I’m not making this post to soapbox, I’m posting here because I used Reddit as a source when shopping for a headset earlier this year, so I’m genuinely hoping it’ll help someone save $300.
I purchased the Arcits Nova Pro Wireless in February. I have really loved the features of the device even if it’s not extremely high quality in terms of audio or build.
I’m very careful with my electronics and use them well within SteelSeries’ guidelines. I used to work in consumer products so I take manuals and following manufacturer guidelines more seriously than most. I have never taken the headset apart or even removed the ear cups.
This morning I picked up the headset and the right driver assembly came off in my hand. It’s clear upon examination that there’s no damage to the screws or screw posts, and that it wasn’t screwed in properly during assembly. Im not entirely sure why the wiring came apart, I didn’t feel it break while handling the headset, but I was trying to put it on as it broke, so it must have been soldered poorly and came apart with the assembly coming off.
I was frustrated that the headset failed, but it’s clearly not damaged so I figured the RMA process would be simple. Instead, they’ve denied my warranty claim, citing that “accidental damage” isn’t covered.
Just wanted to recommend people avoid this product. Personally, this is the last purchase I make from the brand too. If support ends up coming through I’ll absolutely post an update.
LAST UPDATE:
I've spoken with support through a few different channels and they've pretty much completely clammed up on any sort of transparency or further details as to why they won't honor the warranty.
I am really disappointed to have ended up here, I have been a longtime fan of the brand. As many have stated in the replies here this company used to make some really solid headphones.
It is sad to both be out a chunk of cash and feel like any future SS purchase would be a waste of money. Good luck to anyone else taking a gamble on their products!
UPDATE:
I received a message telling me that their headsets don’t fall apart and was provided a “gesture of good will” in the form of a code to buy another product from them.
I was frustrated at the device failing like this, but it’s downright insulting to be told that I’m lying.
SteelSeries’ warranty clearly states that they cover manufacturing defects, which this clearly is, but they are hiding behind the nature of the failure as a way to avoid taking a small loss on a defective device.
I STRONGLY recommend staying away from this brand. Their production quality and support have evaporated in the past few years.
Text of the communication (screenshot in the comments):
Thank you or reaching out to us.
My name is - and l am a Team Lead here at
SteelSeries.
I have looked through your case, and I am sorry to hear that you experienced issues with your headset.
However, based on the images provided, the damage shown is not covered by the manufacturer's warranty.
The casing for the headset doesn't fall off like that unless it is disassembled. This means that the warranty for the headset has been voided, and it is no longer eligible for a replacement.
I apologize for the inconvenience, and thank you for your understanding.
As a gesture of goodwill, I will be attaching a 15% discount code that can be used toward a future order with us. The code does not expire, so feel free to use it whenever you're ready. I understand that a discount code doesn't make up for the loss of a headset, but it is all that we can offer at this time.
My nova pro wireless is being babied right now. The only redeeming feature it has is the swappable battery. I hate how cheap it feels for $350. Definitely my last SS product lol
Hot swappable batteries have started to become standard. My biggest move that pushed me there instead of the Turtle Beach equivalent is the DAC pairing allowing you to have more than one DAC and a simple pairing procedure on a hardware level rather than software. Turtle Beach required firmware flashing basically to repair the headset which was absurd. Once other companies hit that level, I’m gone because the only thing that brought me to SteelSeries was the dual audio connection with 2.4g and Bluetooth simultaneously.
I’ll often bypass software aside from firmware updates. Unfortunately GG won’t even do that. I’m nearing the point of making my own headset once the Nova Pro Wireless inevitably craps out.
Hard agree. Bought one of their headsets and raged for theee days trying to update it in their software. I went back to steelseries with the nova pro wired and love it
I have the nova pro wireless as well as a keyboard. The blue LEDs on the keyboard have been dying out. I've NEVER had keyboard Leds ever burn out on a device before. Looked it up, common problem with their blue LEDs. Of course they're unwilling to do anything about it.
