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

I really like this headset. I wear it for 10+ hours a day and it stays super comfy. The sound quality is great and I love the game/voice dial, its super useful. Plus the wireless is perfect, it has great range (about 40-50 ft) and they arent too heavy. However, the mic audio could be a tad better, according to people listening. Its not a deal-breaker though; the mic input audio is still miles ahead of airpods and other built-in mics, and only a couple steps behind a standalone mic, like the Blue Yeti. The biggest drawback is the confusing battery indicator. Its got three levels -red, yellow, green- but how much time is left on each of the levels is always inconsistent. Could be hours or minutes left on yellow, even if they were green a second ago. You can wear and use them while theyre charging, but you hear a faint buzzing noise that gets pretty annoying. Also, if the battery is red (bad, apparently) and then I charge them for 5 minutes, theyll turn green again even though there is no way theyre even close to that level of charge. Theres even more battery nuances than that, but those are the biggest issues. Overall, I think the utility of the headphones outweighs the cons, so Im happy with my purchase.

I use this for cubicle conference calls and listening to music. No game interaction to comment on. Works great, love the red light on the mic when you mute it. Sound quality is awesome, former colleague turned me on to SteelSeries years ago as we used them for music and conference calls at our SEM tools, but those were wired. I can now take this headset and my laptop into our lab and hold troubleshooting calls with vendors and have both hands to do my tasks. I know others like Bluetooth ear buds, but I purchased these primarily for same thing a gamer needs, good sound and microphone. I havent used them in the cleanroom yet to comment on background noise, which is substantial in a fab environment. I had them on nearly all day at my cubicle and they never got uncomfortable or too warm like some of the leather ear cups can. I like SteelSeries microphones and how this one pushes into the headset. Actually that is one of my favorite features. The fit for me was great out of the box, I have a fairly large noggin, so no adjustment was needed. I also like how the size adjust is the band and not slip style as is typical of most headphones. So it has less parts to end up compromised long term. The headset I replaced, a on ear Jabra, failed due to the size adjust feature that took out the right speaker wire. This is a better design for long term wear. The Jabra set lasted me about 5 years. The only con for me is that Id like more friction on the volume and chat level dials like aviation stuff. I got about 50 away outside before the sound started cutting and having issues when testing tje wireless last night. I get even less trying to wander around at work, but wire free at the cube, even during conference calls, is a really nice feature when looking for bits. These are rated as PC Gamer product of the year, they earned it. SteelSeries speakers dont have the marketing of the nose in the air brands do, but they sure nail the sound quality and beat those price points. Very impressed. Im a 50 y/o engineer, so these will see much more conference time than gaming, but still a very well executed headset. Im more impressed than expected, and I tend to expect a lot at this price point.

