SteelSeries - Arctis GameBuds for Xbox

Thank you for this! Been on the fence for awhile, but bit the bullet and ordered:)

Love them! Quality of sound is great, I do struggle a little in COD tho. Other than that, perfect

Change the EQ, got 50 times better when I had it setup via sonar with the punchy music EQ

i also got these for use on my xbox and so far I'm pretty happy with them. They are replacing a set of arctis nova pros. I wear glasses and buds work much better for me than headsets which pinch the glasses. sound is good but the nova pros had better bass. My gaming friends say that my voice quality is good. Actually the nova pros mic was not great, so this might actually be an improvement. One thing that I've noticed is that the xbox connection is a bit spotty in starting up. One day I can fire up the xbox and it will be fine. the next day there will be no sound (even though the xbox will say "headset assigned" and the gamebuds will say "2.4 connected". have to plug / unplug a few times to get it to work. hoping it's just an early firmware issue. overall I like them a lot and hope that they can sort out the connection issue

I wound up getting the earbuds yesterday. Always amazes me when I get stuff a day early with no warning. Anyways, I will try and tamp down on the hyperbole but that will be hard to do. I wore these for about a 3 hour Diablo session last night and my initial thoughts are 1) These are better in almost every way vs Air Pods Pro and Bose whatever’s I have. Comfort is slight edge to Bose/Apple but security in ear blows them both out of the water. So do all the EQ available. And those EQ have a seismic effect on sound. 2) The documentation is horrific. For the life of me, I cannot figure out WTF “Press then hold” means to adjust the volume. That sounds like a ridiculous statement but you will know what I mean. 3) Fortunately #2 isn’t that big an issue as it’s super easy to remap single tap and double tap on each ear. The other button presses cannot remap. 4) Pairing to phone was easy. Pairing to PC not as much. My SS GG software apparently needed an update to even recognize the earbuds. Once that completed things went smoothly. 5). The EQ’s are amazing. Yes, with Sonar I can select which sound profile I want to hear and mic setting to chat. I’m assuming whatever I set here is ONLY for PC. That’s how the Arctic’s 7x works (or did work when I first got them a year ago). If you use Sonar to select a profile for hearing and one for Mic, the software tells you to go into the Engine and select the Flat profile. Note that if you do this, Flat will also appear in the companion app and that is what you want to see. I interpret this then as: PC can have custom EQ for both hearing and mic. Xbox / PS can choose canned EQ for hearing and gets only default mic. I did not see a way to generate a custom EQ thru the companion app. It could exist and I just didn’t see it. I also did not spend a whole bunch of time in here. Most of my time was spent in SS GG software. Quick side rant and I’ve felt this way for years…..SS needs to do a much better job making clear lines between Sonar and Engine. I have both an Xbox X and PS 5 but didn’t care to test any of this last night. Really won’t have a chance to until the weekend. Last note on Sonar for adjusting the mic, there is a test feature so you can see which EQ makes your voice sound best. I had to tone down the AI Clearcast (going off memory I think that’s what it was called) to level 30. I think it defaults to 50? At default levels your voice cuts in and out and it seems like the mic thinks your voice (maybe based on inflection or whatever else it’s picking up) is background. I’ve heard this in the 2 videos I watched before the earbuds arrived where it almost sounds like the reviewers voice is halting or at least gets pretty wild swings in volume. I believe that is the AI Clearcast doing too good a job. So play with that setting. But again, I fear that is PC only and Xbox/PS is stuck with default mic settings?

I'm sitting about 10 feet from my 65" tv while using them (I do have the dongle connected to a rear USB port on my Series X using the short USB cable it came with and have it routed so it is peeking out from the top of the console due to my cord management OCD issues and not wanting it dangling out of the front USB port) and mine connects fine with no issues. I have not tried it with the dongle hidden behind the console yet.

I just got a pair. The sound is good. The Mic is absolutely garbage. Wouldn’t use if I was in a party chat.

