The SteelSeries Arctis Pro Gaming Headset Lineup: GameDAC Or Wireless
by Brett Howse on March 13, 2018 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Headset
- Audio
- SteelSeries
- Accessories
- Arctis Pro
Performance and Final Words
So enough about how the look, feel, and operate. How do the Arctis Pro sound? In a word: excellent. In our briefing with Brian Fallon, Audio Category Manager for SteelSeries, he emphasised that SteelSeries was going for audio quality here, practically above all other things. The 40 mm drivers they used are the best they’ve ever used in a headset before. The audio circuitry is designed for the lowest noise, and the best clarity. The response of the headset was tuned to ensure no booming base, or low-end cut off. His team has delivered.
The frequency response of the Arctis Pro lineup is simply amazing. It’s rated at 10 Hz to 40 KHz, and what most devices with ratings like that would not tell you is that their 10 Hz rating would be at -10 dB or less compared to 1 Khz. On the Arctis Pro, the 10 Hz response is actually higher than the 1 Khz response. You can clearly hear deep, low, bass notes, and even more than hearing them, you can feel them. This is done with no audible distortion as well, unlike many other headsets I’ve tried, and there’s no large peak at 60-100 Hz or higher which some headsets use to offer a sound with more boominess. Instead you get low, tight bass response.
SteelSeries sent us a frequency response graph of the Arctis Pro, and the graph bears out what you hear when using these headphones. A perfect graph would be a straight line, end to end, but that’s more or less impossible, especially with a single driver, but the Arctis Pro lineup does provide amazing response, with just a small dip around 4 KHz, and amazing low-level response.
Image Source: SteelSeries
Playing back Hi-Res music on the GameDAC is a treat, with clean, sharp, tight sound, at any volume level it’s set at. You don’t have to be an audiophile to appreciate good sound, and although gaming doesn’t yet offer the Hi-Res audio, it likely won’t be long before some games start to support it.
The headsets also support DTS Headphone:X v2.0, which provides positional audio. This is the latest version of DTS’s positional audio for headphones. However it has to be noted if you’re leveraging the Hi-Res input on the GameDAC, DTS Headphone can’t be enabled.
Thanks to both the wired and wireless models sharing the same speaker drivers, both of them offer the same frequency response. The wireless model just has more noise.
Because SteelSeries ships both headsets with adapters to hook to 3.5 mm, it gave the opportunity to hook the Arctis Pro up to several sources to see if there’s an obvious difference in sound quality as well. It was immediately apparent just how poor the audio quality was from my onboard audio. There’s far more noise, less dynamic range, and almost a hollow sound when hooked directly to the motherboard. Hooked to a couple of other audio sources, such as the Blu Yeti, was much better than onboard, but it still wasn’t as clear as the GameDAC. Once again, the hiss and noise was audible, whereas the GameDAC is almost silent when no audio is playing.
Also, since the wireless model offers the same connectors as the wired model, you can also use it with the GameDAC for the best audio experience. It’s a shame SteelSeries doesn’t sell it separate so you could add it to the wireless bundle.
Wrapping things up, it’s pretty easy to say that the Arctis Pro is one of the best gaming headsets on the market. SteelSeries has opted for quality sound, and they’ve delivered in spades. They offer an amazing frequency response on both wired and wireless models.
The GameDAC is simply an amazing piece of kit. A USB DAC and headphone amplifier offers the chance to bypass the often shoddy components built into many computers, and the extra functionality it adds in terms of being able to mix your game and chat volumes on the fly, as well as adding Sidetones to your audio, make it a great addition to any setup. It’ll even output to 3.5 mm if you want to use it with external speakers or another headset. Then you add in the fact that it’s Hi-Res audio certified, and there’s not a lot of devices in this price range that can compete with it.
The wireless model keeps the same audio quality, and adds in dual-batteries for constant power without needing to worry about plugging in the headphones, and adds Bluetooth that can be used concurrently with the wireless connection. The headset can also be used as just a typical wired setup, without needing any power at all. SteelSeries put a lot of thought into the pain points of wireless headphones and addressed most of them.
Wireless Transmitter showing the battery docking
Quality sound, a great microphone, and a comfortable fit. There’s not a lot more you can ask for in terms of a PC headset. The Arctis Pro lineup isn’t inexpensive, starting at $179.99 for the Arctis Pro, $249.99 for the Arctis Pro + GameDAC, and going up to $329.99 for the Arctis Pro Wireless, but if you appreciate quality sound, these are definitely models you need to check out.
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32 Comments
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halcyon - Tuesday, March 13, 2018 - link
Sorry, but it totally reads like an advertisement. Just regurgitating basic marketing material.Real headphone reviews, read head-fi, innerfidelity, many other sites.
