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

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.

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

Update: I barely use these things, and they broke. The headphones hung in a desk cabinet and were forgotten about for a good 4-5 months because I hate dealing with the new app. I just picked them up and the left ear has no sound. If I turn the left earpiece I get crackle and low sound. Mic doesnt work either. The Volume slider works, but theres a crackle/hiss when the wheel is turned. While not in use, these managed to get a wire loose or something. lol. The new App is also junk..with the old app, the sound would improve a good deal once I opened the app. I didnt mind the trouble of opening each time I used the headphones. Now with the new GG app, I have to fight with it just to recognize my headset every time. Sometimes I have to restart, other times Ive had to uninstall and then reinstall to get my headphones detected. GG? Talk about an ambitious name fail... Used to love their mice and controllers, so I got their headphones. Now, you couldnt pay me to get anything Steel Series again. Just another company that got successful and then switched to cheap goods for profit. Im just tossing these...dont even care if theres a warranty or not. That GG app really sucks. Ive been using the earbuds I use with my phone on my PC instead. The mic isnt nearly as good, but they work and I dont need to spin in a chair 27 times on a full moon in order to get them to connect and work like I do with these headphones. Avoid, Avoid, Avoid. ***************************************** I’ve been using these for about a month. Prior to this I’ve only had in-ear buds for as long as memory serves. Pros + Battery Life +Above average sound. Good for games and movies, slightly above average for music. The surround works for me without a problem. +Great Range, minor blips but only in areas where disruption was expected. +Long battery life, charge indicators, recharges pretty quickly Meh +Mic may require sampling rate adjustment to DVD quality, then works great. - Comfort is tolerable…barely at times. If I was using these for marathon sessions I would have kept looking. Cons - Needs software to really shine. Not just surround, the quality jumps when I open the program. - I would rate volume as being 7/10. Maxed out, volume is totally tolerable unlike just about all of my other headphones. - Minimal instructions don’t cover much. - Volume rockers aren’t super loose to me, but I promise you’re going to touch them each and every time you touch the headphones, so they could benefit from being significantly stiffer. - Mic could be a little longer, an extra inch at max though. For the most part I’m happy and the only thing that will have me considering a replacement is a comparatively priced pair that also has Bluetooth capabilities. Having to use the wire when on my phone is probably my biggest complaint. I knew that going in so I won’t deduct for it. I was completely underwhelmed by the instructions. Basic features and that’s it. Being that these were my first “gaming headset” I was hoping a little bit more would be covered. I can do research, but I shouldn’t have to. The audio is better than 90% of what I have used…mostly mid-end Bluetooth stereo headphones or wired headphones, so I can’t compare it against other gaming headsets…but I’m happy with them. Nothing gets tinny or washes out. Bass is deep without rattling my fillings. The volume could definitely be louder. They work great in a quiet house/office, but quiet movies in a loud environment would be very frustrating. If you’ve got issues with hearing, I wouldn’t recommend these…there has to be louder sets out there. There is no possible way I would rely on these for a plane ride. At low volume, I can hear the dog barking next door. He isnt that loud, so Id give isolation a 4/10. The mic works great, but the default quality is CD and sounds terrible. Going to sounds>heaphones properties>advanced and changing the sampling rate to 48000 hz / DVD quality in Win10 fixed that. Quality after that adjustment is crystal clear and at a regular volume. Still, the little mic wand could be longer so that it could be better adjusted…it hangs near the corner of my mouth which could affect quality depending on how you speak. The range is great. These headphones have a slightly larger range than my default Bluetooth headsets…sometimes I get a little sound blip or brief static when going between rooms, but its gone before I can react. The battery life is as advertised. Lasts me a few days no problem, recharges quickly and there is a charging indicator on the mic. Timeout can be customized which is great for battery life. Comfort is tolerable. This might be just my preference for in-ear headphones…but other over the ear headphones are generally uncomfortable to me. These are…slightly better than others I’ve tried. The top band leaves a dent in my hair, but it is otherwise comfortable. The ear cups get hot in a hurry…the ear cups also cause the tops of my ears to start to ache after a couple hours. Breaks are needed with these….I would not recommend for marathon users…but comfort is subjective, so you never know until you try. The volume wheels aren’t super loose on mine, but I still touch and change the volume levels every-freaking-time I take these headphones on and off…pretty annoying, especially when you turn the volume all the way to chat and think there’s something wrong with them. readjusting volume becomes second nature quickly, but Id rather not have to. These volume controls should have been stiffer, or a tick style wheel instead of a smooth roll. There is a tick at the midway point between chat and sound levels. To sum up the software…I open the profile every time I connect these. More often than not, I notice a jump in quality. I just open the program every time now just in case it needs to be activated. I don’t mind because the jump in quality is worth it and takes a whole 2 seconds to do. Overall, I’m happy. I did a little research beyond all the paid Youtuber reviews beforehand, so I knew to get better I’d have to pay double at the least. I got these during the Primeday sale. Honestly, wait for a price drop or a sale, because I don’t think these are worth the regular retail…maybe if they had Bluetooth also…

