SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite Review: Exceptional Sound For Unlimited Budgets

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Sometimes what you're looking for is just the best of the best, and at least on paper, the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite ($599.99) sure looks like a contender for that lofty position in the gaming headset space. Just to get it out of the way right now, most people don't need to spend anywhere close to what the Nova Elite goes for to get a great gaming headset, but need and want are two very different things. For those with deep pockets, the Nova Elite is definitely going to be an alluring option.

While this headset is packed with numerous features and impressive components, such as active noise cancellation, a wireless control hub, and carbon drivers, it's the battery which is most intriguing. Unlike most headsets, the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite features hot-swappable, removeable batteries, meaning that the Nova Elite need never be plugged in to charge, and that this wireless headset could essentially be used indefinitely without interruption.

More importantly, here is a wireless gaming headset that has user-replaceable batteries, something that's sadly rare in the modern tech space, and it's exciting to find it in a gaming headset. However, the question is that even with such great features, can the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite justify its sky-high price point?

The metal headband of the Nova Elite is robust, as is the overall construction of these headphones, and on the whole, they seem quite durable (with one caveat we'll get to later on). The inner suspension of the headset is adjustable, as are the arms of the headphones themselves, so they can fit a variety of different head sizes. I have a particularly massive noggin, and though I'm certainly on the edge of what they support, keep in mind that my hat size is roughly XXXL. While this caused me to feel some pressure from the headset, I had other people with more reasonably sized heads try the Nova Elite, and they found it to be quite comfortable.

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The sage and gold headset I was sent by SteelSeries for testing is one of two colorways available, the other being obsidian. From an aesthetic perspective, I like the sage and gold version, though the obsidian version may be a little less obtrusive visually. Both suit the premium status of the Nova Elite. However, I'm a little concerned about the long term durability of the vegan leather material used in the headset, as I've found such material can degrade over time, even in high end headsets; it's not something I can adequately test without a couple years of wear, and that's not exactly feasible. I would prefer cloth earpads, or genuine leather, from both a durability and comfort standpoint, as I am not particularly fond of the feel of vegan leather, though that is very much a personal preference.

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Additionally, there's a retractable microphone, a really nice metal volume wheel, and several buttons for various functions. There are also microphones embedded in the exterior of the headset, which are likely there to enable ANC functionality.

Included with the Nova Elite are USB and audio cables, as well as a magnetic clasping pouch. While of good quality, this pouch doesn't offer much protection, and for the price, I would have hoped for a hard case to be included. However, I do appreciate the nice, thick instruction manual, and the game hub device that comes with the headset is really cool. It acts as a charging station for the replaceable batteries as well as a way to connect various devices and manage them via one convenient interface. I really like being able to control the volume via the large volume wheel on this device.

Andy Zahn/BGR

Andy Zahn/BGR

Andy Zahn/BGR

The Arctis Nova Elite has a port for an audio cable, as well as a USB port hidden behind a magnetic lid, with the replaceable batteries hidden behind another magnetic lid. While functional, I find this somewhat awkward. I get that you're not supposed to need to plug the headset in directly via USB, but I don't see an advantage beyond aesthetics and maybe a slight improvement to weather sealing from having the port so concealed.

Also, I would have preferred a spring-loaded system for the batteries on the side of the headset so that they could be ejected and reloaded without removing the headset. One worry for me is that the magnetic caps could become lost fairly easily if the user isn't careful to keep them on the headset.

With its two-piece 40mm driver system consisting of brass and carbon, the Arctis Nova Elite is able to pump out some absolutely stellar sound. The first thing I threw at the headset is "Battlefield 6," where the ability to pinpoint sounds in the environment is frequently the difference between life and death in the game. It also has a particularly chaotic and loud soundscape, featuring a constant barrage of gunfire, explosions, shouting NPCs, music, and chatter from other players. In other words, it's great test of any headset, and being plunged into that game for the first time wearing the Nova Elite was quite an experience, to say the least.

The entire soundscape of "Battlefield 6" changed from what I had become accustomed to, and it definitely pumped the level of immersion up a few notches. The zing of bullets and the crump of explosions is greatly enhanced, and with this headset, it's much easier to locate another player by the sound of their footsteps. It didn't suddenly make me a better player, but it did work to eliminate those irritating moments where, with other headsets, I'd become confused by the directionality of noises in the game. This is in part due to the companion software on PC, which tunes the headsets to improve your spatial sense in different games.

The Nova Elite also delivered a great audio experience in other games. I very much enjoyed playing "World of Tanks" with them, and also "Drop Duchy" and "Cyberpunk 2077." Really, you can't go wrong with the Nova Elite for gaming audio.

