Gadgetory

SteelSeries has just announced their newest set of top-of-the-line gaming headsets called the arctas pros offers better audio quality fantastic positional sound and a whole bunch of features and we just happen to have both of them right here so let's talk about what these things have to offer and whether or not it's really worth spending the extra money on now at first glance these might look like the same headset which to be honest they almost are they're both artists pros the only difference is that this is the wireless design and this is the wired I just don't have it plugged in right now and there are some very important differences between the two based on design decisions they made for wired versus Wireless but otherwise as far as just the physical design go they are pretty much the same thing so let's just talk about the overall design of them now obviously this thing has some of the same core design aspects of the other arctas headsets but there have been some changes for the pro that do make it a bit nicer than all the other ones they've done so far and for comparison we actually have an ArcGIS 3 Bluetooth right here so one of the things you're gonna feel right away when you use one of these headsets versus one of these is that the ear cut padding is significantly thicker so it's gonna be a lot more comfortable your head for long term gaming sessions I mean I always thought this one was really good this just topped it for me even more there's also some slight changes to the headband design whereas this one just has the kind of stretchy one right here that's a little adjustable this has one that runs through the whole part of the headset so you can change the headband distancing a lot more also the actual headband itself incorporates a actual metal piece instead of being all plastic so it's gonna be a little sturdier and have a little more resistance than the other ones would end of the day really comfortable as I said earlier there are two different versions of the arctas pro a wireless and a wired and there's actually some pretty significant differences between the two aside from the fact that one of them uses a cable so let's talk about what each one's going to get you starting with the wired one now of the two Pro versions the wired one is the more affordable choice but it's actually also the better sounding one as well now this isn't to say that the wireless one sounds terrible the wired one sounds good no they both have a really solid bass line in fact while they may not compare to like actual dedicated audio headsets as far as gaming headsets go these things sound incredible and they have a great sense of separation and locational placing so when you're playing games you're able to very easily separate all the different sounds that are going on and be able to tell where they're happening relative position now the reason why the wired one is better for audio than the Wireless isn't just the fact that it's a cabled setup but else because it comes with this little guy right here a dedicated gaming deck now if you don't know what a DAC is that's a digital to analog converter now all different systems stuff already have one of these built in your ps4 has one even your controller where you plug in a headset they have them but those ones are normally cheaper and just kind of get the job done this one is a dedicated one that is much higher quality it's not only gonna make sure that you have a really good sound for your headset but you have a lot more fine-tuned control over being able to balance the EQ however you want exactly for the game you're playing another benefit to to this being a wired setup is that power isn't really an issue you're always plugged into battery all the time so they also threw in RGB lights forward both headphones that you can customize a little bit through the interface you can have whatever color you want being showing off now what is it downsides to this headset and admittedly this is just something inherent with most wired designs is that a lot of the cables comes with aren't particularly long both the optical and USB to micro-usb so while this is designed for both ps4 and PC this one really leans much more in the territory of PC rear desk setup or if you happen to use a ps4 in a desk setup now you could get longer cables to hook it up and make it work but that's still kind of an awkward situation we have cables run across the entire floor of your room not optimal but if you really want that audio quality and in the living room setup that's pretty much the only option you have now on the other hand with the wireless headset yes you're losing out on RGB lights and the auto quality doesn't give you as much fine-tuned control but the baseline is honestly still really good and for me the convenience factor of Wireless is a big win for that now I thought just that this is a wireless headset there are some other really cool design decisions that were made that incorporate that idea now so far most SteelSeries headsets when they're wireless are either bluetooth or make use of a dedicated 2.4 signal using a transmitter this one does both and there's really two main different benefits to that first off the versatility the fact that yes when you're using your ps4 PC to get the best audio possible you want to use the dedicated transmitter but at the same time if you just want to hook it up to your phone or a tablet or just something really quick or simple so you can use it as just a regular headset you can do that with the Bluetooth no problem the other benefit is that you're able to use both these signals at the same time so for a gaming situation the idea would be let's say it's hooked up to your ps4 your running game audio into this from your ps4 but you're also using a chat service on your phone or a computer so you can use that for talking with your friends at the same time another feature I really love about this wireless headset that's it's not a feature unique to just this particular one SteelSeries is used it before but it's the first time that it's in an Arctic headset and that's its battery solution there is nothing more annoying to me than having a wireless accessory that I lost track of when I last plugged it in all the sudden the heated moment I got to plug it into something in BAM it's no longer a wireless accessory super annoying the solution that this one uses though is having two separate batteries now the way this works is super simple let's say the headsets getting a low on battery and you need to replace it ASAP well instead having to plug it in or anything as soon as you have a moment all you gotta do is just pop off this backplate for a super accessible battery take that guy out go over to your transmitter your transmitter has the other battery slotted in here and it's not powering the transmitter the transmitter is actually charging it so you just pop that one out switch it with the one from your headset and bam the dead battery is now charging and your headset is fully charged its conveniences like this that really make the wireless one really cool in my opinion you are getting better audio and age more affordable price with the wired design but the convenience of this thing is so great that honestly between the two this is my personal favorite