SteelSeries - Arctis Nova 7 Series

My arctis 7P just up and stopped charging. Followed all their guides on the website and it didn't work. Probably gonna look at either the pulse elites or the explores for the portal and playstation link. I dunno if I'd like having the explores in my ears for extended gaming sessions because my other cheap ones make my ears itch.

This is great to hear. I also drive a set of Nova 7x and like you, don't prefer over ear headphones for gaming. Hopefully my earbuds arrive tomorrow.

I'm hoping you can set a mic profile on Sonar. For PC gaming, I use the built in "less nasly" profile for my Nova 7x and have been told it sounds good. If memory serves, Sonar settings don't work for Xbox/PS5 and need to use the Engine settings where I don't think you can adjust the mic? It's been awhile since I played in here so I may be wrong. And I don't have my ear buds yet.

SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7. Been running the same headset for years without any issues. If it helps sell ya; Embarrassingly enough, I rage-threw my headset at the wall for the first time a week ago. Broke the audio cable to the headset. Ordered a replacement cord for $15 and it still works perfectly.

Can't really give an objective answer, because I tested just a few of them. I had/have ISK HD9999 with Creative G6, JBL Quantum 400, Arctis Nova 7X, Razer Blackshark Pro V2 2023, Razer Barracuda Pro Wireless, JBL Quantum 910X, Sony WH-1000XM5. So far, for gaming I LOVE Quantum 910X the most. I'm using them exclusively for gaming since I got them.

I would avoid Arctis Nova, as other people already said they don't last very long, go for HyperX-Cloud-Alpha, the metal beam is not going to break on you and they sound great!

I have the Arctis Nova 7 and there is no RGB. Only light is the microphone being red when you have it muted.

I've had mine for a little over 6 months and love the sound. Definitely has some "quirks" and app is kind of buggy. I use it for single player games and movies/music but daily the Nova 7's cause of simultaneous Bluetooth (phone/pc) for work and fps games. OOB EQ on both is decent for most but i tuned it and Nova 7's to my preference. Go check out GadgetryTech. He does very in depth reviews on audio gear from both a gamer and audiophile perspective. \-For OP's question, I suggest checking out used Nova 7x on amazon. If your in the U.S. market, they can often be found for under $100. I personally like the Sonar software but only after I learned how to use it properly lol. Razer Blackshark line is also good and has an awesome mic but I opted for for the Nova 7's for the slightly more pronounced bass. Both are comfortable but the Blackshark V2 Pro were probably the most comfortable that I've tried. For reference, I've tried Corsair HS80, Razer Blackshark V2 Pro, Arcits Nova 7, Nova Pro wireless, Audeze Maxwells. I cant speak to the other ones you mentioned since I don't really have any personal experience with them. If you do go with the Nova 7's and have larger ears like I do, I suggest upgrading stock pads to something thicker like what Wicked Cushions offers if you are sensitive to the drivers making contact on your ears.

I've had mine for a little over 6 months and love the sound. Definitely has some "quirks" and app is kind of buggy. I use it for single player games and movies/music but daily the Nova 7's cause of simultaneous Bluetooth (phone/pc) for work and fps games. OOB EQ on both is decent for most but i tuned it and Nova 7's to my preference. Go check out GadgetryTech. He does very in depth reviews on audio gear from both a gamer and audiophile perspective. \-For OP's question, I suggest checking out used Nova 7x on amazon. If your in the U.S. market, they can often be found for under $100. I personally like the Sonar software but only after I learned how to use it properly lol. Razer Blackshark line is also good and has an awesome mic but I opted for for the Nova 7's for the slightly more pronounced bass. Both are comfortable but the Blackshark V2 Pro were probably the most comfortable that I've tried. For reference, I've tried Corsair HS80, Razer Blackshark V2 Pro, Arcits Nova 7, Nova Pro wireless, Audeze Maxwells. I cant speak to the other ones you mentioned since I don't really have any personal experience with them. If you do go with the Nova 7's and have larger ears like I do, I suggest upgrading stock pads to something thicker like what Wicked Cushions offers if you are sensitive to the drivers making contact on your ears.

I just bought an arctis 7x Wireless Whenever I use discord, everyone says my voice sounds awful. I basically love the headset, hate the mic. Did you ever have any mic quality issues?

Facts. My Arctis Nova 7’s are awesome. Except for the software lol. It’s a pain in the ass to have to set sonar as the primary source every time.

I have the Nova 7s, got them on sale for $80 bucks and I love them. Comfy, sound great, and my first pair of wireless.