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 spend multiple hours researching wireless over-the-ear headsets and finally came down to the Arctis 5 and the 7. I however did not put the 9 or Pro series in the mix due to my use-case and cost. From a gaming perspective, the audio switching from game to discord voice chat is amazing, given that I select the correct audio option (there is a Game and Chat option for audio to make this work correctly). Its so convenient to fade out the game audio to hear voice chat a little better rather than digging through game options mid game and wasting time, especially when seconds matter. Same with when my friends are talking too loud and I need to focus on the game. From a music/audio perspective, this headset offers a very good audio mixer to adjust playback to the exact way I like to listen to music. The 7.1 surround makes movies sound exactly as they were intended to be watched. Battery life is amazing, Im able to use the headset all day and then some on just a single charge, which was a huge deal for me. I had a pair of wired Razer Megalodons before this and was worried that battery life was going to be an issue, but so far Ive been blown away by the 7s performance. Ive used the mic one time during a voice chat session and was immediately told it sounded terrible when compared to my Blue Snowball. So if you do not have an external mic, do not expect perfection from this headset. But, this is common among headset mics.

I really wanted to like this headset and have it be the one I relied on for many years. Unfortunately, that is not going to happen. Ive recently switched to a Logi PRO X set and like it much better. Out of the box, they worked great. I am on a Win 10 machine, updated, nothing goofy about the setup or anything. Then, they started disconnecting randomly mid-game. This became predictable and happened 1-3 times per session, and I only game for a few hours at a time tops. I dealt for a while, relocated the adapter, checked for interference in my home to the best of my ability. It ended up just stopping one day randomly, kind of like how it started. Fast forward a couple of months of it working without issue. Suddenly disconnects again AND with the update to SSGG 22.0, the EQ broke. I tried every fix I could find online. Reinstalled, reset button on the unit, etc... I can only get the EQ and Sidetone (which I rely on) working if I do this goofy dance of powering it off/on/off/saving an EQ change/reverting the change. But, when they inevitably disconnect shortly after that - it undoes all that and EQ/Sidetone is broken again. Sigh.... Dont bother. I lament not having gone Logi initially, since thats my usual go-to brand for stuff like this.

