It does have a bidirectional - not cardioid - polar pattern, so it doesn’t do a great job of noise-canceling/noise-isolation without the help of SteelSeries’ Sonar audio software.Īll of SteelSeries new Arctis Nova headsets have the same microphone design, which is fully-retractable and blends seamlessly into the earcup when retracted. It performs well for a headset mic, easily picking up your voice thanks to the flexible arm that allows you to adjust its position. The Arctis Nova 7 has a bidirectional ClearCast Gen 2 noise-canceling microphone, which has a wireless frequency response of 100 - 6,500 Hz and a sensitivity of -38dBV/Pa. The Nova 7 actually performed best on calls and voice chat - thanks in part to features like ChatMix, adjustable sidetone, and Sonar’s mic EQ, but also just in general - everyone I talked to using this headset sounded great. Sonar has a gaming-oriented parametric EQ, as well as features like 360-degree spatial audio, which is implemented pretty well. Good news: Gaming sounds much better than music on the Nova 7 - pretty good with the headset’s default, out-of-the-box settings, and there’s plenty to play around in SteelSeries’ Sonar audio software suite. But you’re not buying a $180 headset with simultaneous dual wireless for the analog connection. Audio quality is much better over a wired connection (though there was still some mid-range distortion and fuzziness in the bass). I tested the Nova 7’s audio over both a wireless (2.4 GHz) and wired (3.5mm analog, plugged into SteelSeries’ own GameDAC) connection. Lows are present but a little underwhelming, and the bass was both too restrained and muddy-sounding in Kanye West’s “Love Lockdown” and Kaskade’s “POW POW POW.” Mids and highs, by contrast, are pumped a little too high the lower mid-range had a lot of distortion in David Guetta’s “Titanium,” and details were a blended mess in the normally-crisp layers of Beyonce’s “Single Ladies.” Music on the Nova 7 sounds good - just good, not great. The new Arctis Nova 1 and Nova 3 have the same drivers the Arctis Nova Pro and Arctis Nova Pro Wireless have different, higher-fidelity drivers. The Arctis Nova 7 has “custom high fidelity drivers tuned for gaming” (whatever that means), with a frequency response of 20 - 20,000 Hz, an impedance of 36Ω, and a sensitivity of 93dBSPL. Fully-retractable, bi-directional, noise-cancelingĢ.4GHz wireless, Bluetooth 5.0, wired (3.5mm aux)
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