Pros & Cons
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- Balanced, full sound with audiophile-pleasing clarity
- Wireless 96Hz/24-bit hi-res audio support
- Exceptionally clear microphone
- Capable noise cancellation
- Supports three wired devices, including PlayStation and Xbox
- Hot-swappable batteries
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- Very expensive
- Lacks head-rattling bass, if you're looking for that
SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite - Hi-Res Wireless Gaming Headset — 96kHz/24bit — Carbon Fiber Speakers — ANC — AI Noise Re Specs
| Active Noise Cancellation | |
| Connection Type | 2.4GHz |
| Connection Type | Bluetooth 5.3 |
| Connection Type | USB-C |
| Type | Circumaural (over-ear) |
| Type | Gaming |
| Wireless |
For several years, the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless ($379.99) has been one of my favorite wireless gaming headsets, thanks to its excellent sound, comfortable feel, flexible connection options, effective active noise cancellation (ANC), and swappable batteries. It used to be the company's flagship gaming model, but now the company has released a headset that further elevates performance, build quality, and features: the Arctis Nova Elite ($599.99). It adds superior headphone drivers, high-res 96kHz/24-bit wireless audio, and the ability to simultaneously connect three devices over USB. The Nova Elite sounds and feels absolutely incredible, making it our new Editors' Choice winner for audiophile gaming headsets. If you're a gamer who hasn't tumbled down the audiophile rabbit hole, or simply want to save money, the less-expensive Nova Pro Wireless remains our top pick overall for wireless gaming headsets.
Design: Familiarly Luxurious
The Nova Elite, available in black or sage and gold, has the same physical design as the Nova Pro Wireless, but with a more premium build. The vegan faux leather on the memory foam earcups is softer, and the headband's top is now wrapped in that same leatherette instead of bare aluminum. The frame is all-metal, with the volume wheel and the earcup hinges looking especially shiny. This makes the 13.4-ounce headset about 1.4 ounces heavier than the Nova Pro Wireless, but the weight is well distributed thanks to the plush earcups and the ski goggle-like suspension band that lifts the hard headband above the scalp.
(Credit: Will Greenwald)Besides the materials, the familiar layout remains the same. The left earcup has a 3.5mm aux input jack, power button, mic mute button, and volume wheel along the back and bottom edges, and the right earcup has a Bluetooth power/pairing button. The boom microphone is a capsule on a flexible wire arm that retracts into the cup. Circular metal caps attach to the earcups' back panels, and you can detach them to reveal the removable battery pack on the left cup and the USB-C port for charging the headset on the right cup. It's all very well designed.
Base Station: Connect 3 Systems at Once
Likewise, the Nova Elite's base station is similar to the Nova Pro Wireless'. It's still a 1.4-by-4.5-by-3.2-inch black plastic box with a front panel featuring a monochrome OLED screen and a circular volume knob (black on the black model, gold on the sage-and-gold model). And like the Nova Pro Wireless, the Nova Elite has a battery slot on the right side that keeps one of the headset's two batteries charged at all times, one of my favorite returning Pro Wireless elements.
The back has 3.5mm line-in and line-out ports, and now three USB-C ports instead of two. They let you connect the headset to three devices at a time, including a PlayStation and an Xbox. This is a rare capability I've only seen in two other wireless headsets: the Astro A50 X, which supports USB-C and HDMI connections, and the most recent Astro A50. Most wireless headsets, including the Nova Pro Wireless, require committing to either a PlayStation or an Xbox model (though both versions work equally well with PCs and, usually, Nintendo Switch systems).
Battery: Actually Batteries, Plural
SteelSeries says each battery will let you use the headset for 30 hours, but that number seems almost moot since they can be swapped in seconds. You just remove the battery from the right earcup, grab a fully charged battery from the base station, insert it into the headset, and put the drained battery in the base station. There's no reason for downtime unless you're traveling with the headset and can’t get to the base station for days. And if that's the case, you can still plug it in to charge the battery. I haven't measured how fast the batteries charge over USB, but they each seem to take about an hour or two in the dock.
Features: Fancy Drivers and Hi-Res Audio
The Nova Elite uses 40mm carbon-fiber drivers with brass surrounds, which are more advanced (and expensive) than the 40mm neodymium drivers in the Nova Pro Wireless. They have a stated frequency response range of 10Hz to 40kHz and a sensitivity of 101 dB SPL at 1kHz/1mW. That's greater sensitivity than the Nova Pro Wireless (93 dB SPL). Although that headset has the same frequency response range when wired, it drops to 10kHz-22kHz when used wirelessly, giving the Nova Elite a distinct edge in most use cases.
(Credit: Will Greenwald)Of course, this assumes you can hear anything that high; human hearing range is generally the usual headset standard of 20Hz and 20kHz, with the higher end diminishing as you age. Audio quality is much more than just the hard numbers of range and sensitivity, though, and what really matters is the listening test, which I'll get into later.
For wireless connectivity, the Nova Elite supports both 2.4GHz and Bluetooth 5.3. Although it lacks the more common advanced Bluetooth codecs like AAC and AptX, it supports LC3 and LC3+. The latter codec is certified by the Japan Audio Society as Hi-Res Audio Wireless, standing alongside LDAC as a higher-end Bluetooth audio format. If you want the most pristine sound, though, you'll use the 2.4GHz connection with a PC. This enables the headset's full 96kHz/24-bit audio processing, which is extremely rare on gaming headsets (or any wireless headphones, really).