I tried a few headset last month (PC gaming) SteelSeries Nova 7P, Audiotechnica M50X, Benedynamic DT880 Pro, and HyperX cloud 2. These are my opinion as day-to-day game and music enjoyer. Not an audiophile. I’m using EQ with Steel series GG - Sonar. Nova 7 and hyperX are wireless and closed back. M50X (closed back) and DT 880 pro (semi-open-back) are wired. I settled down for HyperX cloud 2 (upgraded with wicked cushion) for wireless and DT 880 pro for wired with DAC. Nova 7 is awesome, but it falls short on 2 pain points - too small for my head and plastic hinges. I fear I’ll break it in months from my daily usage/abuse. Otherwise they are terrific. M50X is also good with crystal clear sounds… but I prefer open back of the DT880 Pro more. DT880 Pro also has bigger ear cushion, more comfortable long gaming session. Purely personal preference. HyperX cloud 2 works wonders for me. Good sound and bass. Even better when used with EQ. When compared to Nova 7, it has better omph bass in wireless mode (nova 7 is a beast when plugged in). DT 880 pro is my spare for when the hyperX ran out of battery or when I need a better sound for movie immersive-ness. It just works. As your partner wanting wireless, give HyperX and SteelSeries a try. They are both closed back with good reviews. YMMW. These are under $150. If you can spend $200+ then there are other tier of headset that’s outside of my budget range.

steelseries arctis nova 7, great sound (idk im not an audiophile if it makes sound im happy), the software is a bit annoying yet great at the same time cuz theres preset audio settings for tons of games (idk dont ask me i can't hear the difference) and the headset also has spatial sound (just remember to turn it on in the software!), very nice battery too, lasts quite a while and is quick to charge. only downside is that after a while (2+ hours for me I think) it does get a bit uncomfortable on the ears, idk why but I think its cuz the ear cups are a bit small. Easily avoided by taking a break after a while tho which is something you should be doing anyway.

Wireless the way to go. I have a wired Razer Kraken 3 which has good sound and comfort but not so much a quality build. Headband snapped, wire wore out, pleather wearing out. Good thing I got it as a gift. +1 for any Steel Series Arctis wireless as well. I ended up buying cheap $30 wireless from Amazon which works fine but not the same as a headset that has software to go with it. Even with Razer Kraken, the sound quality is better if you have a Dolby Atmos license (~$10?) for the virtual surround sound enhancements vs the Windows Sonic which is built into Windows.

I am seeing the Steelseries Arctis Nova 7X at around 130€ and it's my go-to recommendation. Mic and audio quality is great but not excellent, however the headset makes up for that in the sheer amount of features. It's a wireless headset that supports simultaneous bluetooth so you can still answer calls while you're gaming, and the headset works on all platforms wirelessly, not just Xbox.

Are you still enjoying them as much? How fast do they recharge if they run out? I use my headphones quite a bit and one of the best things I find with the arctis novas is I can just fast swap the battery, but I'd love having a smaller (and portable) solution in general.

My biggest gripes with Steelseries (nova 7 owner) is the software is terrible. The audio dial to tune between gaming/chat works occasionally, there were several times where I had drivers updates that basically reset all my sound settings, I couldn’t create an account with my gmail so I had to go another email I don’t really use, and there is like 10 different headset settings in your sound settings that you need to go through and disable if you aren’t using them just so you know which ones you actually use. The headset alone: good. But the software is just a nightmare.

I have the nova 7, not surprised that it’s decently rated

I have very little headset experience but had to get one a few months back. I picked up the Steelseries arctis nova 7, I think they were on sale for like $120 and honestly they're pretty damn good. last pair I had was a 9 year old sony studio headset that lacked bass and noise cancellation, so the arcis nova 7 are night and day obviously. Big pro for me is, I'm generally a speaker gamer and i like my games loud and booming. Audio quality and bass are good enough for me to actually prefer wearing my headphones during most times of the day. on top of being pretty comfortable with a very nice battery life, I'd recommend em. Cons aren't enough for me to hate on em, but they're a tad annoying. 1. I have to disconnect the BT dongle and plug it back in everytime I boot up my PC if I want to use my headphones, otherwise it just fails to reconnect. It's not too bad since i plug em into my front ports, just a mild inconvenience. 2. However, I notice a lot of times the headphones have a hard time splitting audio when multitasking. Again maybe this is just a headset thing, as it's not prevalent with my speakers, but when gaming on one monitor and listening to youtube/streaming on my 2nd monitor, it sounds like the audio gets kinda meshed on top of eachother rather than hearing each dedicated source on each side. This makes it hard to multitask like I like to do because I can't really hear my video streaming source over whatever game I'm playing, and this is despite heavily lowering in game audio settings, while trying to avoid not hearing the game entirely.