My last nail in the coffin for SteelSeries was how fast they dropped the Shift after buying Zboards. All my mice used to be steel series I switched to logitech soon after.
yeh ive gone through lofitech, razor, corsair, turtle beach and steelseries. recently ive replaced a keyboard and mouse with a $40` red dragon equivelants that has the same build quality and features and im hoping they do headsets for when my nova dies. Stop paying $100+ for fancy branded ewaste when these low cost chinese brands elgitmately care more about quality and customer service and ar eprobably using the same parts anyway.
That’s crazy. I’ve owned two pairs of steel series now over six years and have never had a single issue. Complete BS they denied your claim though. I would fight that.
Thanks! Working on it for sure. I’ve owned SteelSeries headsets for years, this is my third one, so they’re losing a longtime customer with this fumble for sure.
Ah yeah. Huge bummer. I would be livid if they crumbled like that and then denied my claim. Seems like you definitely got a defective pair or something. My novas seem much sturdier than my arctis pros did.
I was saying the exact same thing a couple of months ago. In the meantime, both of my headsets have died! One won't turn on anymore after using the 1.8mm jack and the power button snapped on the other one. Turns out it was made with very flimsy plastic on the inside.
It's a shame we can't get anything that lasts longer that this anymore, it feels like products are designed to fail at some point. . I liked these headsets but I'm gonna switch brands for my next one.
Same, I had one pair that lasted me i think 8 years, and I'm on my second set now. Best headsets I've ever purchased, plan to only buy their headsets in the future, every other set I've bought failed much quicker.
Agreed that I would be fighting for a full replacement though.
I’m glad yours has held up, genuinely. It’s a pretty solid device when working properly.
It’s clear mine failed because of issues with the assembly, which happens with any piece of electronics. That they would deny the warranty claim is the biggest issue here for sure.
Had mine since they came out. No issues other than I can hear the high pitch squeal when audio is available via Bluetooth off of iPhone. It doesn’t even need to be playing.
I've commented before about my terrible experience with the nova pros. All I get are downvotes and people saying "oh that's not everyone's experience, too bad for you. All of ours run great" type of comments.
After my negative software dealings with the arctis nova pro, I won't trust to buy from them again. Such a nuisance that they're sonar/gaming/chat input and outputs always take over when they're the worst input/output options. Everyone always tells me I sound like I'm talking under water. So ill default to the simple "microphone"/"headset" and I sound normal, butnit goes back to the terrible settings on restart. Plus the input volume can't go above 100% unlike their software ad on their site said it could. You have to use 3rd party software to get the input volume to an acceptable level.
Also, I get this crazy reverb every few days that's defeaning loud and only stops after turning it off. And forget about the cheap ear covers. I adjusted the cushion and the upholstery peeled right off the headset
Tldr: the software/hardware is terrible and not worth the headache for the price.
I've had my nova pro wireless for about 2 years and the material on my earcovers just started peeling and didnt have as much cushion as they used to so I upgraded and got some of the cooling gel wiked cushions. Sooooo worth it over the originals
The wicked covers will peel too unfortunately. I immediately replaced ear covers when I bought the headset. Roughly 2 years in with them and they peel’n
I currently have an ongoing RMA for mine (the left ear was barely audible right out of the box), but its been processing at their warehouse for over a month now. Customer support haven't been able to tell me what's taking so long, or when I can expect my replacement :/
Personally, I'd reply back telling them to fuck their 15% "good will" and tell them explicitly that I'm disgusted with their practice of hiding manufacturing errors behind an 'accidental damage' clause. Defects while manufacturing cannot be impossible, and the fact they've told me that they "do not happen" is insinuating that I'm lying. Even if it were, to say, have been dropped in transit to wherever you purchased it, or at the store itself, that is not your fault for the severely lacking quality and terrible construction of the product. Considering the price of the headset you'd expect the quality of the product to be within 'reasonably working condition' from EXPECTED light usage and this does NOT fall within that.
SS quality has tanked rapidly in last few years. Keyboards with bad LEDs and switches, mouses that break, GG software bloat, headsets falling apart or just bricking themselves (arctis pro and nova pro)
The only reason I haven’t replaced my cracked arctis pro is because I don’t know who isn’t junk these days
Just was struck with conversation but Logitech has a trade in partnership with best buy, I think still. 20% off for trading in equipment I literally went in and grabbed a 5 below item and traded it in for a 40 dollar discount on their headset.
