Premium hi res capable speakers with high density neodymium magnets reproduce a full, expansive frequency range from 10 to 40,000 hertz with stunning realism and clarity
Luxurious polished steel and aluminum alloy construction offers maximum durability and a consistent fit
Next generation DTS headphone: X v2.0 surround sound provides optimal spatial imaging for complete 360 degree immersion
USB chat mix dial lets you balance and adjust the volume between your game and chat audio; Headphone sensitivity: 102 dB SPL
The Arctis clear cast microphone delivers studio quality voice clarity and background noise cancellation. Microphone frequency response – 100–10,000 kHz. Microphone sensitivity – (-38) DBV/pa
Revolutionary silicone side grips for increased grip and durability
Brand
SteelSeries
Series
Arctis Pro
Item model number
61486
Hardware Platform
PC, Gaming Console
Operating System
Playstation_4
Item Weight
15 ounces
Product Dimensions
3.54 x 6.55 x 7.37 inches
Item Dimensions LxWxH
3.54 x 6.55 x 7.37 inches
Color
Black
Manufacturer
SteelSeries APS
Language
English, English, English, English, English
Is Discontinued By Manufacturer
No
Date First Available
March 13, 2018
9 reviews for SteelSeries Arctis Pro High Fidelity Gaming Headset – Hi-Res Speaker Drivers – DTS Headphone: X v2.0 Surround for PC, Black
Rated 4 out of 5
Michael Teal –
So I’ve recently had the pleasure of trying out the Arctis Pro and now the Arctis Pro Wireless. Here’s how it went.
Major Points: – Audio’s good after some tuning. – Microphone is clear and excellent. – Management software doesn’t feel sluggish. – Build quality is world-class. – Not intended for large heads, but can be adjusted. – Some inconsequential hardware choices are weird.
First comment is that the overall elastic / steel band is not super friendly to very large noggins. On both headsets, I’ve had to flex the band pretty heavily outward to get it to not pinch me to death (in addition to obviously adjusting the velcro patch on the band to barely grabbing on by a single hook or two). On the bright side, the build quality is fantastic — on both Arctis Pros, the build feels and looks sturdy. Even the base stations are made of quality components, nothing feels flimsy or thrown together.
The audio quality out of the box is just meh. After adjusting the settings in the SteelSeries Engine, the audio gets MUCH better — I tend to listen to music a lot, and while I wouldn’t use these as studio monitors, they are more than acceptable.
Regardless of interesting marketing points regarding Hi-Res audio, the audio configuration I settled on was a Cinema “surround profile” with a custom equalizer setting that that amps the high end and reduces the low-mid (2, -4, 2, 2, 8 if you want to know), along with Low dialogue enhancement and no bass enhancement. Interestingly and strangely, on either setting, the Stereo Profile caused substantial signal clipping (that fuzzy sound at the top and bottom of the range…there’s a more technical explanation, but I’ll refrain) not present on the default setting. I would not recommend enabling this setting.
As a final point on the cross-cutting management software — the SteelSeries Engine 3 — it is the least ornate and shiny software I’ve used from a major gaming hardware manufacturer. However, it is also the least sluggish and buggy. I will gladly trade ornamentation for crisp functionality, which really seems to be a theme of the overall headset series. I like it.
Initially I thought the “Arctis Pro” was itself RF wireless (a la G930/G950 — I am replacing the G935s) while the “Arctis Pro Wireless” added bluetooth. This is incorrect. The “Arctis Pro” is *only* a USB or 3.5mm (and another proprietary cable) wired headset. “Arctis Pro Wireless” has both whatever RF proprietary standard SteelSeries uses, Bluetooth, and *also* the potential to be a wired headset for some consoles and handhelds. Curse of reading too fast, I suppose. Whatever, made a mistake, I’ll give the wired headset a fair shot, and here’s what I learned.
Two major observations came from trialing the wired headset (the just “Arctis Pro”).
First, the connector between the base station and the headset itself is proprietary. It most closely resembles a USB Mini-b 4-pin, but it’s more rounded instead of chamfered. This is strange, because the plug itself is certainly of a size that could accept a micro- or C-type USB connector. This persists on the wireless model for the mobile audio cable. Y’all. It’s 2020. Get with it. This is a premium headset, we don’t do funky connectors.
