Arctis Pro Wireless Review

In the box #

The Headset is nicely packaged and comes with a short instruction manual and an assortment of cables, nicely ordered and labeled. It even came with a short optical cable. For some reason one of my cables was mislabeled as a charging cable though.

Design #

Headband #

The headset features a novel headband design. It’s what Arctis call a “ski goggle” style headband.

It stretches to fit your head and effectively suspends the aluminum headband in the air.

I found it fit my head very comfortably. I might go as far as to say the headband is the most comfortable I have ever worn. The top of my head is unusually sharp and often causes a small hot spot under most headbands.

However, as the aluminum headband itself is not adjustable, some people with larger heads might fail to fit the headsets at all, or risk their head touching the only lightly padded aluminum headband.

Ear cups #

The ear cups them selves, unfortunately aren’t as comfortable as the headband, though not particularly bad either, they don’t quite reach the level of comfort of my QC25’s. The material feels nice, but the cups don’t make a seal as snug as the Bose headsets.

My ears just lightly touch the fabric covering the driver covers, inside the ear cups. Its not ideal, but it stops my ears from touching the driver covers, which would become painful in extended use. As it is, I notice it, but it hasn’t stopped me from wearing the headset for hours without break.

Sound #

As someone, who has only inadvertently stumbled in to the world of hifi audio, I can only speak of my own experience. To me the sound seemed to be surprisingly detailed for a wireless pair.  It doesn’t have as prominent base as my Bose headphones, but it is likely due to their fit and a flatter and more neutral response curve.

This isn’t to say the Pro Wireless can’t play base, because they surely can. When playing Subnautica, diving deeper, the creepy thumping soundtrack punches super low with ease. The base and lows sound articulate and detailed.

The mid-high to highs seem more prominent, but they don’t get irritating. You can always adjust the sound to your liking, from the included control box. I really can’t fault the sound for anything. It all comes down to taste, and you can tailor the sound to your liking.

Features #

I like the adjustable, retractable mic, and the mute light, though with the included wind guard, the light is obscured. While I played with my friends in voice chat, I got the seal of approval even from the most picky listeners. With the wind guard on, no stray noises made it to my friends ears. The dedicated mute button is a very welcome feature, as is the ability to adjust chat mix straight from the headphones, and it works with every application!

You just set your computer sounds to “Game” and voice chat sound to “Chat”, and you are good to go! Just click on the headphone dial and adjust the mix. Super feature, for when you need to focus on that in game cut scene, but don’t what to completely deafen your self from the chat, or vice versa.

Another feature, I’ve only dreamed about, is the ability to listen to a stream, music or a podcast on your phone AT THE SAME TIME with your game audio. You can adjust the Bluetooth volume from the headset dial.

I love the fact, that I can adjust everything from the control box. There is really no need to install the control software. This also means, all the settings are saved in the headset, where ever you go.

Quality #

Arctis have really set the standard for what wireless gaming headphones can with high fidelity wireless audio, combined with possibly best in class microphone. All of this adding up to the most expensive gaming headset you can buy.

And when you’re paying 300€ or more for a pair of headphones, for any purpose, you expect quality. Arctis has clearly put the money in to the features and audio quality, as some more cosmetic portions have not received the same level of attention.

For example the control box. The main dial feels light squishy and unmistakably plastic. It doesn’t feel accurate, when whizzing through the menus. The buttons and dials on the headphones too are cheap plastic. The mute button especially is very cheap and lacks tactile feedback. I often fumble with it, when trying to figure out, if I’m muted or not. Every time I try to feel the mute button, I get a beep notifying me that the headphones un-mute them selves for an instant.

Also, when trying to unmute my self, I get a long series of beeps, letting me know, that I now have unmuted and muted my self about five times, because I didn’t depress the button far enough. Thankfully you can mute the beeps.

Closing thoughts #

I hesitated to pay 300€ for a “gaming” headset, as I’ve heard many times, that gaming headsets are over priced and have bad audio. For a long time I played with my wired Bose QC25’s, but longed for the freedom of wireless.

In the end, I don’t regret it. I think I got, what I payed for, and these have effectively replaced all my other headphones. There really is no competition for these headphones. Unfortunately, not everyone’s head will fit these, and no amount of money will fix that.

Status update 2025 #

The headphone DAC broke of it’s own accord. It made a loud pop sound and refused to power on since, neither with USB or an external power brick. Despite disassembling the DAC completely, and visually inspecting all components, I wasn’t able to identify the bad component. I searched online for a possibility of replacing the DAC, but they are not sold separately.

A sub five year lifespan for 300€ headphones seems steep, and bad value - coming in at 60€ per year. The headphones themselves are functional, but with only bluetooth available, they are no longer fit for purpose as a gaming headset. Meanwhile, my old QC25’s are still working well and only in need of a new set of replacement pads.