I don’t have much experience with headsets as I’ve always preferred speakers, but I picked up the Steel series Arctis Nova 7 and I really like how they sound. The Bluetooth connection is a little jank in that I have to disconnect and reconnect the dongle to the usb port every time I boot up my pc but it’s a minor inconvenience. They sound good and I like how I can swap modes and turn the mic on and off from The headset itself. I’d recommend em

I have the nova 7’s they good

I use a steelseries arctics nova. I got it fairly recently (like a month ago) and i can hear the smallest of sounds when I play pretty darn well. It's also fairly lite weight and has a long battery life.

Arctis Nova 7 here. No breakage and I share it with my kids at my single gaming pc station.

Nova 7x are great for footsteps and. Interchangeability Via consoles or oc or phone

My Nova 7 with "Gadgetrytech's" Game preset is pretty amazing when footsteps are important. Game winning infact with Sonar.

Not who you’re replying to, but I had the Steelseries Arctis Nova 7s and ended up returning them to Best Buy after a couple months for the A50 Gen5s. I think something was faulty with the Novas cause the right ear was always lower volume than the left despite then both being balanced, which is why I returned them. But the Astros have a much better overall sound in my opinion. For what I was paying, I could’ve got the Arctis Pros as well, but after a few hours of researching on the day of purchase, the Astros seemed to have better reviews overall.

Currently using Arctis Nova 7X Wireless and they are pretty ok, but i used to have [1MORE Triple Drivers](https://usa.1more.com/products/triple-driver-in-ear-headphones) and those were easily the best earphones i have used in gaming. I would have bought new ones when my first ones died, but at the moment they didn't deliver to Finland.

Yeah ik. But me as a guy with a very bad 8yo laptop and steelseries arctis nova 7 I'm fine with them. I bought them more than for audio quality for versatility, I played switch and pc at that time, and wanted discord while I played so I got this ones that can have dual audio from the dongle and Bluetooth. Mic is also really good, a bit oversaturated buy its way better than most. And compared to what I had of audio stuff, it's exceptional, but I agree it could be better, I can now hear details and bass but I see that it lacks in subbase and highest highs, but clarity is good and having lows and highs at the same time doenst make the details dissappear. And the highs are a bit wonky but to my untrained ear it's fine, can't pinpoint the issue but there is a little something making the audio a touch weird. So while I could've probably gotten some decent headphones, and a mic what I was looking for was the audio throughput, wireless, OK mic, decent audio, interconnectability and plug and play style ease of use. Plus it being able to be wired for when the battery inevitably dies since its not the pros.

I had a 7X a little while ago and nah, these are not as good. No earbuds will be as good as true over-ear headphones at the same price point. You're missing out on outer ear activation which plays a massive role in making the soundstage sound natural and immersive. The mic is also way worse, but what can you expect. These are nice to have in conjunction with an actual gaming headset for convenience reasons, but would never replace one unless you were upgrading from something truly bargain-bin.

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.

I’ve had the arctis 7p’s since launch day of the ps5 so either you’re treating your equipment like garbage or you just have the worst luck possible

I love my Nova Artics 7

Ive been enjoying the arctic nova 7, being able to play on pc then my friend ask me to join a playstation party and still game on pc has been such a quality ability

Gonna be honest, I have a buddy who splurged for Maxwell's and the mic quality was noticeably worse than his Logitech G Pro X, he had a ton of problems with their software, and on top of that they're insanely heavy with mediocre battery life. If you don't need ANC, I love my Steel Series Arctus Nova 7. They're light, I get great battery life, and simultaneously pairing to my PC and phone to answer phone calls is fantastic. I used the Steel series GG software for awhile, but ended up just disabling it and they still work like you'd expect a headset to work. They have media volume and sidetalk/monitoring volume on the headset, a mic mute button, and the power button doubles as a play/pause.

I like the Steelseries Arctis Nova 7P or 7X if you're multi platform. USB C fast charging and they have Bluetooth functionality to connect to your phone while you're playing.

I haven't had that issue with mine.

Arctis steel series. I can hear more than my teammates typically with incoming cars etc

This is the best answer. I went steel series arctis until i upgrad

Hell I bought the Nova 7's as a "quick budget" headset before buying a standalone mic and quality headphones. They're such a good, tight (but not too tight) fit, the audio is really good. The only downside is the mic isn't exceptional quality, but I'm just playing with friends, so it doesn't need to be perfect. At this point if I upgrade again in the next couple years I'll do a standalone mic and keep these headphones. I could never go back to wired.

Oh shit you're correct thank you. Edited.