Second, The rubberized cable connecting to the base station both feels really bad under my arms or touching anything, and also has a tendency to coil up into something a third its overall length. This leaves you slowly leaning further and further towards wherever your base station is. Who needs good posture?
Last comment is that the Pro _Wireless_ base station uses a USB Mini-b 5-pin connector (the one with the squashed-T cross-section), which I haven’t seen in…a while now. Not sure why they didn’t use the vastly more common Micro-USB B connector, which also has 5 pins? Maybe the proprietary connector actually is Mini-b 4-pin? Who knows? Not consequential for operation, just an interesting hardware choice.
Wireless is largely the same as the wired headset. I enjoy the swappable battery approach, and the audio quality is consistent with the quality from the wired headset. No blinking lights, which doesn’t particularly matter, but some folks really enjoy the lights, so there’s that.
Note: For some reason, Amazon is asking me how this headset does for noise cancellation. It does no noise cancellation at all. If you want noise cancellation, get the Sony bluetooth headset.
Rated 4 out of 5
h mack –
Audio quality is great, quite literally hearing little tidbits of and extras in songs I had never heard/noticed before; it’s honestly a little weird, I like it.
However, the cable decisions are a little questionable. The longer length of cable is in between the knob and the PC while having a much shorter cable between the knob and the headset itself. I find this pretty weird and a little unpleasant as with the knob sitting on the desk you only have about 3ft to move around to grab or do anything. I’d think most people would have their computer fairly close to them so the majority of the length being between the pc and knob seems to be a poor choice when it could be between the knob and headset for better user mobility as who wants to stand up with a knob dangling on the wire when it’s held together via micro USB; I’d be too worried about it coming loose or getting damaged. And just another tidbit, the joints are plastic? like, what??? why?! you’re making the most fragile and likely to break part out of plastic instead of metal???
tldr; good audio, too short of cable between knob & headset, joints are plastic instead of metal???? why?!
Rated 5 out of 5
Daniel Zuniga –
Get the software for these headphones if you are using this on PC. The level of sound precision is absolutely nuts. I’m not a fan of the weird hinge/spin joint at the ear cups (why are these a thing anymore…) but otherwise very impressed.
The cables are bizarre and very tight connections, makes you feel like you’re gonna break them when you connect them because of the force required to push the connections together. There is an inline dial for USB input devices that allows volume dampening in favor of one driver over another. This works for using the chat setting for discord and the game setting as primary audio. You spin the dial and it dampens the sound of one so you can hear the other.
Material seems appropriate based on price range. Plastic all around with an elastic band for elevating the ears of the headset .
There is no way to adjust this headset to headsize as mentioned in many reviews. It fits near nearly perfectly, but I do have moderate jaw discomfort due to TMJ – jaw joint pain. This does have a fair amount of jaw fatigue for me.
Rated 4 out of 5
Rose –
To long to break in. Very tight on my son’s head for the first few weeks. He loves the sound quality and everything else. Only four stars due discomfort for a few weeks
Rated 1 out of 5
Uzo –
Spatial audio is terrible, base headset without it is better. But either way I’d simply get the Hyper X cloud alphas if you want a good quality headset with sound cancellation that are comfortable. Higher Price doesn’t always mean higher quality
Rated 4 out of 5
Los gamers –
Pues la verdad me encanta mucho los audífonos desde que me llegaron y los eh amado nada que al 2do o el 3ro día me pasó algo y es de que empeze a sentís como que me duele un poco el oído pero ese tipo de dolo de cuando te pones un cubrebpcas muy apretado y te empieza a doler la oreja pues así me pasa y pues eso no me gusta y también se me olvidó decir que cuando me llegaron y la primera vez que lo probé su sonido. O me gustó al 100 osea antes tenía los astro a50 y tiene mejor sonido la verdad y me gustaría que mejoren el sonido y como último quisiera que mejoren la parte donde se conectan los audífonos que se mueva más como muestro en la 3ra imagen esa es la parte que quiero que se mueva más pero aparte de esos todo ok con los audífonos me encantaron y están buenos si no te molesta nada de los errores te los recomiendo bastante y más con el descuento que salió hace poco no tengo nada más que decir más que disfruta tus audífonos o piensa si comprartelos
Rated 1 out of 5
Amazon Customer –
I bought these to replace my aging Sennheiser 360s. The sound quality is superb but unfortunately the headset is unusable on large heads. They cannot be adjusted or widened to accommodate large heads resulting in the left speaker being literally against your ear causing hearing problems. I stretched out and bent the metal band and even changed the ear pads to Brainwavz Sheepskin Memory Foam ear pads to see if it made a difference, it doesn’t. The band just isn’t adjustable to prevent your ear from being rammed up against the speaker and I cannot stand and will not accept the head pressure and hearing problems that will raise to this poor design. First experience with SteelSeries and it will be my last. $200 headset and cannot even make the headband adjustable. Insanity.
