Closer Examination

The Arctis 5 is an over-ear headset, so the ear cushions will completely surround your ears and rest against the sides of your head. As you can see, the shape of the cushions isn't round, but rather elliptical. Their inner dimensions are 5.0 x 6.5 centimeters, which should be more than enough to fit your ears even if they're fairly large. Instead of the usual pleather, SteelSeries opted for a kind of fabric your running shirt would be made of. It's an interesting approach, one that results in unusual-looking, extremely soft, and surprisingly "breathable" ear cushions.


If you're so inclined, you can take them off and easily replace them with leather or velour ear cushions, which SteelSeries sells as an accessory for $15 a pair, regardless of which ones you choose.


The earcups can be rotated by 90°, which made it easier to rest them on our chest with the Arctis 5 around our neck. The joints that make it possible are smooth and silent.


The outer side of the ear cups is covered in a fine layer of rubber and feels very nice to the touch. But that's not the main reason you'll like it. This is where SteelSeries decided to implement a bit of RGB action. Both the company's logo and the entire outer edge of the earcup light up in any color you select in the software. It can even slowly blend from one color to another in an endless cycle. Even though I'm still not sold on the whole concept of adding RGB LEDs to a headset, a device you can't see while using it, you'll definitely like the way the RGB LEDs have been implemented on the Arctis 5 if you're into such shenanigans. The colors look beautiful and the whole system isn't too in-your-face. I can't believe I'm going to say this about an RGB system, but it almost looks classy. The only way to get the RGB LEDs to work is to connect the headset with the device via USB. If you use the USB-to-3.5-mm adapter or a regular audio cable, the lighting system won't work because it won't have anything powering it.


On the outer edge of the left ear cup are a microphone mute button and volume dial, for adjusting the headset's volume. Since it's permanently attached to the ear cup instead of being placed on a dongle that's hanging from the cable, you'll always know exactly where it is. The microphone mute button has a single diagonal marking that can be felt under the finger, thus making it easy to find without looking for it. After you press it, it protrudes outside of the ear cup, which again makes it easy to find when you want to unmute the microphone.


I like the fact that the head of the microphone also lights up when muted because it absolutely gets rid of the possibility of speaking into a potentially muted microphone, which would have your teammates miss something you had just said.


As I've already mentioned, the built-in bidirectional microphone is retractable. You can pull it out and push it back in with absolute ease, with one hand. Not once did it get stuck when I was retracting it or fell out of its resting place when I didn't want it to.


The microphone arm is completely rubberized and made in a way that has it stay exactly in the position you bent it to. It's good that it does, too, because SteelSeries offers a few very exact instructions for how you should place it relative to your mouth. More on that in the microphone quality section of this review.


Close to the volume dial is where you'll find the USB and 3.5-mm analogue audio port. The USB port may strike you as unusual-looking and lead you to believe it's proprietary, but it actually isn't. What we're dealing with here is a less common 8-pin Mini-USB port. Why did SteelSeries go with that rather than using a standard and equally compact Micro-USB port? Most likely to get you to buy the replacement cable directly from them should you lose or break it. They're selling it as an accessory for $8. Both cables are obviously detachable, and they connect to the headset snugly, so there's no risk of them disconnecting during normal use.


Yet another part of the Arctis 5 that can be replaced is the inner headband. According to SteelSeries, it is made out of the very same elastic material one might find on ski goggles. It's in essence the stretchy thing that holds them firmly attached to your head while you're thundering down the slopes. If you don't like the supplied one, you can buy a different one for $15, both in terms of color and design. They even offer a special "Artist Series" of headbands, supposedly designed by Lauren Asta and ThankYouX, people whose names aren't familiar to me, but the almighty Google claims they're famous street artists. If you care about their work, you'll be happy to find out that the replacement headbands designed by them cost the same as "regular" ones.


The replacement process of the headband is straightforward. It's attached to itself with Velcro - you can use that to adjust its tension to some extent - and guided through a metal loop on both sides of the headset. You simply pull it out through the loop on both sides and put the replacement headband in by using the very same method.


Why would you want to customize the visuals of a gaming headset? Because the Arctis 5 actually goes beyond that. It is light and subtle enough to be perfectly suitable for usage on the go - on the streets, in public transit, and everywhere else where your day might take you. Even though SteelSeries doesn't really put an emphasis on the mobility of the Arctis 5, it was my "daily driver" for a couple weeks. Not once did I catch someone strangely looking in my direction, wondering why the hell that guy was wearing his gaming headset outside. The Arctis 5 can pass for a pair of mobile headphones with no problem at all, and that's why you might want to customize its looks by grabbing one (or more) of SteelSeries' accessories.


Total length of the cable that connects the Arctis 5 to your device will vary, depending on the exact device you're connecting it to. Those who can only utilize its analogue connection (Xbox, VR headsets, and smartphones) will have a 1.2-meter cable at their disposal, extended by another 10 centimeters by means of the supplied USB-3.5-mm TRRS adapter.


On the other hand, if you plan to connect the Arctis 5 to your PC, Mac, or PlayStation, you'll use the USB connection, and in that case, the total length of the cable will be 3 meters, split into a 1.2-meter and 1.8-meter section. The first cable will be the one that goes from the headset to the ChatMix Dial, a small dongle with a volume knob that I'll talk about in a second. The second, longer cable goes from the ChatMix Dial to your PC/PlayStation, where it connects to the standard USB port. Using the USB connection is the only way to utilize the ChatMix Dial and get the RGB lighting system to work. In other words, Xbox owners won't be able to use either. All of the cables I've mentioned are rubberized and seem like they could take a bit of torture.


Even though it will at first fool you into thinking it's a standard volume dial, the ChatMix Dial actually has a different purpose. It's a clever little device that lets you adjust the volume ratio between the game you're playing and the voice app you're currently using to communicate with your teammates. Turn it one way and the game will become louder and your friends quieter. Turn it the other and the opposite will happen. If you leave it in the middle position, which it subtly clicks into (awesome implementation - you'll never wonder if you adjusted the balance properly), it basically won't do anything; the sound balance will be like you're not using the ChatMix Dial at all.


What sorcery is being used, how does this thing manage to do what it does? It's actually quite simple. When you connect the Arctis 5 to your PC via USB, it adds two separate devices to the list of playback devices in the Control Panel. One of them is called the SteelSeries Arctis 5 Chat and the other the SteelSeries Arctis 5 Game. All you have to do is make the SteelSeries Arctis 5 Game your default playback device to then fire up your voice chat app of choice (Discord, TeamSpeak, Skype, etc.), go to its audio settings, and select the SteelSeries Arctis 5 Chat as the preferred playback device. By doing so, you essentially convinced your OS that you use one device for voice playback and a different one for playback of other sounds. The OS doesn't care about whether both sounds are played through the same physical device. With all that in mind, what ChatMix Dial does is simply adjust the volume ratio between what it sees as two separate playback devices. Do keep in mind that it doesn't increase or lower the absolute volume level - it just changes the volume ratio between these two "devices". To adjust the volume, you still need to use the appropriate dial located on the left ear cup.

ChatMix Dial is one of those things you don't realize you need until you get it. It's fantastically useful, and I truly enjoyed the practicality it offered me in my everyday virtual warfare. I'm absolutely positive I'm going to miss it on other headsets - and that's as big of a compliment as I can give it.


The bottom of the ChatMix Dial is rubberized, so it definitely won't scratch up your table. I only wish they thought of a system that would make it sit in place. Since it's very light, every harder tug of the cable connecting it to the headset will result in the whole thing moving around. If you can find a permanent position for it, think about attaching it there with a bit of double-sided bonding tape.