As someone who owns multiple gaming machines ( Xbox, Switch, DS ) and lots of retro kit; actually most importantly i have a special edition Evercade on order. Actually if you have not heard of Evercade its worth dropping over to there website to have a read https://evercade.co.uk/
I have had some decent Turtle beach headphones X41 Wireless Surround Sound for my Xbox 360 which i then used on my XBOX X; headset was discontinued in 2011. They where pretty good at the time however obviously quite dated, plus i seemed to get drop out alot with my XBOX X. No idea if this was my XBOX or the fact the technology was a a tad old…..
Time to look for a new set of headphones….
When i looked i could see the usual suspects :
- Turtle Beach
- Astro
- Razor
However SteelSeries seemed to come back as a new one on the block, ok not new and apparently well known on the gaming scene on the PC. However since i have done any PC gaining for probably 15 years the brand meant nothing to me.
Like any brand the price range is quite large, £50 for the cheapest right up to £180 for the SteelSeries 9x. However i thought well i want a good headphone that will hopefully last and i can use on multiple devices. Also i hate wires although a wire from the headset to the Xbox controller i was willing to accept; again if the headset was good.
Came down to a choice of two :
Arctis 3 Bluetooth
- Simultaneous wired and Bluetooth
- Perfect for Nintendo switch
- ClearCast noise cancelling microphone
Arctis 9x
- Integrated Xbox Wireless connectivity
- Simultaneous wired and Bluetooth
- ClearCast noise cancelling microphone
Price of the 9x’s is around £90 more than the 3 so it comes in around £189…..
I really like the fact it as an approved Xbox Wireless headset so it can use Xbox’s Wireless connectivity…. Guess thats what swung it for me, meaning no lead to the controller plus i like to try and buy the best of the best if i can afford it.
Set-up was straight forward however really poor it does not come with a 3.5 male to male lead so i could plug it into my Nintendo switch, ok £5 off amazon however i do think one should have been included for the price.
Sound quality and overall use is second to none; the virtual sound works really well. However if you want to use Dolby Atmos ( if you have an Xbox X ) then you have to have this wired to your controller… Doh !!!!!!!! It wont work over the Xbox Integrated Wireless connectivity which seems a bit thick. Must be some type of technical issue ? however i don’t know what this is.
All positive up to now !!!! Heres the negative, it just does not work with my Apple Mac laptop, yes it connects and then disconnects after a few seconds. A quick search on google, lots of other people complaining about this issue and little or no response from Steel Series….. Very annoying and yes a bit of a let down considering how much they where. However my main use was for gaming on my Xbox and Switch not for Zoom conference calls with world. So not the end of the world however would have been nice to see Steel Series actively trying to fix this. I guess its one of these ” Watch this Space ”
So all in all a good set of headphones at a reasonable price of £189, yes sure the Astra / Turtle Beach ones are better however they cost a lot more money.
” Recommended !!! ”