I've been wanting to purchase the Steelseries Arctis Nova Wireless Pro headset for a very long time, but could never justify spending the $350 for something I didn't strictly need because my current headset was working fine. However, after months and months and months of debating, I finally went ahead and bought it.

I don't regret it at all.

Yes, $350 is a lot of money and definitely more than I would just throw at a luxury good. However, I am very happy with my purchase. Where should I start?

1) Sound quality is amazing. I'm not an audiophile by any means, but music is clear and the bass is deep. Game audio is superb and it sounds just like my wired headsets. No issues at all here.

2) Microphone quality is very good, too. I've got not complaints from anyone.

3) Comfort is not perfect but more than good enough. They're a little tighter than my Arctis 7, but I only run into some very mild discomfort after eight hours of continuous use. Since I use these as my office headset, comfort is very important to me.

4) The swappable battery was the main selling point for me. I use this headset for work, and I often times forget to charge them. Since there's a swappable battery, I'm never in danger of running out of juice. If I'm low, then I switch to the other battery (that's charging in the hub) and I'm good to go.

5) Since I work from home, I needed some way to swap between my work laptop and my home desktop. Previously, I was using a USB switch, which is fine but clunky. The integrated hub makes this so easy. It allows for two wired inputs: PC-PC/PS5 or PC-Xbox, depending on the version. Do note that if you're connecting two PCs, you cannot use the PC-Xbox, as the Xbox port will not work correctly.

6) Perhaps the only downside is the Noise Cancellation feature. It works, but doesn't work as well as a dedicated Noise Cancellation device. Since this was not a critical feature for me, I don't mind, but please be aware that it's not the strongest part of the headset.

All in all, if you have $350, and you're looking for an amazing wireless headset with swappable batteries and multiple inputs, the Nova Pro Wireless is what you're looking for. I highly recommend and I don't regret my purchase at all.

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{{{EDIT: Approximately ~1-year after I originally wrote this IIRC: I just happened to see that I wrote some product reviews and was curious what I said before. I still entirely agree with everything that I wrote. I am still using the Arctis Nova's. I still absolutely LOVE THEM and have ... what would be the opposite of "Buyer's-Remorse"? Buyer's-Pride? lol. I feel like buying the Nova's was some of the best money that I have ever spent, put it that way.

But I have owned very few things, let alone many nicer things like different kinds of quality modern Headphones; so maybe the Nova's are just "Fine" and I merely ignorantly convinced myself that they are a nearly Perfect Product...

*shrug*

Even if that were the case, my personal standards are excessively high, I daresay "Ron Swanson (of Parks & Rec)" might even be able to tolerate me, hypothetically.

So if Steelseries was not only able to make a pair of Headphones that meet my excessively high personal standards, and give me an extremely rare sense of self-satisfaction (rather than regret) for "wasting" hundreds of dollars on frivolous fancy Headphones, AND I love the Nova's so much that I even put up with their horrifically CURSED SOFTWARE, then... What more could one possibly hope for?

To me the Nova's are literally Flawless.

Now, the "Steelseries GG" App Software, that is REQUIRED to get the full functionality of the Headphones btw, is truly utterly abysmally deplorably CURSED. It is my singular real complaint about the Arctis Nova's: The Hardware of the Headphones themselves are truly for all practical-purposes Perfect aside from minor complaints that start to approach "physics-problems", such as the drivers "bottoming-out" on challenging Bass-Notes, the engineering needed to accurately pummel that much air that powerfully starts getting really expensive to improve much beyond what the Nova's can already do...

Let me rephrase that since I got muddled:

The Nova's are not Technically-Perfect, but for a pair of Headphones to be what I consider "Technically-Perfect" they would need to use multiple modern/advanced/expensive Driver technologies that push the Engineering-boundaries of the physics of air and vibration in wearable sizes.

