Software

SteelSeries Engine 3 is the software package that comes with the Arctis 1 Wireless, as well as every other headset from the same family. As soon as you install it, it will check for any available software or headset firmware update and make sure you're up to date with everything.


The user interface is easy on the eyes, very responsive, and simple to use. If you turn the "Live Preview" switch at the bottom of the window to "On", everything you do in the driver will be applied to the headset right away without having to press "Save". This is pretty nice, especially if you plan to play with the equalizer, as you'll be able to play your songs and hear the effect of the changes right away.

As far as sound settings go, we first have the general system-wide equalizer where you'll be able to tune the way the headset sounds. There are six frequency bands to fiddle with: 64 Hz, 180 Hz, 500 Hz, 1.4 kHz, 3.9 kHz, and 11 kHz. If you're unsure of what you're doing, you can try out some of the built-in presets: Flat, Performance, Immersion, Entertainment, Music, and Voice. I can't tell you which one to pick as those I prefer won't necessarily be to your liking. Simply play your favorite music, play with the equalizer, and see what you like. Keep away from the Voice preset, though, as it completely kills the bass and emphasizes the mid and high range. This can be useful if you want to articulate someone's voice, but under no circumstances did I have trouble understanding someone or hearing the vocals in the music I was listening to. I suggest you stick with the Flat profile or, in case you feel you need a bit more bass, manually adjust the 64 and 180 Hz sliders. If you hear distortion, you went too far.

The last sound setting is called Dynamic Range Compression. It is yet another setting you should keep turned off as it does exactly what it says—it compresses the dynamics of the audio. It crushes the variance between quieter and louder parts of whatever is playing, but that's not something you should aim for as music producers and game developers go to great lengths to make their products sound as dynamic and lively as possible.

Then we have the microphone section. Here, you can turn on "Live Mic Preview", an option that will play the sound picked up by the microphone through the headphones with about a 0.5 second delay. It's there so you can check on how you sound—don't use it for anything else.

We also have the "Mic Sidetone" and the "Mic Volume" sliders. "Mic Sidetone" is, in essence, a microphone-monitoring feature. When you turn it on, it will play the sound of your own voice through the headphones, but with no delay, which can be extremely useful if you're someone who finds it annoying to chat while wearing closed-back headphones. They make it harder for you to hear your own voice and can cause you to sound nasal and talk louder than necessary. By adjusting the "Mic Sidetone" slider, you basically make the Arctis 1 Wireless behave like it were open-back in that you'll be able to hear yourself much better and won't sound weird to your friends. I suggest going for the Low or Medium setting. When set to High, it picked up the sounds of my mechanical keyboard, which annoyed me a bit. Otherwise, I loved this feature and used it constantly.

Overall, the SteelSeries Engine 3 is a great piece of software. It offers various useful settings and is not bloated with needless features and a pleasure to use.