Steeler Arctis Nova Elite. This is $600.

So, I am going to be reviewing it as a

very high-end purchase. What's going to

make this video a little bit different

is I've had this for just about 60 days.

So, good enough for a long-term review.

It's been through a few firmware

updates. I've used this every single day

at my 9 toive job, which is about eight

hours, and then another two to three

hours every night gaming. So, I

definitely have a good feel for this

product. So, let's just get right into

it. Let's start at the beginning. The

build on the design. It is heavy. It's

got a nice weight to it. So, it

definitely feels classy and luxurious.

Something about humans perception where

weight equates to premium feel and

luxury. I don't know, that's just the

way it is. But anyway, it does feel

really nice. And what I really like is

this swivel on the headband itself.

There's a good amount of resistance to

where it does feel premium. Very well

done. And it's nice and smooth as well,

too. The overall build materials is a

lot of plastic, which is not what I was

expecting for a $600 product. All of the

ear cups here is plastic, and it is a

semi soft touch. Not really, though. If

they were going to use this much

plastic, it should have at least been a

soft touch. Not the end of the world,

though. At least you're getting metal on

the volume, which is nice. And the part

that keeps the ear cups and the headband

together is made out of metal. Very high

quality metal. And I love these gold

accents that go with the sage. And I do

like this color. Initially, I wanted the

black, but that was sold out at the time

and Best Buy cancelled my order, so I

just reordered with the sage. So, but

I'm really really happy I did. It's a

very nice subtle color. It doesn't

command too much attention. It's It's

got like a little bit of blue in it, a

little bit of green in it, a little bit

of gray. The color isn't like too

vibrant and saturated. I got a little

bit distracted with the color. But

coming back to the actual headband

itself, it is made with a fake leather,

a faux leather type of material. It

feels a bit rubbery, not too bad, but

the entire headband itself is made out

of plastic. This headband material,

which does aid in comfort, and I'm going

to spend some time talking about the

comfort a little bit later on, but it is

made out of some type of fabric sporty

material, and it feels really, really

nice. that it also does add to the

premium feeling of this headphone. In

terms of buttons, there's a Bluetooth

button and on the other side there's

your power button which also doubles as

a toggle switch for noise cancelling on,

off, and transparency. And I'll talk

more about that a little bit later on. A

microphone mute button. I like that it's

indented so I'm never unsure about if my

microphone is muted or not. Especially

like I mentioned, I use this for work,

so I'm very concerned about a hot mic

situation. And then there's the volume

wheel, which I mentioned already. You

are getting a headphone jack, which is

nice. And then also the microphone. And

the microphone is incredibly good. How

about we do a little microphone test

right now? All right, so this is a

microphone test of the Steeler Arctis

Nova Elite. I think the microphone

sounds incredibly good. One of the best

sounding out there. I almost feel like I

can use these to record YouTube videos.

It's that good. But let me know what you

guys think down below. Thanks. If you

don't care about the microphone, you can

just retract it. So, it does become a

lot more stealthy, more akin to like

just a regular headphone. And then

whenever you do need the microphone, you

just pop it out. So, that's a really

nice feature. I like that that's there.

And one thing I should mention about

these ear cups, they are both removable

and it is held together by magnets,

which is nice. On the left side, you're

getting a USB type-C. The only purpose

that this serves is to charge and also

to update the firmware, but I never ever

have to charge this headphone because on

the other ear cup there's removable

battery and it is hot swappable too,

which is nice. So, you just pop that out

and then on the dock, if you have good

habits, so the moment the battery dies,

if you're able to just put it right into

this dock to charge it, you'll never

ever run out of battery again. Overall,

the build is good. I would say that the

build is amazing, except that this cost

$600, and because of that, I would have

expected more metal instead of this much

plastic on the entire build itself. In

terms of the design, you know, it

doesn't really look like a gaming

headset. This could really just pass for

just a good pair of headphones. And good

pair of headphones do have noise

cancelling and transparency, and this

does support that. I will say though

that the noise cancelling is okay. So,

Steeler is advertising this as the best

noise cancelling of any gaming headset.

And I would say maybe they're correct,

but that's a pretty low bar. If you're

looking at something like these

Sennheiser HDB 630s or the Nothing

Headphones or the Sony XM6s, etc., these

are all gonna smoke this in terms of the

noise cancelling. I would say that these

do a very very good job at blocking out

the sound from maybe your computer fan.

If especially if you play on laptops

like I do, the noise cancelling is good

enough to get rid of pretty much all the

fan noise. But these headphones also

seal really well passively. The noise

isolation on these headphones are really

good. As I put this on right now, pretty

much all the background sounds are being

blocked out from my environment. And

then if you need the extra, then there's

a noise cancelling. In terms of the

transparency mode, again, it's not bad.

