Is $600 a new record for gaming headsets? It’s gotta be up there.
We’ve seen gaming peripheral companies make a dent in the premium gaming keyboard market, so why not audiophile headphones? That’s what SteelSeries must’ve been thinking when it put together the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite—a headset with new drivers and heaps of connectivity. Oh, and a seriously large price tag.
The Arctis Nova Elite launches today, September 30, for $600/£600/€650. Okay, if you’re still with me, let’s talk specs.
The headset looks a lot like the $325 Arctis Nova Pro—from the swooped back earcups and placement of the ANC and boom arms, to the desktop hub included with both sets. SteelSeries says it teamed up with a designer here, Jakob Wagner, but the external differences appear to be mostly material. Literally—the Elite has a little more metal, including the control wheel on the side, which might explain the added weight. The Elite weighs 380 grams. The Pro, 338 grams.
But under the hood, there are some changes.
The Elite’s drivers are touted as carbon fibre. Rated to the same frequency response as the Pro’s 40 mm drivers, 10 – 40,000 Hz, the carbon fibre cans are more sensitive with a dBSPL of 101 to the Pro’s 98.