I am using them on 2.4 and ANC, and I estimate 6 hours

Probably the worst product I've ever bought. Microphone sounds like a garbled mess. Like, what you say is not even legible. Left earbud broke after three days usage. And why the fuck do they have silicone anyway?

You have been tricked.

I think the audio quality is great, but I've had them since just before Christmas and I can't get rid of the crackly static sound I get from both buds whenever I play a game on my PS5. It's not super loud, but it's definitely there and really quite annoying.

I’ve had mine for a bit now and I have zero regrets. They sound fantastic, the presets sound great and the battery is solid so far. Money well spent.!

Yep, no issues. For me it was a solid purchase

i have distorted sound in high volumen

i buy today the arctis and going to take they back the sound is too low vs the inzone , and dont know why have distortion when anc is on

they fix ps5 low volumen but the anc distortion is not fixed theycare break 

I bought some. They are nice for a pair of earbuds, but they're just convenient. They're definitely no substitute for my main headset which is a Beyerdynamic MMX 300, but sometimes I can't be bothered to put it on and I might be playing a game that doesn't need truly immersive sound, or maybe I don't want to mess up my hair and get "gamer-head". But yeah, convenient and "good enough" sound. They're like a mid tier gaming headset but with very weak sub-bass and a poor soundstage, which is to be expected. The mic also makes me sound like I'm on my phone inside of my bathroom lol, but at least people can understand me.

Oh they're good, don't get me wrong. I paid the $170 for them and feel like it was totally worth it, I just wouldn't go as far as saying they would replace my real headset. You'd be totally fine with maining these, but if you don't already have a headset I'd spend that 170 on an Arctis Nova 7 instead.

Got mine. From time to time keeps disconnecting one or the other bud for some reason - still waiting on the support ticket what steelseries will say about htis. The sounds are quite good - much better than airpods, but the mic even after tweaking for hours on equalizer is like a radio. For good audio also you have to play around on the SS software as default settings are not as good. More, if you are familiar with steelseries software, and you like it - its ok. IF you dont, (even though it is really good in a sense, and there is much you can do) it's annoying to use on a daily basis. ANC and transparency mode does almost nothing. ANC - nothing, transparency mode, you can hear that it adds something. Sidetone is also very minimal. I am not a hater, was waiting long for these to come out, but overall got really disappointed. For the price that they are being sold, I'd say not worth it - unless you really need **gamebuds** for gaming.

I had the same issue. Moved the dongle from the back of my PC to the front, away from the Wi-Fi adapter. And it works fine now. I'm guessing it happened due to some Wi-Fi interference.

Let me preface this by saying I’m not a very big fan of large, over-the-ear headsets. I have a pair of Arctis Nova 7Xs, and while they’re comfortable, I just prefer low profile options. I am BEYOND happy that SteelSeries finally made the plunge into this particular space because there really aren't a whole lot of options out there when it comes to gaming ear buds and the options that are there have, for me, been disappointing in one or many ways. Sony's Pulse Explore ear buds were an ergonomic nightmare that left a lot to be desired when it came to audio quality (bass in particular) especially when used for music and their Inzone model is large and clunky. Their lack of versatility was also very apparent and I think that's what these Arctis Buds do best. I first tried them out as standard Bluetooth ear buds by pairing them to my iPhone and listening to music. Out of the box, the EQ setting is set to Flat so audio did not sound super great. However, once I downloded the companion app and set the EQ to the Music options, wow, did that make a difference. I own a pair of Beats Fit Pro and 4th-gen Airpods with ANC and my bf has 2nd gen AirPods Pro, and I would rate the audio quality (including ANC) slightly below the Airpods/Beats Pro but on par with the 4th-gen Airpods. Not bad imo considering the price of the Arctis. I then connected them to my Series X and PS5 Pro and they sounded great too. On par with my Nova's with a bit of deeper bass due to the nature of the in-ear fit. Speaking of which, I absolutely love how low-profile these are. Head-on, you can't tell I'm wearing them and the fit in my ear is GREAT and comfortable. I'm sure after a few hours of gaming I'll have to adjust them to give my ears some breathing room, but I do that with my Nova's and tbh they're still pretty comfortable. I'm also impressed they packed pretty much every major feature out there (ANC, transparency mode, a wireless charging case, etc.) into such a small and portable package. Obviously, it's only been a day with these things, but so far they have made a fantastic first impressions, and I’m super stoked that there's such a well-rounded set of quality, low-profile gaming buds that don't break the bank.

