SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 FaZe Clan Edition Multi-Platform Premium Wireless Gaming Headset — Limited Edition — Dual Wireless 2.4 GHz & Bluetooth 38 HR Fast Charge Battery – PC, PS, Mac, Mobile, Switch

As a long time PC gamer, this is probably the best headset I've ever owned. I've rotated through a lot of brands; Razer, HyperX, Skullcandy. But I think SteelSeries is where I'll be purchasing from for now on. I've had the headset so far for two weeks and have almost nothing but compliment to say about it. First, it's extremely stylish. Red is usually reserved for accents on gaming headsets, typically paired with black. But with the year of the dragon edition, red takes center stage and is instead accented with a beautiful gold color. Second, it fits perfectly and is comfortable to wear for extended hours at a time (so far I've had sessions of about 12 hours with it). The cuffs on the headset are very soft, but have a strong form as well so they fit great around the ear. And the top of the headset is cushioned with a soft fabric band. Bonus points for the band as it has a dragon scale pattern carved into it.Third, it offers a lot of versatility for connection methods. It includes a 3.5mm cable for wired connection, wireless connection via a USB-C dongle (which comes with a USB-C to USB-A adapter), and simultaneous pairing via Bluetooth. This means I have no problems using it with my phone, tablet, PC, laptop, steam deck, or even 3DS.Where it could improve is it's microphone. The microphone is by no means bad, but leaves a bit to be desired. Thankfully SteelSeries Sonar, the PC companion for SteelSeries' headsets, allows you to heavily customize your mic to your hearts content. You can use it to adjust the sensitivity, noise gate, EQ, and much more. Not only can you modify your mic, but the audio that you're listening to as well. The audio out of the box sound fantastic don't get me wrong, but SteelSeries Sonar allows you to modify the audio of whatever you're watching or playing, letting you fine tune if you want to hear more bass out of your music or better isolate footsteps or directional audio in your games. However, the headset can be used perfectly fine without SteelSeries sonar.I'll probably come back in about 6 months to update this review, as I've seen a few people mention long-term degradation of the headset. I'm so hoping this isn't the case, as this headset has blown me out of the water so far my expectations for it are pretty high.

Pros: Super comfortable, not too heavy, long battery life. Relatively plug and play on PC. Very good sound out of the box.Cons: Overall a bit pricey given the build quality/microphone quality. Needs Sonar software to sound their absolute best, or to get the most out of the headphone/microphone. Yes, its free, but still -Out of the box, sound quality overall is very good. On PC using Sonar EQ features, the headphones can be made to sound excellent overall, if still a bit etched/bright/harsh at time IMO. The microphone is overall pretty good with AI and other "enhancements", but I find adjusting the boom a bit annoying as I have to fight it a bit every time I pull it out to get it to rest properly near my mouth. I can always see in in my periphery as well, which can be a little distracting. Its possible that there is better value to be found just investing in a separate dedicated microphone. But having the "all in one" solution is convenient.I am very picky about audio quality, and I find these satisfying, especially after a careful tune. The 40mm drivers can really deliver on the bass, and deliver lots of detail and volume with low distortion.Comfort is excellent, though the clamp is almost too light for my taste. That said, I can wear these for hours with no major comfort problems with or without glasses. But they are too loose, even after I adjust them, for any sort of active wear. These are for sitting/walking around a little. Volume knobs are easy to find, though I'd like a little more resistance in them, and the ergonomics overall beat some of my other headphones for sure. The wifi range (not bluetooth), is quite good - I can play something on my computer and wander pretty far from it and maintain a signal.In terms of cons, I find these headphones a bit awkward to attach/detach from different devices with bluetooth. Its various beeps and boops and breathing LEDs do nothing for me in terms of figuring out how to disconnect from one device while staying connected to another. I'd like it to just tell me what it is trying to attach/detach to like my 7 year old Bose bluetooth speaker. The 2.4 ghz connection does not seem to have a benefit over bluetooth in terms of sound quality, which is a shame, and I don't know what happens when I break/lose that dongle. The on-board amp gets very loud, though there is some hiss, and one apparently has to enter the Sonar software to shut off the volume limit to get the full volume anyway, a bit of a quirk.Which gets me to another point: the "free" Sonar software is powerful, but it is also really needed to get the most out of these headphones. It is full of quirks - you need the "engine" menu to adjust or shut off the side mic feature, shut off the volume limiter, or to reduce game volume during calls. In the "Sonar" section, you can customize EQs for different inputs, but I found it impossible to copy an EQ I created for the "game" mode and set it to "media" or "aux" as well. Hence I have to repeat the process of doing my 10 point parabolic EQ over and over - tedious. Sliding with a mouse is fine for the uninitiated, but I needed to enter my exact values, and the software makes you click in the tiny boxes, and could not do Q values below 0.5. When listening to Music on my computer, it is also showing up under the "game" mode in the mixer, meaning I have to remember to turn on/off features like "spatial audio" since, while it is fun for games, it is terrible for music. You can drag and drop the "app" to its appropriate section, but this is more setup work.Also, Windows update has broken the Sonar software multiple times (no audio no matter WHAT I did - even audio driver reinstalls!). So far the solution has been to just re-install the Sonar software, easy enough. Still, this is super frustrating, especially the first time it happened because I had ZERO indication of what went wrong.IMO there should be a way to set a "global" EQ (parabolic, not just the sliders which IS available in the "engine" menu, confusingly), if you want. There should also be hotkeys I can set up to turn on/off things like spatial audio, the EQ, or adjust the side mic or other mic features. Heck, why not let me set an EQ and save it to the headphone itself, so I can have it when using these with my other non-PC devices? That would make these even more awesome and let me have consistent sound across devices. As an inferior solution, we could have an engine/sonar app for our phones/tablets, I guess.I still recommend these overall, for those wanting a good headset with a good mic that is fun for games but capable of being great for casual music/movie stuff too.When gaming I am still getting the hang of balancing chat/game sounds since everyone seems to have different microphone quality. I was hoping that one of the many features of this software would be to tame some of the hotter microphones out there. A pair of cheap, non-gaming bluetooth headphones I own seemed to do this a lot better.For the full asking price, I think some of the compromises in terms of material choices, microphone quality, and features are a bit of a stretch. But for the sale price I paid, I think it is about right, especially since the Sonar software really does up the ante if you are going to do a lot of gaming. Lets hope it stays free, otherwise I might have held out for better overall "out of the box" performance.