Redefining the ‘Premium’ Gaming Headset

I feel no compunction telling you the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite gaming headset wasn’t made for most of the people reading this review. How premium is it? It costs $600.

It comes with a special GameHub that will hook up to three consoles or PCs at once to let you seamlessly swap between all your devices. It also costs $600. It has some of the best premium audio I’ve heard from a gaming headset all year. It will ask you to fork over $600 for the privilege. The Arctis Nova Elite chock-full of small amenities, which combines with all the other features to make the gaming headset so simple to operate. All, for $600. It’s easily the most expensive headset I’ve used, which makes it that much more annoying when I admit I enjoyed it as much as I did.

The SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite isn’t doing anything we haven’t seen before, even when its price tag is one of the highest we’ve seen. The $400 Logitech G Astro A50 X used a large base for video passthrough to hook up all your devices to one place. The more recent $180 Astro A20 X does something similar to the Arctis Nova Elite, though with only two instead of three outputs for different consoles on a miniature station.  SteelSeries’ ultra-premium device isn’t the first to use a miniature OLED screen to display your headset settings, either. The $400 Razer Kraken V4 Pro’s base station lacks the extra console and PC outputs, but its metal frame feels more premium when it’s sitting on your desk than SteelSeries’ plastic.

SteelSeries was adamant this is the first “Hi-Res” gaming headset, mostly due to it receiving certification from the Japan Audio Society. But there are other companies promising their gaming headsets can offer players the audiophile experience. Gizmodo Senior Writer James Pero recently reviewed the $360 VZR Model One MK II hi-fi headest. My ears are still begging me to return to the brilliant tones of the Sony Inzone H9 II, which used the same audio drivers as the class-leading Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones. So, no, this is not the first gaming headset with any variety of audiophile-level sound.

Instead, the Arctis Nova Elite is the first gaming headset I’ve used that has everything (and like an everything bagel, that certainly won’t please everyone). It’s sporting some quality active noise cancellation (ANC), though not the best in its class. Its audio capabilities are certainly top tier (though I may still prefer the Sony Inzone H9 II for pure gaming audio bliss). The headset makes connecting to every one of my devices seamless, and it supports four separate streams of simultaneous audio (though it will require downloading the Arctis app to your phone and the GG app to your computer to adjust equalization options for each device individually). The Arctis Nova Elite is built for the dedicated gamer, the one who has one spot in their home where they play. In that very specific case, this is one of the best headsets I’ve used.

The best for everything?

There’s no getting around it. The Arctis Nova Elite alone costs more than a PlayStation 5 console even after price hikes. I’ve used enough SteelSeries headsets to know its typical design ethos. In effect, the Arctis Nova Elite is an upgraded version of the Nova Pro Wireless, with metallic frames and a metallic volume wheel. This gaming headset looks especially good with its cream and gold colorway. I just don’t know if anything about the it desgin reads that it’s worth so much money.

The sound is where things matter, and that’s what the Arctis Nova Elite has got going for it. The twin carbon fiber drivers offer a clean audio presence at its baseline. It’s capable of lossless 24-bit, 96kHz wireless audio, though consoles like the Xbox Series X and PS5 are limited to 48k/16-bit. It may take a few hours of listening, but eventually I came to recognize the Arctis Nova Elite’s true potential once I put it through its paces in various titles of various styles.

If you’re so used to shoving your AirPods in your ears every morning commute, hearing quality audio from a dedicated hi-fi headset can honestly leave you in tears. You’ll start to identify subtleties placed by careful hands in the songs you’ve heard a million times before. There’s a reason some people become obsessed with audio quality. Once you reach the top of the mountain, it’s that much more difficult to crawl back down and live among the rocks and weeds.

Once I connected the Arctis Nova Elite to my phone, I wasn’t forced to disconnect from PC or consoles. It makes living your life inside the headset easier. I couldn’t stand it for too long, though. While the memory foam cups are plush with a pillow-like softness surrounding my ears, the headset wants to hug my head tighter than others to get that perfect seal. There was a growing pressure between my eyes as I used it, forcing me to take intermittent breaks.

The Arctis Nova Elite could easily be my one and only gaming headset. That being said, I don’t really know many people who bother with more than one. SteelSeries suggested it could be your audio buddy even when you’re not near your couch or desk. The gaming headset comes with a soft felt-lined pouch that snaps shut with a satisfying magnetic clasp. If you want something more protective like a hard case, you’ll have to buy it separately. The thing is, the best headphones are designed so you don’t look look like an alien when wearing them. You won’t look classy with your head shoved between these cans like you do with your AirPods Max. These are designed to wear for hours and hours. I couldn’t stand them for that long. Maybe somebody with a thinner cranium would enjoy them for longer.

