SteelSeries Arctis Pro + GameDAC Review - Review 2022

High-finish gaming headsets tin become pricey, even when they aren't wireless. While we haven't even so tested a pair more than expensive than the excellent, audiophile-worthy Beyerdynamic MMX 300, the SteelSeries Arctis Pro + GameDAC comes close with its $249.99 price tag. Of class, SteelSeries' new flagship wired gaming headset also comes with its ain eponymous GameDAC, a digital-to-analog converter and mixing device that gives the Arctis Pro a ton of power and flexibility you lot won't find with but a 3.5mm-equipped headset.

Design

The Arctis Pro is matte blackness and low-key, at least until you lot plug it in. The rounded earcups are covered in black plastic, with a soft-touch rubberized back panel and well-padded earpads covered in breathable black fabric. The headband is anodized black metallic, down to the quarter-circle arms on which they're mounted. There isn't any padding on the headband, but an adaptable elastic strap runs along the length of information technology, providing springy intermission that keeps the metal lifted in a higher place the scalp. The consequence is a light, comfortable fit y'all tin wear for reasonably long periods of fourth dimension. Information technology isn't overwhelmed with padding like the Turtle Beach Elite Pro.

All controls, ports, and the blast mic sit along the border of the left earcup. A microphone mute push button sits on the back, with a volume wheel below it (that works separate from the GameDAC's book adjustments) and the proprietary headset connector and a three.5mm output for sharing headset audio with some other user (you can connect the headset to any device that uses a three.5mm audio port using the connector, included cablevision, and included 3.5mm mobile adapter). The microphone sits on a brusque, flexible arm, and stays retracted inside the left earcup when not in utilize.

While the headset is completely blackness when you take it out of the box, it brightens up when you plug it into the GameDAC. A ring effectually the back of each earcup provides colored lighting, gently shifting through colors past default. You can alter the lighting to glow a single color, or plow it off completely, through the GameDAC. The microphone sheathing also glows when muted, red past default simply offering the same color options equally the lite piping on the headset. If you lot use the included pop filter, the light becomes very difficult to see.

GameDAC

The Arctis Pro connects to your PC or PlayStation four through the included GameDAC, a digital-to-analog converter that handles all of the headset's audio, similar to the MixAmp included with the Astro Gaming A40 TR + MixAmp, or the Turtle Beach Aristocracy Pro Tactical Sound Command (T.A.C.) designed to be paired with the Turtle Embankment Elite Pro headset.

It's a five.0-past-2.3-inch (HW) blackness plastic capsule that plugs into your PC or PS4 and offers both controls and information completely separate from your TV or monitor. The top of the GameDAC holds a monochrome OLED screen, a clickable dial, and a divide Dorsum push (that too toggles DTS simulated surround sound on and off). The dorsum holds optical, micro USB, and iii.5mm line out and mobile device in ports, and the left side holds the proprietary connector for the headset.

The screen shows the headset'southward volume levels and game/vocalization chat balance, along with the left and right aqueduct audio levels currently going through the headset. Clicking the dial switches between using it to accommodate book and game/vocalism mix, while holding information technology down for a few seconds brings upward the on-device menu. The menu lets you lot change the input and output devices (like switching to listen to or speak through your smartphone), enable or disable DTS Headphone:X processing, switch between EQ presets or prepare a custom EQ mode using a x-ring adjustable equalizer, and tweak the lighting of the headset and microphone. Information technology tin feel a scrap cumbersome flipping through menus using only a jog dial and a button, but having all of that functionality in front end of you without needing to dive into an app or carte du jour on your PC or PS4 is handy.

Microphone and Connectivity

The mic picked upward my voice very clearly in test recordings, offering a proficient amount of particular without sounding particularly sibilant, especially with the popular filter on the capsule. Nevertheless, recordings on a PC had a notable depression-level hiss I couldn't get rid of with whatever microphone adjustments. I noticed no hiss when using the headset with the PlayStation 4 in a different room, which indicates that the hiss came from the microphone picking upwardly the overzealous ventilation system of our test lab more than any interference or audio processing. Proceed that in mind if you lot take a noisy air conditioner.

