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

Comparing to the Hyperx cloud 2 (which i paid the same amount for) these are not as comfortable and do not have equivalent sound quality. If this headset were wired it would be around $60-$70 or so. So yeah you are paying for wireless, but nothing really amazing in terms of overall quality. Sound quality 7/10 If youre trying to listen to music it seems you have to leave the EQ untouched, otherwise your bass is going to be too loud and cause a very noticeable, very bothersome static/ vibrating noise. If youre looking to play games it depends on what you play. Things like car engines/ jet planes should be very loud, with deep bass for immersion and its the same issue as with music- this headset doesnt produce a ton of bass without making bad vibes. I recommend leaving the EQ Flat- with no bass boost. It seems that is the only way I can turn the headset up as loud as it can go and not have noticeable static/ vibrations. However, once youve found what works best for you the sound is pretty clear, and once you get used to the overall sound it does has enough depth to satisfy your ears. Comfortability is 8/10 I can wear it for hours and it never becomes noticeably uncomfortable/ painful, only after many many hours is it a little bothersome, but really just taking the headset off for 5 minutes is more than enough, really I cant think of anything I can do all day without being uncomfortable, so yeah they are fine, but still not nearly as comfortable as my Hyperx Cloud 2. (They have leather ear cups and headband, definitely nicer than the materials used on the Arctis 7) It isnt a bad headset overall, but lacks anything which makes it very good, other than being wireless. I would recommend it if you want less immersion than a wired headset of the same price- but with the freedom of Bluetooth.

These worked great for a little over 2 years before they started getting a lot of static when adjusting volume and having overall sound issues. Id expect something with this price to last longer. But while they worked they were fantastic headphones.

Would be amazing if it didn’t add its own programs to the computer and I don’t want it.

Ive gone through a lot of high end headphone including, logitech, corsair, razer, sennheiser, sony, jbl, turtle,hyperx, beyerdynamics,sony, boss, lucid sound,technica, and jabra-just to name a few. Ive owned some that werent aimed at gaming with price tags over 1k, focal, grado, onkyo. The arctis 7 I think are the best bang for the buck, the software is very intuitive with my frp games, the lossless sound once adjusted and maximized is excellent. The biggest thing is the fit, they dont squish my ear in any way, they dont fall off my head when i have to bend down and pick up the pizza I just dropped before the dog gets it. The buttons are placed so you dont change settings while turning them off and on. You know which button your pressing by the feel. No they dont sound as good as the over 1k headphones when playing music, but for gaming the Arctis is an excellent choice.

Okay, these SHOULD be pretty nice headphones for $150, BUT there are quite a few caveats that put me off of these. I noticed a few other reviews mention these issues. These issues bothered me so much I returned them. Simply NOT worth the price! First off, I wear headphones 12-18 hours a day, 7 days a week. For work, recreation, and to help me fall asleep. I know headphones, and have a decent collection of a dozen or so. 1) HOLY DISTORTION, BATMAN! Listening to music at volumes any of my other headphones can handle (including the cheap-o $30 bluetooth units), these units produce massive amounts of distortion. I cannot believe how bad these are at volumes over 50%! Give it one tonal range to cover, and it seems to do okay, but toss in two or three (like bass guitar and a high-hat at the same time.... or, ya know, almost all music) and suddenly you cant make out what youre listening to anymore. 2) The volume roller is EXTREMELY easy to accidentally adjust. I mean, unbelievably easy. I am CONSTANTLY messing with the volume when adjusting the headphones or mic, and since its so loose its almost impossible to dial in just the right volume. Very very annoying! 3) Theres no media controls on these. Why? A push-button volume button combination would easily solve the too easy to adjust volume, and allow media controls through long presses. 4) The ear pieces are EXTREMELY hot. I wear headphones quite a bit, but these burn my ears up in a matter of minutes, which makes me adjust or remove them temporarily. This also reiterates point #2 in that the volume knob is ALWAYS being adjusted by accident. 5) These block absolutely no out-side sound, and people often can hear what I am listening to or playing. This doesnt make sense since the ear-pads dont seem to allow ANY airflow. 6) The mic disable button turns ON a light........ What? So when your mic is on, theres no light. When you mic is OFF, such as when listening to music, hanging out, whatever, theres BRIGHT RED LED on 100% of the time....... Huh???? How does this make sense? 7) the audio volume is easily 1/3 of every other headphone I own. I crank every setting up to 100% just to be equal to 30% on any other headset... Why? 8) mic is garbage!!!! I cant imagine anyone with any sense of intelligence thinking this mic is anything other than painfully sub par. Everything either sounds tinny, or incredibly digital (like using one of those $5 voice oscillators that make you sound like a robot. 9) while the ear pads do go around your ears, the speaker mesh is too shallow and will contact your ears. This makes it unbearable by itself, but combined with every other issue..... 10) FINALLY the surround sound effect is negligable. Playing the same surround sound tests, I cannot tell a difference between regular 2.0 phones and these. At all. Theres also a VERY VERY VERY specific place you HAVE to position these, or youll only hear about 70% of what its putting out. Unfortunately the VERY SPECIFIC spot these must be placed is absolutely HORRIBLE. You must bend and fold your ears to position them even remotely correctly. 11) I know I said 10 was the final number, but it brings me to another point. These are so uncomfortable in almost every way. After a short session your jaw will hurt, as the bottoms press right into the hinge of your jaw, your ears will hurt and be sweaty from the complete lack of ventilation (its like putting your ears in a wool coat in July in Florida -- a swamp!) From a company that specializes in headphones, these are full of awfully poor design choices! One of the worst overall headsets Ive ever owned. Do not recommend to anyone for any purpose!

