Sproketz
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2011
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- 96
Please post your impressions of this headset. Kicking it off with my review.
I'm coming from a SteelSeries 7X I use for PC/Xbox/PS games for convenience, and a Denon D9200 and Arya Stealth I use for music with a RME ADI-2 DAC FS. I'll be using these for some comparisons to look at how the Nova Pro compares to headphones both below and above its price range. I also recently tried a VZR One (full review here) and will make some comparisons there as well.
I bought the Xbox version as it is compatible with everything. Be cautious about buying the PS5 version as it is not compatible with Xbox. There must be some licensing thing at play here, but SteelSeries has always had this ultra-confusing lineup where they sell three versions of the same headset for the same price, and one of them does it all, and the others are gimped. So beware.
Pros
Music impressions
I didn't use the 7X for music due to how ill suited it was for that, so if you are coming from the SteelSeries 7 line this is a huge leap up in quality as this one is great for music. Similarly I didn't find the VZR One to be a good music headphone with a veiled and EQ-unfixable treble offering.
The Nova Pro Wireless are absolutely audiophile quality cans if you plug them in with the supplied cable and apply a parametric EQ to compensate for a few of the dips in their sound curve. I used GadgetryTech's parametric EQ as a starting point. These phones take to EQ well, allowing you to customize whatever you may find lacking. To my ear, the default tune needed a boost in treble which the EQ took care of perfectly.
To give the Nova Pro Wireless a more even footing with the D9200 and Arya Stealth, I plugged directly into the RME ADI-2 DAC amp with the supplied cable.
The Nova Pro punched way above its $330 price point making it at least half-way to the D9200's sound quality if not a bit more. Detail retrieval is excellent and the highs and mids are extremely capable. The bass can't keep up with the higher tier, but it's still respectable and enjoyable. The higher end headphones also win out on timbre. Putting any dynamic driver against the Arya's planar stealth magnet for example is just unfair when listening to acoustic guitar for example. The D9200s fullness of range from bass to the highest of highs make it win out, and the Arya's absurd sub-bass capability and incredible flat-to-the-top characteristics simply can't be replicated here.
That said, the Nova Pro makes music an engaging and complex listening experience. Detail is on full display and the frequency range is well represented. The soundstage is also quite good. Close to the D9200 but not quite as wide. That's a compliment as the D9200 is well regarded as having a wide soundstage. It's an enjoyable listening experience even after coming from the higher tier.
Going from wired amplifier to wireless, the overall sound stays enjoyable but I did lose a smidge of soundstage and a noticeable amount of timbre/realism. If you want to get serious, plug them in! The drivers are capable of a lot more than what you will hear via the wireless connection.
Surround Sound and Gaming
While you can use Dolby Atmos for Headphones, DTS Headphone:X, DTS:X Ultra, and Windows Sonic with the Nova Pro, you can't use them with the Sonar features turned on. With Sonar on you can use Sonar Surround, which is vastly more spacious and precise for locating sounds than any of the other methods. I was surprised to find my beloved Dolby Atmos for Headphones has been dethroned, and by a large margin.
There are two sliders that let you control aspects of the surround sound:
The sound is impressive and immersive. Star Citizen in particular sounds insanely good due to the quality mixing their audio team has done. Full bodied and spacious detailed sound across the board. Destiny 2 is excellent with the sound mix feeling fully represented. Destiny lacks bass comparatively with Star Citizen, but that's just how the Destiny mix is to begin with. I did make a Destiny 2 sound profile to compensate. Guardians of the Galaxy was fantastic as well, really showing off the clarity in the mids due to the large amount of witty dialogue in that game.
The Nova Pro is a huge leap up from the 7X, and easily outperformed the VZR One as well. The VZR One has an abundance of bass, but not much else for my ear.
Consoles
The Nova Pro performed the same on both Xbox Series X and PS5 as on PC. The PC has an edge as you can only use Sonar Surround on the PC. Tempest audio on PS5 sounds good for example, but can't match the spaciousness of Sonar Surround.
Having the DAC box with an EQ is a welcome feature when using the consoles, allowing control of the onboard EQ settings without using the PC. You can also cycle through a few presets like bass boost, treble boost and a V shaped EQ if you don't want to take time tweaking.
Other features like sidetone are also configurable via the DAC box, while chatmix for Xbox works from the headset dial.