The Arctis Pro + GameDAC is designed for use with a PC or PlayStation four. For PCs, you just need to plug it into your computer over USB and it will start to work. For PS4s, y'all need to plug information technology into USB for the microphone and then connect it through the optical input for the game audio. This can exist a problem if you lot have a PS4 Slim, which doesn't have an optical audio output. If that's the case, you can plug the included optical cable into your Television receiver'southward optical output (unless your Television receiver doesn't have an optical output, in which case this isn't the headset for you lot).

Besides the headset and GameDAC, all of the necessary cables are included. You get a USB-to-micro USB cablevision, an optical audio cable, a proprietary headphone cablevision, and a mobile adapter that plugs into the headphone cable to allow you plug it into your smartphone. A standard 3.5mm audio cable isn't included, but the adapter will work if you simply want to listen direct through your mobile device, without the GameDAC.

Music Operation

The Arctis Pro is very capable at treatment music, with powerful low-end and skillful clarity in the highs. At maximum and borderline unsafe volumes, the headset reproduces the kick pulsate hits and bass synth notes in our bass test rail, The Knife's "Silent Shout," without any distortion. The generous low frequency thumping of Run The Jewels "Fable Has It" also comes through with nearly caput-rattling force without getting in the manner of the vocals or the shaker bankroll the track.

The Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter" as well sounds proficient on the Arctis Pro, and shows how the adjustable EQ tin can help. While a flat profile is available, the Smiley profile sculpts the low and high frequencies to make tracks sound more dynamic, while the Reference profile boosts eye frequencies (not a true reference sound, which should be a flat response, only it helps counteract the tuning of the headset's drivers). While the song sounds full and powerful in the Smiley contour, Keith Richards' vocals sat slightly in the background compared with the Reference profile, where it had more even footing confronting the guitar and bassline.

Game Performance

True environment audio is impossible in headphones due to the nature of acoustics, especially when headphones apply single drivers for each ear, like the Arctis Pro's 40mm drivers. Nevertheless, sound processing and smart mixing can produce simulated environs sound with the stereo drivers, creating a large sound field even if it tin can't generate accurate forepart and rear imaging. The Arctis Pro uses DTS Headphone:X faux surroundings sound, which makes game audio audio much bigger and more dynamic than stereo channels. You won't get much of a tactical advantage from information technology, but information technology'due south an immersive effect.

Monster Hunter World sounds detailed and clean through the Arctis Pro. Fine sound furnishings like the scrape of using a whetstone or the clink of mining come through with plenty of loftier frequency finesse. The smashes and explosions of a bomb hammer weapon have acceptable punch, though the headset doesn't try to generate more low-end rumble than what little is already there. The lateral imaging is very strong with DTS Headphone:X simulated surround, with unlike sound sources similar my Palico playing the drums discernible from left to right.

Nier: Automata also sounds very good on the Arctis Pro. The game'south excellent score comes through clearly, with enough of low-mid presence to give the lower register instruments gravitas. The higher frequency sound effects like dodge cues and laser blasts stay prominent in the mix, and the all-encompassing dialogue can exist heard easily fifty-fifty in the heart of gainsay.

Conclusions

The SteelSeries Arctis Pro + GameDAC is a great-sounding, comfortable gaming headset with its own DAC/mixer/controller. Its $250 price tag still feels a bit steep when compared with similarly priced, wireless headsets, merely for serious competitive gamers the wired option and on-desk control tin exist vital. The Arctis Pro + GameDAC stands aslope the Astro Gaming A40 TR & MixAmp and the combination of the Turtle Embankment Aristocracy Pro T.A.C. as a very compelling wired choice if your upkeep can handle it.

If y'all desire wired voice chat without spending quite and then much, the Astro Gaming A10 is one of our favorite upkeep headsets. If money is no object and you want to go wireless, you can also spend $70 more than on the wireless version of the Arctis Pro, the manifestly named SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless. Information technology offers the same excellent fit and practiced audio quality, with wireless connectivity and fifty-fifty Bluetooth, though information technology lacks the loftier-res audio support of the GameDAC.

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Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/migrated-58428-headphones/20121/steelseries-arctis-pro-gamedac-review

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