I work from home (remotely for a team based elsewhere), so Im constantly on conference calls. We use a VOIP app at work (sort of like Skype for Business), so all of our calls are through the computer. Ive been using a bluetooth headset (Plantronics Voyager 5200) which is great for phone calls, but for conference calls with a bunch of people sitting around a table, its not great. Some people are close to the phone and are super loud, others are further away and are unintelligibly quiet, and adjusting the volume all the time isnt great. After work, I game a lot. Usually while on TeamSpeak. Ive been using a set of desktop speakers and a mic mounted under one of my monitors. With volume detection, Im able to get TS to pick up my voice when Im talking, and ignore mouse and keyboard sounds when Im not, but the speaker audio isnt great (and is only stereo), and the mic is pitiful. So, it was time for a new purchase. I wanted something that would give me great audio quality, preferably with some measure of surround sound, and some good equalizer settings to tune game sounds (accentuate footsteps and weapon clicks, downplay deep explosive bass and such). But it also needed to have clear stereo sound and a good mic, for work. And if possible, be wireless (because I already have too many cables running around on my desk to begin with). After a lot of research, I decided on the Arctis 7, and when it came yesterday, I was completely blown away. My first conference call with them was like I was sitting in the room! Everything was so clear. I turned up the dynamic range compression (which says it compensates for fluctuations in volume), and it was remarkable. The mic worked very well, too, and my coworkers said that the keyboard sounds (which used to be nearly deafening from my mechanical keyboard) were much quieter. They could hear me better, and the keyboard was quiet (though still audible). In the evening, I had an evening of gaming with a friend of mine, and tuning the gaming audio with surround sound settings and such was awesome. The level of detail Ive been missing in my games is ridiculous! It sounds great now. The chat mix dial was awesome for adjusting chat levels when needed, but really, all the audio was so clear, I really didnt need to mess with it much. Regarding build quality, packaging, etc., these headphones feel very high end. Great build quality, solid materials, and so comfortable! I wore them for a couple hours during the day, and again for several hours in the evening, and though I cant say I was ever at risk of forgetting they were on and walking away, I definitely can say that they were completely comfortable. The only complaints I have are minor, but in the interest of completeness, here they are: * The cables that come with the headphones dont feel particularly durable. They arent braided or anything, so I could see them wearing out well before the headphones do. But, theyre all standard type cables, so theyd be easy to replace. The mobile audio cable does use a somewhat uncommon 8 pin mini USB, more commonly seen on cameras, but as long as you know what to look for, you can find them for cheap. * The battery indication is pretty disappointing. You have a green light for 50-100%, yellow for 20-50%, and red for under 20% (slow flash for 10-20%, fast flash for 0-10%). Nowhere in the software or on the headphones does it show you a percentage. And, when youre charging them, I really dont know how to tell when theyre done charging. All I know is that theyre somewhere between 50-100% charged. Thats a pretty big range! In summary, Im blown away by these headphones. I was hesitant to shell out $120 for them, but now that I have them, I can definitely say they were worth it.

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.

Spent a lot of time reading negative comments on different wireless headsets so wasnt sure if I should get them. Ill address some of the negatives other reviewers gave to clear some things up. The first being about the mic picking up everything but your voice. I experienced this for about a minute, then looked at the instructions that tell you to position the mic away from your mouth and suddenly it worked great. No one has complained about how I sound in game or in discord. Mic is also retractable which is great so my cats dont chew on it. These are not 100% noise cancelling headphones, which I prefer because I still like to be aware of things going on outside of the game but some people dont like that. So take that into consideration if that is a big concern for you. I am not an audiophile so they sound great to me. I havent even felt the need to really adjust sound settings. I can wear them for hours with no issue but it is worth mentioning your ears will go inside the earcups or whatever which is better for me since ones that put pressure directly on my ears usually cause my ears to hurt after a bit. The biggest con (not really even an issue) for me is I wanted wireless headset so I can move around more freely on my laptop but the adapter has a lengthy cable which I just leave bundled up so it doesnt get in the way.

You know, I want so much to love this headset. In fact, I do, BUT.... This is my second round with this thing. I can say off the top that while the sound quality is great and the dual volume controls are great. Noon e complains that I cut in and out or they cant really hear me- NONE of that technical piece is missing. I have a friend that I game with who has the same headset and he sounds great and there is never any issue. I can even walk almost to the end of my driveway before really starting to cut out. I hate the charging port. I dont think it is sturdy on the inside. I try to be very cautious and deliberate about plugging in the cable, because with my first one, the port completely went into the head-set and I couldnt charge it. Thus the need for round two. I think there needs to be guidance about the multiple settings though that appear in the sound... Arctis chat v. Arctis game...because it is not as intuitive as it seems. This had never happened before, but this last week I got a loud mechanical buzz sound that was fixed when I switched to the other of the two. Whenever it happens, I figure I just picked the wrong one...then I switch to the other and its fine. So not sure what thats about. My friend and I both are starting to notice that and cant seem to figure out why. I like this headset primarily because it is light on my head. I like the dual volume controls, I like the sound quality especially, but not the charging port and this new recent-fixable- buzz noise.