Microphone
The mic is excellent for a gaming headset with all listeners saying it sounded great. It even got a "wow, you sound like a radio announcer" from one friend, who normally listened to me on the 7X mic. I use the included pop filter, which is a nice inclusion.
The noise cancellation from the mic is flawless. I tested loud keystrokes, table drumming and tapping objects, none of which could be heard by listeners. I didn't even turn on all the secondary noise reduction and noise gating features as there was no need.
You can manually EQ your voice and choose from EQ voice presets that make you sound deeper, or like you are on a walkie talkie. None sounded as good as the default to those listening. I was immediately left wanting some fun voice pitch changer options which could be fun in open multiplayer matches. Maybe in a future update SteelSeries?
Sonar and Quality of Life Features
The Sonar software that is included with the SteelSeries GG application is a game changer. It's packed with truly useful options that will take you a while to familiarize yourself with. I still haven't used them all. Sadly, Sonar is not available when using PS5 or Xbox. You can save a 10-band graphic EQ profile into the headset to use when away from your PC, but a phone app for external control would be a welcome addition for those situations so you don't have to use the DAC box.
Sonar lets you auto-toggle your desktop speakers and mic as fallback devices when you switch on or off the Nova Pro. That means all the right sources are always selected. You just leave your computer pointed to the virtual sound sources and Sonar takes care of the rest. It mostly just works, though if you unplug the DAC to use it with your consoles and then bring it back, you have to set up your desktop sources again. This feels like an oversight as it will default to the headphones when you plug in the DAC's USB even if the headphones aren't on. It really should use the most recent non-headphone output and mic. I do wish they had added a feature to automatically set what EQ and spatial audio settings you want per device as well. This is so close to "set it and forget it" that it's a shame they didn't go the extra few steps.
Impressively, you can output fully surround audio from Sonar to any audiophile dac/amp you want. So I can now have full surround sound audio being fed into my RME ADI-2 DAC amp and use all of the ADI-2's features when I want to use high-end headphones for solo gaming. This is the first time I've been able to do this. An absolutely stellar feature. You can download and try Sonar for free, so you shouldn't have to buy the headphones to try it out. Great news if you're just trying to get surround sound into your audiophile cans. Gaming with Sonar Surround into my D9200 cans is crazy good. If you have high-end cans, definitely try it.
The headset volume dial placement on the left ear is helpful, allowing you to protect yourself in game with your right hand while adjusting volume with your left. It's well recessed so you don't accidentally touch it while adjusting the headphones which was a real issue with the 7X. Pressing in the volume dial swaps it to chatmix, letting you adjust game volume against chat volume. No longer do I have to go into Destiny 2's audio setting to adjust the mix when I join in a group.
Sidetone is also available, allowing you to hear your voice through your headphones which feels much more natural when speaking and stops you from speaking too loudly. The implementation is much better than it was on the 7X which introduced static when turned up. I noticed no static at all with the Nova Pro implementation.
The noise canceling did a nice job with computer fan noise that was making its way through faintly. Turning on ANC completely eliminated it. It definitely keeps things even quieter inside than without. I don't have much background noise in my house, but it feels very isolating and lets you focus completely on your sound source. Tapping a coke can on the computer table sounds like the treble side of the sound gets knocked out.
You're also able to multi-channel your phone via bluetooth, so you can hear alerts and take calls without removing the headset while gaming. There are options to lower, or mute the volume of the game in the background while you are on your call. When on the call, your phone call is sheltered from others in the game, so they can't hear you. Super handy to have privacy but still be able to slightly hear what's going on in the game, all without removing the headset.
The hot swappable battery is brilliant. Not only does this make you never worry about battery life again, it also ensures your device isn't burdened by a non-replaceable or extremely hard to replace battery once the battery goes bad. I hate having to charge stuff, and this makes the Nova Pro feel like one less thing to charge.
Stuff I didn't use yet but it's awesome to have. Line out mini-jack for desktop speakers, line-in mini-jack, secondary USB-C in for source switching, a Sonar media broadcasting source, and smart volume for input and output. This thing is packed.
