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

I’ll start with the pros: The headset looks great, fits well, and has a long charge on the battery. The cons, however, are what turned me off to this headset. Trying to connect the headset to my PS4 and Xbox One X consoles gave me lower results than what I had hoped for. On the PlayStation the sounds wasn’t terrible. It was, however, a pretty major downgrade from my Turtle Beach PX5 as far as sound quality. My PX5 headset is 8+ years old by the way and gives better quality sound than this headset. I play games like PUBG and Fortnite where audio cues like footsteps, grenades, and enemy fire are important to coming out on top. With this headset, those audio cues were so low I couldn’t hear them, but sounds like close quarters fire fights were too loud. This is even after adjusting the settings through the program they tell you to download after you purchase the headset. Voice chat was okay when I used it. It was difficult to balance game sound and voice chat. I could never find the perfect balance. Either the game was too loud and voice chat was low, or game sound was too low and voice chat was okay. For the Xbox, this headset is just a glorified and very expensive headset. You couldn’t connect it to the Xbox any other way than through the controller or the adapter for the controller that Microsoft sells separately. Without the adapter, all sound to the headset was too low. Game sound and voice chat. With the adapter, it was much better, but again, it is just a glorified and expensive pair of headphones. To improve the sound quality, i purchased the SteelSeries GameDAC. The GameDAC did indeed improve the sound quality, but it wasn’t easy to figure out as far as the setup. On top of that, the GameDAC turned my wireless headset into a wired headset. That meant that I had to purchase extra audio cords just so my headset would reach from the TV stand all the way to my couch. Finally, using the GameDAC to improve the sound quality meant that voice chat quality plummeted. For the PlayStation, my voice through the microphone was much lower. I felt like I had to shout to be heard. For the Xbox, I had to have the headset actually turned on for me to hear voice chat. With the headset turned off, I got game sound and other players could hear me, but I couldn’t hear them. All in all, their were WAY too many hoops to jump through to get the headset to work the way I wanted them to with the PS4 and the Xbox. Setup was easy with just the headset, but EXTREMELY complicated when connected to the SteelSeries GameDAC. If you want a good headset for your PS4 or Xbox, I’d look somewhere else.

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.

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.

These worked great for a little over 2 years before they started getting a lot of static when adjusting volume and having overall sound issues. Id expect something with this price to last longer. But while they worked they were fantastic headphones.

Storytime: I was over at a buddys house for the weekend as he lives up north a ways from us. Were both big gamers so I brought along my pc and headset. We left to go disc golfing and came back to find my turtle beach stealth 450 in disrepair. What happened to them... we may never know. At the time I was upset because they were expensive when I bought them. So now I was in a mad scramble to find a pair of headphones. After looking at headphones for what seemed like 12 hours I finally settled on these. It had good reviews and the price was way more affordable than most wireless surround sound headphones. So I thought I would take the risk. Boy am I glad I did. Review Time: So this horrible tragic death of my turtle beaches turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I am so fanboying over this headset. It blows my old 450s away in every way. First take away, The freaking comfort!!! The headset is somehow light but not cheap. The headband is sturdy and the earmuff part (dont know the technical work) is sturdy. The ski-mask headband adjust is amazing. No pressure on top of the head. I seriously forget that I am wearing the headset. The second take away, The sound quality is amazing. The bass is incredible. I listen to a lot of music so its nice to have that as I listen to a lot of blues. The last thing I want to rave about is the battery life. As I unboxed my headset with great anticipation, my glee was drastically disrupted as i hit the power but and the power button flashed red. The headset was low battery. Well, i was too excited so i hooked it up to my computer anyways. I sat down and worked a full 8 hours and the headset still hadnt died. Thats impressive that it was low battery and still provided me with 8 hours of uninterupted melancholic blues. Thank you SteelSeries for this amazing headset. I am so impressed with this headset. I will make sure to leave a review on my twitch channel and youtube. Job well done! Truly, KingOfTheSticks93

I did a bunch of research on a new headset(with or without a mic). I asked around to a discord I am in (1k+ members) and they suggested a bunch this one was with in my budget and was mentioned a lot. I love it. When I was away at school, I would walk around(playing VR), go make food(Listening to music or chatting), and yes actually play games with it. I never had connection issues when I was in the one story house. NOW that may have you think oh one story house so he has issues now. Actually the only time I have connection issues is now when I leave the two story house I am in and go down the drive way. Ill lose connection. (receiver is on the second floor in my room). It does how ever reconnect as soon as it can. I have lost some connections when I was all the way across the house down a floor. But thats because I am wayyyy outside the normal range these are meant to run at. Plus it reconnects pretty easily! The mic is great, Ive had no issues nor complaint from anyone(I stream and Voice Chat a lot). I have an sound/audio setup that has an AT2020 mic. Personally Ive been using this headset more now. The mic on it s good quality plus the ability to mute it by just reaching up and hitting a button is awesome. (leave the mic boom push all the way in). I can change the volume of game AND chat on the fly plus the actual volume of everything combined really easy. Really helps with someone wont shut up in discord and Im trying to listen to something in game. I can also set it to where I can hear my music but the game more. Which is awesome. It has a little notch/grove setting for game/chat volume control which is normally perfect! Over all 10/10, 5/7 product!