This review is meant to clarify the actual compatibility of this headset with the PS4, so people can make a more informed decision about whether a purchase is justified. This product is marketed heavily as being compatible for the PS4, and like many other reviews will state, the virtual surround sound setting does not work on the PS4. Ive read SteelSeries representative responses that it cant be done because of the proprietary nature of the PS4 sound output, so that the USB dongle cant communicate correctly with the output from the PS4 to determine positioning (which to me is not valid excuse for not adding any sound improvement feature on the PS4, you can still have EQ settings that help with sound). This explains why for PC use, the sound is good. On the PC, you can install SteelSeries software that will allow the headset to have EQ settings, and a virtual surround sound. It may seem like a small issue, and I certainly thought so before purchasing, but after using them i can safely say these are absolutely not of good sound quality on the PS4 compared to other wireless USB PS4 headsets. I am also confident that many review sites that praise the headset on ps4 didnt actually use them and just wrote about the apparent features. The issue is the non-surround sound quality is average, without any justification for the $130 price tag. Dont be like me and assume that its not a big deal. The response Ive seen to this complaint is to EQ it on the computer. The issue with that method is the only way to adjust the sound profile is on the Surround Sound settings, which doesnt work on the PS4. So the Surround Sound mode can only be turned on while connected to a computer with the SteelSeries software, meaning the sound profile can only be adjusted when connected to a computer. The sound processing does not occur on the usb dongle or the headset, it is processed by the computer application. No application, no EQ. This is a very specific detail that had I known, would have stopped me from purchasing the headset. What about on PC? It sounds good on the computer with the surround sound mode, for anything, regardless of if youre trying to play a game or music that has directionality involved. Thats why its so unfortunate that it doesnt work on the PS4. So what headset is better? The Turtlebeach Stealth Wireless 600 series is what I had been using before, and I assumed that a more expensive headset would be better. I was wrong. The Stealth 600 has virtual surround sound which makes knowing positioning of enemies in competitive games very easy to detect. This is achieved by a button on the Stealth 600 headset that turns on that EQ mode, which is different than the SteelSeries where the virtual surround is tied to settings on the computer (making the SteelSeries claim of not working on the PS4 fall flat, you just have to design the USB dongle to process the sound output instead). I have gone back to using the Stealth 600 (at a $90 cost) on my PS4. I really wanted to like the SteelSeries headset, it looks really good and is comfortable (but not as comfortable as the stealth 600 if you wear glasses). I even considered dealing with the sound, but then people on online games repeatedly told me they couldnt hear me clearly... the mic sucks. Its just not loud enough for other people to hear, and yes I updated the headphones using the latest steelseries software when connected to a computer (which I dont believe makes a difference once you plug it into a PS4). A mic is either good enough for people to understand you or not. And its not, so I completely stopped using it on the PS4. Again I wish this headset had more compatibility with the PS4 because its fine on the PC, but if youre only getting this for the PS4 dont waste your money.

And ease of use . I am surprised, there is basically no lag that I can find, I play CSGO competitive usually and this thing still lets me find enemies with ttheir steps. A bit of a background: I Used to have a USB dac amp with a studio closed back headphones and a modmic, I wanted to move to a wireless headset and ended up buying this. So lets break down and compare: Sound: Amazingly similar, if not a bit bass boosted, it has some good audio stage and great quality, no lag for wireless. Microphone: is not a modmic, my voice is not that clear compared to it at least and there is a bit of compression but is neglibile, I dont pick up any more background noises with it which is awesome. Features: it has 2 volume sliders which I still dont understand, this headphone once connected to a PC shows up as 2 devices for windows: Arctis Game and Arctis Chat. The slider on the right allows me to set full volume to either one while the one on the left allows me set volume in general. This means I can mute the voice chat by simply moving the knob on the right or mute the game which I find it amazing. Of course on windows you should configure the default communication device to arctis chat and the keep the arctis game as the default one. Not only that but the microphone being retractable is really nice and if you mute it via button there is a red light on the left. Battery: Amazing , of course its been about 1 week and a half , but so far a week of using it (about 2 to 3 hours daily) and haven ot needed to plug it in back. yet. Comfort: it is nice, its not closed back so some sounds might leak but at least I dont get bothered by it , I am not big headed so cannot say much about the pressure but my other headphones are the CB 1 studio and this ones do a bit more pressure than those. They are light so I dont mind using them and walking and range is really good, about 5 mmeters away I was still hearing sounds from my pc. Conclusion: No regrets buying this, if you have a wired studio headphone with a FIIO e10k and a studio headphone with a modmic ( that is my old setup) and you want to move to wireless on a budget. This is it ,Volume might not be that high but the audio quality is there. Again I used to have my windows at 20% volume with the e10k and the cb1 headphones, with this one I must go a bit above to 30%. higher than that and I might damage my ears. I plan to update this should anything happen with the headphones.

Would be amazing if it didn’t add its own programs to the computer and I don’t want it.

