This is the review of the comparison between the features of the products of different brands, which is the Corsair Virtuoso RGB Wireless SE and the SteelSeries Arctis 7. Of course, there were some features that are common between both, but some features vary too. To know about their features in detail, and to know which one has better features, go to the detailed review.

Corsair virtuoso RGB Wireless SE	SteelSeries Arctis 7
BUY NOW	BUY NOW
PROS	PROS
Powerful hi-res audio. Immaculate presentation. Excellent battery life. ICUE software is easy to use with many options. Detachable microphone. USB-C charging.	Very Lightweight. Affordable. Fantastic sound reproduction in almost all real world tests. Wireless audio and voice chat is truly lag free. Out of this world comfort.
CONS	CONS
Wireless range depends on house construction. Expensive but you get what you pay for, this is Corsair’s flagship device after all. Soundscape is treble-heavy. No Bluetooth connectivity.	Aggressive bend in the headband and shallow cups made for some discomfort around the ears. Not really comfortable. Bass isn’t particularly powerful.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Expert Reviews of Corsair Virtuoso RGB Wireless SE:

By pcgamesn.com
One of the best-sounding Corsair headsets, with the stunning build quality, and robust wireless technology. But it just misses out on its more audiophile target with a slight lack at the low…

By Games Rader
Fantastic, full sound with strong spatial audio detailing and anesthetic to sit proudly on any PC…

By techteamgb.co.uk
When this headset launched a few months ago, it sold out, worldwide, in something like 48 hours. That’s insane. It better be worth the hype then eh? Let us take a look and see. Corsair’s Virtuoso headset is definitely in the premium category for gaming…

By PCWorld
Corsair’s new Virtuoso RGB SE doesn’t sound quite as good as it looks, but it looks really damn good. If nothing else, it’s a much-needed alternative to Corsair’s cheap Void line.

By ThinkComputers
From the start, we knew that CORSAIR had designed the VIRTUOSO RGB Wireless SE to be a premium gaming headset. By incorporating machined aluminum, comfy memory foam, and tons of attention to detail, this headset has a lot going for it. As we stated…

Expert Reviews of SteelSeries Arctis 7:

By techgearlab.com
While the Arctis 7 wasn’t one of the overall top performers, it is by far our favorite of the wireless headsets, offering the best combination of performance and price, without any major…

By TheStreamingBlog
The SteelSeries Arctis 7 is an outstanding headset that isn’t only visually pleasing, but its design is also functional which makes it an excellent gaming headset for continuous gaming sessions. The wireless range and battery life are unbeatable; plus,…

By TechRadar
On the consoles, it’s less easy to recommend the Arctis 7, due to mainly to its lack of surround-sound. The need to wire any headset to an Xbox One controller negates spending extra on a wireless headset, anyway. But the fact it works in proper wireless…

By Kitguru.net
Overall, I had a hard time deciding how to score the SteelSeries Arctis 7 gaming headset. On one hand, the audio quality is very good for a gaming headset, the mic is up there with the best I’ve heard and I genuinely believe ChatMix is one of the best,…

By PCWorld
The SteelSeries Arctis 7 might not be the best-sounding headset around, but it’s extremely comfortable and also nets you wireless audio for only $150.

Detail Review:

INTRODUCTION:

Corsair Virtuoso RGB Wireless SE

The Corsair Virtuoso RGB lands like right in the middle of that price point and at first glance, it looks really promising. It’s coming in at $209.99 for the SE version.

SteelSeries Arctis 7

The SteelSeries Arctis 7 comes around $159. It looks pretty good and really comfortable too. I think for this price range it’s pretty nice. They do hold good features for this price range.

DESIGN:

Corsair Virtuoso RGB Wireless SE

The build quality is truly next-level. Neither of the significantly more expensive offerings from SteelSeries or Sennheiser presents as well. These are absolutely gorgeous. Attention to detail on these feels very premium with this textured metal accent being kind of a running theme throughout all the accessories. The design itself is very sleek. There are machined aluminum all over this thing, feels really solid in the hand, flexible too, with no creaks or pops on the stress test.