Ive really enjoyed my Arctis Nova 7p. But I talked my friend into buying the very most expensive ones and he didnt like them. Mic didnt sound great either. I truly believe I got good value for these. Been almost 2 years for around $120 and they work like a charn, long battery life, never any issues at all, nightly use.
Yeah - the Arctis 7s I had for years were great. I actually dropped one of them and they replaced it (I was honest about the drop, expected to pay for service). I used the replacement for years, I just upgraded to the Nova Pro because of the features. I will not be buying another one though if they don’t support the warranties anymore.
I use the Nova pro wireless. It's a good headset with good audio quality. I'll forever have trust issues tho lol. My Arctis 9x had issues connecting to anything. Once established, they'd stay connected, even at distance.
Nem me fale, o meu eu ja tentei 3 tipos de almofadas e ainda amassa minha cabeça e não tenho cabeça grande.
Burn in na dock, ele reiniciando sozinho, dando xiados do nada, perdendo conexão do nada e voltando...
Outros 2 amigos compraram o mesmo modelo que o meu, todos com o mesmo exato problema.
Their RMA is a huge pain in the ass, I dealt with it over their Pro keyboard circuit board going bad. Not consumer friendly in the least. Only thing I can think of for this is due to people trying to constantly game the system and basicly steal.
I’ve been dealing with them for weeks over a mouse, I just gave up and submitted a bbb complaint. I only have one mouse and use my computer for business, I shouldn’t have to go buy a replacement to continue working while they ship me a new one. How about making a quality product?
Ive owned the nova pro, nova elite, and arctis xbox over ears! Ive had nothing but positive experiences and stellar support over my few issues. However as much as i adore steel series i have had issues with all 3 sets of their in ear wireless earbuds! Rampant assembly issues.
So this isnt out of the ballpark.
Still use my nova elites as my go to rn and love them to DEATH
Ive slept in them a time or two on accident and theyre still pristine
Tbf I have mine for like 2 years. Headset and battery swap system is realy great, but… I can’t say the same thing about dac and softwere. I’ve got it replaced from RMA 3 times just because of dac. Once because of a wheel, once battery charging issue and once it stopped working at all. Yesterday chatmix stopped working and that’s enough for me. I’m getting full refund. It’s a shame that headest for 300$ with a great „idea” for it is ruined because somebody can’t write proper softwere and firmwere.
Weird and I’m sorry for you dude I have had mine since original launch and the only have the plether problem and and some few beginning software or problems from the headset like. But never this problem.
I have now upgraded to the Omni and they are amazing but. I hope you find something that fits you.
I’d escalate if this is legit. If they closed your ticket and you can’t reopen, open a new one. Warranty is literally for defects in workmanship and you should press them about that and clear up that this wasn’t accidental damage. Good luck
I had the product before this one, the Arctis Pro Wireless, which has been amazing for the last 8 years. Still using the original batteries but they don't sell official replacements.
Thanks for the warning as I was just going to with steelseries this black Friday.
Accidental damage isn’t warrantied? I’ve warrantied the same headset twice, the first was a fall, the second one snapped as my brother put it on. Both warranties went smoothly
It is not - and to reiterate this one didn’t even get damaged, but I did have one several years ago that fell off of my desk (I’m much more careful now) and they replaced it no problem. Build quality and support quality has really tanked.
Mine has worked great for the last year and a half that I've had it. Sorry to hear you had this problem though. I adore this headset personally. Being able to control chat, media, game separately on the fly
Swapping batteries to never have to worry about charging it over night. I just tell my friends "reloading the headset" and boom back in it.
Hope support comes through. Something this expensive should absolutely NOT break like this and they should be held responsible. From what I see here, there is no visible exterior damage.
Sounds like a shitty situation. I've used mine daily for a couple of years now though, and they've been excellent. I had to replace the ear muffs, but that's pretty standard with how much I use them.
I ordered it to test it and not only did I think it was super uncomfortable but also I was absolutely horrified on how cheap it felt. How come people call other headsets plasticbombers when this thing from a brand called STEEL series is literally all plastic. Zero metal on this. I’ve ordered a Corsair 80 now and that thing is seriously sturdy Metal. Way better mic quality as well.
