SteelSeriesArctis Nova Pro Multi-System Gaming Headset - Premium Hi-Fi Drivers, Hi-Res Audio - 360° Spatial Audio - GameDAC Gen 2 - ESS Sabre Quad-DAC - Stealth Retractable Mic - PC, PS5, PS4, SwitchTCO CertifiedTCO CertifiedTCO CertifiedTCO Certified

I am writing this review after an initial 2 weeks. I will come back and update if I have insightful longer term updates to provide.Before jumping into my $.02 I think it's useful to prefix review input with past experiences and what I'm comparing my product against.When thinking about music and overall sound quality, I have Apple AirPod Max's that blow these things out of the water. These can't touch the Max's bass, nor do they sound as smooth and natural out of the box (as everyone has said, these are quite flat out of the box). I also have SennHeiser MB660s that have been my work conference/music-at-the-desk and occasionally my gaming headphones w/o a mic and even they sound far, far better for music and even in some games (assuming OOB setup, not fully configured with Sonar).I am also going to address the lack of ANC outside of the pros/cons list, because I think the use cases of this headset are unique compared to general over the hear headphones. Despite my opinion, I do think it's odd the wireless version of these have ANC and these don't. However, I think if you want pure, fairly competitive or natural and detailed game sound quality above all else, you do not want ANC hissing and adding pressure to your ear. If you haven't owned in or over ear headphones with ANC you might not realize that the constant pressure they create on your ears cancelling out noise will fatigue your ears for long gaming sessions. I also don't think when I need to hear footsteps exactly where they are around me and where they're going in Warzone that I want to try to separate ANC hiss from game noise. I guess this could be easily addressed by putting the feature in the headphones and letting the game profile turn it on off.PROS:- the sound profile is very flat out of the box. I think that opens the most options wit the Sonar EQ software to adjust them to more peoples preferences.- if you read this and are a gamer who plays games that has voice chat, I totally under-estimated and under-valued what the GameDac can do. The GG software splits up game sound, your game mic, and your game chat mix into 3 individual audio streams. The best part of this, is games like Warzone let you split which audio device the game uses for those audio outputs. You can then press the dial on the dac once and adjust the output between chat and game sound. This means I can dynamically adjust hearing my team or the game - if people have low mics, are mumbling, or are obnoxious children blaring music into their mic during the game I can curtail that instantaneously.- despite no ANC the ear cushions do a really good job of blocking out most sound- I think the ear muffs and head band could be more comfortable than my Sennheisers and AirPod Maxes. These things just disappear on my head. I have never gamed more than an hour and a half straight without taking them off, but I thought nothing of them being on my head for that long.- the mic is excellent, especially with the ClearVoice "AI" filter- the game presets are pretty good out of the box. the sound quality and clarity are excellent. despite lacking in music impact, I have to admit these are probably are setup as they should to give the most accurate, clear in game sound. the sound imaging to pinpoint players is spot on, the volume levels are good. I cannot take these more than 75% in war zone without hurting my ears.CONS:- the Sonar software component of the GG suite requires a SteelSeries account to enable. This is totally unacceptable and just shows where SteelSeries is trying to monetize by getting your e-mail address. I have never found an aspect of Sonar that requires SteelSeries knowing who I am or utilizing an account to manage or enable my product.- I don't think if you're an audio snob you'll have a jack of all trades headset. as I mentioned above I have at least 2 over ear headphones that aren't even in the same solar system for music- stop buying the hype about the marginal better sound quality from the DAC. 99/100 normal people with untrained ears with average hearing can't tell the difference between compressed bluetooth audio and lossless wired headphones, all else equal. I bought the wired because I have so many bluetooth or wireless devices in my headset that when I want to game, I do not want interruptions, drop outs, hitches or blips.

These headphones sound so incredible and has way more options than I thought I needed. Firstly these fit very comfortable and it is a snug fit to the sides of the head but the strap feels like it is floating above your head. I thought the strap would be weird or uncomfortable but it is not and I am happy with it. I just came from the Corsair Virtuoso Wireless and these are much more comfortable. The head strap on the Corasir was painful after extended use of a few hours so I had to buy a cushion that clips on the band. Back to the Arctis Nova Pro I love the dac and steelseries.gg app. The dac is very high quality and pushes these drivers way farther than I have heard a headset go. If your motherboard is not powerful enough to push high end headphones then this will fix that and push plenty of power to these. The sound quality is crazy and I have been listening to music that I listened to for decades and hear new sounds that I had no idea were there. It separates the l very well even for a closed back headset. I play plenty of Pubg so the footsteps are a must and every other headphones I used were never enough so I had to turn it way too high and add a separate app to push it even further. The clarity of foot steps even in smoke grenades is awesome. You need all sound awareness and direction and I can pin point directional audio with more clarity with these. I have only had them for a few days so I will update after a year or so with further details.

Short version: It’s a really good headset on its own but once you combine it with the GameDAC the customization it allows is something everyone should spend a little time to learn to personalize it best.Long version: Everything about this headset goes above and beyond. As long as you know the basics in your audio settings it’s as simple as plug and play. Though combine that with their steel series software (which btw compared to the software of other brands like razor for example, steel series software barely touches any resources and will not be a hindrance to have running in the background.) The pads around the ears are soft and very comfortable allowing for wearing as long as you’d like. At no point is there ever really discomfort. The GameDAC with the software makes it easy to control your volume using the smooth to the touch dial and a very simple interface that is easy to understand with a useful little tutorial on how to use it. This overall should be good enough for the general consumer to get their hands on this thing but for audiophiles, they get to have their cake and eat it too! The software allows you to play with an equalizer in the software that also has the audio split between several categories (Game, Chat, Media, Aux, and Mic). So you can set your Game channel to allow you to gain the advantage in your game or allow you to have a more immersive experience. Along side that you can have the Media channel to make whatever you watch or listen to sound as crisp as possible allowing you to enjoy every little detail to your favorite songs and movies.Overall phenomenal product and I recommended it for anyone looking for a quality headset without shelling out $500+ one some “super duper high quality headset” when for this price gets ya right up there for a fraction of the cost.

Reason why it's 4 star and not 5 is just because of my own circumstance of wanting to use headphones for a DJ controller and a loopstation. This headset plays music through those yeah, but its like a mic without an amp, its suuuper quiet and doesnt sound as good as it does through the computer.For gaming on PC, it's fantastic. The mic is obviously a headset mic but it's a great sounding one. The custom EQ you're able to do on the deck is great. If I was just only doing gaming and watching/listening to videos I'd have easily rated it 5 stars.