The headband is made of leather, really minimal padding slides are aluminum as well with nice markings attached in, the forks are aluminum, and the sides on the SE are also aluminum with the RGB ship logo presented in a way, that makes it look like a little LED display. It’s a really classy look.

I like the fact that without the mic it really just a very nice-looking headphone. It wouldn’t look out of place at all just plugged into your phone out walking around. The materials all feel very premium and for people with small to medium-sized heads, I don’t think long-wear comfort would be an issue at all. It makes sense for around 200 dollars for wireless. I think it does it beats all the players around the hundred dollar mark. 

SteelSeries Arctis 7

The first thing that I have to point out, which is absolutely great how versatile this headphone is, because you get the dongle along with it that also has a line in and line out, which is already very flexible, this is also, by the way, the wireless dongle. Then you get an extra cable that you can plug into the headphone and then use it with anything like an mp3 player or a smartphone. So, you can use wired, wireless no matter how you want it. If you check all the parts and so on.

You can mute the microphone, you have a volume knob which is nice and it’s not too loose, you have the port here for this extra cable, you have already a 3.5-millimeter cable in case if you want to use that, then you have the port for charging, the microphone is fully retractable and nicely adjustable. On the right side, you can change between those two modes for game and chat. They are very customizable, very versatile. The headphones themselves look absolutely ok, no problems with that at all. Overall the build quality is very nice due to, the metal feels, the plastic also seems nice, a little bit of matte.

COMFORT:

Corsair Virtuoso RGB Wireless SE

Earpads here are memory foam, they’re faux leather circular over ear with an outer diameter of 9.5 centimeters, in an inner diameter of 5.5 centimeters. Its memory foam is really fast rebound inside. You’ve got a thin material that has like a gauze-like texture to it, covering the drivers. Drivers here are 50 millimeters unfortunately, they’re not angled. So, when you take that plus the fact that they’re kind of shallow in the ear cup.

What are the needed tricks about this pair is that they have a 180-degree rotation, so they can lay flat on your shoulders with the drivers or the backs of the cups facing up. The hinge has a really firm motion to it as well with the absolute max adjustment. Because of this, they also require some pretty specific positioning to make sure they’re not putting the clamping force right behind the ear right by the jaw. People with small to medium-sized heads gonna be totally good to go on but those have big head have to adjust it out. When worn, they look a lot better on the head than something like the GSP 670.

SteelSeries Arctis 7

The headband even though it has no sort of cushion is actually a problem, because you have the headband and this will kind of take the weight of your head which is absolutely ok. We have the ear cups and what I have to say here at first they feel super crazy comfortable, because they’re extremely soft, extremely nice, but they aren’t really all that thick and after a while, my ears start to touch at least on the right side. So, if you have ears that usually tend to touch on some headphones, you will notice this. You can fully rotate them if you want to use them. That’s comfortable even though it’s a little bit too tight.

As I mentioned at first, they are super comfortable and I wanted to mention these are the most comfortable runs, but due to the ear cups being so soft, after a while, they will just push in a little bit even though the clamping force is not hard at all. Because of that, the ears started to touch which was at first a little bit annoying and after a while, it actually starts to hurt just a little bit. But once again, if you have this issue on other headphones, you might have this, if you’ve never had it, I don’t think you will.

The headband doesn’t really touch, you can adjust that on your own and they always sit very nicely, very comfortable. I actually have to mention, this is very secure. So, I absolutely like that. There is actually a second optional pair of cushions.

FEATURES:

Corsair Virtuoso RGB Wireless SE

Inside the box, you’ll find the phones themselves, a quilted bag with magnetic closures, a manual, and a box of accessories containing the wireless dongle, a USB-A and USB-C, a 3.5-millimeter aux cable, and the detachable mic.

On the right ear cup, we have a toggle for USB mode or wireless, this doubles as a power button, and a textured aluminum volume knob. There is an infinite spin that feels really good and it controls the windows system volume digitally. One weird little design quirk here is it increases the volume obviously, you’re gonna roll that knob up until you really get the idea of where that knob is. If you just roll up from the bottom, chances are gonna catch that power button and accidentally power off the headset. The left ear cup has the USB-C connector, the 3.5-millimeter audio jack, a status LED, and a keyed port for the mic.

