SteelSeries Arctis 7 - Lossless Wireless Gaming Headset with DTS Headphone: X v2.0 Surround - for PC and PlayStation 4 - Black

I was hesitant to buy this because of the reviews of the old version but I have been quite happy with the 2019 edition so far. Pros: - Sound quality is top notch. You can discern even the tiniest sounds with these. It surprised me at first because I couldnt tell what it was until I really listened and figured out it was a tiny sound I normally wouldnt hear. Very good for gamers and hearing footsteps. - Very Comfortable. The pads feel like youre not wearing anything. Most headsets squeeze my head after a few hours but these I wore all day without any problems. I like the adjustable strap they have as well. - Decent Range. I was able to go halfway across my house until the signal finally dropped but thats also going through quite a few walls. In the open, I would say you could get about 40-50 ft. before the signal drops. Cons: - The Microphone. While I dont expect it to be the top of the line, my old $60 HyperX headset was far superior to this mic. I have to lower my mic volume down to 50% so people dont hear the background noise the mic inherently picks up. I tried putting some noise reducing foam on it but that didnt seem to help at all. I will wait to see if it has the same problem as the previous version I see people complaining about in reviews about the mic not working after a few months but so far all is good - Volume settings on the back of the headset, While not a terrible problem, does cause a bit of an annoyance when you lay your head back or brush your hand up against it accidentally. Ive unknowingly done this a couple times and either almost blew my ears out or turned it all the way down without realising. - Headset sometimes makes a crackling sound if you get to far away from the dongle. One time I had to turn them off and back on to get rid of it. TLDR: Overall the headset is pretty nice for a wireless headset besides the fairly bad mic quality. Great sound quality, good range, very comfortable, good battery life for now. I will update my review after Ive had it a few more months to see if its still just as good.

Had them for 2 years, but the charging port busted. From my research it is a common problem. Incredible headset otherwise. Everything was great.

This headset is a neck killer! If you have an elevated monitor (where you look up at an angle all day) then you likely wont have the same discomfort that I did with this headset. If your desk setup has you looking down or at a decline, you will likely have more neck aches. I am only giving so many stars because the features are very good and the design seems more durable than what Ive had before. The chat mix feature (the volume knob on the right) is very helpful since Im in a voice chat almost every day. I also like being able to use an audio jack to pump audio from my phone or other device into the headset wirelessly through the dongle plugged into my computer. I have my Nintendo Switch hooked up to my desk, and when I use an aux cord, I can have audio from both my computer and my Switch going into this headset. I am giving this headset one star for noise cancelling because it does not have active noise cancelling. It will reduce noise passively, but not to a level that I would call this a noise cancelling pair of headphones.

So it clearly states 24h battery, but Ive never gotten more than 14 out of mine. And while granted, 14 hours is enough for all day, Id like to have known that up front. Also the fact that SteelSeries has their own proprietary connection is still kind of annoying, especially with how much they charge for a replacement. Also, I personally hate the Game Chat dial feature. On more than one occasion I have not realized it was dialed all the way to Game and not realized I couldnt hear anyone talking. One time it even happened in a meeting, very embarrassing. There is no indication or alert or anything about it. There could be zero activity and Game and maxed volume sounds in Chat, but if the dial is set to Game, you would never know. I have no problems with clamping or the ski fabric that other users have. But there is one feature that the Arctis 7 has that I really like. The transceiver includes Line In and Line Out ports. This is really great for me if I want to use my computers audio, but also want audio from my PS4 or Switch or phone. Gone are the days of my wearing headphones over earbuds.

