Hi Techne! Awesome review as always. Thanks to you I bought the audeze penrose and I would like to know for you which one is better? The nova pro or the penrose?
Yas! Yas! Great review! They added the earcup adjustment to move up and down. The old ones didn’t have that and that sucked. Can’t wait to buy them Techne.
I bought the wired version as soon as they were available, and I messed around with the sound settings on Sonar, and I highly suggest you try some of the pro tuned settings. They have a TON of different sound scenarios that sound absolutely amazing! Perhaps you can drop a video demonstrating how these work with Sonar?
true, but that would be a single focused subject, PC gamers. All headphones and headsets can be tweaked with software. The best part of the Arctis Pro line is being able to have all your controls at a reach on the base station. I feel sonar is like Razer Synaps, not fun and forcing us to keep software open
@@TheTechne I see your point. But I also think that for many people it isn't a problem to use the sonar software. So I think I would still appreciate if you could test that as well
Yeah, unless they said they bought them themselves (which this guy doesn't) it usually means they were given the headset for free to talk about for them
Another review noted that using the Sonar software downgraded the bitrate of the headset while in use, regardless of the headset's ability to use a better bitrate. How does this affect real-world use cases?
I got the wireless for PC and PS5 version and am loving them so far. However, there’s like a raised piece in the center of the driver that my ears tend to easily touch and it’s annoying at times. Wondering if thats the same case with the Xbox Wireless version. I only play PC and PS5 so wanted to be able to have them connected to the station simultaneously Can’t wait for the wireless review tomorrow!
Yep it does. The comfort is what is holding me back from purchasing. $350 shouldn't have a piece sticking out. I'm positive my ear will be hitting that for sure. Glad you like your set
@@samledger9599 Yes, I’m able to balance the game audio and chat volume with no issues (for me this is Discord chat volume when playing with friends, or an xbox live party using the Game Bar). I think I’ve only tried this while having Sonar enabled though, I’d have to check if it still lets you when Sonar is disabled Again, I have the PC specific wireless version that also works with PS5. Apparently the xbox wireless doesnt let you balance game chat while using on PC so that one was a no go for me
Dude. I bought the wireless version (xbox version to use with ps5 also) and theyre amazing! So curious about the wired version now lol. But i wanted an actual GOOD headset that worked with both ps5 and xbox. My prayers have been answered. Price sucks but theyre worth it. At least for how i like to listen to youtube and game at the same time via the dual connection. Bass is great too. You dont need booming bass with these. They have great bass and you can turn it up to. 10/10 for me
Hi Techne! Appreciate the videos. The one thing that has me iffy on this headset and just with Steelseries products in general, is they only offer 1 year manufacturers warranty in the US. Most other peripheral manufacturers offer at least 2 years. The Nova’s are very enticing, but considering the spotty build quality you mention, not sure if I can pull the trigger on these.
i purchased these day 1, have tried them several times in warzone now and cant figure out the audio at all i think they sound horrible nowherenear what my corsair virtuso xt sound like....would love to know what audio profile u are using to try them again before returning them
I have arctis pro gamedac, older version. SS recommend putting default device as speakers headset game. However the Audio on this is terrible and sounds distorted and compressed. I set my default device to headset gamedac chat with Dolby atmos enabled. Sounds 10x better. The sonar software makes my audio sound shit so don’t use it. Worth a try if you’re on PC
We need you to contact Wicked Cushionz please!! I asked if they’ll be coming out w cushions for Nova Pro Wireless and they said no! Maybe it’s just the person responding not knowing ? Can’t see how they wouldn’t
If you don’t mind, can you please post your Custom equalizer settings? I took a screencap of the ones in this review, but without the number value for each individual frequency(?), I’m afraid I’ll screw it up. (Sorry, not an audiophile, but I’m planning on punching in your Custom settings to try them out with the wireless version.) Great review. Definitely looking forward to wireless review tomorrow.
Planar magnetic is superior in most areas. But with all the problems of the penrose these are tempting and the fact that it comes with a dac for less money
I had the old nova pro without the gamedac… recently bought an hyper x cloud 3 wireless and I am so disappointed in sound …. I cannot located gunshot as accurate as before , missing some footstep as well … I am gonna pick this one today :)
Plastic on the ear piece killed it for me… I just had a pair of Steelseries Arctis pro break at those plastic points and had to throw away a perfectly sounding headset but broke so yea that killed it for me.