I'm replacing my virtuouso with the nova. The v's cups are too small for my ears and the headband fatigues my skull, they are super heavy aswell. I did like the build quality and the detachable mic though. Battery has been dieing much quicker after a year but that could be my fault.

I use the Arctis Nova 7X headset and it’s pretty good. A bit expensive (think they were $150 or so) but they’ve been good to me. These seem like a solid deal at $100 though.

ive had a few headsets recently and none of them have checked every box, its always something either great sound and voice but comfortability 0/10 others reversed next purchase is the artic nova 7, didnt like the astros or the hs80 corsair

Exactly my problem with these headphones. They were great in the beginning, the mic quality sounded really nasally… like air traffic controllers but you could turn the side tone off and you didn’t hear the echo feedback from your own voice. Now mine has a constant delay of 0.5-1/sec and it feels like I’m talking over myself. Very annoying and they just gave up on firmware updates. At least let us keep the old firmware, where the side tone wheel ACTUALLY WORKS??? I checked around and it seems to be the consensus if you have the Nova 7P that you have no mic mixing (AKA side tone control) in the app. I can’t use these to communicate while gaming, which is so annoying given what I paid for these to be crippled by firmware smh 😡

I bought steel series and I regret it, they broke fairly quickly even changing the cable didnt help they are garbage

Can't speak for those, but I use the arctis nova 7x, and for its price and quality it's pretty unreal for both Xbox AND PC.

The only thing I hate about my steelseries Nova 7 is the bloatware it forces on me to keep my eq settings. Why make a good product and then ruin it for the user with atrocious software?

I use Steelseries Arctis 7 Nova, which sounds excellent and has a great mic.

I have 2, 4 and 10. Sennheiser for PC, Artic Nova for PS5, and Hyper X for work

I’ve been rocking the Steelseries Arctis wireless headphones since XSX launch day and they are still going strong after 4 years of heavy daily use. https://preview.redd.it/cu27k04b3ewd1.png?width=1722&format=png&auto=webp&s=7ccc4a2d0e5b776a9a1314b937ed58560f805fe4

Well I have the Steelseries Arctis Nova 7P and it's trash city... the microphone is terrible and you get a constant echo you can't fix because it won't let you turn off the sidetone settings. So I get a 1/sec delay of everything I say... also it picks up EVERYTHING in the room?! They have two mics on the boom, once facing your mouth and another facing outwards that serves no purpose and ruins the audio. I'm gonna see if I can use my Airpods Pro or dig out my old PS4 Turtle Beach wired PS4 headset. I heard the Razer Pro is good but I'm not trying to spend $200. Buying electronics these days is tricky because they don't last and break or become obsolete so quick. I just want a good mic and decent sound... but comfortable ear pads. I will say the Nova 7P is very comfortable to wear... I bought wicked cushions but I haven't put them on yet because I don't know how lol.

I think Steelseries is terrible and wouldn't recommend it to anyone. The mic is terrible and everything you say is delayed by 1/sec and it's a condenser mic and it should've been a dynamic mic. So EVERYTHING in the room is heard. Keyboards clicking and literally everyone breathing in the room. It's way too sensitive and they put a 2nd mic on the boom facing away from you??? Plus the program team isn't that good, they're app needs work or a software engineer. I have to buy another pair because these are literally useless to me unless I'm playing by myself. The speakers also get muddy with the bass and there's a lot of clipping.

You obviously haven't used the Steelseries Arctis Nova 7P. That mic isn't just trash but the echo feedback is unable to be turned off in software. So you get a delayed voice echo is obnoxious

I would not recommend SteelSeries Arctis Nova Headset based on the mic quality in itself. I have the Arctis Nova 7P and the mic is unusable and they stopped supporting firmware upgrades to fix it so you can turn off sidetone because on PS5 you get a terrible delayed echo of your voice that's delayed 1/sec. There are much better headsets for that price range IMO. Steelseries is way overhyped by a huge marketing budget. I have a perfectly fine (less than 30/hrs of gaming) almost new Nova 7P wireless headphones that work fine except for the mic. Trust me there are better options and they have a weakpoint where the earcup will eventually break off. I love the mic sits flush inside the headset and the battery life is great at like 25-30/hours but the 40mm drivers don't sound the best and even with EQ to get a proper balanced sound you can't avoid clipping.

Hey I'm so sorry but I have to ask. What headsets would anyone recommend with huge heads. I got the arctis Nova and stealth gen 3 700 and both hurt my head bigtime. Use Sony XM5s currently.

Did you have issues with them echoing. 

Got the Arctis Nova 7's. Because I won a SteelSeries bundle, best headset ever!