Software: Loads of Customization on PC
The Arctis Nova Elite connects to pretty much any modern gaming platform, but to access its extensive customization options, you must run the SteelSeries GG Engine PC software. GG Engine, and specifically its Sonar audio suite, is one of the most powerful gaming headset apps I've tested. It works not only with the Nova Elite but also with many other SteelSeries PC-compatible headsets.
(Credit: SteelSeries/PCMag)Sonar enables the headset's spatial audio processing on PC (on PlayStation and Xbox consoles, it uses those systems' surround sound features), but it does much more than that. It provides a fully customizable parametric equalizer with hundreds of game-specific presets, letting you set separate EQ curves for games, voice chat, media, and anything passing through the base station's aux input. EQ adjustments are always helpful, and switching between game-specific presets and flat/bass-boosting music ones changes how each audio source sounds, often for the better. The differences can be subtle, but usually complement the content.
The mic has its own parametric EQ with presets for reducing nasal sounds, boosting low-pitch clarity, and emulating a walkie-talkie, along with compressor and noise gate functions you can toggle and adjust. The mic settings let you choose between SteelSeries' Clearcast AI noise cancellation, which blocks unwanted sounds, and a more conventional noise-reduction feature with separate sliders to eliminate fan whirls, keystrokes, and other audio irritants. Clearcast AI is probably all you'll need for general communication, but the ability to turn it offer and tweak all of those settings is helpful for refining how your voice sounds in streams and recordings.
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(Credit: SteelSeries/PCMag)The software also provides a mixer for adjusting master, game, chat, media, and aux levels, and for setting different output devices for each. If that isn't enough, the mixer has a Streamer Mode toggle that splits the levels of each device (including the mic) between the personal mix for the headset and the stream mix for your audience.
The Arctis mobile app lets you adjust some of the headset's features on your phone, though it lacks parametric EQ and a mixer. It mostly lets you swap between EQ presets and adjust the headphones' active noise cancellation, and otherwise isn't particularly useful.
ANC: Capable of Blocking Distractions
Like the Nova Pro Wireless, the Nova Elite features active noise cancellation (ANC) that uses outward-facing microphones to monitor your surroundings and generate counterfrequencies that block out distractions. It's powerful enough to completely blot out my computer fan and air conditioner noise, and to dampen other distractions like coffee shop music and my cat's meows while I wrote this. I also appreciate the muffling of subway sound when navigating New York City, though both track and crowd noise still come through to some extent.
It's effective noise cancellation for a gaming headset, and you won't find much better in the category. In the broader headphone space, though, Bose's ANC on the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones and Sony's on the WH-1000XM6 outshine the Nova Elite's. In addition, both of those models offer transparency modes that let you clearly hear your surroundings through the headphones whenever desired, unlike the Nova Elite.
Audio Quality: Rich, Balanced, and Detailed
Games, unsurprisingly, sound excellent on the Nova Elite, and the spatial audio processing via GG Engine and Sonar in PC games is impressively precise. I played Apex Legends, Fortnite, and Marvel Rivals with the headset, using each game's EQ preset in Sonar. I got a strong sense of directionality from gunfire and other sound effects in Fortnite and Apex Legends, which gave me a tactical edge. Marvel Rivals' audio balance is less conducive to accurate spatial imaging, but the soundscape felt full and detailed, letting me pick out nearby threats.
The combat sounds in all three games were reproduced with loads of detail, including lows to highs. The headset didn't reach deep into sub-bass territory, and none of the gunfire or explosions packed thunder, but that seemed like a conscious choice to keep the frequency range clear and balanced. In testing, the bass certainly wasn't light, but it didn't feel like a subwoofer was strapped to my head. That's the difference between audiophile-focused gaming headphones that aim for a flat frequency response and more mainstream headphones that boost the bass but aren't as accurate. It's a satisfying sound, just not one intended to rattle heads.
The Nova Elite is exceptional for music, and that's where it really justifies its high price. The nuance and presence that the Nova Elite's carbon fiber reproduces across the full frequency range are noticeably better than those of the Nova Pro Wireless, which already sounds great. The headset's 96kHz/24-bit hi-res audio support is a huge boon if you have access to lossless or near-lossless audio. However, even high-quality lossy music streaming at half that sampling rate is reproduced with more detail than most other gaming headsets.
In testing, the Yes’ "Roundabout" sounded excellent on the Nova Elite. The opening guitar plucks received loads of low-mid resonance and crisp string textures, and when the track fully kicked in, each element in the busy mix got plenty of attention and detail. I easily picked up the guitar strums, cymbals, bassline, and vocals as they worked together.
Likewise, the Nova Elite's wide dynamic range proved impressive while I listened to The Crystal Method’s "Born Too Slow." In testing, the ominous backbeat drove the track, while the screeching riffs and vocals stood against it.
(Credit: Will Greenwald)Our bass test track, The Knife’s "Silent Shout," sounded powerful though not palpable; the kick drum hits featured a strong thump without vibrating my head, and didn't distort even at maximum volume. Switching to the Music: Deep Bass EQ preset didn't significantly increase the low-end, but in either setting, the headset still produced satisfyingly deep, though not sub-bass, frequencies in my listening sessions.
Microphone: Clean and Clear for Chat and Streams
The boom mic on the Nova Elite is one of the clearest I've tested in a headset. Test recordings of my voice were incredibly clean, with no fuzz, sibilance, or laptop fan noise. It's an excellent mic for voice chat, work calls, and casual content creation. Like all headset mics, though, its small capsule doesn't capture as much depth in the lower frequencies as a good dedicated USB (or XLR, with a mixer) mic can, so I still recommend going that route if you’re serious about recording or streaming.