I was in the market looking for a new gaming headset that wasnt going to break the bank. I was able to snag these for around low 100s and pulled the trigger on them! I have heard many great things about this headset, but I wanted to really try them for myself and see if I liked them. After a year of using these bad boys, I can definitely say it was worth all $100! I think the sound quality is good enough, especially for the price of $100. My favorite thing about this headset is the simple/easy bluetooth connection. I leave the dongle connected to my PC and anytime I want to use my headset I just turn them on and theyre prepared to go! The headset is built pretty nicely, very sturdy & strong build. The ear cushion is pretty cozy, I have definitely worn this headset for 4 hours straight gaming. Absolutely no complaints, its really well-built and nice! The only issue I would have with this headset is that sometimes it loses connection on initial set up & the battery life is aite... I use this headset pretty often so I can see why the battery life has been diminished. I charge mine after every use because I like the portability aspect of it being wireless. If this is a deal breaker for you, the Arctic 7 pros comes with an additional battery for you to swap while the other one is charging. Only regret I have on this headset is that I didnt wait long enough to get the white ones :(. Other than that! Absolutely A1 headset for gaming!

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

Ive been using these Arctis 7 since March 2021. These are the best Ive owned so far I previously have used 2 Afterglow and 2 Turtle beaches headsets and they all have their ups and downs but these are well off all around. For starters the Afterglows would die too fast likely because of all the RGB lights they have all around The Arctis 7 last a very long time and if your like me on a Ps4 they last you around 16 hours plus you can just charge while playing. The noise cancelling is pretty good i have had countless people walk into my room and i am unaware of their presence because i cant hear nothing but the game. The surround sound is amazing you can easily tell whether footsteps are on your left, right, above, and below. Now the volume of sound on these is what shocked me they are extremely loud so even if you are deaf you will hear everything perfectly. It was so loud I had to change the max volume input to the headset through the PS4 and its on literally 3 out of the 20 bars or so you have to pick from. ALSO THE SKI MASK HEADBAND DESIGN IS SO COMFORTABLE!

My SteelSeries Arctis 7 died way too quickly for a $100+ headset. I purchased a set in October 2019, and they broke during June 2021. When they broke, I heard rattling in the left earpiece and no sound from the right. The U.S. warranty expires after a year so I had no luck with customer service reps. Its a fine headset while it works, but clearly the quality is not worth the price tag. The audio output is fine for general usage. Now I saw in other reviews that there may be distortion. Im no audiophile, but I couldnt notice any issues while watching movies or playing games. The mic isnt great, but I really only had issues with it picking up some background noise. Most VoIP services will cut out that noise that the mic picks up anyway. A very convenient feature is that the mute toggle is a well placed button on the left earpiece. Speaking of buttons, the On/Off button needs more documentation as it must do something more than just turn the headset on or off. Sometimes if you dont hold the button long enough to turn it off, I think the headset would go into some sort of sleep mode - I dont know. I never could figure out a consistent way to turn it off after that - I would then keep pressing the button until the light disappeared. It was really strange and quite frustrating if this happened while you wanted to listen to something. The headset also has a physical volume control wheel and Chat/Game audio volume control (cannot speak to how that works). The main volume control wheel is fine, but I noticed after a couple months that it was already loose in its fittings. By far my biggest issue with the headset was the comfort. Wow, its bad. Instead of an adjustable earpiece that retracts into the headband, they use a Velcro strap that is supposed to sit atop your head. My head is fairly thin so the headband would fall in front of my eyes if I moved my head too much. It just could never be tight due to this terrible design choice. The final issue must be the design of the connection from earpiece to the band. My headset broke due to normal use and it must have been from how fragile the wiring and connectors are at least in the left earpiece. As you put on and take off the headset, the earpieces will wobble. So I guess after a year and a half of use, this internal connector for the left earpiece must have snapped which leads to stressed wiring which leads to no sound. I had this headset for a year and a half, and as I stated earlier, I did try my luck with seeing what SteelSeries would do after the warranty expired. They took 2 days to respond to the ticket which felt reasonable, but after I immediately replied back to their email, it took another week and a half and multiple follow-up emails to hear back from them. Just dealing with this ticket was irritating.

The headset is just the right weight--it doesnt fall off your head if you dont wear a hat. The batter life and the range are incredible so you arent constantly charging or losing connection as you walk around the house. I have used other brands, but im never changing now unless the quality drops at some point.