Wireless headsets are hard to find satisfying for me, but Ive heard lots of great things about the Arctis series. I decided to give it a shot September 2020. The sound quality isnt all that praiseworthy. Handles treble great at lower volumes, bass is pretty lackluster all around. Im used to Sennheiser headsets because I dont like to compromise sound quality all that often, but I wanted something a little friendlier for streaming and gaming in general so I was okay with the drop in quality. The mixer feature is really convenient and probably my favorite feature of the whole headset. It allows you to balance two different audio feeds straight from your headset which, if managed properly, is incredible for low budget streaming purposes. It is, however, very unconventional if you want to lay down and chat as the dials often get caught so youll often find your headset muted if youre not careful enough. Retractable mic is mighty convenient as the quality of it is poor. Definitely gives your voice that VoIP effect. Again, not bad if youre streaming/need a multi mic set up for whatever reason. Comes with a mute button for convenience. Comfort is by far the best experience Ive had for a wireless headset, compared to Astros or Turtle Beaches, but is still rather uncomfortable. I upgraded to (~$15, 3rd party) pleather ear covers which felt essential because filth easily clings to the default cloth kind. It has an adjustable strap on top for tightness, but I found that after prolonged use, no adjusting could save me from the ear fatigue. If I didnt rest my ears by using my speakers, it would lead to headaches. The most frustrating part of this mediocre experience has been that after only 9 months, the headset has decided to stop functioning wirelessly, defeating the entire purpose of the purchase for me. The headset never leaves my desk except for the occasional tv binging session. It showed signs of stopping, such as turning off randomly by itself despite having active audio feeds. Then it stopped holding charge altogether. The take away from this lengthy review is DO NOT ORDER FROM THIS SELLER. Steelseries products have a warranty for 1 year IF YOU PURCHASE FROM AN AUTHORIZED VENDOR. I tried contacting them thinking I would be covered because I had the invoice for my Steelseries product and followed their steps to the tee. Unfortunately, since I purchased from this vendor, who is impossible to get in contact with, Im stuck with a faulty product that could have otherwise been fixed. Apparently, this is a fairly common issue for these headsets to have (thus the year warranty). Its not the worst product, but its not worth purchasing from unauthorized vendors such as this one.

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.

This is the first time I bought such an expensive headset, I am always used to whatever my phone comes with but this headset is just fantastic. Here are just some highlights I would like to mention for others considering on buying this: - Build quality is just awesome, it feels very solid and premium. - I love the headband adjustment and the ear cushions they are very confortable. - The sound out of the box is great by its own. - The software allows you to customize a lot of stuff, I am currently using the default. - If you decide to use the SteelSeries software for the surround sound, you will be disappointed, it is terrible. As a work around I installed Dolby Atmos for Headphones and removed the surround option from SteelSeries. This makes the surround sound about perfect. - This headset may not fit all heads, for me it is just perfect, but I bet that slightly bigger heads will have a hard time since the headband adjustments are very limited. - The noise isolation with the default ear cushions are not the best, but they are good enought to listen all the details while gaming. According to others, you can partially overcome this by buying the leather ear cushions which are another $14.99. - The battery duration is also pretty good and you can setup the headset to turn off after a couple of minutes if it is not being used to save some battery. - It comes with three cables, charging (USB to Micro USB), wired sound (4pole 3.5mm to proprietary) and the transmitter (USB to non-detachable). I think it only lacks an addapter to have microphone and audio in separated 3.5mm jacks. - The transmitter comes with Audio In and Audio Out jacks but it will only work for audio and not for the microphone. - The microphone sound quality is actually amazing, it does cancel any noise in the surroundings and will capture your voice very clearly. - The microphone boom is adjustable and retractable which is pretty cool. I didnt have any issues keeping it in place unless I extend and collapse it, which kind of resets the configuration. -The microphone mute light will only work while using the wireless transmitter. When using it wired, the lights never turn on. Overall I think this is an awesome headset even with such a high price. I have been using it for a couple of days only but I am just loving it. I will keep you updated if I encounter any issues.

Review for the 2019 Arctis 7. Love the design and build quality. Materials and sound quality are completely solid, but I had to take off one star because of some strange behaviors out of the box. I charged them fully (or so I thought) before using them. I thought it was weird that the mic LED was flashing red for a few hours then turned off. The next day I tried them out while working and noticed below average sound quality (static and terrible bass range). I was actually quite disappointed and thought there was no way these would get such good reviews with this sound quality. This was also during/after tweaking the SteelSeries Engine Software. I looked into the issue and found some users required a firmware update to get things going. I hadnt been prompted to update my headset and noted that my Headset and Transmitter were at 1.19.0.0 and firmware at 2.3.0.0. Not finding any success in updating I initiated a hard reset by pinning the button under the left ear cup for ~20 seconds and repairing with the transmitter (hold ~5sec and headset for ~6sec). I immediately saw a change when the charge LED flashed green. I hopped back into the software, and although my software/firmware versions didnt change, my headset now indicated I had a full battery and sound quality dramatically improved. I hope this helps if some of you are experiencing the same thing! Sound quality and Comfort: I still have my wired Bose QCs for noise cancelling head down work, these are a great substitute when mobility is a plus. Sound quality is comparable with a little tweaking in the SS Engine Software. Although Im not too convinced of the 7.1 surround quality, it is enjoyable. The headset is also very comfortable, both on the ears and on the head. They are pretty light compared to some other headsets. This helps if youre going to use them for extended periods of time.