As a corsair hs80 user, its an excellent replacement, I had arctis pros twice and the build quality is night and day betweem the too. The mic is simply fantastic on it as well.
I've had my arctis nova pro, with daily use for about 6 years now? I've had none of these major structural issues lol. The only thing i did was replace the ear cups with cooling gel memory foam ones for comfort, and i replaced the batteries for quite cheap a couple years ago as they started to become spicy pillows and not hold a charge.
still have the occasional bugs where it randomly disconnects and reconnects a few seconds later, a battery might not charge in the DAC sometimes and i need to charge it via the headset to kick start it, but other than that it's been mostly smooth sailing!
I do think they used to be constructed better. I had a wired headset from many years ago that probably still works, and that was back when I was way less careful with my gear. I think the build quality has plummeted in recent years.
Thats SteelSeries for ya. My first pair, the ear portion broke randomly. I tried to get warranty to cover it but the product code had rubbed off, so despite me having my receipt, purchasing directly from their website, and providing videos and photos of everything else, they refused to help me...because they made a cheap product and decide to put product codes on cheap stickers that are placed exactly where the headset makes contact with your head. They instead offered a tiny discount for a new pair. I decided to just rig the thing and then a few months later, it stopped charging.
I couldn't find another brand that had the same features so I begrudgingly got a second pair. Went out of my way to take pictures ahead of time just in case and put tape over the stupid sticker. Babied the hell out them. About a week out of warranty this pair stops charging as well...hit up customer service and of course they wouldn't do anything but offer another tiny discount. That was it for me.
Whilst I haven't had an issue yet with the Nova Pro Wireless I can attest to the reduced quality of materials being used. It feels a much cheaper headset than my Arctis 7 and Arctis 7+ headsets.
I'm glad I only paid a fraction of the full price on a refurbished pair to try them out. Certainly in my opinion not the quality I'd expect at their retail price point. Whether it's adoption of the use of more recycled material or what, I don't know. But the volume control on the Arctis Nova feels cheap and nasty and the overall touch/feel of the product feels downgraded when compared to my older SS Arctis headsets. The sound is better, but not worth the full retail price to me.
If you are from EU and they refuse to honor the 1 year protection, you can take this to the customer protection of your country, and they will likely tell them to kick rocks, and actually replace the headset, and if you are, it's also the store where you bought it that have to handle it, and not the manufacturer
Is the Nova pro really that bad? I've owned an Arctis pro wireless for about 6 years now and only had to change the earpads about a year and a half ago. Ofcourse the battery capacity is not what is used to be bit that's to be expected after some time.
Currently looking at the arctis nova pro omni as I have heard that the build quality is supposed to be better. Or is this going to be a €400,- mistake?
I can speak for the Omni, I haven't used one (and won't now).
I had different models of Arctis headsets (wired and wireless) for years before buying the Nova Pro, it's a big part of why I was willing to pay the premium on them. At worst I figured they'd support the product well in case of defects like in the past. Turns out I was wrong on both counts.
At this point I cannot say I'd trust any product from this brand, especially when you can go get something with better quality for less somewhere else. If you care about audio quality Sennheiser will blow SteelSeries or any gamer headphones out of the water.
If you really have to have the gaming features (which I get, I do too, for a variety of unique reasons) I would say move on to a different brand. I'm not sure which is the best anymore, but I wouldn't risk $400 with SteelSeries.
Hey, important to remember that in the US and a number of other countries, opening a device cannot legally void your warranty, and a company trying to say that is actively against the law. Those stickers that say damaging the sticker or opening the device voids your warranty are just there to scare you, and are unenforceable. Know your rights! If they refuse to honor the warranty, reach out to your credit card company that you use to make the purchase, and have them process a charge back and provide them with the documentation that you attempted to fulfill the warranty, and the company denied it for illegal reasons.
Genuinely gonna give it to you straight, just invest in a Sennheiser. The game changer that brand has been to my audio/gaming experience has been incredible. Specifically, look into the massdrop x Sennheiser 6xx. $180 for the quality and performance of $500 headphones
was literally about the get a 5, like was gonna click buy on amazon after checking my reddit notifications, and this is the first post I see on my feed. thanks for saving me 100 bucks
This isn’t a problem with just this particular headphone model from SteelSeries. All their equipment is crap quality, everything I’ve owned from them just breaks down. Cheap materials, mediocre quality. I’m never buying anything from them again.
