Microphone quality surpasses anything one could expect from a $50 gaming headset. This is the sound recorded by using the detachable microphone the SteelSeries Arctis 1 is supplied with:

The sound was recorded with microphone sensitivity set to 100% and was not postprocessed or edited in any way.įor reference, this voice recording has been made with Rode NT-USB, a high-quality studio microphone: Testing was done in Discord, Skype, and Audacity, and I also used Audacity to record the sound from the microphone. I connected them to Audiolab's M-DAC, a high-quality digital-to-analog converter that functions as an external sound card when connected to a PC. To review the microphone's sound and compare it to similar headsets, I used the Adam A7X speakers and Shure SRH840 headphones (both of them fall into the studio monitor category). I tested the microphone of the SteelSeries Arctis 1 by connecting it to my integrated sound card (ASUS SupremeFX S1220 audio codec), as well as a couple of other sound cards, such as the EVGA NU Audio Pro (PCI Express interface) and Creative Sound Blaster X3 (external USB sound card).

Arctis 1 headset