It's adequate. Like if you if you're

using this in an office and you need to

be able to hear your surroundings, it's

good enough for that. But it still just

sounds like microphones are blasting

sound through these headphones itself.

It's not as natural as something like

the AirPods or the Sony XM6es to where

to almost where it doesn't even sound

like you have headphones on. You're just

able to hear everything naturally. These

don't really do that. So at $600, I

mean, if you were thinking that these

could be both your gaming headset and

your travel headphones, then I probably

wouldn't say that. And I know I keep

saying that these are $600, but you're

not really paying $600 for the build

quality and some of the features that

you might expect from a headphone. What

you're really paying for is this dock.

And it is great. The DAC is built into

this. So, that is what allows for such

good audio quality. And I'll get to

audio quality a little bit later on. But

the special trick of this gaming headset

is it has three USB type-C ports and you

can use them all simultaneously. And the

third USB 3 also is Xbox certified. Most

gaming headsets are not. Microsoft

requires some extra hoops before you can

use their headsets on their system. This

one just works out of the box once

you're using the USB 3. And you also

have do have to change it in the dock

too. and and on top of that, you can run

Bluetooth simultaneously while listening

to all three different outputs at the

same time. No other gaming headset does

that. They all require you to switch

between the different inputs. So, that

is amazing. And I think that's a big

part of the costs. And I think this dock

is responsible for a lot of the cost of

this headset. So, something to keep in

mind. And comfort, which I said I was

going to get back to. This is like one

of the most comfortable gaming headset

I've ever used. Even though it's a bit

heavy, it just sits nice on the head.

And I think a lot of it has to do with

this headband right here, which makes it

sit very nicely on your head. And even

more importantly here are these ear

cushions. They're incredibly soft. It's

using some type of memory foam to when

these are on, I can wear these for my

full working day, eight hours, like I

said, and then right after that get into

like a two-hour gaming session. There's

not much other headsets that are this

comfortable especially at this weight

and because there is additional

electronics in here like a removable

battery, extra components and

microphones etc for the noise cancelling

and it the fact that this is an active

device. So like lot lot of technology in

here which adds to the weight but it's

countered by having really good comfort

overall. So that's really nice. So, and

there's two ways to navigate through

this entire interface. You can use the

dock, which is a bit cumbersome. You can

also use the app, which is a better

approach, and you could also use Sonar.

If you are using Sonar, though, you're

limited to to only your PC. It's

everything is done on the Windows

software itself. I don't really mess

around with Sonar too much. So, I've

downloaded some of the other EQs. I mess

around with some of the spatial audio

and all that stuff. I never really like

any of them. I never really like using

that. I I I I feel like these just sound

good enough on their own and I don't

want to mess with any of it. And I kind

of made a rule a long time ago and I did

mention this in another headphone review

that I did. I try to stay away from

equalizers and apps because what ends up

happening is I end up just tinkering and

I spend hours and hours and hours and I

just lose so much time. I'm innately

someone who likes to tinker with things

and I will never stop. I will never be

satisfied. So to prevent that from

happening, I don't even mess around with

with any of that stuff. So I rely on the

stock sound to be good, and thankfully

it is. It's not necessarily what my

preference usually leans towards. These

are very bass forward. There's a lot of

bass on these, more than I would

typically like, but what Steeler did was

made the bass still sound very detailed.

The reason why I don't like too much

bass in my headphones or my gaming

headsets is because it starts to bleed

into the mids and the highs and it gets

rid of a lot of detail. Something that

Steel Series did here is something I've

never really experienced in any other

device to where the bass is very deep

and impactful and louder than the rest

of the sound stage, but still manages to

be intelligible. When I'm listening to

music, I can follow along to bass notes

and get into the groove of things. And

one of my favorite sounds is a kick

drum. And I'm still able to hear all the

details of that with these headphones.

And when it comes to the mids, it

doesn't really bleed into it. Not too

much at least. I'm still able to follow

along with some of my favorite songs.

And when I'm playing games, the

clicking, the clanking, the music while

playing games, dialogue, everything just

sounds incredibly detailed. The sound

stage is fairly wide, too, to where if

you play a lot of first-person shooters

or if you're playing like an atmospheric

type of video game, it does a good job

of kind of taking you out of your room

and not just looking at a screen to

where you start to feel like you're a

bit immersed in what you're doing. So,

really good job. A lot of that gets lost

when the bass is too elevated. Steeler

did a good job with that and a lot of

that has to do with these premium

drivers. probably another big aspect of

the cost of this product. And the highs,

they sound good. They are a little bit

more recessed than I'm used to, but

overall it allows me to have these

headphones on for 8 to 10 hours a day

without it starting to be fatiguing. The

highs are detailed. Like when I'm

listening to songs with symbols or where

I hear the plucking of strings of a

guitar, it does come through pretty well

on this. And then just coming out of the

highs, the overall detail presentation

of these headphones are good. There's

good detail retrieval to if you've never

really listened to good quality

headphones or a good quality gaming

headset, you will start to hear some

details and tracks that you've never

heard before. And because the detail

retrieval is so good from these drivers,

from the processing that Steel Series

does once you're not messing around with

sonar or anything like that is they

don't need to rely on the compression.

