Review: SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless

The $350 price tag on SteelSeries’ new Arctis Nova Pro Wireless provides the kind of sticker shock that demands an explanation. Fortunately, these headphones have an answer. 

With a wide array of device compatibility—and a version you can use with both your Xbox and PlayStation—impeccable audio quality, and multiple swappable batteries, they’re a luxury powerhouse for those who spend hours in the chair.

Photograph: SteelSeries

The Arctis Nova Pro Wireless are understated black over-ears with a headband that keeps your head comfortably suspended between the earcups. Magnetic plates on the outside of each headphone look just enough like brushed metal (despite being plastic) to catch the light, while most of the body is covered in unobtrusive matte black plastic.

One of the features SteelSeries seems most proud of on these headphones is the retractable mic. When withheld, the mic is almost perfectly flush with the rest of the earcup. It’s a minor thing, but it’s indicative of the attention to detail found throughout the rest of the design.

The earcups have a plush, faux leather covering that’s soft and doesn’t get too sweaty, even after wearing it for a while. The adjustable headband and cushion help it sit very comfortably on top of my head. It doesn’t squeeze the sides of my head too much, though after a few hours, I can start to feel it.

Audio quality on these headphones is crisp, with booming rich bass that doesn’t muddy the vocals. The company’s PC-only Sonar software adds a ton of customizable EQ tools that can be tailored to specific game modes, or even individual games. You can further balance the sound levels between games and chat apps so you can still hear your team, even if you’ve EQ’d your game to emphasize the biggest explosions.

The spatial audio—once again enabled in the Sonar software, meaning it’s PC-only—is a valuable boost in fast-paced games where situational awareness is key. While I was playing Doom: Eternal, it made it much easier to tell what direction a particularly troublesome demon was coming from. 

The only major downside is the mic quality. It’s not great—even by gaming headset microphone standards. In fact, it’s kind of like the effect in a movie when the director wants to make it sound like someone is talking through a headset. It’s not terrible, and it gets the job done. But for as well-engineered as the rest of the headset is, it’s a bit of a letdown.

Finally, there are the hot-swappable batteries. This headphone comes with two of them, with one charging inside the GameDAC. When one dies, you can swap the other out. The process was so quick that when I was switching them out, the headphones were reconnected before I finished putting the old battery back inside the base station.

Photograph: SteelSeries

The most prominent feature of the Arctis Nova Pro Wireless is the stand-alone GameDAC receiver. With two USB-C ports and a 3.5 mm jack, this little device lets you plug in to multiple sources (more on which ones below) and switch between them. On top of this, it can simultaneously pair via Bluetooth, allowing you to listen to multiple audio sources at once. This is handy for overlaying game audio and chat or, if you’re like me, listening to music while you keep playing Death Stranding forever.

Depending on which model you get, the USB-C ports offer one of two configurations. On the regular and PlayStation models, there are two ports that can connect to PC, Mac, PS4/5, Nintendo Switch, and most other USB-C compatible devices. On the Xbox version, however, one of these ports is dedicated to Xbox consoles, while the other can be used for any of the other devices mentioned above. 

In a mildly annoying quirk, the GameDAC takes over the system volume control on PC, so if you have a volume control on your keyboard, it won’t work. Instead, volume can only be controlled by the dial on the headset itself, or the one on the GameDAC. That is, unless you install the aforementioned SteelSeries GG Sonar software, which adds a new virtual device to your system. Or more accurately, as we’ve discussed before, several devices, which can really clutter up your system-level interface. If you do this, then you can control the volume via your usual system controls, as well as the headset/GameDAC, which has its own independent volume level.

Many of the headset’s other features—like active noise cancellation, sidetone control, and another, less convenient equalizer tool—live in the GameDAC itself. The upside of this arrangement is that they’re compatible with any device you can use with the headset, including consoles. The downside is that navigating the menu on the tiny screen with a single dial and one touch-sensitive button is tedious, to say the least.

All in all, this amounts to a system that’s highly customizable but can be unnecessarily confusing. If you’re the type to tailor your audio experience to your exact needs (and if you’re spending $350 on a gaming headset, there’s a decent chance you are), then there’s probably a configuration here that works for you.

The SteelSeries Arctic Nova Pro Wireless is a beastly pair of headphones. No matter what device you want to connect them to, what minute aspect you want to tweak, or how long you want to play, there’s something in them for you. This is a comfort, given that at $350, they’re a hefty investment.

However, they’re not perfect. The rudimentary microphone, the confusing Xbox/PlayStation variants, and the messy software options on the PC mean this headset is probably not for everyone. Heck, the price tag means it’s already not for everyone. But as long as you’re not expecting crystal-clear team chat from your microphone, you probably won’t be disappointed.