Amazon.com: Customer reviews: SteelSeries Arctis Pro High Fidelity Gaming Headset - Hi-Res Speaker Drivers - DTS Headphone: X v2.0 Surround for PC, Black

Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2020

I bought this Arctis Pro in a bundle with the SteelSeries Rival 600 & Doom Eternal bundle. ($200 and it's worth it!)

TL;DR:
From the moment I open its box to plugging in and using it, I love the feel and overall utility of this headset.
It is as simple and plugging and playing with minimal adjustments needed. (experiences may vary per computer)
I can wear this comfortably, securely, and without any wiggle for extended hours(3~4hr and more) all the while the mic is amazing. (that Mic RGB... IS GREAT, and able to show even with the windscreen sponge on)
This is definitely my go-to for all my current FPS gaming audio input and output needs.

Disclaimer:
Everybody's ear and head shapes & capabilities are different, these facts presented are true for myself.
This headset was tested ONLY for 2 weeks since Early April, average 3~6hrs per daily use, at the time of this review.

History:
I own Razer's Nari Ultimate, VModa Crossfade, and Rummus K3-RGB. And during the 5 months of ownership I thought Nari Ult. was the best even though its design and other features aside the "Haptic Feedback" were mediocre. That is until I pulled the trigger for the bundle. I also dabble in audio production/engineering for about 5+ years total.

(Straight to)The Dark Meat of My Review:
-It is a lightweight headset that is snug and comfortable for long hours. (5hr+ without much sweating)
-The single adjustable strap/headband is nice, this accounts for the grip/snugness of your headset.
-Being wired, the 3 zone RGB effects can be left on and appreciated. Especially the (3rd Zone) mic RGB. haha
-The large physical crossfader knob is highly appreciated. (great for mixer or physical volume adjust purposes)
-The SteelEngine Software is praise-worthy for its centralization in customization, and very easy to use & adjust.
-The ear cups/fabric & cushion material is very soft, light, breathable, and able to provide good acoustic isolation.
-The headset cables is long enough and also very light (I don't feel the cable drag)
-You don't need it, but the windscreen that comes with is also appreciated.
-Compared to Nari Ult. the out-of-box experience is EZ and without much learning curve.

With Some CONsiderations:
-The left ear cup buttons/adjustments are a crime by design like any other headset. But it's better and well defined when compared to Nari. Ult. or VModa Crossfade. (ie. mute button is large and toggle-able)
-The retractable mic at first is curled up (when pulled out for the first time) due to its method of storage, but can be straightened out, over some time.
-The cables connections are proprietary (not your usual micro-USB or 3.5mm cable) and replacement accessories should be OEM, but I believe generic replacements can be used. (that said, it does have a 3.5mm conversion cable)
-Sound quality is 2nd compared to Razer Nari Ultimate, something is off about its surround sound. (again when compared the Nari Ult.) I cannot accurately pinpoint enemy footsteps especially when within approx. 5m proximity. (with all EQ settings on both headsets being default and flat)
-COD: MW/Warzone (2019) sounded better overall when I use the "Studio Reference" or the flattest EQ setting.
For some reason, any other EQ Boosts (in COD:MW audio setting) sounded lacking in its boosts in EQ. (I likely need further tinkering) When compared to Nari Ult. it sounded best w/Boost Low & w/haptic turned on.

Bottom Line:
I can say this is the BEST (not perfect) headset I owned, even with its flaws mentioned.
Nari Ultimate has its Haptic feedback, but Arctis Pro has its comfort, ease of use & adjustment.

Bonus Facts:
-I bought this because I was tired of getting sweaty and constant tinkering with the Nari Ult.
-My research suggested that I do not need the GAME DAC attachment. (save yourself $50+)
-I would recommend getting a "MoKo Headphone Stand" ($12) or a case to stash your investment.

3 people found this helpful

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Roger Anderson

For under $200, it's a well built, great sounding headset for PC users.

Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2018

Verified Purchase

As soon as I opened the box, I knew this headset was a winner. The unboxing experience itself was a fun process, and taking the headset into your hands for the first time is when you really get a sense of the quality that SteelSeries put into these.
First off, the frame is a dark aluminum, not plastic as the other Arctis series. The ski-goggle style headband is interesting, but if you want to get a custom band off their website, that'll be nearly another $30. For some color. On the other hand though, this style is very comfortable. It fits my head nicely, and has some room for adjustment but not much. I wear these without the band at all, and it's still quite comfortable.
The sound quality is great, it has lots of customization options such as EQ presets, and even sliders to customize to your own preferences. It is noise cancelling, which means you'll have a hard time hearing someone call your name if these are on even at 25% volume. But it adds a LOT to the immersion. Noise canceling also means you'll have that echo-ey sound kind of like you're hearing yourself talk.. You get used to it though.
The dark aluminum frame is nice to the touch, and feels very sturdy. The dark accent with the black band and the RGB ear cups are really nice. Like, nice to the point you could wear them out in public and not feel awkward.
The RGB is completely customizable with the color picker, but not many effects besides the typical breathing and wave. The magnetic ear caps are interesting and nice, but again if you want to buy some custom ones for another $30 or more, the choice is there.
The one thing that annoys me is the proprietary cable that SteelSeries has come up with for the headset. Basically, to use this headset with my phone, I need the special cable to plug into my headset, then take the dongle and attach that to the end to turn it into a 3.5mm jack. If you have an iPhone X or newer, plan on adding that 3.5mm to lightning dongle, and you got a really long, 3 piece headset cable. Nice.
Ah yes, I almost forgot. The Mic is great as well, but very sensitive. The pop filter that comes with the headset is nice, but doesn't help much. Plus, you'll have to take it off everytime you push the Mic into the headset. Eh. I don't use it. Everyone in my discord says I sound great, and I'm happy with my purchase of this headset for sub $200.

16 people found this helpful

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Cody

I really, REALLY miss these headphones.

Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2022

Verified Purchase

I purchased these a couple of years back, and these were hands down the best headset I’ve ever owned. They were extremely comfortable, had amazing sound quality, and the directional audio for gaming was top notch. Unfortunately I ended up dropping them at one point, and one of the headphones had started to come off. It lasted for a while even like that, and they were still great but it definitely made them a lot less comfortable to wear over long gaming sessions. For the price, these headphones are incredible, and I will eventually buy these again, or maybe a newer model at some point in the near future (hopefully). I cannot recommend this headset enough!

One person found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Headset does standout as higher quality then the standard headset

Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2021

Verified Purchase

Alright so the person who recommended me to buy this headset was actually an employee from "Linus Tech Tips" who gave their opinion on one of their videos of their favorite headphone line brand which was Steelseries Arcits. So I opted to find a headset of the $150 budget because I was prepared to pay high for premium and found this headset and was drawned into buying it(I thought in buying this model was the wireless headphones model but still considered keeping it). After setup it was a bad pain and I almost caved to returning it because of all the bad reviews here regarding any of "Steelseries Arctis" headphones, but thankfully I figured out my problem. My only problem with these headphones was the device that was included to plug into the pc and modify the headphones RGB and sound was not working initially. I had to end up disabling "Steelseries Arctis Pro Game" and enable "Steelseries Arctis Pro Chat" in windows sound playback settings. Afterwards the Steelseries application on my pc worked and I setup a profile for my headphones to be green and a sound profile for music. The manual said the Pro Game option was the default to chose but Pro Chat actually works better because the feature work with that option selected in windows so idk what's up with that. As the rest of the headset it's very comfortable to wear. Ears don't seem to get hot after long use (like 4-5 hour sessions). The featured head strap feels great for comfort. I can wear these headphones for a long while and not feel fatigued because of them. The mic it's self is great definetly better than the typical "headset mic" but nothing like a yeti mic, but besides that it's a great mic still. Although I tried the supress background noise on the mic with the included app but did not result much difference so I dock it some points. The headset looks very nice out of the box and semi durable, but I wouldn't drop test it. The materials of the headset look and seem good quality materials. The stems on both sides of the headset between the headset strap and the cups seems very slim and most fragile so I say caution with that. In all I think this headset is still a great buy and I hope this review helps put any interested buyers at ease I sure did go through the motions when it started not working out of the box.