Rated 1 out of 5
Amazon Customer –
My friend had this headset and told me this was a great headset. His headset broke after 6 months but he told me not to worry about it because he’s always rough on hardware. So I was very cautious all the time and they still broke.
Now that I look at them, I see how bad the design is and it feels so obvious that they broke on the single point where the joint is. I had them for 1 year and 1 week before they broke and I am disappointed that a 200$ headset would last only 1 year.
Rated 5 out of 5
Pooklet –
My partner purchased these after using a Steel Series Diablo III Gaming Headset for approximately 4-5 years. The Diablo headset had to be replaced because the padding on the earpieces actually began flaking off, leaving my partner’s face and head covered in black specks, and the structure of the product began to deteriorate, too, so it wasn’t fitting on his head very well anymore. He was pretty sold on the Steel Series after using the Diablo headset for so long, but he was hesitant to splash out on these (as I am pretty sure he got an insane discount when he brought the original headset he was using). He took the plunge and when the headset arrived — within a day — he used it immediately and was blown away by the results.
PROS: + Looks sleek and stylish; LED around the earset changes colour and is very visually appealing + Retractable microphone + Sounds is crisp and clear. My partner used a sound-testing website to see how well the headphones worked and was blown away by the sound quality. He offered me to try the headset and experience the test—safe to say, I completely agree with him; the sound was so “real,” I had to double-check it wasn’t coming from the room I was in. + Sound isolation + Snug and comfortable fit
CONS? – I suppose the only con with this headset as opposed to his previous Diablo III headset is that my partner can’t really keep one earpiece off as easily (which he would do while he was gaming so I could talk to him; he would have the headset a little bit skewwed with the earpiece resting on a different part of his head). This headset is less “flexible” in that regard. My partner can still keep one headphone off, but it is less easy to do than with his previous headset. Guess it’s good for him, as he can’t hear me complaining about his tardiness with cleaning the dishes…
Michael Teal –
So I’ve recently had the pleasure of trying out the Arctis Pro and now the Arctis Pro Wireless. Here’s how it went.
Major Points:
– Audio’s good after some tuning.
– Microphone is clear and excellent.
– Management software doesn’t feel sluggish.
– Build quality is world-class.
– Not intended for large heads, but can be adjusted.
– Some inconsequential hardware choices are weird.
First comment is that the overall elastic / steel band is not super friendly to very large noggins. On both headsets, I’ve had to flex the band pretty heavily outward to get it to not pinch me to death (in addition to obviously adjusting the velcro patch on the band to barely grabbing on by a single hook or two). On the bright side, the build quality is fantastic — on both Arctis Pros, the build feels and looks sturdy. Even the base stations are made of quality components, nothing feels flimsy or thrown together.
The audio quality out of the box is just meh. After adjusting the settings in the SteelSeries Engine, the audio gets MUCH better — I tend to listen to music a lot, and while I wouldn’t use these as studio monitors, they are more than acceptable.