In terms of internal Tech, wireless is handled by Corsair’s own slipstream wireless, there is no Bluetooth here and that along with no ability to do any kind of chat mix really sets this thing apart from the top end of wireless headsets. The range here is really solid and I had no interference at all from any other wireless peripherals. There is a difference there, but I got a pretty big hunch, that most people that listen to audio gear at this price point probably won’t pick up on a huge difference.

The volume overhead on these is big. You’ve got plenty of volumes to work with whether you’re using them in wired or wireless mode also. I am happy to report they work great with the ps4, that dongle has no problem plugging into one of the front USB ports and you’ve got plenty of volumes here as well. I’m sure there’s a way to utilize these with the Xbox some sort of workaround, but they’re not officially supported.

In terms of pure audio quality, the HS70 which in my opinion has always punched way above its price tag for a wireless headset sound similar, but it’s more geared towards the low end and it can’t really handle what that track throws at it. I do have to mention here that, if you’re running a purely wireless between this and the HS70, there’s not like that big difference between the two unless you’re running the virtuoso in wired mode. Then, it’s noticeably better and I actually like the overall tonal presentation of the audio.

Something about the smoothness of this headset better than I like the audio on the Arctis Wireless Pro with stock EQ, I was actually pretty surprised to hear the virtuoso give that headset a run for its money. It’s not going to stand up to the GSP 670 in terms of overall fidelity bass extension, high-end detail, and separation but that’s also a 350 dollar headset.

There’s no Bluetooth here, there’s no separate audio source for chat mix that’s a missed opportunity for sure. Battery life is perfectly acceptable for a wireless unit, but nothing can hang against that wireless pros hot-swap system.

SteelSeries Arctis 7

In terms of software, you don’t have too many options, but the most common odds are, for example, DTS headphones you can enable that, for the 7.1 surround sound you have some presets, you have the equalizer which I would definitely use, you also get some other presets here, you can turn on turn off compression. You can also adjust a few more things, but all of that is not really all that interesting.

The pros about these are, super versatile, very flexible to use with all the other sorts, the microphone is good and its reflectable software is ok. Comfort like I said great, very good fit in comfort, but it kind of just doesn’t exceed or just doesn’t deliver the sound that I wanted to, because this, in my opinion, at the end still the most important part and here it slightly disappoints.

The clarity is just missing in the sound quality. I’m not saying they are bad, because for gaming and especially if you want wireless. Actually not that bad at the price. I would say most is still ok and the battery life was also on the very good side.

MICROPHONE:

Corsair Virtuoso RGB Wireless SE

The mic here is huge, it’s flexible, it’s detachable with the mute button located on the bottom of the mic itself. When it’s muted it’s red, when it’s on it’s green. I didn’t like this at first but I grew to like it sitting in my peripheral vision, it’s not bright enough to be distracting and it’s constant reassurance of whether you’re live or you’re not.

The one thing the headset does do, I’m not a huge fan of is that it also vocally announces a lot of things including when you mute the mic and unmute it, which not only is redundant but that voice is super loud and there’s no way to control that volume or to turn it off completely which would be my preference.

There are options for this headset in the IQ software for the mic, though it’s limited to just mic volume inside tone, which means you can hear yourself in the mic. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it works on the ps4 as well. This mic is not adjustable, it’s omnidirectional all the time, which generally yields a deeper and more natural tone, but it also doesn’t do as well when it comes to background noise cancellation.

Overall the total quality of this mic is muffled, it doesn’t really have the high-end brightness that you’re looking for. I think it sounds better than it does, if you’re listening to it over the wireless, there’s also very minimal compression here, which means it will clip if you decide to get really loud with this thing. But I think that also adds to overall a more natural tone in comparison to the GSP 670. I feel like this mic sounds brighter, but it also has like this granular harshness on the top end and I feel like it pulls some of the basses out of my voice.

