The frequency range is immense for a gaming headset, with clean highs interspersed with impactful bass – but each with room in the mix so they aren’t competing for your attention. The real challenge was always going to be music, but happily the Pro delivers here, too. This is only a stereo headset, but DTS Headphone:X does a great job of approximating positional audio, giving us an easier job at tracking down fast-moving enemies. Bullets and spent brass sounded suitably crisp, without becoming harsh. Bass-heavy blasters like Quake: Champions give your ears an aural punch whenever you squeeze the trigger, hit a jump pad or gib an opponent.

It’ll come as no surprise the Arctis Pro sounds ace in games. Chatmix lets you fade out background music to focus on multiplayer voice comms, and you can balance multiple inputs and outputs if you’ve got a more complex streaming setup. Push the volume knob in and you can pick between inputs and outputs, control the headset’s LED lights, customise the EQ and activate DTS Headphone:X surround sound. If you do, though, the volume dial won’t actually work – you’ll have to tweak levels through your computer instead. Around the back you’ll find two 3.5mm outputs and an optical input for hooking up to a PlayStation 4, or plugging in your own pair of headphones instead of the Arctis Pro.

The bundled USB cables are plenty long enough for most PC setups, and should stretch between your TV and sofa, too. The pill-shaped control unit has a giant volume dial of its own, plus a monotone OLED display for tweaking settings and giving a constant readout of your sound levels. 24-bit support for Hi-Res audio is on-board, and should be an improvement over most integrated PC audio chips. It has its own ESS Sabre 9018 DAC, which takes over all audio processing duties from your PC. The headset is only half the story, though it hooks in to the GameDAC, a breakout box smaller than your smartphone that gives things a sonic step up.

Steelseries arctis pro gamedac