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

I work in VR and spend 5 hours a day on a voice call in Discord communicating with coworkers about bugs found and tasks needing to be done. My previous headphones were Bluetooth and worked great for me to hear, but my outgoing audio was atrocious. I got these in 2021 and havent regretted the decision since. The difference in audio is night and day, even to my hearing-impaired ears, and the mic is comparable in quality to my USB condenser mic. Its held up well over this 1+ year span, with being used for over 24 hours a week. Mic still works great, and audio is still top-notch. The only drawback Ive found is when using this with my Quest 2. Plugged in with an AUX cable, it works, but audio from the Quest is much quieter than the audio coming from my PC. Since Im hearing-impaired, I need the audio from the Quest to be as loud as or louder than the PC audio. I normally use a different pair of headphones with my Quest for that reason (Aftershokz bone conduction), but when I go to stream gameplay in my off time on Twitch or YouTube, I need a way to hear Text to Speech reading out my chat; hence needing the dual function of the Arctis 7. Which means I sacrifice being able to hear the game well in favor of being able to hear chat. My situation is not that common, I know; thats why I rated 5 stars and just put 4 stars in Sound Quality beneath that. Overall, these are 5 star headphones.

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.

Convenient for remote work and gaming. Highly recommend, quality sound.

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.

I absolutely loved these headphones. They worked amazing for 4 years, but unfortunately, the charging port literally fell out of them today. I feel that the port is a big enough issue where i cant give this 5 stars, but Ill give it 4 for the years of excellent sound quality. The charging port was noticeably loose and didnt connect well after one year, but I made due with adjusting the position of the cord for a while. Wish I could afford a new pair now, but will keep an eye out for a sale.

I want to preface this by saying I literally just got these, delivered 30 minutes ago, and these are my first impressions. I WILL update over time. I looked at reviews for these and were discouraged by the negative reviews. QC is obviously a little lackluster, and I sat on the decision to purchase these for months. Impulsively, I pulled the trigger for these and I hope I got the good stuff, not the defect. tl;dr (will also update this): They sound decent, would be excellent after EQ tinkering. Microphones hot trash, super quiet to my friends, with a constant beeping (not sure why, but it is an occurrence). Theyre super comfortable. I dont feel them on my head, but when I do, they feel like clouds. Clamp force, quiet. They dont clamp hard, just enough to stay on my head, and not enough to make my ears and head hurt from my glasses pressing into my head. Dials on headset are very sensitive. UPDATE: Upon tinkering, the microphone works! My friends said it sounded crisp, although a little fuzzy, too. Its very directional, which makes putting the mic in the right spot really difficult. The ski band, after proper adjustment, holds the headset on my head well, no changes there. EQ tuning made this thing sound amazing, with no harshness, and clear sound all around. All in all, my opinion hasnt changed, and the review still holds merit, and my recommendation of this set. Right out the gate, unboxing experience is really nice, but not premium feeling. I dont really care about this, just figured it should be known to some with pedantics about this kind of situation. Table of Contents (this is a much longer review than I expected) 1. First impressions 2. Clamp force and fit 3. Comfort 4. Materials, durability 5. Sound Quality 6. Microphone 7. The Et Cetera First Impressions - These headphones are literal plug and play. Before opening the manual (I didnt even pull it out of the plastic wrapping), I plugged in the transmitter, and the drivers were downloaded and implemented right away. I simply clicked the power button on the headphones at first, but having no reaction, I simply held the button and right away, the headphones were connected. And in under 3 minutes, I was using these headphones. Thats really impressive. Clamp force and fit - I have glasses, and headphones hurt me in the long run. And the super nice thing about these headphones right away, is the clamp force. Not too much, not too little. They come off if I violently shake my head (but who does that, anyways), but I can look down, look up, or whatever else without these coming off. They do shift a little, but I didnt adjust these to fit me perfectly, and I probably wont. They sit really nice. Back to the clamp force. Its really loose, in a good way. They have enough force to stay in place, but not enough to put pressure on my head with my glasses. Comfort - Right away, these are super comfortable. Theyre not light, but theyre not heavy. I find myself already forgetting these are on my head, despite my excitement about these. The ear cups are really soft and porous, they literally feel like marshmallows or clouds. I dont feel much on or around my ears, but when I do, theyre very very soft. If I could describe a physical contact interaction with an abstract adjective, quiet would be perfect. Materials, durability - I just got these, so I cant say much here. They feel solid, despite the plastic construct. The ear cups, as aforementioned earlier, are soft, and they feel like premium cloth(?). They feel great on my head and in my hands. A little concerned about the hinge connecting the cans to the headband, but we will see. Again, all speculation as of now, but I will be updating this review. Sound quality - Really good, but not great out of the box. They sound balanced, with highs, mids, and lows all in play. A little more bass could be nice, but Im sure I can adjust that, I do read about EQs a lot. Sometimes the highs feel a little harsh, which, again, probably adjustable. At 100% on both PC and these headphones, these are loud. Not extremely so, but loud enough for me to want to turn the headphones down before I lose more of my hearing. At max volume, everything sounds just as they do at 50%. At low, you start losing a lot of the sounds, and they start blending (but who cranks headphones super low). All in all, pretty grandeur. (Note in update with adjusted sound) The ETC. -The volume dials feel super sensitive, but theyre surprisingly not. Deliberate touch will move the dials and nothing else -Theres also a chat mix dial. Super awesome. To think theres a dial that can replace me tinkering with the volume mixer on pc, or adjusting everyones volumes in discord, is mindblowing, and very much a convenience I wholeheartedly accept.