Regardless of interesting marketing points regarding Hi-Res audio, the audio configuration I settled on was a Cinema “surround profile” with a custom equalizer setting that that amps the high end and reduces the low-mid (2, -4, 2, 2, 8 if you want to know), along with Low dialogue enhancement and no bass enhancement. Interestingly and strangely, on either setting, the Stereo Profile caused substantial signal clipping (that fuzzy sound at the top and bottom of the range…there’s a more technical explanation, but I’ll refrain) not present on the default setting. I would not recommend enabling this setting.
As a final point on the cross-cutting management software — the SteelSeries Engine 3 — it is the least ornate and shiny software I’ve used from a major gaming hardware manufacturer. However, it is also the least sluggish and buggy. I will gladly trade ornamentation for crisp functionality, which really seems to be a theme of the overall headset series. I like it.
Initially I thought the “Arctis Pro” was itself RF wireless (a la G930/G950 — I am replacing the G935s) while the “Arctis Pro Wireless” added bluetooth. This is incorrect. The “Arctis Pro” is *only* a USB or 3.5mm (and another proprietary cable) wired headset. “Arctis Pro Wireless” has both whatever RF proprietary standard SteelSeries uses, Bluetooth, and *also* the potential to be a wired headset for some consoles and handhelds. Curse of reading too fast, I suppose. Whatever, made a mistake, I’ll give the wired headset a fair shot, and here’s what I learned.
Two major observations came from trialing the wired headset (the just “Arctis Pro”).
First, the connector between the base station and the headset itself is proprietary. It most closely resembles a USB Mini-b 4-pin, but it’s more rounded instead of chamfered. This is strange, because the plug itself is certainly of a size that could accept a micro- or C-type USB connector. This persists on the wireless model for the mobile audio cable. Y’all. It’s 2020. Get with it. This is a premium headset, we don’t do funky connectors.
Second, The rubberized cable connecting to the base station both feels really bad under my arms or touching anything, and also has a tendency to coil up into something a third its overall length. This leaves you slowly leaning further and further towards wherever your base station is. Who needs good posture?
Last comment is that the Pro _Wireless_ base station uses a USB Mini-b 5-pin connector (the one with the squashed-T cross-section), which I haven’t seen in…a while now. Not sure why they didn’t use the vastly more common Micro-USB B connector, which also has 5 pins? Maybe the proprietary connector actually is Mini-b 4-pin? Who knows? Not consequential for operation, just an interesting hardware choice.
Wireless is largely the same as the wired headset. I enjoy the swappable battery approach, and the audio quality is consistent with the quality from the wired headset. No blinking lights, which doesn’t particularly matter, but some folks really enjoy the lights, so there’s that.
Note: For some reason, Amazon is asking me how this headset does for noise cancellation. It does no noise cancellation at all. If you want noise cancellation, get the Sony bluetooth headset.
h mack –
Audio quality is great, quite literally hearing little tidbits of and extras in songs I had never heard/noticed before; it’s honestly a little weird, I like it.
However, the cable decisions are a little questionable. The longer length of cable is in between the knob and the PC while having a much shorter cable between the knob and the headset itself. I find this pretty weird and a little unpleasant as with the knob sitting on the desk you only have about 3ft to move around to grab or do anything. I’d think most people would have their computer fairly close to them so the majority of the length being between the pc and knob seems to be a poor choice when it could be between the knob and headset for better user mobility as who wants to stand up with a knob dangling on the wire when it’s held together via micro USB; I’d be too worried about it coming loose or getting damaged.
And just another tidbit, the joints are plastic? like, what??? why?! you’re making the most fragile and likely to break part out of plastic instead of metal???
tldr; good audio, too short of cable between knob & headset, joints are plastic instead of metal???? why?!
Daniel Zuniga –
Get the software for these headphones if you are using this on PC. The level of sound precision is absolutely nuts. I’m not a fan of the weird hinge/spin joint at the ear cups (why are these a thing anymore…) but otherwise very impressed.
The cables are bizarre and very tight connections, makes you feel like you’re gonna break them when you connect them because of the force required to push the connections together. There is an inline dial for USB input devices that allows volume dampening in favor of one driver over another. This works for using the chat setting for discord and the game setting as primary audio. You spin the dial and it dampens the sound of one so you can hear the other.
Material seems appropriate based on price range. Plastic all around with an elastic band for elevating the ears of the headset .
