SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless Gaming Headset - High Fidelity Lossless Wireless + Bluetooth for PS5/PS4 and PC - White

First a bit of history: I've owned and loved many SteelSeries products in the past, from the Senei to the Xai and arguably my favorite PC gaming headset, the Siberia V2. So when did it come time to replacing my aging Astro A40s on the PC, I've done the usual rabbit hole of YouTube search for headsets and these have consistently come up as "the best gaming headset ever" or "A true competitor to the Astro A50" (in the case of the wireless version). So I pulled the trigger. There were a few things I was looking for in a helmet: 1. Comfort 2. Spatial audio 3. Sound quality Comfort: Although the design of the ski goggle and “airweave” fabric seems to be, on the paper a good idea, in practice not enough. The lateral clamping force on these is actually greater than my old A40s and that bothers me as a glasses wearer. Also the headset emits a kind of deep, rubberized "crunch" when you flex your jaw or move your head as the material slides against the temples of your glasses. On the contrary, the "fuzzy" material of the A40s never did that, plus the headband , although not made of this eyewear material, is more comfortable. Not only was the Arctis pro less comfortable, the suspension headband isn't as adjustable as it seems I must have had it near the end of its fit for my head and the velcro closure was already half hanging at its just supporting to try and get that extra 2-3cm reach. Coming back to the clamping force, these headsets tend to "pull" on your skull rather than resting on it. The elastic band of the goggles works like a spring, pulling the earcups upwards, creating a rather unsettling sideways sensation. of your face. Spatial Audio: DTS Headphone X 2.0 is touted as the holy grail of positional audio for this headset, it's also the first to support it. The problem is, there's literally no mention on how it's implemented. Do games have to explicitly support it? Does it magically enhance existing stereo and surround streams? shares a rather silly informational article on the Steelseries website disguised as an "interview" with lead DTS engineer for Headphone X. of the original mixing room" of the source material without questioning whether the creator intended this to happen from the start. Take Battlefield 1's excellent sound design, for example: when DTS is enabled, (tested with all game settings), the audio tends to to be hollowed out and the soundstage widens, but the accuracy actually decreases. I tried really hard to give my brain time to adjust to it, but some things eventually made me give up. First, the technology of "hall simulation" in DTS was so aggressive that the orchestral score played during BF1 matches was absolutely ruined by the effect, and secondly, the female voice announcing the key stages of the match became so echoed that I had to check my settings. again and again. It seems to me, at least for game audio, that Dolby has been taking over DTS for years and that trend doesn't seem to be reversing anytime soon. Sound Quality: Spatial audio aside, I have to give that's to the Arctis pros here. Drivers are deep, crisp and clean after tweaking the EQ to my liking (slight bass boost and tiny treble drop). mids / tiny treble boost) I found the stereo presentation to be quite nice, full-bodied, albeit rather "closed" in terms of sound compared to the semi-open A40s and A50s. I've played a few tunes in iTunes and A/B tested my Steelseries with my older A40s and the Steelseries usually come out slightly ahead. They sound "brighter". Conclusion: The GameDac is nice, the menus are really fast and fast, and you only need to press a button to turn the DTS Headphone X on/off. I tested Hi-Res mode but got no content ( and little to no game actually supports 24bit/96Khz) to prove its worth. I simply used tracks from my iTunes store to experiment with Hi-Res mode and heard only the smallest of differences in "smoothness" of track presentation, something I may have been cognitively biased towards, so a blind test might have been better for me. For the price I paid and for what I wanted (something to absolutely wow my old A40s) I didn't get the real deal from Steelseries There are two things needed for this product to be successful and it fails to do this: 1. Ditch DTS for Dolby as Headphone X's spatial signature is horrible every time I've experienced it. Redo the comfort and fit of these headphones, the idea of ​​"ski goggles" is cute but ski goggles aren't meant to be the holy grail of comfort, they're designed to stay on your skull while you tear a mountain, comfort is secondary. Why take inspiration from a product that does not even aim to achieve your primary objective? Although my old A40s don't sound as good, their Dolby Spatial audio tuning is solid without too much distortion or muddy room effects added to the game sound. I'll wait for another offering from Steelseries or just see what Astro then reserves for us.