SteelSeries Arctis 7 - Lossless Wireless Gaming Headset with DTS Headphone: X v2.0 Surround - for PC and PlayStation 4 - Black

I had to give these things some time before I wrote a review. I have had several turtle beach headsets over the past couple years. And they all broke within the time I have had these Arctis 7. The physical build quality is beyond any headset I have ever had. I have gone through three sets of Sony ps4 (2 gold, 1 platinum) headsets in a year. All broke at the foldable hinges. I went through 5 turtle beach headsets (4 600 stealth, 1 elite pro) in 2 years. All broke at the cheap plastic extensions. Yes, including the elite pros. The Arctis 7 is made of metal. Even the rotating cups have metal hinges! These things are solid. I game a lot. I mean a LOT. And the metal frame hasnt even lost its grip on my head. The elastic headband is comfortable and adjustable. I have a larger than average head and they still fit me perfectly. Super comfortable for extended gaming sessions. I didnt believe the battery life until I got them fully charged and ran a 13 hour marathon one night. The next day they still have a good 5 hour charge left. So the battery life is no joke. Even after running them all the way down, the recharge time only took a few hours. Cant really remember how long exactly. It wasnt terribly long. Sound quality isnt what Im used to hearing however. The mids and highs are good, the bass is very flat. I wish they had a lot more oomph to them. I might be able to get more out of them through the equalizer. In order to use the equalizer you have to connect the arctis 7 to a PC or laptop and install the program. Its a simple program to use too. Be aware however, the DTS 7.1 setup is only compatible with PC, not ps4. There is virtually no noise cancellation. The foam around the ears is reasonable but not the greatest at shutting down outside sound. The microphone is very quiet. I had to turn up my mic level nearly all the way for anyone to hear me. And even then I still have to talk louder than I prefer. The range of the wireless receiver is awesome. I can go into my bedroom behind the wall and not lose connection at all. No wire connection to your game controller for microphone use either. Simple plug and play. I did have to change my sound/devices settings on my ps4 to all audio in order to get any sound. So you wont have any sound on your television unless you change it back to chat audio even with the headset shutoff. Overall I love this headset. The sound quality could be better for the price, but they are so comfortable and the super solid build quality wins my approval. If anything happened to these, I would buy another set no questions asked.

First of all, I had to send my unit back because 1) the stock cord never charged the headset (I had to charge with another a micro usb cord). 2) The battery indicator in the application never worked. With that said, I did like the Arctis 7. Sometimes I wish I still had it and it just worked. I play a game that takes forever to get into an online session or I have a long wait if I host an activity. Walking to the bathroom or kitchen and hearing what is going on in the game was very useful as I could head back when the music or atmosphere changes and Im in a lobby. That is about as much usefulness as I lost. It took about 2 weeks for me to really get the hang of the headphones. It was heavier than what it replaced and so my neck and head got fatigued after a few hour-long sessions. The DTS:X v2 I didnt find that much of a difference between the Windows Sonic for headphones. It sounded fine, but I wasnt wowed, especially compared to a pair of $13 gaming 7.1 usb headphones (TT-EP006). So here are the details. Comfort: Heavier because of wireless battery, but eventually you will get used to it. Fit: The clamping force wasnt enough, I move my head up too fast or look left or right, they dislodge a bit. Sound: To paraphrase Zeos: If a your headphones are made by the same company that made your keyboard, the sound is crap Gaming: It has nice features for chat/sound mix, never noticed any lag. Features: Wireless range was nice and auto-shutoff worked well. Battery: Battery life kind of sucked and battery indicator and low battery warning system is terrible.

