Product Manufacturer: SteelSeries
Price: $499 RRP
Estimated Time With Gear: 40+ hours

What Is It?: A wired headset with a DAC
Compatible With: All consoles and PC

I’ve been using the Steelseries Arctis Nova Pro’s for a while now, and apart from a few minor issues, it was obvious this was a quality headset right out of the box. This is a premium headset that doesn’t scream gamer, can work with (nearly) any combination of gear you’ve got, sounds fantastic and is going to be comfy for (almost) every head size. 

Let’s start with how it looks because, from the moment I took this thing out of the box, I was impressed with how non-gamer it looked. I am noticing this is becoming more prominent with “gamer” headsets. However, I’m sure there’s always going to be the market for big flashing neon-sign headsets — they’re not what I’m particularly after. The Arctis Nova Pro’s are a sleek black colour and feature two subtle Steelseries logos on the ears. You can purchase different coloured bands and plate sets on the Steelseries website, but I’d be more interested in a custom “Explosion Network” logo for the headset. There’s a scroll wheel for volume around the ear, alongside a button to mute the microphone, which is hidden away very well. At first, I didn’t even notice it and found it hard to get the mic (I’ll come back to the microphone audio quality in a little bit) out to use. I’ll take that as a positive because this headset definitely pasts the test of being comfortable to wear out in public without fear of people noticing you’re wearing a gaming headset. 

There are a couple of different versions of the Steelseries Arctis Nova Pro’s, which is where things become a little unnecessarily confusing. There’s the wired and wireless version and the Xbox and non-Xbox versions of the wired and wireless Arctis Nova Pro’s. The difference between these is that the Xbox version lets you connect to the Xbox Series X|S, while the other doesn’t. It comes down to the DAC (digital-to-analogue convertor) with two USB-C slots on the back. On the PS5/PC version of the headset, you’ll have the option of hooking up a PS5, PC and even a Nintendo Switch to these two USB-C spaces while being able to flick between them on the DAC unit. With the Xbox version, one of the USC-C slots is dedicated to the Xbox, meaning you can only connect a PS5/PC/Switch to the other slot, but you couldn’t connect any of those in the Xbox slot. I’m reviewing the Xbox Wired edition of the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro’s, and I’ve tried it on every console and my PC, but I’ve mainly been using the DAC and headset connected to my PS5, with the bright green Xbox-flavoured box sitting on the desk next to me and I’ve had no issues. 

Yes, if that all sounds complicated and a little bit silly, I think so too. 

You can plug the headset directly into the end of your DualSense controller, PC or anything else via its 3.5mm jack. You’ll still get the fantastic sound quality within the headphones’ 40mm Neodymium Drivers. Connecting to the DAC, however, I did notice an improvement, especially when playing games like Gran Turismo 7 and Avicii Invector on my PS5. On Gran Turismo 7, the use of spatial audio is a showcase with the sounds of the cars ricocheting off walls and surrounding your eardrums. At the same time, Avicii Invector was louder when plugged in via the DAC and a much more enjoyable experience.