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SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless Gaming Headset - Lossless High Fidelity 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 it came time to replace my aging Astro A40s on the PC, I did the usual rabbit hole of YouTube headset research and these consistently came up as "best gaming headset ever." time" or "A real 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. Comfort2. Spatial audio3. Sound Quality Comfort: While the design of the ski goggle and “airweave” fabric seems like a good idea on paper, in practice it just isn't enough. The lateral clamping force on these is actually greater than my older A40s and that bothers me as a glasses wearer. Additionally, the headset makes a kind of rubbery "crunching" noise 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 this, moreover the headband, although not made of this glasses material, is more comfortable. Not only was the Arctis pro less comfortable, but the suspension headband isn't as adjustable as it seems. I had to have it near the end of its fit for my head and the velcro closure was already half hanging from its backing just to try and get that extra 2-3cm of reach. Coming back to the clamping force, these helmets tend to "pull" on your skull rather than resting on it. The elastic band of the glasses works like a spring, pulling the earcups upwards, creating a rather unsettling sensation on the side of your face. Spatial Audio: DTS Headphone X 2.0 is touted as the holy grail of positional audio for this headset , it is also the first to support it. The problem is that there is literally no mention of how it is implemented. Should games explicitly support it? Does it magically enhance existing stereo and surround streams? No answer, and no information is given about it, other than a rather silly informational article on the Steelseries website disguised as an "interview" with the lead DTS engineer for Headphone X. Also, theoretically, Headphone X seems misguided. It bills itself as being able to "reproduce the original mixing room audio" of the source material without questioning whether the creator intended that 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 be hollowed out and the soundstage widens but the accuracy actually decreases. I really tried to give my brain time to adjust to it, but some things eventually made me give up. First, the "room simulation" technology in DTS was so aggressive that the orchestral score played during BF1 matches was absolutely ruined by the effect, and second, the female voice announcing key match milestones became so reverberated 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 to the Arctis pros here. The drivers are deep, crisp and clean after tweaking the EQ to my liking (slight bass boost and tiny mid drop / tiny treble boost) I found the stereo presentation quite pleasing, full-bodied, if rather "closed" in terms of sound compared to the semi-open A40 and A50. 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 snappy and fast, and turning the DTS Headphone X on/off is a push of a button. I've tested Hi-Res mode but have no content (and few to no games actually support 24bit/96Khz) to prove its worth. I just used the tracks from my iTunes store to experiment with Hi-Res mode and only heard the smallest of differences in the "smoothness" of the presentation of the tracks, something for which I may have been cognitively biased 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 Steelseries deal. It takes two things for this product to succeed and it doesn't: 1. Ditch DTS for Dolby because Headphone X's spatial signature is horrible every time I've experienced it. 2. 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're tearing up a mountain, comfort is secondary. Why take inspiration from a product that doesn't even aim to achieve your primary goal? Although my older A40s don't sound as good, their Dolby Audio Spatial Tuning is solid without too much distortion or muddy room effects added to the game sound. I'll wait for another offer from Steelseries or just see what Astro has in store for us next.