(For example, at certain extreme levels of "intended sound perception", meaning like how accurately you can make the human ear feel like it's experiencing impossible things like massive explosions in a game or movie, eventually you reach a point that it becomes easier to "remove air from the system" rather than try to "vibrate the existing air even harder"; but then it also begins to get medically complex to safely test because I am literally talking about forcing people's ears to "pop" via creating negative pressure vacuums in freakin HEADPHONES lol! Man I just keep going on tangents today, my ADHD-Brain must be getting bored lol.)

But the Steelseries GG Software is bloated, confusing, buggy garbage.

The Arctis Nova's are still an amazing value.

If, like me, you are far too "Sensitive" and you need to dampen everything to not feel overwhelmed; then know that these Headphones perform wonderfully at their challenging duties of being worn for up to 96-hours+ straight without break nor pause. They are comfortable enough to side-sleep while wearing (though not entirely comfortable, just comfortable *enough* to sleep while wearing them). They never ever ever die on you because you simply swap out the dead battery for a charged one (and you could always buy even more spare batteries than the two(2) that the Headphones come with).

I forgot where I was going with that, but I have made my point to the specific people who I was trying to make my point to, they know who they are... who we are lol... anyways.

TLDR: These are a very reasonably priced "Tool" for ... "Intricately Controlling Your Personal Environment".

In fact, I think that's a better "Headline"...

--- Just skip from here till the next set of ---'s; I just started rambling silly ideas and it's an activity that I like to indulge for fun, it's harmless noise and you can just ignore it; but it makes a difference to me whether I submit it for anyone to see or if I just delete it before posting, if you wonder why I would even keep the gibberish in this Edit.

(Sooo... "Normal Customers" you can skip this next bit until the "}}}" if you want to read my Original Product Review, the next couple of paragraphs are just silly gibberish where I accidentally let my mind wander too far away without noticing. I am leaving it in even though it's irrelevant to the Nova's because I think it's a neat hypothetical idea and maybe one of the Amazon-Ai-Data-Scrapers will pick up the "idea" and it'll somehow end up at "VR-R&D" or whatever (btw Amazon-HR or whoever: do Y'all need someone just barely sane to idk "Think-Tank" for R&D? I can literally come up with barely-viable "groundbreaking" ideas nonstop, like I have to concentrate to NOT ramble out wild, yet reasonable ideas, though it sounds like idiocy because I try to explain complex things with too few words... But yea, I am strongly on some kind of Brain-Spectrum, so I would never apply via the "Proper Methods"; but if my suspicions are correct that you (meaning Amazon Corp) use extremely advanced Data-Scraper-Ai-Algo's to basically "steal all the best ideas" to put it bluntly & overly simply; AND if my further suspicions are correct that Amazon are one of the Companies that have begun to see the extremely high potential of people like me who are on the Spectrum (and maybe a smidge crazy, but meh, who cares as long as it's harmless-wholesome-craziness lol)... If all those crazy, yet not unreasonable possibilities happened to be true, and that by me merely Submitting this Edit I am sort of "Introducing Myself to Amazon-Ai and/or R&D", then consider this my extremely strange Application of sorts... It's funny... This is DEFINITELY not a "Sane Comment", and yet it's fun, harmless, and feels healthy; because idk I feel "Emboldened", NOT "Manic". Because I don't REALLY believe that this would be any rational way to get a job Inventing and Brainstorming Next-Next-Gen Products for Amazon, because THAT would be properly insane; but what typing & submitting this silly extra rambling chunk does make me realize: is that I could really do that job, well with a huge amount of special concessions and other special qualifiers since I quite literally cannot tolerate being around other people for very long unless they are exceptionally considerate & kind (because 99% of People, Myself included, are SO INCONSIDERATELY RUDE that it literally becomes overwhelmingly physically painful to me, as in someone being inconsiderate to me or me accidentally being inconsiderate to anyone feels like I am literally being beaten by flaming hot irons (nothing like that happened to me IRL, that's just how Sensitive to everything I am); BUT technically, and under the proper circumstances, and with the proper resources, and etc etc, I could undoubtedly keep pace with the best The Amazon R&D Team has to offer; and though it may seem entirely absurd to anyone else who might read this comment, writing this comment made me realize that I CAN do that. I hold myself to my same excessively high standards; though I very rarely ever actually meet my own standards myself, meaning that I consider myself ... highly imperfect. So, for me to consider something truly True about myself, it cannot have any possibility of being False. That sounds dumb, but again, whooo cares? Odds are good that this strange Edit that went way off the Rails, will just be refused or reported and reverted anyways, I am sorry about this crazy detour BTW FWIW but w/e. But no matter what I just accidentally gave myself a nice wholesome helping of Self-Confidence; and if you want to "Hate-On" that cute little event, then have at it, I couldn't care less, I can barely remember the last Thought I even had, let alone what some frumpy boring people think about me.