One person found this helpful

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Lupul Carpatin

Great Gaming Headphones with some minor issues

Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2021

Verified Purchase

These headphones are great for gaming. They have good sound quality that allows you to easily hear your enemies footsteps. The software they come with is also great, however it thinks my headphones aren’t connected. And my favorite feature by far is definitely the chat mix dial, it makes every other headset unusable. In terms of reliability I have had this headset for 2 years now and the left earcup has a fracture in the plastic, this is unfortunate but as fair as I hear, this won’t happen to most people, some other people have this problem, but I wouldn’t let this steer you away from buying these headphones. And to end this off I will talk about my biggest gripe with these headphones, the ear pads are absolute garbage. I don’t know what foam they are using, but it really isn’t good. Just recently I picked up a pair of brainwavz oval micro suede earpads, this purchase actually makes the headphones comfortable and useable for long periods of time. In conclusion I would highly recommend these headphones, but if you have the cash to spare I would get the wireless ones for all the extra features they provide.

One person found this helpful

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Daniel Zuniga

They Were Not Joking About “X-Ray” Audio

Reviewed in the United States on November 13, 2022

Verified Purchase

Get the software for these headphones if you are using this on PC. The level of sound precision is absolutely nuts. I’m not a fan of the weird hinge/spin joint at the ear cups (why are these a thing anymore…) but otherwise very impressed.

The cables are bizarre and very tight connections, makes you feel like you’re gonna break them when you connect them because of the force required to push the connections together. There is an inline dial for USB input devices that allows volume dampening in favor of one driver over another. This works for using the chat setting for discord and the game setting as primary audio. You spin the dial and it dampens the sound of one so you can hear the other.

Material seems appropriate based on price range. Plastic all around with an elastic band for elevating the ears of the headset .

There is no way to adjust this headset to headsize as mentioned in many reviews. It fits near nearly perfectly, but I do have moderate jaw discomfort due to TMJ - jaw joint pain. This does have a fair amount of jaw fatigue for me.

5 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Broke in less than a year - Terrible customer service - DO NOT BUY

Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2021

Verified Purchase

I bought these headphones a little over a year ago after doing a bunch of research. They were highly reviewed and while they were expensive, they seemed worth the money. They are not. They are garbage.

They fit fine, the sound quality is good, they look nice. However, the manufacturing quality is terrible. Mine broke from regular use in less than a year. There seems to be a problem with how they've designed the joint between the ear cup and the headband, which results in repeated stress on the plastic during regular use and eventually that leads to the plastic around the hinge breaking. This is a widespread issue (just search for "SteelSeries headphones broke" and you'll find plenty of images and posts about this exact issue).

This would be bad enough for a pair of headphones that costs $180, but the customer service just adds insult to injury. I don't know if this is all the result of a change in manufacturing process, which led to quality control issues, which has led to their Customer Service being flooded or if this is just how they choose to do business, but they are completely non-responsive. I have had a ticket open for a simple RMA for over 2 weeks and they still haven't provided me with the steps needed to complete the process. Every step in takes 3-5 business days to get a response to my ticket. I've attached an image of the banner across the top of their service page that states how overwhelmed they are. This is not the sign of a well run business making quality products.

Spend your money on something else that isn't poorly manufactured garbage and save yourself the hassle.

2 people found this helpful

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skod

Awesome headset overall

Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2020

Verified Purchase

So I've had this product for over a week and it is amazing. For the first few days, I did feel like the headset was a bit too tight and adjusting the ski band made it a bit better but it still felt tight, I continued using it and I felt nice after a few days so I guess I just kinda "broke" into them. the arctics pro is very comfortable, and because it has thick pads the noise canceling is pretty good too. the material doesn't feel cheap, they feel sturdy and like they would last a while. the sound I really good too, I'm not an audiophile but for me, it is very good. I really like how you can customize the sound profile to your taste and it has added presets if you don't know what you're doing. The mic is amazing, it sounds very clear and is of good quality. you can customize the RGB which is a nice touch. overall this is an exceptional headset and I recommend it if you want to do some gaming or just general use. here is a pros and cons list

Pros
Very comfortable headset
good passive noise canceling
materials feel of high quality
ski band is a very good feature
the mic is of high quality and clear
the mute and volume buttons are handy
the RGB is a nice touch.

Cons
can be a bit tight if you have a big head but you will kinda break it in.
if you have on for a very long time it can get hot and it might be uncomfortable.

overall a good headset and I am happy with my purchase

Helpful

Michael Teal

So Close to Great

Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2020

Verified Purchase

So I've recently had the pleasure of trying out the Arctis Pro and now the Arctis Pro Wireless. Here's how it went.

Major Points:
- Audio's good after some tuning.
- Microphone is clear and excellent.
- Management software doesn't feel sluggish.
- Build quality is world-class.
- Not intended for large heads, but can be adjusted.
- Some inconsequential hardware choices are weird.

