to buy B&W PX8 S2 + a BT dongle e.g. BT-W6 or QCC Pro.

For competitive FPS the Nova Elite is a solid choice for its imaging

Budget? The Arctis Nova Pros check all the boxes and the sidetone (hearing youself) is really great and adjustable. The Maxwells sound better but the sidetone is flawed and hisses (unless they’ve somehow patched that) but that might not matter for gaming. If budget is no issue then the new Arctic Nova Elites are nice. You can always get some aftermarket cushions like from Wicked. The nice thing about the Arctis is you just swap the battery so you’ll never have to go wired. Also, the chat mix control on the headset is fantastic. You can control game vs chat balance from the headset itself. As an alternative you could just buy a nice pair of open back headphones (probably be cooler on your ears too) and use your Rode mic, so you don’t need sidetone OR buy a nice pair of closed back headphones and use an audio interface with your mic so you get zero latency mic monitoring (side tone). That’s a rabbit hole to go down. Note these would be wired options to use with an audio interface.

Congrats on the Steam Deck! After having kids (just had our second daughter in April) it's been a GAME changer. Being able to quickly get a little gaming in has been great. FYI if you have a Boppy pillow they are great for using the Deck. Open back headphones give you a beautifully open sound stage and are great for gaming as that wide sound stage lets you identify where sounds are coming from easier. However, they let sound out the sides so people in the room (or even the next room) might hear them. Another benefit is you don't really need sidetone / mic monitor because you can hear yourself naturally through the open backs of the headphones. Closed backs are what you're used to and have a different sound profile, and feel more "close to your head sound". A big benefit is passive noise isolation, but that means you need side tone so you can talk naturally. Honestly, as a dad having all the cool features of a wireless headset, I'd go with the Arctis Nova Pros. Most people say the money isn't worth it to step up to the Elites, but I'm considering them because of how much I love the Nova Pros. Why I keep coming back to them: 1. Infinite battery life in the sense you can keep swapping the batteries from the base station. 2. Very good side tone without a hiss 3. Ability to mix channels in Windows (and probably on the Deck as well) between chat and game (or music). You can even adjust this chat mix on the fly via a dial on the headset. 4. Actual 2.4ghz wireless AND Bluetooth. This gives you a low latency and high quality headset for gaming where you're not limited to Bluetooth. It does include Bluetooth though so you can be connected to like your phone and computer/console at the same time. 5. The Sonarr software, once you figure it out, is actually really cool for gaming as you can EQ each individual device and there's presets for games. 6. The active noise cancellation is actually decent and works WITH the sidetone. Many headsets don't do this well, and I believe the Nova Pros actually do. Basically they cancel out ambient room sound, but the sidetone will lets your voice in. The music quality isn't bad on the Pros, and they do support 48kHz / 24bit audio, but they're certainly not audiophile grade or anything. The Elites will give you much better audio quality, and slightly better mic quality, plus the build quality is better. Since you like using your Rode mic gaming, you really have 3 routes: 1. Rode mic + open back headphone, but you might get sound bleed if there's people in the room 2. Rode mic + closed back headphones, but you'd need an audio interface for true sidetone 3. A more gaming focused wireless headset, but it would have to have upstream sidetone working already as you can't really use Windows mic monitor because of the delay. The Arctic Nova Pros are probably the best open in this category as they blow everything else out of the water in terms of overall feature set, even if they don't sound the best. Good luck!

Budget? The Arctis Nova Pros check all the boxes and the sidetone (hearing youself) is really great and adjustable. The Maxwells sound better but the sidetone is flawed and hisses (unless they’ve somehow patched that) but that might not matter for gaming. If budget is no issue then the new Arctic Nova Elites are nice. You can always get some aftermarket cushions like from Wicked. The nice thing about the Arctis is you just swap the battery so you’ll never have to go wired. Also, the chat mix control on the headset is fantastic. You can control game vs chat balance from the headset itself. As an alternative you could just buy a nice pair of open back headphones (probably be cooler on your ears too) and use your Rode mic, so you don’t need sidetone OR buy a nice pair of closed back headphones and use an audio interface with your mic so you get zero latency mic monitoring (side tone). That’s a rabbit hole to go down. Note these would be wired options to use with an audio interface.

These still are tuned just as horrifically as the Pro's out the box and require a lot of EQ to both tame the treble up top and also add lower treble and bring forward mids. I think $449 is where this should have landed. Maxwell sounds better and I agree so does the Scape so the premium would be justified for the unique connectivity it offers. If I had to quantify it with a number it sounds 15% better than a Nova Pro.

Yeah I love the Nova Pro as a product but hated it's tuning/sound quality. They screwed this new product up too. Treble is too hot and makes it sound tinny but they've done this for whatever advantage it provides spatially in gaming. What they really should be doing is tuning it to Harman and letting people use the app to adapt it as they please rather than the opposite. I shouldn't have to fix FR dips and overemphasis on a $600 headphone. Scooped mids, lower treble being completely absent along with the 9K spike make them sound like throw away earbuds. https://preview.redd.it/5e0n75p6wmtf1.png?width=1113&format=png&auto=webp&s=4f7e5dd7048c68e39026fe8e152305c5f217a8c0 If this thing actually sounded good it would be end game but I'm just not happy relative to a Maxwell or even a Fio FT1. The big difference between this and a Maxwell is that the Arctis has like 0 sound stage depth, the Maxwell doesn't sound like the drivers are sitting on your ears in comparison (neither are very wide in term of sound stage).

I use these and they are great. Except for the tiny detail that whenever NC is on I have a permanent waterfall in my left ear… Edit: typo

I feel like my comment come off very negative. I love the headset, without a doubt the best headset I’ve ever had. But when NC is on there is static in my left ear. Thankfully turning off NC solves it and since the NC isn’t a deal breaker for me I’m not really bothered by it

Well for me it happened like 3 days after purchase. So hopefully you won’t have the same issue if you’ve had them a while and they’re working