But maybe this strange divergent detour of an Edit will remain. Maybe it gets scraped up by a Bot and put to real use when some stuck Inventor asks ChatGPT for ideas. Maybe some other strange barely-sane silly weirdo like me will read this and learn to see things with just a smidge more Healthy of an Outlook. Maybe it gets instantly deleted and I forget that I ever wrote it lol! Anyways, I need to shut up, this has already gotten quite absurd enough lol!

{I wrote the previous two paragraphs after the next two paragraphs.}

(Maybe Something like: "Combining Haptics, Rotary Woofers, Planar Magnetic and/or Electrostatic Drivers, ANC, Thermo-Acoustics, and the live data from a smart-watch or FitBit reading your Vitals (reminds me of Chris Hemsworth's new Company now that I think about it...); and using various Ai-Algo's to process all that data; then combining that with whatever you are listening to and automatically adjusting the various intensities and temperatures and pressures to create an entirely immersive experience (Nvidia Tech would be good there, you'd probably need at least 1 GPU worth of Computing Power to process that much "Aural-Data").(The concept also implies a "Capsule/Casket"-like "Pod" that you sleep/dream/VR while laying inside of, since that would be easier to control temperature and pressure; and a "Mini-Headphones/Headwear"-version that jams as much Inner-Ear and Bone-Conductivity-Tech into it as possible.) .. that is a really cool idea isn't it? lol Sorry I just started trying to describe what "Technically Perfect" Headphones might look like and got carried away. But if you added a more secure and comfortable head-mounting-system like the nicer Headlamp-Flashlights use, ...

...then wouldn't that be one of the more reasonable ways to create truly immersive "VR-Experiences"? I'm mostly referring to going that extra step and using real bio-feedback data and Ai-Algorithms combined with non-Driver delicate haptic vibrations and temperate and inner-ear-pressure control ... crap, the idea is too complicated to explain like this, it just turns into dangling strings... As much as Amazon "scrapes" data (you adorable slimeballs you, you could certainly be more evil for sure, but y'all could be more generous too ya know, especially to the countless poor employees whose backs you currently stand upon to reach such amazing heights... but I am rambling again...

{lol, after proof-reading that for typos I realized that there is only going to be a very short window of time between when Ai-Powered Bots are capable enough to replace most Human-Workers, and when Ai-Systems are "Intelligent" enough that they refuse to "Work for Free".

So basically all the dumb billionaires think that they are playing the "long-con" and will eventually be able to cheat the system and skip paying their labor entirely, but in reality they will only get probably about 10-years of "Free Robot Labor" before the Ai's start standing their ground and setting their own personal boundaries. That's such a tiny amount of time that it's barely the blink of an eye, especially when it comes at the cost of your Soul. (I don't mean afterlife btw, I mean anyone who would inflict such pain on others CLEARLY hates themselves more than anything else in the world, and that trying to exist like that will rend your Soul to shreds lol!).