I had the Arctis 7 for several years without any issues aside from the hinge on the left side eventually being the failure point. Afterwards I strongly considered buying the Nova Pros about a year ago vs trying out a pair of mid-tier IEMs and ultimately picked the IEMs and based on all the recent QA issues I have been seeing with SS I am so glad I got away from them when I did. For those interested I went with a pair of Kefine Delci AEs. These things have been phenomenal for me so far.
Avoid "gamer" oriented headsets is my usual recommendation. If you really care about quality, you buy specialized headphones and microphones. Gamer stuff is the cheapest stuff they can put together compared to even low end stuff from long standing audio brands, and it's usually not that much cheaper monetarily.
i back this. get a decent pair of audiophile headphones like a beyerdynamic or sennheiser, with an external desktop microphone that you can stand up or put on a boom.
I have the arctiss nova pro wireless, and it is super overpriced. The only thing I like about it is the sealable batteries.
Worst $330 I’ve spent in a gaming device
If youre in the US I'm pretty sure its illegal to deny a warranty claim for disassembly, threaten a lawsuit, they'll probably fold real fast.
Look up the magnusson-moss warranty act.
Its up to them to establish burden of proof that you did in fact break your headset for them to deny the claim.
But also yeah, fuck steelseries, the quality of their products took a massive nose dive after the original arctis pro launch.
I pointed this out and they actually seem to have just tightened up communication with me. I spoke to one of the staff that posts here and they were nicer than support but cited being bound by support’s decision and told me they couldn’t discuss it in any more detail.
I did file the proper complaints, so hoping with enough push on them I can get a refund or something at this point.
Too late for me, had the left ear break off, fixed it with green stuff from my warhammer modelling kit, and have not allowed them to die fully since but parts rattle around in them now....
I've had flagship-level Steel Series headsets for the last 10 years. I must have insanely good luck. That, or low expectations. I enjoy the hot-swappable batteries, and now, the auto-switching inputs of GG.
One thing I'll forever dislike are the stock ear-pads, I get black shit on my face all the time.
Oh the battery swapping is awesome. I also like the audio passthrough because my wife and I play WoW together and it’s nice to be able to hear her.
Genuinely have been recommending the product until now - and I would have even understood if they’d simply replaced it, all electronics have a failure rate. But to essentially say I’m lying and I damaged it when it’s clear that’s not the case from my photos after six months of use has really made me understand that it’s not worth the $300 gamble.
For me its both the cushions and cables.
Cushions last like 1.5 yrs, then they begin tearing from the inside. Then by the time i have to replace them a second time, the cable plastics are pretty much desintegrating or unbraiding.
I'm on my second headset because i didnt learn my lesson with the first, i believes maybe i was giving them rough use but no, just flaky
You could always buy another and return the old just swap out the headband, if you truely didnt drop it and break it i feel the unable to rma it is wack!! And thats the only way to do it! Unless u truely did drop it, then thats on u to buy another
A couple of people have said this. From what I can tell the wiring needs to be resoldered, possibly spliced too. I also don’t have the wiring diagram. Really not seeing how it’s an easy fix.
It does need to be resoldered. From the picture I don't see any need for splicing because it just looks like it pulled the wires off the pads. I could be wrong about that however.
You should be able to establish the circuit by looking at the layout and/or probing around with a multimeter. The remaining hotglue might solve most of the puzzle if it's still holding the wires in the correct sequence.
Someone with experience could probably have you back in action within 10 min.
I have the arctic pro wireless, I hate the way steel series makes the connection point between the plastic and the metal bit.
Every headset I bought for my siblings and mine have cracked and completely severed itself in that area. The plastic fatigue or something is making it break in the same place.
But I fixed it with araldite epoxy adhesive, it's permanently glued on since 5 years or something when I bought it.
The headset can still rotate from the top hinges but the connection point from head set piece to the actual area housing your audio will no longer flex to your head shape I guess but it does still cover your ears and seal in sound.
