SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 Wireless Multi-Platform Gaming Headset — Neodymium Magnetic Drivers — 2.4GHz + Mixable Bluetooth — 38Hr USB-C Battery — ClearCast Gen2 AI Mic — PC, PS5, Switch, VR, Mobile

It might be spying on me, but its the best headset I have ever had so I don't know if I care. Hands down the best headset I have had for gaming. The ear muffs are comfortable and soft but also breathable so your ears don't get as hot as with the plastic-y kind of ear muffs which flake of after a year. Mic is great and I love that it can retract into the headset and be out of the way when you dont need it. The easy to reach mute button and its associated red light are extremely convenient. Bluetooth range on headset is admirable. I can walk from one corner of my house to the opposite corner and one floor down with no change in audio quality. Battery life is many hours. The fit for my head is perfect and the adjustments for those who need them are good although im not sure it would be good for a small head. 100% would buy again, good value. HOWEVER, it might be spying on me. The light on the headset dongle goes off when the PC turns off. TWICE now I have come into my room after taking a shower in the morning to find the little light on and within 3 seconds of looking up at it, it turns off. There's no reason for that light to be on and I have never once noticed it on before but it just randomly turns itself on and then off right as I walk in the room???? Very sus. I went into Bios and turned the USB power to devices off when PC is off just to be sure.

I finally know how to use my headset. It took some trial and error, mostly because I've never used a wireless headset with some of these features, and never this brand. I hope the information helps you. Now that I've gotten everything figured out, I am having a great experience with this headset. Here are the things I've learned: Left earcup: The rearmost button mutes the mic. If you have the boom extended, the mic will have a glowing red (and annoying) stripe. There is probably a way to turn that off, but as far as I can tell, the mic works perfectly well fully retracted. So when that button is raised, the mic is muted. When it's pressed in, it's live. I like that tactile system better. Volume knob: Slide it to the rear to increase, to the front to decrease. I recommend staring in the lower 1/2 of the dial the first time you use these. Ports and stuff: I'll let the manual handle these. Reminder, you can use the headset wired using the USB cable that comes with the headset (or I guess any USB cable that has USB-C on at least 1 end). Right earcup: This is where I had trouble figuring things out. The knob is the chatmix knob, which should let you adjust the strength of your media volume against the strength of the volume in whatever chat app you're using. To the rear for media, to the front for chat. I had the wheel halfway between the halfway mark and the front, and all the volume for the media I was streaming was super quiet. I thought maybe the headset had a volume limiter, but per support, it does not. Instead of trying all the 'pull off the foam and reset/ reinstall everything' that was already a fresh install, almost by accident I found out that if you have the knob halfway (has a nice little click or bump when you hit the middle), the volume is fine. I currently have mine halfway between the halfway mark and all the way back. If I need to adjust it, I know how now. Side Tone: This is a software feature. It lets you hear what your mic is picking up. HEAVEN FORBID you accidentally rub your arm or your sleeve over the mics while this feature is on. It nearly scared the life out of me until I figured out how to turn that off. It's in the software. That's about it, I'm having fun playing with the EQ in Sonar to get the sound exactly as I like it, and the headset is as nice and loud as I'd like it to be. Definitely glad I made this purchase, upgrading to a wireless headset has been life-changing already. OH! And the range. I have a 1 br apartment, 1 bath, kitchen, living area, dining area. If you think of the living area as the front right quadrant, bedroom rear left, bathroom rear right and dining room front left: I was able to travel to every far corner of the apartment with no problem. I am not taking this outside while the dongle is on my PC, so it has all the range I need. People with large ranch or multi-level homes, your experience may vary, but it's certainly not as bad as some reviews made it sound. Also the headband and ear cups are every bit as comfortable as nearly every says they are. Enjoy!