The Virtuoso RGB the standard edition actually has the better mic. I feel like the virtuoso lands exactly, where it should in the price spectrum even without considering the mic which is noticeably better. More than the audio, the virtuoso has the better mic.

SteelSeries Arctis 7

The first nice thing to say about the microphone would be that, it is fully retractable but also adjustable depending on where you want it. In terms of sound quality, there is some nice body to it and it sounds mostly clean, but I also have to point out a few flaws, because it sounds also a little bit muffled.

Especially, the noise cancellation makes some weird noises, which you will hear. It’s actually quite okay, it’s not amazing and it has a few flaws, but it should get the general job done. When it comes to noise isolation, everything I hear is muffled. So, it’s quite okay, the outside world also wouldn’t hear you so much.

SOUND:

Corsair Virtuoso RGB Wireless SE

The big question of how do they sound, the answer here is for a wireless set actually really solid. In-game I didn’t have any issues at all, the stereo imaging and separation it was really easy to find where a target was coming from. Soundstage sounds really big, it’s artificial. Obviously, there’s something in there, where it sounds like they’re trying to mimic an open-back set. Once you get settled in-game, it’s pretty convincing.

It’s stocked flat tuned is kind of strange, like normally gaming headsets gonna have a bump, and the lows and the highs with a dip in the mids. I get the opposite here, it’s pushed a little in the midst. There are EQ presets in IQ and they actually work really well. You can’t create your own EQ settings and I encourage you to play with this, because the headset responds really well to EQ, dialing in for footsteps, and that kind of thing is easy.

Bass is definitely there, but it’s not overpowering or muddy. This headset does technically features 7.1 surrounds in the software, I didn’t find this to be anything to write home it was largely forgettable and in most circumstances made the audio sound much weirder to me than it did in the stereo presentation. For music, you gonna get an atmospheric and bass layering going on if it’s executed well in a headphone what you get is this big surround atmosphere of sound if it’s executed poorly in a headset all you get is a bunch of mush.

SteelSeries Arctis 7

I would start with gaming, I gotta say the sound stage is not really big and it sounds a little bit like you would sit it a lot of front of a curtain because everything sounds a little bit isolated. I gotta say though locating enemies, footsteps, and actually works quite nice because I could actually quite nicely get, where they are. I’m still don’t like 7.1 surround sound because especially, in this case, it sounds just weird. You get some weird echo, everything sounds far away. It just sounds off. If you are someone who prefers it and wants it to give it a try.

The overall sound is actually quite a nice bass, so the dynamic was okay. Even though I would wish for a little bit more because everything feels like it’s on the same level and that’s why I have a little bit of a problem with this headphone and just sounds a little bit boring. I’m still missing all the few details and some other things like some minus things that just seem to be missing compared to other headphones. The bass just missed a little bit of punch. It is there but it’s kind of more of a booming, very soft, slightly even Maddy based. That also didn’t quite impress me.

When we are talking about the sound, when it comes to music, this is where I was even more so bored in some way, because first of all with the preset set to flat. It sounded just wrong because not really many myths and the highest just way too early cut off. Once those are boosted, everything opens a label sync sound, a little clearer, but still, I’m missing their dynamic.

The bass wasn’t like tight and punchy, the highs weren’t clear, and the vocals also, we’re a little bit kind of like behind the curtain. I’m complaining here about a little bit of a higher level. I’ve used a lot more headset by now and even the other wireless ones just sounded way more open, but these just sound boring.

They get the job done actually way better for gaming than for music. If you are someone, who wants a wireless gaming head for gaming at first, I can’t recommend them, because they are super comfortable, they are super versatile. A little bit more volume would have been nice.

WHICH ONE HAS BETTER FEATURES?

In my opinion, the Corsair Virtuoso RGB Wireless SE has better features than the SteelSeries Arctis 7, because Virtuoso has a better sound quality not only in terms of gaming but also in terms of the microphone. The IQ software features you gonna get in Virtuoso is not available in the Arctis 7. Still, I would recommend the Arctis 7, if you want a headset under your budget, within a few features.