There is a pretty good deal atm on this headset and been thinking about getting my first wireless headset for a while. Am curious about how it runs on Linux, as I’ve seen some controversy on this headset on website that shall not be named, but that was 3 years ago now. I dont expect to be running their propriety software for equalizing sound - but would like to know if the headset performs as it should out of the box and if the additional sound system works well. If anyone has any experience with this i’d be more than happy to hear about it. Other headset recommendations welcome to (wireless though) :)
They didn’t work out of the box instantly, the sound was pretty “crunchy”.
But, all i had to do was update firmware and set the bandwidth to the fanciest it would go then use third party equalizer to balance it out. (You CAN use the propietary one, but it didn’t seem to really offer me anything third party didn’t. Third party changes the driver too so you don’t have to have a dumb program sitting open in the background like the proprietary requires)
If i was going to spend this money again I’d of bought the Maxwell from Audeze instead. My head is fat and the nova pro barely fits at max space.
Also, get cloth earcups to replace the full rubber grippy ones. Way less sweaty and the sound is more " open" imo. Although audiophiles would be correct that it’s less sealed so therefore less noise canceling and immersive.
Edit: Sidenote. All headsets should have a removable battery as easy as this. Its easily the best feature on this headset.
Are you specifically talking about Linux? Because I’d loooooove to run mine with third party. Hate Steelseries’ bloatware equalizer. Currently Windows.
Regarding the third party software on linux, I’m unsure. When im using my linux boot i just use the equalizer built into the dac itself and mimic what i figured out using third party on windows.
I imagine there’s third party that would interface with it since its just like any other audio software. Something like PulseAudio that sits on top of ALSA. That said id recommend doing your own research as always with your flavor of linux/setup.
Oh I was saying the opposite: what’s the third party software you’re using on Windows? I thought originally you were stating you were using third party on Linux.
Oh! My bad. EqualizerAPO / SourceForge is what i used briefly. I tried a few others but their names escape me.
Was nice being able to control everything more fluidly and import presets from various audiophile testing websites to figure out what sounded best to “me”.
Years of listening to Metal at ‘way too loud’ on the dial has made my ears uh ‘unique’. So i cant just drop in stuff and it sound immediately perfect. Gotta tweak it a smidge.
Gotcha. Thanks for the type up man! Rock on!
Everything I have bought from steelseries (two headsets, a keyboard and a mouse, all mostly the top of the line models) have broken within some years through normal use.
thanks for the input, have decided to not buy this after the info from the comments.
Ive been using the Arctis 1 Wireless for almost 3 years now and its so fucking good, still going strong and not breaking down in the slightest. Easily the best headset Ive ever owned.
I have one. Works perfectly out of the box. It connects through usb to your pc and uses a 2.4ghz band for the wireless audio. It’s expensive but the best headset I have ever had.
Edit: don’t know about the additional sound system, I can imagine that would be windows only. Not something I miss anyway. Noise cancelling works fine.
Thanks for the info!
I have them and they work well enough for my uses (gaming and video watching) I’m dual booting and honestly found the windows software trying to give you the 7.1/virtual surround so irritating I just uninstalled it.
@Sunny
I dont, but I have its predecessor on a windows machine. As much as I love the product, I wouldn’t buy from SteelSeries again.
Their firmware has so many annoying edge cases, and there are improvements to be made on the physical product too.
Instead of polishing all of the known issues that were raised in the community and releasing a new version, they made a completely new product line, with gimmick features no one asked for. From what I heard the issues are still there. Really annoyingHave been reading a lot of reviews and watching endless videos of this headset, and none of them have had any complaints of the physical side of things at least, but not sure about the firmware.
I had to do some configuration with pulse audio on fedora to get these at 24 bit, otherwise they’ll work out of the box. I haven’t tried running their app in wine or anything, but it works as an audio device out of the box
I use these on debian work just fine note that the chat/game audio wheel doesn’t work on Linux but they sound fine and do everything I need.
I know we’re in the Linux Gaming community but I have this exact headset and they’re amazing on Windows and Mac. I have a black and my wife has a white pair. Mine are about 2 years old, still going strong.
Only weird complaint is that the cover for the battery in the headset is difficult to remove without nails. The kind of thing that would be easy with a flathead screwdriver but difficult with your thumb. The battery still lasts forever though.
I had a set of steelseries arctis 9x (I think) and the Bluetooth module was complete garbage. I spent a lot of money on them because they had great reviews, but they had poor noise isolation and couldn’t stay connected to an audio source to save their lives. I also recall having difficulties pairing them with Fedora, but couldn’t give you specifics anymore.
I got a pair of soundcore i20q’s and put the steel series in the trash where they belonged.
Only issue I had with the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7, OS wise, was that I had to use their app in Windows to remove the legally-required volume limitting (Tow-boat I was on was constantly LOUD) … but in my book, its a plus it had that ability, and I only had to do it the once. Never touched their app again.
Ive3 used a bunch of steelseries stuff but much like razer they kinda became shittier as they got more popular. I’ve used 3 of their mice and 2 headsets, a friend went through 3 headsets. They all develop weird problems within a year. Meanwhile I just swapped the pads on my old sennheiser 500 something and it sounds excellent. wired but sounds great, essentially no latency vs any wireless method, and works with linux as long as the mobo sound card works.