This is, hands down, the worst headset I've ever owned in my life. I owned the Arctis 3 for multiple years, but they were starting to have issues (especially with battery life as I used it every day for meetings), and I was looking for a replacement. Decided to go with an upgraded model of what I owned, the Arctis 7, but that was a huge mistake. For starters, the wireless receiver if you don't want to use Bluetooth is elongated horizontally in a way that it blocks other USB-C ports on my devices. Then, by default, the headset has on hearing your own voice while talking, which I cannot use as it is too distracting for me. The only way to turn off this feature is to install the specialized software, which is impossible on my work computer. I did this on my personal machine, then tried to connect the device back up to my work computer, and the end result was that the wireless connection no longer worked on my work computer at all. The device would be connected on the computer, but no audio input nor output was received. I switched to Bluetooth connectivity. This resolved the above problem, with no voice-playback, but the Bluetooth is horribly built. Sometimes the headset won't connect to Bluetooth at all and needs to be power cycled to work. Sometimes it will connect, but receive no audio input nor output and had to be power cycled OR disconnected and reconnected to work, there's no guarantee on either method and it was complete trial and error. When you're trying to connect these to start a meeting, this is insanely frustrating. The killer for me, above all the rest, is that eventually the device stopped working on Bluetooth at all, and I had to un-pair the headset from my work computer and re-pair to get it to work. This an annoying process because you cannot do it while the device is already on for Bluetooth, you have to turn it off, then back on, and hold the Bluetooth power button to initiate a pairing event. Which may or may not succeed. Sometimes the work computer couldn't see the headset, other times it could, despite no other conditions changing. Sometimes, it would pair only to continue the earlier issue. After this happened to me three times in a day, I threw them away. I couldn't take it anymore. In addition to the rest of this review, the headset has a distinct Bluetooth power and Wireless power, which work distinctly from each other but are also reliant on each other, it makes no sense. Every part of user-interfacing hardware on this device is infuriating in its functionality and design. In terms of sound quality, at least it had that. Audio was crisp and clean, and I received reports from peers that the microphone quality was significantly improved over the Arctis 3. I just wish everything else wasn't completely awful.

Quick background, skip if uninterested: I’m absolutely not an audiophile so this review doesn’t come from a place of incredible pickiness. My old (and cheap) headset broke in the middle of playing online with friends. I was very upset and rushed to Best Buy that evening in an attempt to quickly replace it. Needless to say I was tempted into buying something else(a different “gamer headset” brand) and hated it a lot. After fighting with that horrible setup for a few hours, I decided to order the Arctis 7+ here. Start of review for the particular 7+ model I bought off here: DELIVERY- I ordered it and it arrived wayyy earlier than I expected. I was so excited to try it out. So far I’ve used them them for about 2-3 months. COMFORTABLE- I can say they’re very very comfortable. Even after some 10 hour play sessions, I almost forget they’re there and bump them. The pads around the ears are a perfectly soft material. They’re a soft fabric material that does not break down like I’ve noticed the smooth fake leather to. These also don’t get too hot around my ears thanks to the breathable padding material. I have long hair and OTHER headphones tend to grab and pull out my hair a lot- I haven’t had that issue with this set except a couple times where the fault was all on me because I pulled a joint area through my hair. Otherwise, it seems it’s really hard for this to happen on accident like my other sets always did (Owwy!) Unlike most other headphones, this set has an elastic- yet soft- band under the headband that pretty much suspends the headphones over your head rather than resting their weight directly on the top of your scalp. I find that this design choice really improves the comfort for me, as with other headphone sets the weight and rigidity of the headband start to hurt over time. The Bluetooth feature on this also allows me to sit back, play from a couch, or go get a drink (important!) while still talking to my friends. SOUND QUALITY- I once again want to remind that I am no audiophile. After getting these and starting some gameplay, I immediately noticed highs and lows I wasn’t hearing from my old headsets. Little environmental sounds, instruments in soundtracks I never noticed or heard before, subtle feedback sounds from button presses and menus, I recall calling them out to my friends and them being equally surprised I now noticed them. One of my personal gripes with modern headphones lately is that every company wants to make super bassy sounding headphones, as the average person associates quality with bass for some reason. Out of the box, all of the sound levels for these are perfect in my opinion, not too bassy or anything. If you wanted bassy headphones out of this though, you could easily just go in and change that using the steel series sound control app. I haven’t changed anything myself because I like how they sound as is. Another thing I wanted was independent volume control for the headphones, which this has! Not only can you control the volume with a dial on the headset but you can also adjust wether you want chat or game sounds to be louder than the other on the headset. I was also concerned that audio quality may differ between wired or wireless connection, but everything seems fine regardless of connection type. Mic quality is decent for hanging out and talking to friends. We never have static issues, it never catches annoying background noise, no chirps, so far I’ve heard no issue myself. The mic quality probably isn’t something you’d use for high quality production, like making videos, podcasts, or streaming. Though you probably could do any of those things if you’re not a stickler for recording quality. I feel it’s mainly a headset for comfortably gaming- a role it’s more than fulfilled for me! NOISE CANCELLATION- I’m personally indifferent to wether my headsets have noise cancellation or not. I don’t live in a particularly loud place, so I don’t get to test this one out much. Every once in a while another family member may approach me to ask something, and I can hear them at that point, but not if they call from another room. The outer side of the mic has a small mic that picks up sound outside your headset and feeds it back to you with a subtle and quiet delay. I’m not used to that myself but it does come in handy here and there. It does sometimes also trick me into thinking the headset mic is picking up and putting outside noise into my calls (it’s not though, confirmed by friends). I’m indifferent to this feature, as it hasn’t caused me too much issue and I’m pretty sure it can be turned off. OTHER FEATURES- The mic is posable and retracts, it’s a pretty nice way to store the headset or just get the mic out of your peripheral vision until in use. There’s a small button on the left side that mutes the mic, when muted the mic lights red, which is a pretty handy visual reminder as in the past I have often found myself talking for minutes on end to myself while in calls with friends (lol). The headset comes with some other wired connection options, even a headphone Jack option. To connect to your computer it DOES use a wired dongle, so if you are trying to save on USB port space, be aware it does take one. I’m not sure how to measure this, the Bluetooth connectivity works throughout my whole room and even in the rooms immediately over. I am usually able to go to my kitchen and prepare myself food or drinks while still enjoying music or talking, so long as the battery has a decent charge. The battery life is REALLY good. I personally have always made it a habit to charge anything when I’m not using it, so I never see it die. BUT to vouch for its lifetime- one time I didn’t realize the USB end of my cord wasn’t plugged into my computer until after a week of thinking I had been charging it nightly after game sessions and daily use. This thing lasted a whole week of /at least/ 6-8 hour use daily with absolutely no charging that whole time before I just happened to pull on the usb for it and find it had never been plugged back in that whole week. So for sure with this headset, unless you’re playing insanely all the time with the highest volume in use, you’ll never see it die so long as you check it in for a charge here and there! End summary: Overall I can say I’m very happy with this headset. Definitely has become my favorite one. I would strongly recommend it to anyone that wants a headset suited best for comfortable gaming and chatting. I was skeptical of Bluetooth functionality before buying, but it has WELL PAST won me over.