While most folks are likely to use the Arctis Nova Elite primarily, or even exclusively, with their gaming PC or console, it does feature Bluetooth capability. As a vehicle for on-the-go music and audiobook consumption, it's pretty fantastic. Listening to "Madness," "Panic Station," "Starlight," and "Cryogen" by Muse delivered a remarkably rich listening experience, with the heavy bass beat of these sounds rumbling behind the crisp vocals and guitar work, all of which were nicely defined. The fuzz guitar tone in "Cryogen" particularly stood out for the stellar way the headphones handle distortion without muddying the tone. I listened to the heavy, deeply ominous track "Colossus" by Avatar, and the headphones engulfed me in the driving beat of that song.

Of course, I also had to throw my old standard test for headphones: AC/DC's "Thunderstruck," as performed by 2Cellos — a song which clearly shows the faults and strengths of playback devices, and which I've been using for the past decade to test headphones. I found that the Nova Elite provided one of the best renditions of this song I've heard. I could practically smell the rosin on the bows. I also viewed a fair amount of video media while listening through the Nova Elite, from random YouTube videos to "Dunkirk." Watching the dogfight scenes in particular, I got a real feel for the awesome sound design of the Christopher Nolan film.

The integrated microphone in the Nova Elite is both retractable and flexible, which is helpful, as most of the time, I prefer to have it tucked away. It delivers really good sound for a headset mic, and I used it both for in-game communication and for various meetings.

The passive noise cancelling of the enormous earpads which ship with the Nova Elite offer about as much noise cancellation as I'm ever likely to need. However, you can also make use of active noise cancelling, at which point, if you have audio playing, the outside world might as well not exist. Numerous times, people were unable to get my attention, even while shouting at me in the same room, which can be a bit of a problem.

It's honestly more intense noise cancellation than I personally prefer, as I like to be able to hear the world around me. With that in mind, I was happy to to find that the Nova Elite possesses a transparency mode, so you can use the headphones without being totally isolated.

While I typically find transparency modes to be somewhat unpleasant, the Nova Elite manages to reproduce outside noises in a remarkably realistic fashion, with very little additional noise. In fact, it's the only such audio-pass-through mode on a headphone which I've encountered which I'd be likely to use regularly and for long periods of time. The same can't be said for active noise cancellation, which in addition to being overkill for my preferences, does produce that noticeable phantom pressure for me which some people tend to experience with active noise cancellation.

A standout feature of the Nova Elite is its swappable batteries. From a daily use-case perspective, it means you essentially never run out of battery so long as you keep one on the charger (it ships with two batteries) — and since each delivers a 30 hour run time, you're likely to get several days worth of fairly heavy use out of each battery. They pop right into the GameHub, and since this is probably going to be sitting on your desk or media center while you use the headphones, your replacement battery is going to be ready and waiting when you need it.

On the software side, most of the action is focused in the SteelSeries GG app, which is where you update the firmware of the headset, set the EQ, and setup the Sonar spatial audio features. It also has an automated gameplay clip recorder, which is cool when it works, automatically recording and labeling key moments. This is useful if you're looking to share your feats of gaming prowess with your friends or YouTube audience, but I found it to be somewhat unreliable in what it chooses to record.

There is no doubt that the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite is the most impressive headset I have ever used. Everything else aside, I'd be raving about these purely for their sound quality, and swappable batteries is a feature I'm unreasonably excited for. With so many devices being limited in their life span by the longevity of their battery, it's wonderful to have headphones which not only allow you to swap batteries, but do so easily, and even include a spare with the device. Then there's the GameHub and its sound mixing capabilities, the frankly incredible transparency mode, and all the other aspects of this headset which add together to make it truly exceptional.

With all that said, the elephant in the room must of course rear its ugly head; the price of this thing is so high for a gaming headset that it threatens to overpower all of the superlatives. At $599.99, it's as expensive as a brand new PS5 Digital Edition. Then there's the fact that you could get a lot of what makes the Nova Elite so great in the $399.99 SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Omni, or even the older Nova Pro Wireless at $249.99. Both headsets offer such features as the swappable batteries at a a fraction of the cost of the Nova Elite.

However, the Nova Elite did absolutely blow me away with its sound quality, and it's just about the best a gaming headset can possibly be. If money is no issue, it's a splurge which will yield what is very nearly a no-compromises audio experience. As expensive as they are, the fact is that I have never experienced such clarity of sound as I have from the Nova Elite in any other headphones I've tested.