Solid. Better than my Nova 7X. Out of the box it was not great tho because the EQ setting was set to Flat. I’ve come to find the EQ settings really make a huge difference with these things. The Music Deep Bass and Punchy settings are the best for bass imo. I rank it a step below my Beats Fit Pro and on par with the bass from the AirPods Pro/AirPods 4th gen.

I love the fit. So far they’ve been plenty snug and felt more secure in my ear than the AirPods Pro.

The mic is really good in regular + heated talking imo. I don’t think it’s going to be as good as the 7X in your particular scenario given that you can really shove that mic into your mouth almost. The mics on these are on the buds themselves so there’s no way to get them any closer. That being said, I did test this on my PS5 and after turning the mic volume all the way up in the PS settings area I could hear my whispers and low voice talking well enough. Only downside to having it all the way up is the slight increase in white noise…which shouldn’t be a big deal when actually gaming given that the other audio should drown it out.

Battery life has been fantastic. I definitely believe the rated 10 hours for the buds. The charging case is also a trooper. I got mine a couple days ago and the case didn’t come fully charged. Yesterday it was at 68% and today it’s at 63%. This after using the buds too and putting them back in the case to charge.

Except it isn't. The xbox version supports dolby atmos ,the PlayStation ones don't because the PlayStation doesn't have atmos. Therfore all presets in the app are different. PlayStation sound settings are different for each game so PlayStation warzone settings are different xbox because of atmos

I love mine but honestly the ANC is barely noticeable and feels pretty bad specially compared to the sony or bose ones. Are you having the same experience? Wondering if they might be defective at this point... I can clearly notice the switch between transparency and noise control off but ANC honestly does very little compared to it... I also changed the parties for foam ones thinking silicone ones couldn't possible do a decent job to no avail... Edit... playing with the settings I wondered what side tone for the microphone did... had it at max... definitely fucks with the ANC... Turned that shit down to 0 and it made a huuuuge difference... leaving it here in case anybody else is in the same boat...

Yeah that's what I understood... there's levels to it but max sidetone did seem to make ANC feel like Transparency...

I picked these up yesterday, I was surprised at how good they sound in game

They do fit well, the dongle comes in handy, I put it on my tablet and keep the by connected to my phone

I got a ton of ear piercings recently and it started to hurt to wear any over-ear headsets at all, so I bought the SteelSeries Arctis GameBuds. I was really worried they'd be total shit, but they are actually super comfortable, the sound quality is good, and I don't receive any complaints about the voice quality when I'm talking in Discord (disclaimer, though - I am not a audiophile and not terribly discerning when it comes to sound quality, lol). All in all, though, it's a pretty decent gaming earbud if you want to forgo over the ear altogether!

Alright. Couldn't resist. Ordered them. Will see how they compare to the Sony InZone Buds.

Ahhh I forgot all about this, - apologies. My first set were defective (whistling sound, reported by at least some people). My second set works perfectly and I’ve been very happy. Far less audible hiss than the Sony buds, more comfy, and the dongle is way lower profile and easier to deal with, as is the smaller case it all fits in. Very happy thus far, but Steelseries needs to sort out their quality control some more.

I believe so. I’m perhaps not as picky as some about that since I don’t play FPSs much, but there’s plenty of presets for you to play with.