I purchased the SteelSeries Arctis 7 Wireless headphones after a disappointing experience with a Logitech G903 and I have to say there is no comparison. For sound quality these are great at the 100-150 price-point these do well compared with other options. It is important to note that these are not noise canceling so if you are in a noisy environment they will not isolate you that much from your surroundings. The real selling point with these though is the battery life; I still get 15-16 hours out of a single charge after a year of constant use. This is dramatically better than any other wireless headset I have ever used and really makes this product for me. The only issues I have with this product are relatively minor. First the charging is done via a micro-usb cable and I would like to see this updated to use the more modern usb-c. Second the strap that sits between the top of the headset and the users head makes a relatively poor method for securing the device to your person and makes it unusable in anything more intense than a VR experience Seeing as micro-usb is still somewhat relevant and this is not marketed as a sports headset I do not see either of these as serious issues. TLDR: Great battery, good price and quality.

I really wanted to like this headset and have it be the one I relied on for many years. Unfortunately, that is not going to happen. Ive recently switched to a Logi PRO X set and like it much better. Out of the box, they worked great. I am on a Win 10 machine, updated, nothing goofy about the setup or anything. Then, they started disconnecting randomly mid-game. This became predictable and happened 1-3 times per session, and I only game for a few hours at a time tops. I dealt for a while, relocated the adapter, checked for interference in my home to the best of my ability. It ended up just stopping one day randomly, kind of like how it started. Fast forward a couple of months of it working without issue. Suddenly disconnects again AND with the update to SSGG 22.0, the EQ broke. I tried every fix I could find online. Reinstalled, reset button on the unit, etc... I can only get the EQ and Sidetone (which I rely on) working if I do this goofy dance of powering it off/on/off/saving an EQ change/reverting the change. But, when they inevitably disconnect shortly after that - it undoes all that and EQ/Sidetone is broken again. Sigh.... Dont bother. I lament not having gone Logi initially, since thats my usual go-to brand for stuff like this.

The headset materials do not feel cheap, they feel well made and sturdy with the metal band on the top with a rubber matte under side which your head never hits due to the comfortable ski goggle band. The ear cups on this 2019 version are super soft and provide enough cushioning so my ears arent bothered by the speakers and the whole headset is nice and light along with the Arctis 7 being wireless, makes this headset nice and comfortable for long gaming sessions. The mic is great quality and has been notably better than my previous headset (Razer Kraken 7.1 Chroma) as noted by my friends through discord (Also the headset is detected up by discord as a certified input/output device). One of the things I dislike (which is also helpful) about the headset is that if you turn the volume wheel above 90% there is a slight static that I hear. This isnt a problem for me as the headset is loud enough where I keep the volume wheel around 70-80%. The static sound actually helps me if I accidentally slide the volume wheel to 100% when I put the headset on I can hear the static and know to reduce the volume under 90% until the static goes away so I wont get blasted by audio when I watch a youtube video or start a game. There is also a Program you can download called the SteelSeries Engine 3 (which isnt needed for the headset to work) to change settings such as mic sidetone, power options, bass enhancement, equlizer, dynamic range compression, surround settings (although the surround sound wasnt as good as my previous Razer Kraken 7.1 headset) and more. There is also apps in the SteelSeries Engine 3 that work along side other SteelSeries devices Such as PrismSync, AudioVisualizer, ImageSync and apps for games and programs like CSGO, Minecraft, iFeelPixel, Tidal (Coming soon), Dota 2, Utopia 9 and Discord. Overall this headset exceeds my expectations and is worth the price. I have only been using the headset for about a week now so I will keep this review updated if I have any problems with it. :D

