SteelSeries Introduces the 'Arctis Nova Elite', their Initial 'Luxury' Gaming Headphones
- Brent Dirks
- Oct 3
- 2 min read
The distinctive “Sage/Gold” colorway, available in two hues, adds flair to an otherwise conventional category.
The Danish business SteelSeries has unveiled its most ambitious product to date: a $600 USD headset, termed “the world’s first hi-res wireless headphones for gaming,” characterized by descriptors such as “audiophile-grade” and “luxury.” The newly released Steelseries Arctis Nova Elite is a premium choice, priced at $50 USD above Apple’s AirPods Max and beyond the cost of most flagship models from manufacturers such as Sony and Bose. How does the latest product from the Danish brand compare?
The Arctis Nova Elite headphones, co-designed with Copenhagen-based industrial designer Jacob Wagner—known for his furniture, watch, and audio product designs for Bang & Olufsen—are crafted from a blend of high-quality materials that provide a sophisticated appearance and tactile experience. The headphones possess an all-metal frame at their core, providing increased volume relative to standard gaming headphones, with additional metal accents in commonly utilized regions, such as the control wheel, enhancing their overall longevity. The ultra-plush memory foam in the large earcups provides the most comfortable fit ever achieved in SteelSeries headphones.
The headphones utilize custom-designed 40mm carbon fiber speaker drivers, which were specifically developed for and launched exclusively with the Arctis Nova Elite. SteelSeries asserts that these innovations achieve “new levels of accuracy and performance” in audio quality, characterizing the dual drivers as functioning like pistons that alternate in movement to guarantee distortion-free music, even at elevated volumes. The Arctis Nova Elite features new drivers with an ultra-wide frequency response of 10Hz to 40kHz, which the firm claims will deliver "stunningly realistic soundscapes."
The hardware of the new headphones is not their sole distinguishing characteristic: SteelSeries has incorporated a variety of features into the Arctis Nova Elite, including OmniPlay (enabling simultaneous connection to up to four audio sources), over 200 game-specific audio presets, and active noise cancelling (ANC) that rivals the ANC of other premium brands.
The high-resolution audio capabilities of the Arctis Nova Elite extend beyond just playing. The headphones' integrated microphones can record at 32kHz/16-bit, producing spoken audio that is more detailed and crisper than any previous SteelSeries offerings.
Ehtisham Rabbani, CEO of SteelSeries, stated: “The Arctis Nova Elite is not merely a new product; it embodies an assertion of infinite creativity and the unparalleled potential of SteelSeries.”
“This new line redefines premium gaming audio, imbuing it with inspiration, aspiration, and the ability to elevate every gaming moment into something extraordinary.”
SteelSeries is well-known for exceeding boundaries and expectations in gaming peripherals. The brand stated, “the objective was straightforward: to reinvent the premier high-end gaming headset globally.” With the Arctis Nova Elite, SteelSeries asserts that game audio may be. The Arctis Nova Elite headphones are currently available from SteelSeries and select global retailers, priced at £599.99 GBP / $599.99 USD / €649.99 EUR.
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