There is no way to adjust this headset to headsize as mentioned in many reviews. It fits near nearly perfectly, but I do have moderate jaw discomfort due to TMJ – jaw joint pain. This does have a fair amount of jaw fatigue for me.
Rose –
To long to break in. Very tight on my son’s head for the first few weeks. He loves the sound quality and everything else. Only four stars due discomfort for a few weeks
Uzo –
Spatial audio is terrible, base headset without it is better. But either way I’d simply get the Hyper X cloud alphas if you want a good quality headset with sound cancellation that are comfortable. Higher Price doesn’t always mean higher quality
Los gamers –
Pues la verdad me encanta mucho los audífonos desde que me llegaron y los eh amado nada que al 2do o el 3ro día me pasó algo y es de que empeze a sentís como que me duele un poco el oído pero ese tipo de dolo de cuando te pones un cubrebpcas muy apretado y te empieza a doler la oreja pues así me pasa y pues eso no me gusta y también se me olvidó decir que cuando me llegaron y la primera vez que lo probé su sonido. O me gustó al 100 osea antes tenía los astro a50 y tiene mejor sonido la verdad y me gustaría que mejoren el sonido y como último quisiera que mejoren la parte donde se conectan los audífonos que se mueva más como muestro en la 3ra imagen esa es la parte que quiero que se mueva más pero aparte de esos todo ok con los audífonos me encantaron y están buenos si no te molesta nada de los errores te los recomiendo bastante y más con el descuento que salió hace poco no tengo nada más que decir más que disfruta tus audífonos o piensa si comprartelos
Amazon Customer –
I bought these to replace my aging Sennheiser 360s. The sound quality is superb but unfortunately the headset is unusable on large heads. They cannot be adjusted or widened to accommodate large heads resulting in the left speaker being literally against your ear causing hearing problems. I stretched out and bent the metal band and even changed the ear pads to Brainwavz Sheepskin Memory Foam ear pads to see if it made a difference, it doesn’t. The band just isn’t adjustable to prevent your ear from being rammed up against the speaker and I cannot stand and will not accept the head pressure and hearing problems that will raise to this poor design. First experience with SteelSeries and it will be my last. $200 headset and cannot even make the headband adjustable. Insanity.
Amazon Customer –
My friend had this headset and told me this was a great headset. His headset broke after 6 months but he told me not to worry about it because he’s always rough on hardware. So I was very cautious all the time and they still broke.
Now that I look at them, I see how bad the design is and it feels so obvious that they broke on the single point where the joint is. I had them for 1 year and 1 week before they broke and I am disappointed that a 200$ headset would last only 1 year.
Pooklet –
My partner purchased these after using a Steel Series Diablo III Gaming Headset for approximately 4-5 years. The Diablo headset had to be replaced because the padding on the earpieces actually began flaking off, leaving my partner’s face and head covered in black specks, and the structure of the product began to deteriorate, too, so it wasn’t fitting on his head very well anymore. He was pretty sold on the Steel Series after using the Diablo headset for so long, but he was hesitant to splash out on these (as I am pretty sure he got an insane discount when he brought the original headset he was using). He took the plunge and when the headset arrived — within a day — he used it immediately and was blown away by the results.
PROS:
+ Looks sleek and stylish; LED around the earset changes colour and is very visually appealing
+ Retractable microphone
+ Sounds is crisp and clear. My partner used a sound-testing website to see how well the headphones worked and was blown away by the sound quality. He offered me to try the headset and experience the test—safe to say, I completely agree with him; the sound was so “real,” I had to double-check it wasn’t coming from the room I was in.
+ Sound isolation
+ Snug and comfortable fit
CONS?
– I suppose the only con with this headset as opposed to his previous Diablo III headset is that my partner can’t really keep one earpiece off as easily (which he would do while he was gaming so I could talk to him; he would have the headset a little bit skewwed with the earpiece resting on a different part of his head). This headset is less “flexible” in that regard. My partner can still keep one headphone off, but it is less easy to do than with his previous headset. Guess it’s good for him, as he can’t hear me complaining about his tardiness with cleaning the dishes…