Wireless headsets are hard to find satisfying for me, but Ive heard lots of great things about the Arctis series. I decided to give it a shot September 2020. The sound quality isnt all that praiseworthy. Handles treble great at lower volumes, bass is pretty lackluster all around. Im used to Sennheiser headsets because I dont like to compromise sound quality all that often, but I wanted something a little friendlier for streaming and gaming in general so I was okay with the drop in quality. The mixer feature is really convenient and probably my favorite feature of the whole headset. It allows you to balance two different audio feeds straight from your headset which, if managed properly, is incredible for low budget streaming purposes. It is, however, very unconventional if you want to lay down and chat as the dials often get caught so youll often find your headset muted if youre not careful enough. Retractable mic is mighty convenient as the quality of it is poor. Definitely gives your voice that VoIP effect. Again, not bad if youre streaming/need a multi mic set up for whatever reason. Comes with a mute button for convenience. Comfort is by far the best experience Ive had for a wireless headset, compared to Astros or Turtle Beaches, but is still rather uncomfortable. I upgraded to (~$15, 3rd party) pleather ear covers which felt essential because filth easily clings to the default cloth kind. It has an adjustable strap on top for tightness, but I found that after prolonged use, no adjusting could save me from the ear fatigue. If I didnt rest my ears by using my speakers, it would lead to headaches. The most frustrating part of this mediocre experience has been that after only 9 months, the headset has decided to stop functioning wirelessly, defeating the entire purpose of the purchase for me. The headset never leaves my desk except for the occasional tv binging session. It showed signs of stopping, such as turning off randomly by itself despite having active audio feeds. Then it stopped holding charge altogether. The take away from this lengthy review is DO NOT ORDER FROM THIS SELLER. Steelseries products have a warranty for 1 year IF YOU PURCHASE FROM AN AUTHORIZED VENDOR. I tried contacting them thinking I would be covered because I had the invoice for my Steelseries product and followed their steps to the tee. Unfortunately, since I purchased from this vendor, who is impossible to get in contact with, Im stuck with a faulty product that could have otherwise been fixed. Apparently, this is a fairly common issue for these headsets to have (thus the year warranty). Its not the worst product, but its not worth purchasing from unauthorized vendors such as this one.

I got the Arctis 7 to replace my Arctis Pro Wireless and the white noise/hiss issue it has. I loved the Pro Wireless and I was hoping it would be similar enough headset wise to use but thats not the case. I give this headset a 3.5 / 5. Be warned that you cannot return this headset through Amazon. PROS: -Build quality is decent but its not aluminum like the Arctis Pro Wireless -Headset is lighter in weight than Arctis Pro -Fit is great and I love the ski goggle design, although my ears hurt after a long days working (9+ hours) -Steelseries headsets look very slick and not flashy or huge like the GSP670 -Retractable mic is a nice feature -Mic quality is good but sounds nasally -Connection distance is great and doesnt disconnect or distort when walking around -Battery life is great with 20+ hours of use NEUTRAL: -Sound quality is not good but not terrible either. You will definitely need to mess with the EQ to get it to sound right unless you like everything flat. Even setting the EQ to get things to my liking, the soundstage felt lacking. The sound signature is not the same as the Pro Wireless, which was to be expected. The bass is weak, which can strangely be remedied on the Pro Wireless with DTS 2.0, but not here. DTS 2.0 on the 7 muddies everything up. The headset doesnt handle higher frequencies well if you turn them up. They sound too harsh and clip. In games, things seemed quiet so I always had to crank the headset volume up. Then when I go listen to music or something else its blaring loud. The Pro Wireless wins in sound quality but has that white noise issue. CONS: -Headset does have a white noise/hiss issue but its nowhere close to the Arctis Pro Wireless. This only happens when the headset volume is set to the absolute minimum or maximum, regardless of the system volume setting. Setting the volume wheel 1/4 to 3/4 of the way wont trigger it. Even then, its not that loud. -Poor EQ settings. While you get 6 bars of EQ control vs. 5 on the Pro Wireless, they are not the same frequencies or normal EQ frequencies that you can control. For some reason, the Arctis 9 gets 10 bars. If you want full EQ control, you need a third party tool. -Like the Arctis Pro Wireless, there is a static sound when I stop/pause/mute audio regardless of media source, type, or volume. For some reason this only happens on Steelseries headsets. I cant recommend this headset if you are serious about your sounds in gaming. I can only recommend it if you are on a budget or dont care about sounds and just want a wireless headset. For me, I ended up going with the Audio-Technica ATH-G1WL which sounds better than both the Arctis 7 and Pro Wireless.

The headset is just the right weight--it doesnt fall off your head if you dont wear a hat. The batter life and the range are incredible so you arent constantly charging or losing connection as you walk around the house. I have used other brands, but im never changing now unless the quality drops at some point.

