SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless Gaming Headset (PC & PlayStation) Expired

I really like these. The first day I was using them, I had my year old baby in the room and she was crying in her bouncer like 5 feet away and the mic would only pick up me talking. The mic was somehow ignoring the crying baby. I've never had a headset do that. The swappable battery is great to.

The sonar app is kind of neat but not best for me. I like to manually swap between headset or my speakers but sonar takes a single input in windows and allows it to output to the headphones or speakers I have. Cool feature but not for me.

Also when I set windows sound to the "arctis headset" it seems louder than the sonar option output. I'm sure there's something I'm doing wrong in the software or something.

But overall, I've been loving this headset.

I have these (but the xbox version). Both the PS5/PS4 version and the xbox version have 2 USB-C ports:

The PS5/PS4 version (the one in this deal) have 2 universal USB-C ports (redundant I know, but bear with me), which you can connect either one to a PS5/PS4, PC, or any other device.
The xbox version of these headphones have 1 universal USB-C port, which makes them compatible with a PS5/PS4 or a PC on that port. The 2nd USB-C port is a specific port compatible with xbox and whatever proprietary connection is required. You can use this xbox port on a PC, but it shows up as an "xbox controller" and you will get limited functionality.
Basically if you ever think about getting an xbox at any point, get the xbox version of these headphones. They will still be compatible with PS5/PS4 on the universal USB-C port.


With that out of the way, a couple of more things:

The headphones can use Bluetooth + USB-C connected devices simultaneously. The way I use this is that I have the base station connected to my PC via USB-C, and I have Bluetooth connected to my work laptop. I'm able to listen to music on my PC and still take Teams calls and get Outlook notifications from my Work PC. I've also done my PC + phone to take calls while listening to music on my PC. Really nice feature. It lowers the volume of my PC significantly when a call comes in.

The ANC (active noise cancellation) speaker protrudes out from under the earpads. It won't affect some people, but it puts a lot of pressure on my ears, making the headphones uncomfortable after a short amount of time (30 minutes or less). I ended up going with 3rd party earpads that work well: WC Freeze Nova Pro Wireless. They are longer, so the ANC speaker no longer touches my ears. I can wear the headphones comfortably for 12+ hours a day now no problem.

I like the subtle logo on the ear plates. I can use these in public and they still look professional (looking at you Razer with your obvious green logo on your headphones). Coffee shops, airports, work, etc are just fine. the ANC is not as good as something from Bose or Sony, but it gets the job done.

For basic audio on a PC, you don't need the Steelseries software. It will just show up in devices as the Nova Pro Wireless headphones. For advanced audio settings, get the Steelseries app + Sonar. You can customize different audio sources with different EQ and volumes. For example, I can have my game audio and chat audio set at different volumes (Discord chat audio louder), and I can have a different EQ for chat that makes speech more clear. When you use Sonar, you have virtual devices that come up in devices in Windows (System, Chat, Music, etc). You can assign each of these to different applications, which lets you have different EQ and volumes set for each.

The microphone works well. Not as good as my XLR mic, but people on phone calls and Teams meetings can clearly understand me. I like how it is retractable so I can use these headphones in public and they look like regular headphones. I didn't want a mic that is removable because I would inevitably lose it. Also great to have it attached if I need to take a call on the go. The mic doesn't work well recessed, so I would advise extending it when doing calls.

I don't know if it's just me and my PC setup, but the Steelseries app is not very stable for me. I get a lot of crashes. I also have a Steelseries Aerox 3 mouse and Apex 7 TKL keyboard managed in the app. I also have a GoXLR Mini connected with their software installed. To their credit, Steelseries releases regular updates to the software, and my audio setup is pretty complex compared to the average user.

Sorry for the wall of text. Overall I'm very happy with these and would recommend them. I'm now able to consolidate headphones and have 1 pair for home, work, and out in public usage.