WARNING: Not Plug and Play. Do NOT buy this headset if your system is not administered by you. tl;dr: arrived with a non-functioning mic, otherwise as described. after trying the usual techsupport options (off then on again, settings, hardware reset, change port, change pc, etc) the fix was (seemingly) installation of the companys bloatware. If you dont have install privileges and/or dont want to install bloatware you should look for a different product. This product is decent, with a nice design and good fit. The strap that sits on your head is comfortable and provides a better wear experience than others Ive used. They feel lighter than they are, more like a AKG M220 and (thankfully imo) less like a ASTRO A50. Noise isolation is decent like any closed back headphone, enough that you will want to push one cup behind your ear to have conversations with someone. The mics audio quality is above average for a headset mounted mic, though below average for a stand alone one. The retractable mic seems like a plus, assuming it doesnt become a point of failure. The mute and volume/mixing controls are fine, the audio jack is a nice inclusion but the USB audio jack and cord are fragile. Id be wary of using it daily or for anything important. Look and feel are good, better than a Turtle Beach and on pad with Astros. The hinges and controls feel decent. The only thing that comes of as cheap to me are the USB ports and USB audio cable. Honestly a single USB C solution (or a robust USB B failing that) would be better than going with frail mini/micro options. Packaging and documentation was spartan but fine. The box protected the headphones and was easy to open. Included documentation was spartan but fine. The major failure here was nothing written about the mic needing the companys bloatware to work. Manufacturer support is minimal, web based CS portal and links to their bloatware. No standalone drivers, no forum or faq. The final verdict is that this headset is decent enough once the mic is fixed (see above). If you can get it on sale and handle the mic issue the 7 is an option to consider.

So first off, I cant go into much detail with this headset because I returned it after 1-2 hours of use for design choices and personal reasons. Pros: -Sound was amazing compared to my old Logitech G332 headset. -The software was easy to use and allowed me to adjust the EQ and mic levels separate from windows mic levels. -Wireless worked right away, and the buttons on it were just fine for me. -Seemed like a high quality build with good materials -Mic level, not quality, was just as good when pulled out vs pushed in Cons: -Heavy for me -Earpads were uncomfortable with my glasses. After an hour the frame of my glasses was hurting behind my ears. -You would think leather would be better in some cases. Not for me. It was hot, sweaty, and just uncomfortable. -Mic was SUPER loud at full volume. Turned it down to 20% in the software to get a good level. -While switching in between my old logitech G332 and this one, my friend who I talked to the most in discord, said the logitech sounded way better and its no that great of a mic to begin with. -The most annoying thing to me was the dongle. If it were a tiny usb dongle like youd find on a keyboard or mouse, awesome. (Guess I didnt notice it in the pictures) But its a circular dongle with only like 3ish feet of cord. It did have a line in and out for aux cords, but NO USB on it for charging from it. So I had to add the charging cable to my PC case (Would be nice if it could wirelessly charge from the dongle, then the dongle would make sense), (Currently I have a splitter for my speakers and headset so I can switch between without having to go through windows sound control works great due to the long aux cord) but this aux cord left me with more wires than before and a mess in front of my keyboard. -The included aux cable is also very short, mostly for controllers, but you can just use a longer TRRS aux cord if you need. -Also the mic is not spring loaded and would not stay in place. It kept rising up to eye level, over time Im sure itd break in, but since you have to push and pull it in and out, after a year or so I could see it bending and kinking. -I have ears that stick out a little and they were touching the drivers. For the price of $120 at the time I just couldnt bring myself to keep them. If I have to convince myself to keep them then they arent what I was looking for. Going to try the Razor Kaira Pro or the Logitech G935.