And the proof-reading:
"back design, when is amazing for isolation,"
Sure. I wonder if the writers get paid for just producing characters.
Dribble - Tuesday, March 13, 2018 - link
It's an advert imo. It sings the praises of a usb dac like its some sort of revelation, and not the way that most surround sound gaming headsets have been made for years.halcyon - Tuesday, March 13, 2018 - link
Also, the review states:" pretty easy to say that the Arctis Pro is one of the best gaming headsets on the market."
I doubt the reviewer has EVER tried even 1/10th of the gaming headsets on the market.
No, THIS is a proper Gaming Headset review:
https://pclab.pl/art77039-16.html
Samus - Tuesday, March 13, 2018 - link
The Steelseries Siberia is in an entirely different league than what Asus and Kingston make. Which is why the review you link too didn't even review the Siberia. For the last 4 years, the Steelseries H-series has been the benchmark to beat for gaming headphones and nobody has seemingly even tried to compete with them. Sure, the breakout boxes with OLED displays could be considered gimmicks, if they actually were gimmicks. But they are useful. Every feature in the package is useful.Brett Howse - Tuesday, March 13, 2018 - link
Not an advertisement. Of course other devices have DACs. Every audio device that hooks to a PC has a DAC.The THD+N on this GameDAC is fantastic. It has a quality amplifier built-in. It offers features that you'd not get with a normal headset.
It doesn't need ANY software installed on your PC to use it or configure it. Some companies have software that's required, and that also requires a login. And it updates every day and asks for a restart. This doesn't need any of that for the full functionality.
Not an advertisement. Just a good product.
Brett Howse - Tuesday, March 13, 2018 - link
So no, this isn't an advertisement. This is a new product, and we were able to try out the product and provide our experience with them.Originally this was going to be just a news piece for the launch, but SteelSeries got us the product several weeks ago which gave a chance to actually use them for more than the 5 minutes you'd see in a hands-on.
Just like any other product review I've done, I've used it, tested it, and provided explanations as to where I think the product excels, and where I think improvements should be made. We don't have all of the test equipment for full testing on headphones, but maybe that's something we'd look at doing in the future. Maybe not with the response this set of headphones received. If you look around, no one else even bothered to show the frequency response.
I've been looking for a set of headphones with almost all of what the Arctis Pro has to offer for some time. This lineup solves actual pain points I've had with other products. They are, in fact, very good.
Have I used every set of headphones ever? Of course not. But I've probably used several dozen.
I like quality audio. I'm not an audiophile, and I wouldn't want to be labeled as one, but if I'm looking for a set of headphones, I'd be looking for clarity, tight bass, and of course comfort, and this lineup offers all of that.
Not an advertisement. Just an experience with a product that lives up to what we were promised when discussing it with the company, and that's not always the case.
Kerdal - Tuesday, March 13, 2018 - link
Hi Brett, I was wondering something. Have you tried the Sennheiser Game One (open back) or the older PC360? I have a few of each but I'm always on the lookout for an upgrade.I'm wondering how these compare to the Sennheiser in terms of sound quality.
My motherboard is the ASUS ROG Maximus IX Code with the Sabre ES9023P and TI RC4850 amp so the gameDAC isn't all that necessary in my case.
Thanks in advance.
Brett Howse - Saturday, March 17, 2018 - link
My headset of choice is the Sennheiser HD 598 SR open back headphones. The Arctis lineup has an advantage over those though with offering better DACs so I don't have to worry about where I'm plugging in the Sennheisers.In terms of sound quality, compared to my HD 598 SRs, I would say the Arctis Pro is ahead, but the 598s are a bit more comfortable. I prefer open back though since it works better in my environment.
halcyon - Wednesday, March 14, 2018 - link
Brett, my advice, for what it is worth:1. Compare to something. Give a reference. Saying "The best" is useless, unless we know what your "best" earlier was.
2. Please try to do some semi-objective analysis of the different parts of what are the key points for a gaming headset: sound quality, sound fatigue during long term gaming sessions, wearing erconomics (headband tightness, crushing on ears, sweating), positional accuracy (using built-in 3D headphone virtualization AND/OR using the game's built-in like in Overwatch, again give us a comparison reference), microphone quality (it takes less than 5mins to fire up a recorder, record 15secs of speech, save it as 128kbps mp3, tag it into the review html).
Yes, we know you liked them, but you were mostly going ooh-aaah, about the "feature" that are basically marketing material.
We want to know how it performs. Compared to something else good.
That's why reviews are done, imho.
Brett Howse - Saturday, March 17, 2018 - link
This was going to be a first toe in the water for headphones, to get some more objective data for the future, but it might be the last.Your point 2 - I went over all those points except positional accuracy.