I REALLY enjoyed this product for the first couple of weeks I used it, save one or two small complaints, but as time has progressed it has become more of a hassle. They aren’t bad headphones and they work flawlessly with my PS4, but have given me persistent issues with my PC. The good: -The software on PC allows you to customize profiles for different listening applications which is nice (and necessary). -These headphones worked super well with my PS4, which has been super cool. -when they work on my PC I love being wireless and the battery life is pretty good and the headphones are super comfy. The Bad (long because I want to be fair and specific): -out of the box, the sound quality is ROUGH. I mean, sound profiles for headphones are definitely a matter of taste but out of the box I found the high frequencies to be PAINFUL, and there was a severe lack of bass. Any budget Bluetooth headphones is going to struggle to achieve wired levels of sound quality but the shrill and piercing highs almost made me immediately return them. (Definitely had to alter the sound profile with the software in order for them to be usable) -for PC, these headphones have so much happening in the audio drivers/devices side of things that your computer will become confused and stop delivering audio correctly. Sometimes these headphones work perfectly but for me it’s been a coin flip. It creates a proxy “discord” audio device for the discord volume dial feature which is fine if you are only running game audio and discord. I had to disable this feature because I would often listen to music while I listen to discord and game, the discord dial can sometime start effecting volumes of programs you don’t want it to, or may not work at all. Aside from The discord features, of these headphones die while your playing a game, sometimes you have to restart the game for it to re-register the headphones as the appropriate audio device, but sometimes it works fine. Sometimes, my Spotify won’t recognize the Arctic 7 audio device as a valid output and won’t play music through them unless the headphones were on when booting Spotify. Sometimes game sounds just stop and for seemingly no reason. Sometimes your computer wont recognize the Arctic’s 7 at all and aside from restarting your computer there’s not much you can do. There’s all sorts of fixes online for stuff like this online, but unless you enjoy uninstalling and reinstalling drivers and making sure weird caches are cleared it’s been easier in my experience to just restart my computer. Maybe it’s from windows updates, or bad software updates, my own personal setup, or whatever, but I’ve checked most of those things and sometimes there’s no clear reason for a glitch. All that being said, if it is working, it will work great for, usually, an entire session (keep in mind, never had ANY issues on PS4). If your audio setup on your PC is super basic (no speakers, no alternate outputs, just running game sound and discord through these phones) then maybe this is perfect for you. Overall: - I use these headphones all the time, but the 3/5 star rating is ultimately because I still have to keep my wired headset around for when these start to glitch out. The sound quality is rough at first but can be evened out, and I bought these headphones to try out a different sound profile then normal. I knew they would be kind of shrill with less bass, and I don’t ultimately fault them for that but with that in mind, if you like bass heavy profiles, look elsewhere. The directionality is spot on and the mids and highs are so sharp it makes in game sound cues like footsteps or gunshots stand out like crazy. However the highs are so powerful that gunshots are so loud you have to active the sound compression algorithm on the headphones in order to keep your ears from (bleeding?) ONLY hearing explosions or gunshots. These headphones have been a joy at times and a source of frustration as well. For 110$, your expectations can’t be too crazy, if you were to buy a high end mic and high end headphones, all with with a built in high quality Bluetooth DACs with software support for listening profiles you would expect to spend 10x that amount. So it’s a solid deal, but what your buying is wireless-ness not audio quality or reliability. If I had to buy another Bluetooth headset I’d probably spend a bit more money and try a different brand, with less features, more reliability, and better ootb sound quality but that’s my personal preference. TLDR: 3/5

Arctis 7 wireless headset. First off, I am playing on a PS4 for a month now. It seems those with software issues must be on PC as there is no software anywhere in sight for my setup. Ease of use 5 stars. Plug in the dongle and turn on the headset. Boom, it works. Take a break, walk to the kitchen 40 feet away and still hear your team talking and game sound the same as being in the game room. Audio 5 stars. I have had no issues with audio quality. It has rich sound and is very directional. Microphone 3 stars. It works, but clan mates say its quiet. Had to turn up dialogue volume to max on the PS4. Mic has to stay close to my mouth. Pull on the retractable mic too much and it makes a beep. No microphone monitor, which means you cant hear yourself talk (which leads to others not being able to hear you talk and you wont know it until they tell you). Comfort 4 stars. I have a 7 5/8 hat size which is large. I adjusted the material about as big as I could make it and while its not the most comfy, I can wear it for an hours-long raid in Destiny 2 without pain. Charging - 2 stars. USB-2 charging, but its iffy at best. Plug it in and hope its charging. The mic red light comes on but after an overnight charge it still shows yellow on the power button. Turn it off again, then on again, and sometimes the light will be green. Charging port does seem to be finicky, which is suboptimal. Battery life - 5 stars. When its fully charged it lasts for multiple long afternoon/evening play time. Overall I can put up with the above issues. But next time Ill probably go with something else. Update 12-27-2021 Now using with a PS5. Plugged in the dongle and the console found it immediately. Still not the most comfy headset on the planet but it works. If you charge it overnight and turn it off before unplugging it, the charge light turns green. If you unplug it then turn it on, the charge light is yellow like the day before. Odd. Durability is good but I dont throw things... The mic is still not great for me, but again, turning up the dialogue volume on the PS5 addresses that. Probably about 70% volume so people can Hera me. Now they hear me breathing though. Balance is not easy to find in this area. Sound is still good. Im not sure the PS4 or 5 support 7.1 sound, but it is directional and in the few occasions Ive put it on backwards, I noticed right away I did something dumb lol... I still wouldnt buy it again because of the oddities it has. It works, but I think for the money you should be able to get a much better headset in terms of comfort and usability.