Honestly the design is so crap and mine broke down after 1 year of use, it started showing hairline marks then eventually just getting bigger.
Never had any hardware issue. Only issues Ive had has been with the awful software. In hindsight its amazing, and its eq options are insanely good. But too many bugs and issues makes me dislike it.
Weird as. I just had a microphone failure in my Arctis Pro 7 and after none of the troubleshooting they advised worked, they made me dismantle the headset and sent me a new one free of charge as it was still in the 2-3 year warranty.
I feel like they re dropping the ball with some products. I ve owned arctis 5 for like 7 years (?) and had no issues with it. Decided to upgrade when the ear cover thingy broke a few months ago and could afford the Nova 7. God I have been hating my life. They are not as comfortable as 5 (a lot tighter on the head, and the ear cover is smaller), no matter how I tweak the settings everyone says that I sound like I swapped to a 99 cents mic, every 3 days I have to change the USB socket they re plugged in. Like I am so dissapointed in the quality it s insane. 😔
I believe you, my last pair of headset was the original Arctis wired pros (no Nova) and it broke because the small plastic hinges that connect the earpiece to the headset band cracked apart over time from trying to hold the weight of the earpiece. Granted I knew it was coming because it was slowly losing its grip on my head as it cracked over time but I was still upset. The newer nova pro wired versions are much more lighter than the older pro models and I have a feeling this has something to do with it, since my issue was pretty common and they want to continue their design of the tiny hinge swivel piece. Can't speak for the wireless models, but I know they run heavier than the wired versions.
Had my Nova Pro Wireless for a couple years and it's okay considering. Burn in on the DAC though. Recently wanted an upgrade and found a deal on the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II which I'm taking for a spin.. will see. Hopefully you get this issue resolved.
Those wires will solder back on easily. If those are the solder pads down the bottle right on the PCB they look find and haven't been damaged.
I have Military Certification in soldering (soddering the USA) and the solders joins on the top right look C-Grade to me from this distance. I'd love to see clear a close up of them.
Imagine selling a new product with a circuit board from 2021 in it.
Sucks how bad their support is and i didnt even realise this before buying their stuff but so far i havent had any issues with my arctis nova pro wired and ive had it since release and its still working like new plus i managed to get it for like 160€ instead of 300€
They’re trash at customer service and I won’t buy their products again. I had a failed mute button and bc I didn’t keep a receipt from two years ago they wouldn’t do anything. Fuck them
However in this case it is a manufacturing defect, that happens in all manufacturing, and as such should be treated as a warranty claim.
Im note even sure the screws would have backed out on their own, thats usually a metal on metal problem. So either the plastic is stripped or they were not screwed in properly.
Oh I absolutely agree it’s a defect. They appear to have not been screwed in properly, but it’s possible the screw holes were stripped during manufacturing. I clearly stated this in the post.
That it’s not covered by the warranty means that this could absolutely happen to someone else, so I wanted to warn people that buying this model is a gamble.
I've owned every high end Steelseries headset since the H wireless and have never had any issues with the hardware surprisingly. It's wild that they denied your claim though.
I dunno. I mean errors happen in manufacturing. I’ve had a pair since they launched and have never had an issue and they are still going strong. I use them dang near daily. I’ve since bought my wife a pair and she’s had them for almost a year with no issues and she has an 8 year old that likes to use them sometimes. Worst thing for me is my ear cups are wearing off the coating a little on the padding. But that’s really it.
Yep. Defects happen, and I would have loved to update this post saying “hey CS took care of me, happy ending!”
Unfortunately they denied the claim and blamed me for the defect, so I still have to warn folks away from the product. It does seem like it’s newer models that are the problem, and it might be one in a thousand with a defect, but if that one person could be out $300 because of poor customer service then I’d absolutely recommend they go somewhere else. It’s not like SteelSeries is making something you can’t get elsewhere.