First comment is that the overall elastic / steel band is not super friendly to very large noggins. On both headsets, I've had to flex the band pretty heavily outward to get it to not pinch me to death (in addition to obviously adjusting the velcro patch on the band to barely grabbing on by a single hook or two). On the bright side, the build quality is fantastic -- on both Arctis Pros, the build feels and looks sturdy. Even the base stations are made of quality components, nothing feels flimsy or thrown together.

The audio quality out of the box is just meh. After adjusting the settings in the SteelSeries Engine, the audio gets MUCH better -- I tend to listen to music a lot, and while I wouldn't use these as studio monitors, they are more than acceptable.

Regardless of interesting marketing points regarding Hi-Res audio, the audio configuration I settled on was a Cinema "surround profile" with a custom equalizer setting that that amps the high end and reduces the low-mid (2, -4, 2, 2, 8 if you want to know), along with Low dialogue enhancement and no bass enhancement. Interestingly and strangely, on either setting, the Stereo Profile caused substantial signal clipping (that fuzzy sound at the top and bottom of the range...there's a more technical explanation, but I'll refrain) not present on the default setting. I would not recommend enabling this setting.

As a final point on the cross-cutting management software -- the SteelSeries Engine 3 -- it is the least ornate and shiny software I've used from a major gaming hardware manufacturer. However, it is also the least sluggish and buggy. I will gladly trade ornamentation for crisp functionality, which really seems to be a theme of the overall headset series. I like it.

Initially I thought the "Arctis Pro" was itself RF wireless (a la G930/G950 -- I am replacing the G935s) while the "Arctis Pro Wireless" added bluetooth. This is incorrect. The "Arctis Pro" is *only* a USB or 3.5mm (and another proprietary cable) wired headset. "Arctis Pro Wireless" has both whatever RF proprietary standard SteelSeries uses, Bluetooth, and *also* the potential to be a wired headset for some consoles and handhelds. Curse of reading too fast, I suppose. Whatever, made a mistake, I'll give the wired headset a fair shot, and here's what I learned.

Two major observations came from trialing the wired headset (the just "Arctis Pro").

First, the connector between the base station and the headset itself is proprietary. It most closely resembles a USB Mini-b 4-pin, but it's more rounded instead of chamfered. This is strange, because the plug itself is certainly of a size that could accept a micro- or C-type USB connector. This persists on the wireless model for the mobile audio cable. Y'all. It's 2020. Get with it. This is a premium headset, we don't do funky connectors.

Second, The rubberized cable connecting to the base station both feels really bad under my arms or touching anything, and also has a tendency to coil up into something a third its overall length. This leaves you slowly leaning further and further towards wherever your base station is. Who needs good posture?

Last comment is that the Pro _Wireless_ base station uses a USB Mini-b 5-pin connector (the one with the squashed-T cross-section), which I haven't seen in...a while now. Not sure why they didn't use the vastly more common Micro-USB B connector, which also has 5 pins? Maybe the proprietary connector actually is Mini-b 4-pin? Who knows? Not consequential for operation, just an interesting hardware choice.

Wireless is largely the same as the wired headset. I enjoy the swappable battery approach, and the audio quality is consistent with the quality from the wired headset. No blinking lights, which doesn't particularly matter, but some folks really enjoy the lights, so there's that.

Note: For some reason, Amazon is asking me how this headset does for noise cancellation. It does no noise cancellation at all. If you want noise cancellation, get the Sony bluetooth headset.

15 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Good headphones, meh mic

Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2024

Verified Purchase

The audio quality is amazing on these! The sound is excellent, and the noise cancelling is great. I love the feedback option so that I can clearly hear myself when speaking. The biggest issue I have however is the microphone.

No matter how I adjust settings, the mic itself has to practically be inside my mouth just to hear a whisper of what I say, so I end up having to set my gain incredibly high just to be heard. This is apparently a known issue with this particular headset so BE WARNED!!! The SteelSeries software does little to nothing to fix this, as it appears to be a hardware issue. Possibly a quality control issue? This is an issue I would expect from some cheaper headsets, not a decently expensive "high quality" set. I have struggled with audio quality issues for a while now and was really hoping this would be a good plug-and-play option but apparently the quest continues.

TLDR: great headset for audio, if you're lucky to get a decently working microphone it is well worth the money, but you run the risk losing out on a good mic due to poor quality control.

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