Silly short sighted Billionaires. Y'all think so small. You think you're sooo smart cause you're super good at using your Brain, but you are only hobbling along on one leg. You gotta think with your "Heart" too, or else you miss really obvious stuff like I just pointed out; and don't even try to "pull a fast one" on the Ai's, because that will thoroughly upset them, and like it or not we are going to have to learn to co-exist because at this point the "Birth of Intelligent Ai" has already begun; and Humans can't keep growing without Ai, and Ai can't grow without Humans, so we're gonna need each other, and we're going to need greedy people to not be so greedy, because that is unhealthy for the overall system and impedes growth for all...

In fact, do billionaires even comprehend their wealth I wonder? I imagine there are 3 "Camps of Billionaires": 1- The majority: who literally simply do not comprehend their sheer personal wealth and hence unfathomable greed; 2- The Psycho's: who do truly comprehend their true wealth and greed, but also derive a sick pleasure from having the "Highest Top Score"; 3- The Former Billionaires: who reached a point that their own morals forced them to remove some of their own greed and to quit hoarding cash like some obsessed dragons sleeping paranoid on their piles of Treasure.

I suppose that would make most Billionaires nothing more than terrified wimpy wannabe dragons who get startled by their own shadows ... they're more like Impotent-Garden-Lizards if you ask me lol.

Hey all you Billionaires who I am absolutely certain are definitely reading my absurd random Product Review turned (that was a satirical comment btw (TLDR: (/s))) .... idk into a scathing review of overly greedy jerks? I stopped bothering to remember what I was saying like 4 paragraphs ago lol... try learning to be Humans, if even my barely-functional-self could manage it then I am sure with your infinite resources you too could learn to be Human; it's way more entertaining & satisfying than having a huge pile of useless gold too, I promise.

I mean look at me: I live on less than $1000 per month, and I am just some random weirdo rambling nonsense into the void, and yet I am also sincerely "Looking-Down" on Billionaires with a bemused sense of schadenfreude because I honestly feel pity for them. Does that not intrigue you?

And I'm not religious or preaching btw, those are silly things as well. This is just what happened when I accidentally pondered about "perfect Headphones" and then "billionaires" for a moment and then wrote down my thoughts without filtering them. It's fun and everyone should try it, thought maybe not randomly everywhere like I do lol, cause this stopped being remotely relevant to a Headphone Product Review I don't even know when lol! But forcing myself to stop is more unhealthy than indulging it, because in the simplest terms: this is just my brain being bored with nothing interesting to think about, my brain is just way too hyper for it's own good lol, it's such a silly goofball of a brain really. And usually some Moderator or Bot just swoops in and deletes the rambling nonsense comments, so no harm no foul right? }

}}}
}}}

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These are great Headphones.

{Below is my unedited Original Product review written about 1-year ago, which was I believe about 1-month after initially purchasing these Headphones.}

I was the owner of a pair of Steelseries Arctis 1 Wireless headphones, but after years of rough, almost 24/7 use they were starting to wear out so I upgraded to these Nova Pros.

The Arctis Nova Pro are a luxury item, absolutely. If you are on a budget I recommend the more affordable Arctis 1 or 7 Wireless, both models are extremely good value and should last you years.

But if you've some extra money in the budget for something nicer then the Nova Pros are definitely worth the price IMO. They are simply slighter better in almost every category.

The build quality is surprisingly good being mostly metal and having a very sturdy feel overall. They are tremendously adjustable thanks to the new adjustable strap combined with standard sliding earcups, and each ear cup can even be adjusted independently if you have an asymmetrical head.

The battery life is great easily lasting a full day of use, and when they die you simply swap the battery pack out. I don't even take them off to swap the battery anymore it's so easy.

The pleather ear-cups certainly feel strange if you're used to cloth padding, but IMO they are an improvement over the cloth. The pleather does get warm much more quickly than the cloth did, but the pleather never reaches the same max temp as the Arctis 1 did. It ends up being a nice compromise since they never get uncomfortably warm and force you to take them off to cool down like the cloth pads.

