The SteelSeries Arctis Headset Family is Too Big

Sorting through a pile of nearly thirty gaming headsets

Photo taken by the author

It’s nice to have choice as a gaming headset consumer. However, sometimes a company’s pursuit of new technology combines with a reluctance to retire old models, and suddenly they have far too many options on the market.

That’s exactly the messy position Steelseries is in right now, with twenty-seven different models of the Arctis headset in active production. The sound in these many different models is provided by one of only two different unique speaker drivers. The first is the S1 driver originally developed for the classic SteelSeries Siberia 800, and the second is the newer hi-res driver that was specially crafted and tuned for the Arctis Pro models.

Screen capture taken by the author, sourced from www.steelseries.com

As a result, most of the headsets on the left side of this daunting nightmare chart sound nigh identical, with only minor differences depending on what you’re connected to and how well the headset seals against your individual head. I’ve listened to numerous S1-based Arctis products over the years, and they all have the same nice, gently accentuated sound that’s among the best affordable gaming headsets…