Aftermarket pads
The Nova Pro ear cups are unacceptably shallow, causing the ANC mic to uncomfortably hit my ear. A little searching shows this is a widespread issue. This means this headset really costs $330+30 = $360 as an aftermarket upgrade is 100% required to fix the issue. I've seen more than a few reviews from people who have returned the headphone due to the ear pad issue. You'd think SteelSeries would be addressing it by now. Thankfully someone else has.
I used the Wicked Cushions Cooling Gel pads which give a more roomy and comfortable fit. The airweave material is a massive comfort upgrade that lowers heat and the cooling gel also keeps things cooler. The cooling gel truly feels cool when you put on the headphones for about 20 minutes. After that they do begin to normalize and start to warm up, but it's still cooler than the stock pads once they do.
Since the pads are thicker and move the drivers away from your ears slightly they also benefit the soundstage, bringing it more in line with the D9200. I don't perceive any change in bass response or overall tonality. Even if the ANC mic doesn't hit your ear with the stock pads, these pads are a worthy upgrade.
Overall
This one's a keeper. Once you replace the ear pads it's a comfortable and enjoyable sounding headset. It adds broad utility and convenience while simultaneously offering excellent sound. It effectively ended my multiplayer gaming headset search. The fact that SteelSeries Sonar provides value when I want to game through my higher-end cans just makes it that much better.
Neodymium Drivers
40 mmHeadphone Frequency Response (Wired)
10–40,000 HzHeadphone Frequency Response (Wireless)
10–22,000 HzHeadphone Sensitivity
93 dBSPLHeadphone Impedance
38 OhmHeadphone Total Harmonic Distortion
< 1%Active Noise Cancellation
4-mic hybrid design with Transparency ModeMicrophone Type
ClearCast Gen 2 - Fully Retractable BoomMicrophone Polar Pattern
Bidirectional Noise-CancelingMicrophone Frequency Response
100-6500 HzMicrophone Sensitivity
-38 dBV/PaMicrophone Impedance
2200 Ohm
SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless For Xbox Review
I'm coming from a SteelSeries 7X I use for PC/Xbox/PS games for convenience, and a Denon D9200 and Arya Stealth I use for music with a RME ADI-2 DAC FS. I'll be using these for some comparisons to look at how the Nova Pro compares to headphones both below and above its price range. I also recently tried a VZR One (full review here) and will make some comparisons there as well.
I bought the Xbox version as it is compatible with everything. Be cautious about buying the PS5 version as it is not compatible with Xbox. There must be some licensing thing at play here, but SteelSeries has always had this ultra-confusing lineup where they sell three versions of the same headset for the same price, and one of them does it all, and the others are gimped. So beware.
Pros
- Good for both music and games
- Supports PC, PS5, XBOX and Switch
- Good audio spectrum capabilities and takes EQ well
- Good isolation and ANC that blocks out background noise
- Parametric EQ with Bass/Voice/Treble sliders
- Hot swappable battery is an ideal solution to a long standing problem
- SteelSeries Sonar has great quality of life features
- Sonar surround sound is top tier
- Clear and full sounding microphone
- The earpads are bad and require aftermarket replacement
- Their support has a bad reputation for being unresponsive
Music impressions
I didn't use the 7X for music due to how ill suited it was for that, so if you are coming from the SteelSeries 7 line this is a huge leap up in quality as this one is great for music. Similarly I didn't find the VZR One to be a good music headphone with a veiled and EQ-unfixable treble offering.
The Nova Pro Wireless are absolutely audiophile quality cans if you plug them in with the supplied cable and apply a parametric EQ to compensate for a few of the dips in their sound curve. I used GadgetryTech's parametric EQ as a starting point. These phones take to EQ well, allowing you to customize whatever you may find lacking. To my ear, the default tune needed a boost in treble which the EQ took care of perfectly.
To give the Nova Pro Wireless a more even footing with the D9200 and Arya Stealth, I plugged directly into the RME ADI-2 DAC amp with the supplied cable.
The Nova Pro punched way above its $330 price point making it at least half-way to the D9200's sound quality if not a bit more. Detail retrieval is excellent and the highs and mids are extremely capable. The bass can't keep up with the higher tier, but it's still respectable and enjoyable. The higher end headphones also win out on timbre. Putting any dynamic driver against the Arya's planar stealth magnet for example is just unfair when listening to acoustic guitar for example. The D9200s fullness of range from bass to the highest of highs make it win out, and the Arya's absurd sub-bass capability and incredible flat-to-the-top characteristics simply can't be replicated here.