I just paid $197+ tax and shipping and they came to $210. The Nova pro wired is the most expensive headset I ever bought and am getting it May 13th. I just bought the Epos H3 hybrid pro for $113 but I was underwhelmed because I use to have the HyperX cloud Alpha’s paired with a Roccat Juke Stereo/ 7.1 USB sound card and I was getting way better directional sound. The Epos H3 pro hybrid doesn’t do a good job of separating sounds in 7.1 mode in the Epos app. Listening to music in music mode with the Epos H3 pro doesn’t sound bad but it doesn’t sound great either. You don’t get the separation of instruments and you can’t hear hidden details in the music like I could with the HyperX cloud Alpha paired with a sound card but the Epos H3 pro does have better base than the HyperX Cloud Alpha paired with a sound card. The Epos H3 pro is overall louder but just isn’t as crisp. If I don’t use the sound card with the HyperX cloud Alpha than the Epos H3 pro hybrid sounds better. Well now I am going to return the Epos H3 pro hybrid
I wish this headset came with the White Edition because that's the theme of my gaming setup well technically it's white and black you know like the yin and yang symbol
I’m really tempted to get these but like he mentioned I’m worried about those plastic hook things that connect the headband and headphone part. I’ve had my arctic 9x for about 2 years now, or less, and that was my main complaint. The plastic started breaking after 1 year and I’ve never been rough with my headsets. not sure why it’s so weak but it REALLY bothers me.
@@evancunningham1730 that's actually super exciting! I wish I could buy the GameDAC gen 2 separately, but I ordered the headset so I could get the GameDAC haha
Hi Techne, I own a Steelseries Arctis Pro + Gamedac for two years now and I love it. In terms of sound quality, is there a significant difference between these two in terms of sound quality especially in music and gaming. Is it worth upgrading?
I owned the Pro+GameDAC as my daily driver for the past two years, and the improvement of sound quality is very noticeable. I highly suggest you upgrade.
Although I am not Techne, I may be able to help you out. I can't compare to the previous wired model, but I can to the wireless. Compared to the WIRELESS version of the Arctis pros, the Nova Pros have zero white noise, which is awesome. Other than that, it may be because of the pleather, but on the lower end it felt like it was deeper. The audio also sounds more far away, like listening to close speakers instead of headphones. Other than that, the highs feel more defined, and I could make out more detail. The mids are where it gets iffy. Compared to the Pros, they felt a little harsher and especially the S noises in speech made me cringe when focusing to hard. However, with a little EQ I was able to mitigate this problem and amplify all the other positives of the headset.
I know you probably can't help me but I thought I'd give it a try. I bought them after watching your review. I've been happy with them but starting two days ago i went to use my mic and ran into a problem. Sonar isn't picking up the mic, But it will detect my mic when I open the Microsoft sound settings on recording, but I have to leave that open or sonar won't detect the mic at all. I messaged steelseries about my problem I've been messaging jayr from (SteelSeries Customer Experience) he had me try doing a clean reinstall of both SteelSeries GG and your device drivers which didn't work this was yesterday then later yesterday i tried the beta gg for steaming then the mic worked. But guess what, it stopped working this morning with the same problem as before and did a clean reinstall of gg again with no change. I messaged steelseries again. I've only had them since oct 25 2022. I got them because I need a good microphone for voice commands for gaming because I'm disabled and have limited mobility in my arms.
SteelSeries Wired headset mics are pretty good, but I wish they could mirror that quality in their wireless mics. Razer sounds amazing wireless and good wired. Not sure about Logitech though, I'd need to listen to a comparison.
@@user-og8kb4yk6k maybe so but why not give that option on an all round device not have 2 of the same thing as they could defo add the software needed to the wireless one
Purchased and been using them for a few days. Haven't had any major issues but it won't let me change eq settings from the DAC. When I go to audio settings it just says sonar.
So just found out no Chat Mix on PS5??? $250.00 and no Chat mix??? Great headset but these will be going back, gotta find another set of cans I guess??
Sony doesn’t allow any 3rd party companies to have chat mix on ps5. You have to use the setting in the system to adjust this. It’s not a steelseries issue it’s a Sony one
@@masc360 I understand that, but I tried that and it was grayed out like I said, could not fix it no matter what I did. I even contacted steelseries, never heard back from them??
as far as I understand you can only access the sliders when your in a party. If your outside a party it will be grayed out. A dumb system for sure hopefully Sony will add the option for 3rd party to have access to the chat mic sooner or later.