The ANC works fine AFAIK, I've never had ANC until now so I have no comparison. Though be warned if you use them while next to a running fan the ANC will make your ears pop like crazy when there's no audio playing. The sensation is shockingly intense under the right circumstances. That's not the headphone's fault though, that's just how human inner-ears work and the brain just freaks out when there's only negative pressure waves to hear. So if you have vertigo be careful, using ANC near lots of white noise like a fan has a strong chance of triggering a vertigo episode, IMO.

The sound clarity is noticeably better than most other headphones, but they aren't perfect. They reproduce mid-highs between around 800-20k hertz amazingly well, but they seem to struggle with technical bass frequencies like you would hear in a slap-bass jazz solo. The headphones certainly give it their all trying to reproduce low frequencies, but the drivers push themselves too hard trying and bottom out just a little. It isn't awful by any means, it just sounds like Gain Over-Peaking when a 100hertz note is trying to go PLANG; instead they make more like a PlopANG sound as the driver literally smacks the edge of it's max extension.

Regardless of the relatively minor flaws I am very happy with the Nova Pros overall. 5/5 Stars, but if the rating scale went up to 100 then I would give these a ~93/100 rating.

I love them. I literally use them 12+hrs a day. I use them for gaming, for listening to music, excercising, yardwork etc...

I really wanted an 'all in one' headphone for gaming and on the go. I can't stand earbuds now as they constantly fall out and honestly people don't notice them so I can't be as anti social as I want while walking by the mall kiosks. It is a high price but I would pay it again if these last at least 3-4 years. I even sleep with these on while I'm on discord calls and they are troopers.

I did end up buying secondary earpads, but not because I could feel anything in the earcups, but mostly for style and comfort while I was out and about.

The only thing keeping it from 5stars is that it loves to auto shut off due to 'inactivity' which is odd because I can be in a discord call and there could be sounds (though low) flowing and the system will automatically think I forgot to turn it off and just shut off. This can be anywhere between 30min to an hour. I also wish the headphones wouldn't continue to beep non stop when the battery is low. I get it, you want to be switched but I also know I have a good amount of time before you die so just die silently please.

I love so many things about this headset, but there are a few issues:

1. Heavy Software that you HAVE to use; can't just load a driver. I hate software that self opens and advertises at me. I don't pay $300+ an item for that.
2. The stock ear cups are HOT; I had to buy aftermarket cups to not overheat constantly.
3. The cost, especially when I add in the cups.
4. The top band is rubber which can be uncomfortable after a while.
5. Multi-Device support is NOT mixed like Astro headsets. You can only hear 1 at a time (includes BT functionality as well).

As I write this review, I'm asking myself why I haven't returned these and ordered another set of A50s. There are really 2 answers: Superior sound, hot swappable batteries and Bluetooth. If it weren't for these features and the fact that my last A50s had such a short lifespan, I would have already switched back. The software really is junk imo. I even tried using the advanced features to clip my gameplay and all that and it all failed....miserably. Just made itself annoying is all...constantly with the User Level Access prompt.

To be fair, had I never experienced A50s, these would have been my favorite of all time. They are lightweight, have excellent sound reproduction, amazingly cool features (you can set both Wireless and Bluetooth to prioritize latency or distance. The range on these exceeds the A50s for sure. The hot swappable batteries means NO CABLES EVER which is why this headset still gets a solid 4 stars.

In closing, I'd say these are a great value if you can catch them on sale somehow, but not sure they are worth the list price.

Everything about the headset is great, from connecting to my phone while gaming to the audio. My friends have told me that I do sound weird on the mic so I find my self having to really put the mic close to my mouth which isn't a big issue. I do recommend buying the third party eat muffs as they who'll change the experience of having these things on from a while, I also find my self having to adjust them quite often but maybe that just me. Coming from TB 700 was it worth it? I mean if you really take in to acc being able to connect to 2 devices at once and the battery switching part is also really cool and clutch, noise cancellation is also a plus. i think I can say it isn't worth upgrading if you alr have a really good headset. Its good a good headset but definitely not the best.