what the compression is is when they

take the entire mix of an audio track or

or all the audio coming out of a game or

a movie to where they level the volume

to where everything is the same. So like

little subtle details that are just

meant to be barely picked up in the

audio mix. When you use too much

compression, it brings that forward and

it gets rid of a lot of the detail and a

lot of the intent that music producers

go into when they're making songs along

with audio engineers, etc. who are

mixing movies and video games etc. So

all of those are preserved and it's

really nicely done. Not something I

would have expected especially from a

gaming headset where the bass is

pronounced. So that's really really

good. And the sound stage is is wide

too. I was I'm playing a few rounds of

Overwatch and I'm able to hear what's in

front of me, behind me, etc. And that's

not using any of those spatial aare

modes that Sonar may offer or Steel

series may offer. That's just using this

as a two channel gaming headset. And

that's typically how I like to use my

gaming headsets. I don't like too many

artificial sounds and processing

happening while I'm trying to enjoy my

content. So, man, really well done. So,

then here's the thing. Is this worth

$600? As good as these are, I would say

unless you're in the unique crowd where

you really really want this or you're

really going to make use of what this

dock has to offer, I would say probably

not. Gaming headsets have gotten a lot

better this year. Competition from

around the range is is so much better

now. These are the latest Black Sharks

from Razer and it does a great job.

Microphone is probably a little bit

better. My absolute favorite, even

though the software is broken, is the

HyperX Cloud Alpha Twos. I I think these

sound a little bit better. A lot of it

might just be due to preference because

these are a little bit more neutral and

you're not dealing with that elevated

bass that I mentioned, but I can imagine

a lot of people liking that bass. I do

too, but I use my headset for a lot more

than just gaming. I use it to make my

YouTube videos, also listening to music

and gaming on top of that. So I but

overall I find these to sound a little

bit better. These are $300. The

microphone isn't as good. And I would

say that these are this is a semiopen

design to where it doesn't really block

out much sound from around you. And it

is more of a headset to where you can't

really use these as a headphone, which

these kind of also do look like

headphones. But then here's kind of what

I was thinking though. These are on sale

right now for $260. They retail for

$300. If you were going to spend $600, I

would say that this in many ways is a

better gaming headset, it doesn't offer

any noise cancelling or transparency.

So, if that's important for you, then

this is out. But I would also say that

these, while they do offer noise

cancelling and transparency, it's not as

good as like a regular headphone. Like

if you were to get the latest from

Sennheisers, these are like $500 though.

Probably close to the best I've heard.

But if you al but if you also did want

to spend $300 these this is the nothing

headphone and this offers really good

noise cancelling and the noise

transparency sounds very natural too

much better than what the Steel series

is able to do. So for $600 you can get

both of these and in my opinion you're

getting a better sounding gaming headset

though the software is pretty much

unusable as of the last time I checked

or and then you could also get the

nothing headphones. So, but if you don't

want two headsets and you want just one,

then I guess yeah, absolutely go for

these. The thing is with me though, I

bought this with my own money and I am

feeling the sting of that $650 after tax

is leaving my bank account. And

thankfully, I bought it from Best Buy

and because I have Total Tech, I have 60

days to return it. And I'm just looking

at I'm just I'm just looking at the

receipt and my bank account and I'm just

kind of thinking I'd rather just have

$600 in my account. But if you're the

kind of person you can spend $600 and it

won't really impact you mentally, like

it won't destroy your wallet at all,

then I mean by all means, I don't think

you could do much better than these. Go

for it. But if $600 is a big pill to

swallow, I don't know if this offers

enough to get you through that. Unless,

you know, like I said, specifically, you

need noise cancelling in a gaming

headset and you're going to use all

three of these inputs on the dock.

That's up to you. I hope I was able to

help. If you guys are interested in

picking this up, I will have affiliate

links down below. I hope you could tell

from the style of my reviews. I'm not

trying to sell you anything. If you do

choose to buy it, then you know what?

Might as well just use my links. Doesn't

hurt. But if you don't, I don't care

either. I'd just rather earn your trust

more than anything else out there. And I

don't know where else to take this

video. Just like, subscribe, and I'll

see you guys in the next one. Thank you

guys so much.