That said, the Nova Pro makes music an engaging and complex listening experience. Detail is on full display and the frequency range is well represented. The soundstage is also quite good. Close to the D9200 but not quite as wide. That's a compliment as the D9200 is well regarded as having a wide soundstage. It's an enjoyable listening experience even after coming from the higher tier.
Going from wired amplifier to wireless, the overall sound stays enjoyable but I did lose a smidge of soundstage and a noticeable amount of timbre/realism. If you want to get serious, plug them in! The drivers are capable of a lot more than what you will hear via the wireless connection.
Surround Sound and Gaming
While you can use Dolby Atmos for Headphones, DTS Headphone:X, DTS:X Ultra, and Windows Sonic with the Nova Pro, you can't use them with the Sonar features turned on. With Sonar on you can use Sonar Surround, which is vastly more spacious and precise for locating sounds than any of the other methods. I was surprised to find my beloved Dolby Atmos for Headphones has been dethroned, and by a large margin.
There are two sliders that let you control aspects of the surround sound:
- The Performance/Immersion slider which I set to -9.0 or below, otherwise there is an audible room acoustics effect that starts to be added. This can give sound improper acoustics if it is set too high. For example if an NPC is talking to you out on an open plain, it will make it sound as if they are in a room. Turning it down to -9.0 or lower towards "performance" fixed that for me. It's set to the maximum by default which is a mistake on Steelseries part and likely is the cause of some negative reviews of Sonar surround. You can easily over do this setting. Yes, it will sound more spacious if you crank it up, but at the expense of realism, which doesn't equal "immersion."
- The Distance slider is a bit confusing. I'm hard pressed to tell exactly what this is doing to the audio. It mostly acts as another volume knob, but I didn't notice an appreciable level of distance when using it. I set it dead center at 50 as setting it far out had no noticeable effect other than cutting the volume. If you figure this one out, please let me know.
The sound is impressive and immersive. Star Citizen in particular sounds insanely good due to the quality mixing their audio team has done. Full bodied and spacious detailed sound across the board. Destiny 2 is excellent with the sound mix feeling fully represented. Destiny lacks bass comparatively with Star Citizen, but that's just how the Destiny mix is to begin with. I did make a Destiny 2 sound profile to compensate. Guardians of the Galaxy was fantastic as well, really showing off the clarity in the mids due to the large amount of witty dialogue in that game.
The Nova Pro is a huge leap up from the 7X, and easily outperformed the VZR One as well. The VZR One has an abundance of bass, but not much else for my ear.
Consoles
The Nova Pro performed the same on both Xbox Series X and PS5 as on PC. The PC has an edge as you can only use Sonar Surround on the PC. Tempest audio on PS5 sounds good for example, but can't match the spaciousness of Sonar Surround.
Having the DAC box with an EQ is a welcome feature when using the consoles, allowing control of the onboard EQ settings without using the PC. You can also cycle through a few presets like bass boost, treble boost and a V shaped EQ if you don't want to take time tweaking.
Other features like sidetone are also configurable via the DAC box, while chatmix for Xbox works from the headset dial.
Microphone
The mic is excellent for a gaming headset with all listeners saying it sounded great. It even got a "wow, you sound like a radio announcer" from one friend, who normally listened to me on the 7X mic. I use the included pop filter, which is a nice inclusion.
The noise cancellation from the mic is flawless. I tested loud keystrokes, table drumming and tapping objects, none of which could be heard by listeners. I didn't even turn on all the secondary noise reduction and noise gating features as there was no need.
You can manually EQ your voice and choose from EQ voice presets that make you sound deeper, or like you are on a walkie talkie. None sounded as good as the default to those listening. I was immediately left wanting some fun voice pitch changer options which could be fun in open multiplayer matches. Maybe in a future update SteelSeries?
Sonar and Quality of Life Features
The Sonar software that is included with the SteelSeries GG application is a game changer. It's packed with truly useful options that will take you a while to familiarize yourself with. I still haven't used them all. Sadly, Sonar is not available when using PS5 or Xbox. You can save a 10-band graphic EQ profile into the headset to use when away from your PC, but a phone app for external control would be a welcome addition for those situations so you don't have to use the DAC box.
