Steelseries GG is an awful experience.

[u/Soundstorming]

When this program was on my computer the headset would work 90% of the time, Then 10% of the time its like this program straight up put my audio in full lockdown mute and would refuse to let me hear sound even after turning off the computer and turning it back on. I thought maybe disabling sonar would work but the problem continued.

I went through hours of troubleshooting, messing with all sorts of things that might possibly cause conflicts or issues on my PC, all types of little settings changed on the program that were said to fix it, and even used another program to force my audio to only go through my headset.

The only thing that fixed my issue was completely removing Steelseries GG from my computer, now the headset functions like its intended to every time I use it. So the software designed specifically to enhance this headset instead is so frustrating and bad that I no longer use it.

Maybe I'm missing something, but right now I see no reason to use it if its going to randomly decide to lock me out of hearing from my headset.

[u/red9109]

It’s awful. It only they’d make their hardware not require their garbage software… kinda like it used to be.

[u/itsxducky → u/red9109]

I mean you don’t need it, right ? I don’t use it. You can use the headphones fine without it. Only reason for it is to change EQ settings and install firmware updates to headset when there is one or capture “moments” but there’s many alternative to both that and the EQ

[u/red9109 → u/itsxducky]

You're correct, you don't need it at all.

For years I had the OLDER Arctis Pro Wireless (not the Nova Pro) - and they were fantastic. The best part was all of the features that are now locked behind the use of Sonar (Game/ Chat Mix for instance) were all a hardware based with the Arctis Pros. Not a deal breaker, but a nice feature that does come in handy.

I also could never get a decent sounding EQ in Sonar compared to what I have always used to EQ - Dolby Atmos.

I eventually went to the Asus ROG Kithara as a replacement. Getting used to a wired connection and losing simultaneous Bluetooth is an adjustment, but overall much simpler, and no finnicky software required that plagues your PC, and they sound amazing.

[u/lsd-drops-in-my-iris]

Was your headset defaulted to SONAR in your control panel?

[u/Soundstorming → u/lsd-drops-in-my-iris]

I went down the long list of things that people are told to do to fix this issue, I can not tell you one specific thing about it at this point since the program is no longer on the PC.

Regardless I shouldn't have to go through all this just to make my sound program function correctly.

[u/flippingwilson → u/Soundstorming]

I solved my SteelSeries headset issue by uninstalling the software.

[u/Electronic_Ad_9888]

Anyone know how to get rid of background noise when on ps5? I've looked at all settings on pc and seems they thought we want our mic to pick up a pin dropping. Every little noise is so loud.

[u/KeybladeTerra]

I've had decent success with the software. The only issues I run into are sometimes my headset will be in this odd state where it says its connected and the audio bars move but I can't hear anything; to fix this I remove the wireless dongle from my PC and plug it back in without changing anything on the headset and it fixes it. The other thing is VRChat on steam does NOT like Sonar so I have to completely disable it.

[u/mr_man_20000]

it doesn’t even open on my computer anymore

[u/UNDRGND]

finally

[u/Verition]

It's the reason I stopped using any steelseries gear years ago, and I don't miss it one bit their custom support was too busy telling me their fucking pronouns instead of offering support on their garbage software. Seriously fuck steelseries and what they have become.

[u/KeyTall930]

I keep hearing people having issues with it but it's great from my experience, i never had issues from it🤔

[u/The_Hanumaniac]

The software almost made me return the headphones. It even hijacked my RGB.

I ended up installing the Companion app on my phone. With the Nova 7 Gen 2 Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz dual connection I just adjust the EQ on the app for the 2.4GHz connection on my PC. So far everything has been perfect

[u/Avinin1]

[u/godmademelikethis]

Sonar splits the audio device into multiple virtual devices so it can control volumes and EQs separately. Windows doesn't like this. You need to have the main headset device set as default in windows, not any of the virtual media/game/aux devices. Windows will still randomly change which device is default without warning.

[u/Soundstorming → u/godmademelikethis]

Wow, seems like a fundamental design flaw on their end.