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 have owned this headset for two years. During this period, Ive used this headset for Chime calls, Discord calls, and PC gaming (primarily FPS games, such as Overwatch). Ive used this headset on Windows, macOS, and Xubuntu. I am far from an audiophile, but I will say that music / videos generally sound really good from these headphones. That being said, the noise cancellation doesnt hold a candle to my Bose QC35s; however, it does the job of cutting down on nearby distractions. The microphone does its job. Its not a studio microphone, so dont expect much out of it for recording high quality audio. I have had issues with it being overly sensitive in some applications by default, but I believe this can largely be addressed in the Steelseries software. I ended up using the headphones without the Steelseries Engine for a bit over a year out of the last two. The surround sound on these headphones works pretty well. Ive been picky about surround sound in gaming since the Halo 3 days, and these have been satisfactory since day 1 in that regard. I play in GM / T500 on Overwatch, and the headset has never been the cause of someone engaging me from an angle that I didnt expect. Based on my written review, you may be surprised that Ive rated the headset with three stars. Ultimately, this rating comes down to unreliable wireless connectivity. Since day 1, Ive had difficulties getting the transmitter to work on most of my PCs USB ports (USB 3.1 & USB 2.0 w/ up-to-date drivers). Eventually, I found one USB 2.0 port that it worked on while plugged directly into my ROG Maximus X Hero motherboard. The headset transmitter lived there for most of the last two years. For a long while, I had to unplug the USB cable and plug it back in in order to reset the transmitter on system reboot due to a bad firmware patch that was pushed by Steelseries (I uninstalled Steelseries Engine once they fixed the issue, hoping that it wouldnt happen again). Recently, though, Ive had a new set of issues with the wireless connectivity. The headset audio occasionally cuts out and back in (for ~2 seconds) every 20-30 minutes despite my transmitter being less than 3 feet away from the headset. Worst of all, after updating my BIOS and reinstalling my OSes from scratch, the transmitter refuses to power on anymore. The light just stays dark, meaning that I cant update any firmware or connect the headset to the computer at all. I have, of course, brought all of the drivers up-to-date and reinstalled Steelseries Engine. Unfortunately this was all in vain. Windows identifies the device as an Avnera AV6031. In summary, this headset lasted me two years. I was (generally) happy with its performance for those two years, but the transmitter has always been fairly unreliable. At this point, its not worth it. Im going to look for a device with a more reliable wireless connection.

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.

I’ve been using this headset exclusively for gaming on both my PC and PS4 for a month and a half now. Overall, I’d say it’s a very good headset and a nice upgrade from my Logitech G930 headset. Sound - (5/5) quality sound on both the PC and PS4. Take note that you don’t get true 7.1 surround sound on the console - that’s only capable on the PC. Mic - (4/5) my friends say that I cut out sometimes when I talk. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s too far from my mouth but I haven’t had any other complaints. The mic is also retractable, which is pretty convenient. Aesthetics - (4/5) pretty solid looking headset. They didn’t cheap out on the materials used. However, I’m not a big fan of the strap to adjust the fit on your head. It’ll be a hit or miss for some people. Comfort - (2.5/5) The biggest letdown with this headset. After gaming for at least 3 hours the top of my ears start to hurt. I have a rather average sized head and ears so I was so disappointed to find out that they bothered my ears after prolonged gaming. This could be a make or break for many but I’d advise seeing if other reviewers are having the same issue. Button placement - (3/5) for some reason they placed all the buttons right where your hands would grab when you’re pulling them off your head, so it’s easy to accidentally change up some settings. The mute button is also on the back left side of the headset, so it isn’t easily accessible and will have you clumsily feeling around before you press it. Tip: if you’re using this headset for the first time and cannot hear your fellow gamers in voice chat, you need to roll the wheel on the bottom right side of the headset. There’s a setting that allows you to drown out voice chat and turn up the game’s audio instead. Hope this helped!