Sonar lets you auto-toggle your desktop speakers and mic as fallback devices when you switch on or off the Nova Pro. That means all the right sources are always selected. You just leave your computer pointed to the virtual sound sources and Sonar takes care of the rest. It mostly just works, though if you unplug the DAC to use it with your consoles and then bring it back, you have to set up your desktop sources again. This feels like an oversight as it will default to the headphones when you plug in the DAC's USB even if the headphones aren't on. It really should use the most recent non-headphone output and mic. I do wish they had added a feature to automatically set what EQ and spatial audio settings you want per device as well. This is so close to "set it and forget it" that it's a shame they didn't go the extra few steps.
Impressively, you can output fully surround audio from Sonar to any audiophile dac/amp you want. So I can now have full surround sound audio being fed into my RME ADI-2 DAC amp and use all of the ADI-2's features when I want to use high-end headphones for solo gaming. This is the first time I've been able to do this. An absolutely stellar feature. You can download and try Sonar for free, so you shouldn't have to buy the headphones to try it out. Great news if you're just trying to get surround sound into your audiophile cans. Gaming with Sonar Surround into my D9200 cans is crazy good. If you have high-end cans, definitely try it.
The headset volume dial placement on the left ear is helpful, allowing you to protect yourself in game with your right hand while adjusting volume with your left. It's well recessed so you don't accidentally touch it while adjusting the headphones which was a real issue with the 7X. Pressing in the volume dial swaps it to chatmix, letting you adjust game volume against chat volume. No longer do I have to go into Destiny 2's audio setting to adjust the mix when I join in a group.
Sidetone is also available, allowing you to hear your voice through your headphones which feels much more natural when speaking and stops you from speaking too loudly. The implementation is much better than it was on the 7X which introduced static when turned up. I noticed no static at all with the Nova Pro implementation.
The noise canceling did a nice job with computer fan noise that was making its way through faintly. Turning on ANC completely eliminated it. It definitely keeps things even quieter inside than without. I don't have much background noise in my house, but it feels very isolating and lets you focus completely on your sound source. Tapping a coke can on the computer table sounds like the treble side of the sound gets knocked out.
You're also able to multi-channel your phone via bluetooth, so you can hear alerts and take calls without removing the headset while gaming. There are options to lower, or mute the volume of the game in the background while you are on your call. When on the call, your phone call is sheltered from others in the game, so they can't hear you. Super handy to have privacy but still be able to slightly hear what's going on in the game, all without removing the headset.
The hot swappable battery is brilliant. Not only does this make you never worry about battery life again, it also ensures your device isn't burdened by a non-replaceable or extremely hard to replace battery once the battery goes bad. I hate having to charge stuff, and this makes the Nova Pro feel like one less thing to charge.
Stuff I didn't use yet but it's awesome to have. Line out mini-jack for desktop speakers, line-in mini-jack, secondary USB-C in for source switching, a Sonar media broadcasting source, and smart volume for input and output. This thing is packed.
Aftermarket pads
The Nova Pro ear cups are unacceptably shallow, causing the ANC mic to uncomfortably hit my ear. A little searching shows this is a widespread issue. This means this headset really costs $330+30 = $360 as an aftermarket upgrade is 100% required to fix the issue. I've seen more than a few reviews from people who have returned the headphone due to the ear pad issue. You'd think SteelSeries would be addressing it by now. Thankfully someone else has.
I used the Wicked Cushions Cooling Gel pads which give a more roomy and comfortable fit. The airweave material is a massive comfort upgrade that lowers heat and the cooling gel also keeps things cooler. The cooling gel truly feels cool when you put on the headphones for about 20 minutes. After that they do begin to normalize and start to warm up, but it's still cooler than the stock pads once they do.
Since the pads are thicker and move the drivers away from your ears slightly they also benefit the soundstage, bringing it more in line with the D9200. I don't perceive any change in bass response or overall tonality. Even if the ANC mic doesn't hit your ear with the stock pads, these pads are a worthy upgrade.
Overall
This one's a keeper. Once you replace the ear pads it's a comfortable and enjoyable sounding headset. It adds broad utility and convenience while simultaneously offering excellent sound. It effectively ended my multiplayer gaming headset search. The fact that SteelSeries Sonar provides value when I want to game through my higher-end cans just makes it that much better.
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