Hi Techne today arrives my Nova Pro Wired version and first impressions are very good. I already tried a lot of things today and the audio quality is really awesome just out of the box for music, films and games. Plus Sonar software seems good, there are many tweaks to do and you can find a good setup for almost every situation. Also they are very lightweight, very very very comfortable and the earpads maybe it's a little bit hotter but they are very soft and have zero sound leakage. The oled display DAC it's very good also. It's just one day but I'm already very happy with them. Thank you for your work and for your advice 👍🔝
I really enjoy your reviews. You bring the excitement to the reviews. Good information. I bought the nova pro wireless at best buy the three days ago. They are the best headset that I have tried in a long time. Love them. Cant wait to see your review of them.
How long are the cables suitable to play on the couch? I use turtle beach elite pro 2’s and the cable is nice and long. But looking what will be the next headset to go for.
Man I’ve had my turtle beach elite pro 2’s for a long time now and they are the best gaming headset I have ever used. I’m struggling to find what to get next 😭
I got the Arctis Pro old edition about five years ago I think. I ask you if you would prefer the Astro A40s or the Steel series more. You said steel series and you couldn’t have been more right. I love them and would still use them to this day but unfortunately after dropping them one to many times they finally cracked. Looking forward to this new Nova set. You always do great reviews
Ty the techne, because of you and your Amazing Videos i bought the arctis nova pro wired and they are incredible. Never had the wicked cushions but are they worth it on the arctis nova pro and a Upgrade to the Normal cushions on it? Greetings from germany ✌️
Just today on my nova pro wired I change the original ear pads with the wicked cushions freeze (model with gel on two side). much more comfort, no more hot ears and sound performance almost the same as original. I can say they worth the price. Greetings from Italy 👍
Some person asks about the Arctis Pro Wireless Version (Because i've heard you can use that Xbox version everywhere,but with what cost?) : "So this version has 2 ports, 1 for pc 1 for xbox. The pc port will work fine with a pc i presume (full functionality), but what does "not all the features" mean if you were to connect a ps5 to the xbox port? Would i miss anything on PC side? Will i loose anything on a ps5/switch side?" Some person answered: "I'll try to be clearer. There are two USB-C ports on both versions. The PC/PS5 version (the expensive one for some reason) has two identical ports which are both fully compatible with PC, PS5, switch, etc. On the X version for XBOX instead, one of the 2 USB-C ports is fully compatible with XBOX only, the other instead has full compatibility with PC/PS5/switch. This means that: 1. The XBOX dedicated port cannot be used for PS5 at all, 2. this port will work on PC but you will miss out certain Sonar software features. Which features in particular I do not know, but apparently in the software the headset will appear as disconnected, not a good sign. Therefore, if you have both a PC and a PS5 the XBOX version will have complete functionality only if you manually swap the cable on the back and use the NON-XBOX USB port for both your devices. Basically to connect both PC and PS5 you want the other model." Kannst du dies belegen? bekomme keine bestätigung von jemanden der dies testen konnte.
Great review! Can’t wait for the wireless review. What kind of wicked cushions work on these headsets? It’s almost a must since I first purchased for my Audeze Mobious. Thanks Techne!
None at the moment :( I got the wireless ones and emailed them and they said “no future plans”. I find that very hard to believe. Steel series does have a video showing the ear cushions can be removed but it’s attached different than pro wireless due to the noise cancelling requiring a good seal
@@mannyfresh7065 weird, he mentions in this video you could put wicked cushions on, curious if he did so already. I know for a couple sets he made some alterations and got them to work
How does the gamedac compare to the old one? I use mine to bypass audio from ps5 controller to pc so I can chat on discord with my bros while playing on my ps5.
The best part was that they made the hangers plastic, biggest failure point of the old ones was the metal hangers pinned to the plastic earcups. Maybe the new hanger design of these and the refreshed 7+ will help them last longer.
Let's be honest, no need to sugar coat it for the review: they're gonna flake. Every single headset with that fake leather flakes sooner or later. Even my Sony XM3 started flaking after 2-3 years.
Hey Techne !! Honest opinion needed here ! Between The Nova wired or Audeze penrose x , which one is the best sounding one or would you think would give you a competitive edge 🤔 Thank you for your time !!