I bought this headset in 2019. As of writing this review, I have had it for 2 years and it still works great for me. Really like the ability to hardware mute my microphone. Feels much more comfortable than relying on software mute on some programs. I have plugged the dongle into Mac, Linux and windows and it works fine on each of them without having to install extra drivers. (Though some minor features may be missing without the extra drivers) While the soft ear pieces lasted a long while, they started to not smell so great after a while (I probably should have been washing some more frequently). So I bought some spares online for around 6 bucks and have had no issues. One of the double edge sword aspects of it is it has two audio channels. One for gaming and one for chat. You can tell separate programs to use one of the other and adjust the volume balance on them using the right knob. Sometimes I accidentally bump it too far in one direction and will be playing a game and hear the game just fine, but wont be hearing friends on discord, not realizing this for a while.

Review for the 2019 Arctis 7. Love the design and build quality. Materials and sound quality are completely solid, but I had to take off one star because of some strange behaviors out of the box. I charged them fully (or so I thought) before using them. I thought it was weird that the mic LED was flashing red for a few hours then turned off. The next day I tried them out while working and noticed below average sound quality (static and terrible bass range). I was actually quite disappointed and thought there was no way these would get such good reviews with this sound quality. This was also during/after tweaking the SteelSeries Engine Software. I looked into the issue and found some users required a firmware update to get things going. I hadnt been prompted to update my headset and noted that my Headset and Transmitter were at 1.19.0.0 and firmware at 2.3.0.0. Not finding any success in updating I initiated a hard reset by pinning the button under the left ear cup for ~20 seconds and repairing with the transmitter (hold ~5sec and headset for ~6sec). I immediately saw a change when the charge LED flashed green. I hopped back into the software, and although my software/firmware versions didnt change, my headset now indicated I had a full battery and sound quality dramatically improved. I hope this helps if some of you are experiencing the same thing! Sound quality and Comfort: I still have my wired Bose QCs for noise cancelling head down work, these are a great substitute when mobility is a plus. Sound quality is comparable with a little tweaking in the SS Engine Software. Although Im not too convinced of the 7.1 surround quality, it is enjoyable. The headset is also very comfortable, both on the ears and on the head. They are pretty light compared to some other headsets. This helps if youre going to use them for extended periods of time.

I had my headphones for one year and today, the microphone snapped off, I tried to detach the microphone and only use the audio function because I have a mic on my PC but the wiring is all connected and I pulled the ear apart. This is great for audio but poor for talking. Keep that in mind when making this purchase.

I spend multiple hours researching wireless over-the-ear headsets and finally came down to the Arctis 5 and the 7. I however did not put the 9 or Pro series in the mix due to my use-case and cost. From a gaming perspective, the audio switching from game to discord voice chat is amazing, given that I select the correct audio option (there is a Game and Chat option for audio to make this work correctly). Its so convenient to fade out the game audio to hear voice chat a little better rather than digging through game options mid game and wasting time, especially when seconds matter. Same with when my friends are talking too loud and I need to focus on the game. From a music/audio perspective, this headset offers a very good audio mixer to adjust playback to the exact way I like to listen to music. The 7.1 surround makes movies sound exactly as they were intended to be watched. Battery life is amazing, Im able to use the headset all day and then some on just a single charge, which was a huge deal for me. I had a pair of wired Razer Megalodons before this and was worried that battery life was going to be an issue, but so far Ive been blown away by the 7s performance. Ive used the mic one time during a voice chat session and was immediately told it sounded terrible when compared to my Blue Snowball. So if you do not have an external mic, do not expect perfection from this headset. But, this is common among headset mics.

You know, I want so much to love this headset. In fact, I do, BUT.... This is my second round with this thing. I can say off the top that while the sound quality is great and the dual volume controls are great. Noon e complains that I cut in and out or they cant really hear me- NONE of that technical piece is missing. I have a friend that I game with who has the same headset and he sounds great and there is never any issue. I can even walk almost to the end of my driveway before really starting to cut out. I hate the charging port. I dont think it is sturdy on the inside. I try to be very cautious and deliberate about plugging in the cable, because with my first one, the port completely went into the head-set and I couldnt charge it. Thus the need for round two. I think there needs to be guidance about the multiple settings though that appear in the sound... Arctis chat v. Arctis game...because it is not as intuitive as it seems. This had never happened before, but this last week I got a loud mechanical buzz sound that was fixed when I switched to the other of the two. Whenever it happens, I figure I just picked the wrong one...then I switch to the other and its fine. So not sure what thats about. My friend and I both are starting to notice that and cant seem to figure out why. I like this headset primarily because it is light on my head. I like the dual volume controls, I like the sound quality especially, but not the charging port and this new recent-fixable- buzz noise.