Every game requires its own finetuning

If you don’t go into the app to adjust the EQ profile to fit the game, you’ll end up with a much worse experience overall. SteelSeries has a ludicrous number of game-specific profiles for some of the most popular games around and even more you would not expect the company to bother with (there’s a preset for Doki Doki Literature Club!, for goodness’ sake). So if you load up into your Cyberpunk 2077 save, and enter without the preset bass profile, it won’t have anywhere near the levels you want to make your machine gun fire truly pop. This requires you to manually change their settings from game to game if you want the best experience.

Inevitably, you’ll come across a game that’s too new for it to have an EQ profile. I’ve been playing The Outer Worlds 2, which has a soundtrack that’s equal parts mystery and nostalgia. It doesn’t sound bad by any margin with the “flat” preset in the Arctis app. I just know deep in my soul the game could sound better with a few knobs twisted. If you scroll through all the preset EQ options, you can find one or two that will sound better to your ears. For instance, I played Gears of War: Reloaded with the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 preset and it sounded much better than with the stock standard profile.

At least, the GameHub lets you swap and adjust the volume mixing between the first and second USB inputs. Swapping between Bluetooth and the 2.4GHz connection doesn’t require much input. Still, if you want to take a call in the headphones, you’ll need to hit the Bluetooth button on the right earpad.

SteelSeries’ “flat” profile is fine for most listening experiences, including music or when talking on video calls. When I got on with some of my coworkers, they told me I sounded extremely clear, nearly—but not quite—podcast levels of clarity. That’s impressive considering the telescoping mic wasn’t even wearing a pop filter. The mic offers 16-bit 32kHz recordings, and listening to myself back I can confirm it’s of good quality. There’s an additional mute button the left earcup if you need to avoid any back chatter when gaming with friends or even chatting with workmates. Again, it could be my everything headset when at home I could stand wearing it for too long.

Better battery life? Try more batteries

There’s a lot of positive qualities to this design. I could walk 30 feet away from the GameHub with a wall in between me and my desktop, and still hear my game as clear as if I was standing next to it. Only when I put multiple walls between me and the device did the sound start to waver.

The ANC is good enough I would repeatedly miss what my colleagues were saying even if they were talking right next to me. With the ANC on, I couldn’t hear the blast of the loud fans from the Acer Predator Triton 14 gaming laptop I recently reviewed. Still, I could occasionally hear ambient noise, like the distant pop of a fire truck siren or a loud bang on a conversation my boss was having on the other side of the room. The Arctis Nova Elite is more than enough for your gaming den when you want to hole up like a happy otter and ignore the rushing river waters around you. It just won’t offer anything close to the sensory deprivation chamber sensation of some high-end ANC wireless headphones like the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen).

If there’s one thing missing from the Arctis Nova Elite, it’s a battery life equal to its $600 price tag. SteelSeries promises you can get 60 hours of active listening, but that’s only when you make use of two separate batteries. The GameHub comes with a small compartment that accepts one of two cells that come in the box. The magnetized cap on the right-hand earcup comes off to reveal the battery. It’s not technically hot-swappable, as removing the battery will turn off the sound. Swapping in a fresh battery will immediately turn the headset on and return you back to your various connections. By comparison, a $300 HyperX Cloud Alpha 2 wireless can go for 250 hours before you need to plug it in.

Worth more than a console?

I keep bringing up other headsets that cost less just to explain where we are with the current landscape of gaming cans. Nothing I’ve tried has even came close to SteelSeries’ price point. There are other gaming headsets that promise hi-fi audio or let you connect all your consoles. The Arctis Nova Elite is the only pair that I know of that provides both in one package. I can’t think of any other headset I would want more if I have all my gaming devices in one spot.

I also know I personally couldn’t drop $600 on any headset. Even if I did opt for the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite, I would have to consider if I could accept Bluetooth more often than the 2.4GHz connection. Even though I own a PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2, and get to test a rotating cast of PCs, I spend more time gaming on a handheld than anything else. There’s certainly a few folks out there who are glued to their gaming chairs and want a headset for every single device they own. I can’t think of anything better than the Arctis Nova Elite.