Yeah I use a nova 7 and while the sound is great the mic sucks lol

I have the arctic nova 7p and the Xbox version one. I love them both and I can recommend the Xbox ones for that price. They also feel a bit tighter then the nova which I prefer

I love mine as well. Mine work fine without unplugging the adapter, though.

In my experience SteelSeries Arctics Nova 7P headphones have excellent build quality & comfort but sound quality & connection stability can be wonky. Recently got Sony headphones which work great & have decent build & sound quality. My only two complaints with those are comfort(I ended up installing some foam padding on the speakers under the pads mesh to solve this issue) & the dual connection Bluetooth feature in the app has issues. Also you can't use them while charging which was a real bummer since every other headset I've had before allowed you to use them while charging. I was kinda surprised to find out $100 Sony headphones weren't capable of this.

The ones that aren't gaming headsets. I've been getting by just fine with my Sony headset which is comfortable & has good noise canceling & the microphone works just fine for both chatting on PC & my phone. I guess gun to my head I'd be between Steel Series Arctics Nova headphones or Turtle Beach but Turtle Beach headsets can be pricy. Tried Arctics Nova 7P before. The build quality & comfort is really nice & being able to connect to both a Bluetooth device & with a USB C dongle is handy but no noise canceling is kind of a deal breaker & connection & sound quality has its ups & downs.

I have the arctis nova 7 wireless dont know enough about sound quality to vouch for that but damn they are comfortable as fuck it like having clouds on my ears i can wear them for 7/8 hours without feeling anything

I had the same thing happen and it took something like 6 months to actually get them to send me another pair via warranty. The second set was great, to be fair but I'm back on the hunt less than 2 years later as the replacement set's charger port just... Died. Won't connect.

Does chatmix work properly for you without using GG/Sonar? I have GG but Sonar is disabled, chatmix doesn’t work and it’s the only thing I miss from my Arctis 7s

Stupid. I’m running PEACE equalizer which makes them sound way better but it conflicts with sonar so I guess I’m never using chatmix again. Not sure why it’s not just all done in hardware like before

I listen to music frequently on my PC and value the higher quality over the annoyances of sonar. I had many times where sonar audio devices flat out wouldn’t work properly and required a restart or reinstall to fix, and I got tired of it. I don’t find sonar provides any benefit over peace other than chatmix, and I don’t care about being able to hear footsteps 2.5% more clearly

Interesting. Everything I read from Steelseries basically said the knob just changes the chatmix within sonar, so idk how it’d work without it. Might need to give it a try

I don’t have a hub? I have a pair of Arctis Nova 7s which need Sonar for chatmix but just have a small USB C wireless dongle

Ahh, I see. On mine chatmix is just a dial that does nothing unless sonar is installed and the sonar audio devices are used as your output in all apps

Nova 7x not bad. It has simultaneous Bluetooth , so I use it dongle on Xbox and both on PC. Make sure you get the right version for your needs though. There's like 3 of them. 7x would be the better option because it's less limited. You could still plug that dongle into a PS5. However, with the nova 7p, you cannot use it on Xbox.

If music is a bit of a primary focus I'd say go Maxwell, if you know how to EQ and want to use Sonar. Then Nova do get good quality sound.

Have Nova 7’s and mine are already dying after not even a year… constant buzzing watching YouTube or roboting the sounds when my Fiber Internet is playing everything just fine. Literally had to go to my old headset till I can get a new headset AGAIN lol

My Nova 7s have gone to shit after not even a year. Tried my old headset and works fine… never buying SteelSeries again.

How is the mic? I've heard mixed reviews on that. I have the Artic Nova 7s and the mic is horrible. People constantly complain about it

Nova 7 - been using for 13months or so. Good as new. Still sounds amazing. And very fucking comfy. Im using this at work, so basically its sitting on my head at an 8-9h daily basis. Okay I replaced the earpads for a protein leather one from the SS store, as the fabric one was keep pulling my facial hair - but it was worth that 15$.

Same, although I have an Arctis Nova 7. For some games the closed design fits better, but for music and movies the Sennheiser is much, much better in every aspect.

from an audiophile, i’d recommend the one you made this thread about, audeze maxwell, and the astro a50s. i personally have the old nova pros and the newer nova 7x. sound quality id prob rank the a50s above the nova pros, but id say the convenience of the quick swap batteries can have a nice argument as well. i’ve heard a lot about the maxwells too, but i haven’t had too much experience with them personally as i don’t really have interest in another wireless set, and they haven’t went on a good enough sale for me to pull the trigger

I have Steelseries Arctis Nova 7X.