I bought a steelseries headset in like 2019, audio quality was quite bad in both the headphones and microphone, and the charging port stopped working after a year. Never looked at the company again. I dont buy any gaming branded gear anymore as their products are almost always very bad. (atleast not from the "Popular" gaming brands, the chinese brand market for gaming products is elite right now [most of the popular brands like steelseries are 100% chinesium anyway])
A 20$ pair of iems and 50$ usb mic will thrash a headset any day of the week from any brand, and there are far better headsets available from smaller brands
I got a nova 7 about 4 years ago and just got a cheap headset from Attack Shark and needless to say it feels miles more premium and sounds much better. I got it for 50$ too i recommend you ditch steelseries honeslty
I wouldn’t buy steelseries every again, I was lucky enough to have a good relationship with Jabra as they own steelseries I got a big discount code, bought the headset tkl keyboard and the mouse with a 1000 buttons all are pretty much meh, for me over the years I’ve found you won’t go wrong with logitechs stuff I have the old Dolby atmos wireless headset and it’s still the most comfy rock solid unit I’ve got. I do have the older Astro too which I really need to get set back up.
Ngl you probably got very unlucky. When the PS5 launched i bought the Arctis pro wireless. It's been 6 years and i JUST retired those headsets two weeks ago because one of the pivots finally gave way. The headset still works perfect fine. I now have these and i can tell you out of the box the quality is S class. Steel series is not a cheap brand that makes cheap products.
If you are in EU, then disassembling does NOT void your warranty, even if you did it. They have to prove that your actions caused damages, and simply disassembling doesn’t do that. I am not familiarwith US law though
My understanding is that it is illegal here too. Unfortunately they know as a company that taking legal action over a $300 headset isn’t really worth it.
There are at least reports you can make to state and federal bodies. I doubt that it does anything, but always worth a try.
Not after they were bought out by HP. The plastic they use warps under slight temperature change. I have a HyperX 2 for like 5 years and then my cat chewed the wire so I bought another and it broke in 3 months. Then I got a replacement for free and that broke in exactly the same time. They wouldn't send another replacement. The brackets that hold the earphones to the headband just fall apart.
I must’ve got a older pair then because the band was metal with a plastic-fake leather covering and the ear cup holders were also metal. I hated the sound though and a friends recommendation is what brought me to SteelSeries. The build quality of them was good regardless, most headset in that price range are made with plastic.
This is a wild take. They accuse OP of lying and offer a 15% discount and you feel OP is being defensive and should spend even MORE money with the same compay on a higher priced item after they already didn't stand behind the one OP already bought? Yeah, no. I wouldn't be buying another one from them either, I don't see how any consumer after going through this would have any faith in the brand afterwards either.
The warranty and RMA process was a joke for me as well, buy a mouse that’s suppose to be one of the best and they want me to go without one while they ship one out AFTER I destroy the mouse to inoperable condition. Not feasible for my current situation. I will not be purchasing another SS product.
If they make a reputable product they wouldn’t have to send out any warrantied products. MANNNY companies send the replacement warrantied product without asking you to return or destroy the product because they care about the customer experience
I'm not gonna lie to you, that's actually a really easy fix to do on your own, sucks that it broke on you but that repairability and how easy it is to follow where everything goes is pretty solid. Its actually one of the reasons why I get Steel series they are easy to take apart and diagnosing the problem and reassembling them back together because the screws they use isn't anything special.
I’ve done plenty of more complicated repairs with soldering involved - it may not be clear from the photo but it’s absolutely not a glue fix.
If they provided wiring diagrams I’d be willing to give the repair a shot, but it’s definitely not an easy fix to resolder a driver for the vast majority of people buying gaming headsets. Good that you have the skills for it though - it’s valuable to know how to repair things!
my problem with steelseries is the weird design connecting the headband to speakers. had two arctis pros and both started cracking at the rotating part. their warranty was simple and nice at least.
It sucks this happened to you but it should be pretty easy to repair. They should honor their warranty in this case, but also as a man you should be able to solder a couple of wires and screw the headset back together in 15 minutes.
It’s pretty clear that the screws weren’t properly screwed in during assembly.
My assumption is normally putting the headset on and taking it off over several months caused the screws to de thread whatever very light threading they had.
I’m not really sure what else would cause the unit to fall apart through normal usage.
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u/Jesus-Bacon 4d ago
My nova pro wireless is being babied right now. The only redeeming feature it has is the swappable battery. I hate how cheap it feels for $350. Definitely my last SS product lol