SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless Headset (Open Box)

I got the PS5 version instead of the XBOX version because I never plan to buy an Xbox. Even though the Xbox model is compatible with the PS5, XBox & Pc. The PS5 model is only compatible with PS5, PC, Nintendo Switch, & Mobile. So that’s a decision that you’ll have to make whenever you go to buy these. FEEL: The feel to me is a premium feel, the headset is made of plastic but feels really sturdy & build quality seems well built. The adjustable headband is comfortable & feels really comfortable for my head. The band stretches enough to accomodate big headed people as well as the peanut head person. The buttons click & give you a responsive feedback to let you know that the button was pressed. The magnetic ear covers are nice feeling & you can feel the magnets attracting when you remove or place the cover on to the headset. The Base Station is built just like the headset, made of plastic material but great quality of work. The wheel rolls smoothly & the back button is a touch button that has no feedback to it. SOUND QUALITY: The sound quality was shocking to me. Shocking because these sound great every way that I used them. I used these to listen to music & was blown away, these sound awesome. I couldn't believe how good these sound with the normal music that I listen to on a daily basis. Future, Lil Durk, Kevin Gates, everything that I threw at it sounded so frickin good. The bass hits hard, the & the clearness is solid. Gaming was the same way, now I'm no pro gamer but these sound so good tha tI heard all types of footsteps that I never heard before, the bad part was I still couldn't figure out where the hell they were coming from. (I told you I'm no or gamer) Honestly tho the gun sounds sound so crisp & loud, the little 8 years old cussing you out or calling you the N-word was so clear, I felt like they were in the room with me. The Steelseries Artic Nova Pro headset sound the same wired or wireless, I wasn't able to hear any difference. Listening to these on my PC is a different experience, that's when you have to download the Steelseries Sonar program from their website. When you download this program your experience will get a lot better. Not that it wasn't good to begin with, but this just upgrades the headset & takes it to the next level. Within the Sonar program you will open up a mixer to wear you can toggle through the settings & change the sound settings for the Game Chat, the Chat Chat, the Media Chat, The Aux Chat & the Mic Chat. It also connected with my GoXLR so it gives you more tweaking that you can do. In the different settings you can adjust the BASS, THE VOICE & TREBLE. You can go into the CONFIGURATION & change the different presets, you should go through these & figure out what sounds best to you. If you go into the GAME configuration you can change the game that your playing, there is over 50 different games that you can choose from. Sonar Software makes the Artis Nova Pro a premium set of wireless gaming headphones. Without it, I would say these are still powerful & a great headset but maybe just a step down. Also if you don't have a PC to download the Sonar Software you can't get to the mixer or the presets, so that's something to consider when buying these. CONNECTIVITY: Bluetooth connection works with any device that has Bluetooth. When playing on a console, you can connect it directly to your controller & not use the interface, connect the interface to your console & use it wirelessly or use Bluetooth to use wireless on your pc, use the interface to use it wirelessly or connect the headphones directly to your pc with a 3.5mm cable. It's noted that you can get 40ft range from these, I didn't actually try to measure to see how far you could actually use these but I can say that the distance is very good with these, I was on different floors & across my house & the connection was still strong, so the connection gets a A+ from me. BUILD QUALITY/DURABILITY: The headset is made of mostly plastic material, it doesn’t have a cheap feel tho, the material feels sturdy & pretty high quality. The ear cups are removable & are really soft & comfortable on my ears. The headband is durable & flexible enough to bend but not break under some tension. The buttons are durable & give you a nice responsive feedback feel when pressing the buttons. ANC TEST: Press the power button once to activate, double tap to activate TRANSPARENCY MODE. The ANC on these are pretty good, good enough to block out most sounds from outside of the headphones when using them. I sat next to my fan with the fan on & while gaming I couldn't hear the fan, if I just had the headset on but wasn't playing a game then I could hear the fan. When I'm gaming my wife literally has to throw something at me to get my attention because I can't hear her with these on, plus I think she just likes chucking random objects across the room at me. Transparency Mode is okay, not something that I activate much but it is useful. MIC TEST: B For Gaming: PS5 For Muzik: B+ For PC: A+ Call Quality: A Glasses Test: A+ Battery Life: I found that the battery life was really good. Both batteries lasting 20 hours a piece totaling 40 hours of continuous use if needed. The only issue & it might be 100% user error was I struggled to get the battery into the charging dock. It would go into the slot but wouldn’t stay in there for some reason. You can fast charge the Artic Nova Pro by charging them for 15 minutes & you'll get 3 hours of battery life. Likes: The look of these are definitely a great quality, they don't look cheap or like a bum ass pair of headphones. The ear cushions are really comfortable & fluffy, they fit over my ears & my ears just rest in them. The material that the era cushions are made of are nice as well, I don't think it's leather but it's leather like, they're comfortable enough to keep on your ears for several hours at a time but you might get a little ear sweat if you use them long enough, not really a problem if your in a cool room, but if your room is hot or room temperature they'll most likely make your ears sweat. The headband is really comfy too, it's not heavy or odd feeling, a lot of times I forgot that I was wearing these, the band fits my head perfectly. The controls on the ear cups are easy to reach & not get confused, the volume dial is convenient & won't let you go from 0% to 100% in 1 swipe. Bluetooth button is easy to access as it's the lone button on the right ear cup. Sound quality is really good straight out of the box, if you connect it to a pc & access the Sonar settings in the Steelseries GG program then you can tweak the equalizer settings a lot more to get a better sound out of your headset. The battery life on these are crazy, I've been using these for about a month & I've only changed the battery once, thats with over 50 hours of gameplay. Dislikes: The charger port location, why out it under the removable ear cup cover? That just seems unnecessary to me, I wouldn’t have much rather have seen it on the side of the ear cup for better placement & easier access. The battery going into the wireless base station, I still haven't gotten that down completely. The mic is nice but I think it's probably the weakest part of this headset, it's clear but it still sounds like your talking into a plastic cup or through a wall or something. The way you remove the earcups to me makes me nervous every time that I do it, I feel that I'm going to break a clip & then ruin the ear cups, they are replaceable so if that happens it's not the end of the world but who wants to spend more money when they don't have to?The magnetic ear cups are dope, but they attract way too many fingerprints, but I have a solution for that at the end of the video so MAKE SURE TO WATCH THE WHOLE VIDEO!!! You can use the Bluetooth w/ the 2.4Gz at the same time, it’s a dope feature to have but something that I don’t utilize that often bc it’s not something that I really think is needed. Example I don’t listen to music while I’m gaming, especially when playing COD & games where I need to hear every little thing then I can’t listen to music bc I have to hear everything else. THE WRAP UP: I can honestly say this is the best gaming headset that I have ever used. Caveat, this is only maybe the fourth or fifth pair that I’ve ever had. These are by far the most expensive pair that I ever bought. I am no gaming headset connoisseur, but if I had a dream set of gaming headphones, this is what they would be. I have no allegiance whatsoever with Steelseries, they didn’t send me these so I gain nothing by saying these are good if I actually think they’re not. Get you a pair of these ASAP. I’ve had several PlayStation branded gaming headsets, a few pair of Turtle Beach headsets & I used a my kids Steelseries Artic 1 wireless headphones before & none of them felt, sound or look as premium as these do, they also did t cost as much either. The features put the Steelseries Artic Nova Pro headphones above all other gaming headsets.