First of all headphones don’t give you any competitive edge that’s a myth or shite that reviews say (remember they all paid by the brands), second point all Steelseries products are overpriced over hyped rubbish 😡 and there is nothing premium all all. If you looking for decent headphones just get the Philips 9500 or 9600 and presto true high end for little money
PC38X has personally been serving me very well, truly amazing for competitive stuff, and it's a bit cheaper than both of those options, but if being wired and open back bothers you, then go with the Penrose.
you always do such a good job of you vid's i feel like you should have so many more sub's! hope you keep up the good work and thanks for the review ill keep checking out you content, even if i am not looking at buying the product. but just out of intrest i have ordered these lol
Absolutely yes. I owned both the wireless and wired Pro with DAC and it’s a very noticeable improvement. Especially with their new spatial sound settings on Sonar.
@@Khaotiq83 I have the wireless pro and ordered the nova pro wired. Since you had both older version was there a difference in sound quality between the wired and the wireless( given that the wired is hi-res and has a DAC ) when playing hi-res music ?
@@djedje5750 The drivers themselves are exactly the same in the previous wired and wireless versions. So you’re getting the same exact sound since the wired DAC version still won’t play games in hi-res. And unless you’re listening to a hi res sound source, it’s not going to make a difference. It’s still the same hardware and 9 times out of 10, you’re gonna be gaming with these anyway, so the hi res setting on the DAC might not get a ton of use. Now the Nova wired sounds better than the previous Arctis since the hardware is different. Drivers have been updated as well as the sound tuning. And it’s very noticeable between the older line.
Grandissima Recensione come sempre, ti ringrazio sei il mio punto di riferimento per questo genere di cose, se riuscirai desidererei sapere in un tuo prossimo video un confronto con le Audeze Penrose qual è per te la migliore come pura qualità audio, Grazie
@@danieleoliviero5986 Anche io la tua stessa situazione, convinto a comprare penrose x🔥 avendo già artics pro wirless ora volevo capire le differenze tra questa versione nuova di Artics e le Penrose, aspetterò con fiducia un bel confronto da parte sua, comunque è bello sapere che ci sono altri italiani che lo seguono oltre che me
This is microphone is not a slap in the face. Its a 40 ton truck to the balls. My corsair hs65 has a way better mic and it costs a quarter of the Arctis Nova price.
I've only had these for about a week now I have the wired version and I've been playing around with some sounds I already had Dolby digital but I just tried the DTS. I play a lot of call of duty and the sound quality sounds better in my opinion. Do the trial and test it yourself.👍 Also I'm curious what you think after testing.
So I just tried it on the PS5. I tried to adjust the game chat in the ps5 audio menu, and its greyed out???? I cant figure it out???? Check ed settings and do not know how to do that?? Some help here Techne?
If you go on the website there are actually two versions. On that only works on pc and ps. And one that only works on pc and xbox. Both are the same price.
This baffles me. On their site they only seem to suggest that sonar works via Xbox’s Microsoft inbuilt 3d Audio engine. It’s painted as being it’s main feature so how can something so heavily advertised as being it’s main selling point not even be compatible with the platform it’s most heavily associated with given the X model? Shouldn’t be allowed to get away with that.
I wanted to see if this had replaceable earpads, I always love cooling gel So I can use them longer. I wish more companies made headsets like this, that are able to be played full features in every console.
Ok so I believe Techne mentioned it somewhere, but Wicked Cushions has said that they will work for the WIRED version and they would look into making some for the wireless version
They do have replaceable earpads, but not in the same way as the previous Arctis models did. Replaceable earpads that fit the previous Arctis models, won't fit perfectly on this one, as they changed the process/fit a bit. They now need to "clip on", according to their customer service. I was looking for replacements, as the ones they came with, can't hardly be comfortable for anyone with "above-small sized ears". They aren't that deep, my ears touch the inside of the cups, which puts pressure on the ear itself. Haven't had a headset that had that "issue" in 10+ years, so just 1 day into my experience with the Arctic Nova Pro (wireless), I'm already looking for better earpads, which has become a bit of a hassle, because they changed how they fit with this one. ...because these (the earpads) aren't great - very far from it.
I wanna buy the wire version and don't know which version to go for it. There is multi-system vs xbox xs, which one would you recommend based on my situation? I don't own xbox and ps5. Just pc and nintendo switch :) thank you