=========== UPDATE 5 ============ After the problem was finally fixed (see below), these are a great pair of headphones and do exactly what I need by allowing both Bluetooth and a PC audio feed simultaneously. I use them to watch content or take calls on my IPhone while gaming on the PC. They are comfortable, have great sound and function correctly now that the power save issues were fixed by updated firmware. =========== UPDATE 4 ============ It is a month after the firmware update, and I have not had to do a manual reset once. This completely proves that the original issue, the one they wanted me to return the headset over, was a software problem and not a defective headset. Think of it this way: if I had done what they had asked, returned it to Amazon for a replacement, I would have had EXACTLY THE SAME ISSUE because it would have been using the same buggy firmware. This should be a lesson to the product manager and service manager at SteelSeries: 1) don't be lazy 2) don't treat customers like they are stupid - in this case I knew more about your headset than you did 3) don't antagonize customers and make them do useless work unless you are OK getting bad reviews =========== UPDATE 3 ============ I attempted to follow their RMA instructions, but they changed their mind and suggested I return it to Amazon instead. Meanwhile, I had come to understand what was triggering the headset firmware crashes, and I am able to avoid them by carefully ensuring that both bluetooth and native sides of the headset are off before connecting it to USB for charging. By following this procedure, I was able to reduce the resets to one or two per week. THEN THEY PUSHED A FIRMWARE UPDATE THAT FIXED THE PROBLEM. Around Dec 20, SteelSeries pushed a firmware update (Tsmit version 0.1.11.0, Headset version 1.13, BT version 1.8) AND IT COMPLETELY FIXED THE PROBLEM. So I was correct, their FW was the problem the whole time, and their support was too rigid and inflexible to deal with this issue the correct way. Good headset, lousy software / support team. =========== UPDATE 2 ============ After living with the "headset goes unresponsive after 12 hours of idle, reset with paperclip" for a couple of weeks, it was happening every 2-3 days. Support email indicated early on they'd like to RMA the unit for a replacement, though they didn't do any troubleshooting (2 day turnaround?!) so they seem to think every problem is faulty hardware. I'm doing the RMA with faint hope this is a faulty unit, rather than just buggy firmware. =========== UPDATE ============= As I was packing this up for return, I tried using a much longer paperclip in the opposite earpiece as described in the support video. Instead of the earpiece with the mic, I used the opposite one - and with the longer paperclip, I was able to get a reset. Now the headset is working again. This appears to be a problem with the software's auto power save - it won't wake up. Now, because the company has no support communication - they don't know about this bug, so it will simply keep happening. What a terrible experience this is. ============================== I had a prior generation, bought this to replace it after the USB charging port broke. After normal use after opening, charging and performing the required "critical update" from within the comical and trashy desktop app, the next morning the headset just stopped working. The mic light went red and no amount of button pushing or connecting/disconnecting would get a response. Also - the online instructions for how to power reset other models DID NOT WORK for these, leaving me no further troubleshooting options. Normally, I'd call support and get their help - but SteelSeries has no chat or voice options, just a TWO BUSINESS DAY RESPONSE EMAIL FORM. I would NEVER AGAIN buy anything made by this company - they do not know how to make decent software, and go deaf and dumb when the product fails. How can they charge for this?