I love everything about this headset except for the headband. Sound: fantastic, plus being able to balance desktop sounds and Discord audio on the fly is tops. Function: great, muting is tactile and you always know when youve done it, mic position is always correct thanks to the flex mic, you can use them while charging, and theres a manual connection option. Minor quibble here: the engravings on the base station are nearly impossible to see, easily fixed with a minute of liquid paper whiteout, pictured. Microphone: Clarity is really good for a headset mic, I only need to switch to the desktop mic when doing a recording, headset mic works great for chatting, phone calls, streaming, etc. Feel: This is where I drop a star. While the overall comfort is great, I wear this almost 12 hours a day and the headband stretched out after only 6 months requiring me to get a replacement from the SS website for $15. Also, the ear cups dont have an obvious way to be removed/cleaned, and if you use these all day like I do they will get gross. All in all a good headset but I wish I didnt have to spend $30 a year on maintenance via replacing the headband, so 4 stars.

I returned my turtle beach wireless headset due to mic and connectivity issues and got these instead. I did an unbelievable amount of research on what gaming headset to get as I hate buying a pair I dont end up liking and get stuck with them. There are SO many different gaming headsets nowadays it was not easy picking one to buy. This headset was everything I wanted. To keep it short and sweet, Ill just list the pros and cons... Pros: Quality materials (no cheap creaking plastics) Very comfortable (not too tight or too loose, ear pads very soft) Great sound and dynamic range (fully adjustable in app) Quality mic (fully adjustable and retractable) Independent master volume dial 2nd dial to adjust the game chat and game volume blend. Mic mute button (mic lights up red when muted) Mic monitoring is a HUGE plus. You can enable with the app so you can hear yourself talking through your mic. This helps you talk normally and not yell due to your hearing being sealed off from ambient noise. It also helps equalize the pressure in the ear cups which adds to comfort and minimizes ear fatigue. Without it, your ears can begin to feel weird after a while from being so isolated within the ear cups (at least for me). Great wireless range. Stayed connected even when I left the room with them on. 3.5mm headphone cable included so you can plug them into your controller (in case you prefer wired connection). Rock solid battery life (power button lights up different colors to tell u what percent battery is left). Cons: None so far. Will update review if something comes up.

Id definitely recommend it to someone but minor caveat. Wireless version, used on PS5: Pro: -Its easy to set up, you plug the USB receiver into the PS5 and thats about it. -It sounds great, and mic is much better according to friends. I had the razor kraken prior. -Battery life seems excellent. Ive gone a couple days of heavy gaming without charging it and it was fine. Its comfortable, my ears dont sweat like crazy. Big plus there. -Dual volume dials for in game and chat audio. Helpful! -Used it in COD warzone and its definitely easier to detect footsteps. If you know what Im talking about itll make sense, if youve never played it it wont make sense. Con: Aside from the price the biggest CON is that Its not intuitive at all. Ive had it for 2 weeks and I cant tell if it turns itself on automatically when the ps5 turns on or not. I dont understand its charge level AT ALL. Instructions say its green for 80+%. yellow for whatever percentage but that doesnt exist. The mic turns red when its charging and turns off when its full.