First, the good: +Sounds good +Battery lasts relatively long time +The retractable mic makes the headset feel less cumbersome +Comfortable to wear for a long time +Being able to use both bluetooth and 2.4ghz is amazin +/- Customizeable with swappable side plates and head strap Now the (HUGE) Negative: --SteelSeries GG is awful. The app itself is fine, but it automatically switches your output depending on what it detects. It's great when it works, but it is constantly disconnecting. When switching from one game to another, you will hear a beep. This means your headset has disconnected and you will have to disconnect and reconnect the dongle. This will sometimes happen while playing the same game. This can be avoided by not using the GG software. I uninstalled it after much frustration, and used the headset with the basic drivers. This worked great for a while. You have to manually select the output device, but this saves you the frustration of the GG software, which is very worth it. After a month of no issues, the headset refused to output any sound from the 2.4ghz connection. The bluetooth worked just fine. In the end, I had to reinstall the GG software. I will try to uninstall again once I am done writing this review. I love this headset, but the disconnection issue is such a big problem that I would recommend shopping around before deciding to purchase this. EDIT: I contacted SteelSeries support and they were able to send me a new headset. Their customer service is amazing, and was able to get me a replacement super fast. Unfortunately I am experiencing all of the same issues as before on the new headset, and even reinstalled Windows to see if that would fix anything. Still disappointed, but happy with how great their customer service was. EDIT 2: I installed Windows 11 and now the headset works flawlessly. I reinstalled Windows 10 twice only to have the same issue so I'm a bit confused as to why it works now, but I am going to change my rating to reflect my new experience. I have had no issues with connectivity at all since installing Windows 11 so now I get to enjoy this headset to the fullest.

Absolutely love this headset. Tried over 5 headsets, Arctic7 is a keeper forsure. 9/10, would highly recommend. PROS: - Very comfy, especially for long gaming sessions... Earmuffs are very comfy, headband as well. Neither cause pain/irritation if wearing for 10+ hours. Top notch on comfortability scale. Sound is great. Spatial/sonar setting with bass sounds amazing. Settings are great as well. Multiple different settings to choose from. All customizable. Easy to use. Exit & runs in background. Doubt this set causes the "gamer head" with how gentle/light it is on top of your head. Charge lasts a long time too, even after a few years i feel like i charge it 1x/week, charges quick too. CONS: Lost connection sometimes after updates/dying & can be a pain to reconnect and get "sonar" sound to work again. Try not to let it completely die. Think setup was the biggest b1tch. Not sure what was wrong here, i would plug it in, turn off/on, reconnect with cable, change settings on pc & SSapp back to sonar & it would just not want to work for some reason. F around with it some more and it just started working again. Don't give up, especially new out of box, keep messing around with it, it'll work, trust me. This hasn't happened in over a year though. They prob fixed it with an update. This headset is so nice I dealt with it, didn't want anything else. Sure this issue is fixed now anyways, I don't have this issue anymore.

3.5 stars. Pros: 3rd most comfortable headphones I've worn. Decent range - I can go downstairs to the kitchen or down 2 flights to the front door without losing connection. Easy to setup Red light on the mike so I *know* whether or not I'm muted Mike does good noise-cancelling (headphones don't do active NC) OK sound quality. Disappointments: I bought an Arctis 7 five years ago and used it daily since then, mostly for work video conferencing. However, I started having some problems with the mic cutting in and out and then one of the earpads fell off so I figured I'd finally replace it. I went looking for the same ski-goggle-strap style headband because it's the most comfortable of any headphones that my partner or I have tried. Sadly, no one else seems to have picked up the same style and SteelSeries is getting rid of it in favor of a less-adjustable option for their Nova. After trying a logitech option and being disappointed, I decided I'd just go with the same thing I bought last time rather than trying to find something new. I thought the 7+ would be basically the same, but it's not. The first one I got kept randomly shutting off. Whatever, some devices are duds and Amazon exchanged it easily for me. But this new one is still worse than the original 7. It's less comfortable, although that might be more about breaking it in. But the mute button only occasionally works. I have to stick my fingernail in it to get it to pop open. Sometimes it'll seem like it popped open, but the red light doesn't switch so I know I'm not muted. Then there's the software. I installed the software and updated the headphones firmware, and it was basically fine. I tried the new Sonar tools and adjusted the sounds so they sounded good. I really liked that I could adjust the mike to fit my higher-pitched voice. Very cool. Only, when I select the "sonar" options in my audio list, the headphones just don't work. No sound comes through at all. Fortunately, there's still a generic option for the "arctis 7+" and I've been using that instead. The headphones beep when they turn on/off. The old ones did too, but this beep is higher pitched and much more annoying. I'd probably return them if I were inside the return window because that's a lot of caveats for the money. But they're good in a lot of ways and I'm biased by the comparison with the earlier Arctis 7, which were the best headphones I've ever owned.