SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Omni announced: hi-res audio and four-device audio for less than the Arctis Nova Elite

SteelSeries make some of our favourite gaming headsets, thanks to their comfort, neutral audio reproduction and smart battery systems, so I thought that I'd let you know that a new one has arrived at Digital Foundry HQ for testing: the Arctis Nova Pro Omni.

This one sits between our go-to recommendation, the Nova Pro Wireless, and the flagship Nova Elite, adding on the same extra audio source and hi-res wireless audio as the Elite, while not including the material upgrades to that headset and therefore costing significantly less. At $400, this is still a "luxury" headset, but it's $200 cheaper than the Elite and only $50 more than the Nova Pro Wireless - which feels fairly reasonable given the extra functionality here.

I also love the fact that the headset comes in one of my favourite colours - navy blue - alongside the matte black and white colours that we've seen on past Arctis headsets. The volume wheel on the GameDAC is also nicely textured now, which feels like such an obvious design improvement that I'm surprised it wasn't on the Arctis Elite!

I've begun working on a full review of the Arctis Nova Omni that should be published early next week, but for now my early impressions are positive. The swappable battery system, where one battery is always recharging in the dock while the other powers the headset, remains as essential as ever; the ANC makes this a great headset for use out and about; and the sound quality is brilliant - playing through Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred has become a lot more intense compared to listening on the small speakers attached to my gaming PC these days.

The high-res audio is something I'll have to test with (sigh) another re-up of my Tidal subscription, so I'll let you know how that goes in the full review. Similarly, I haven't had time yet to connect up a PS5, Switch 2, PC and smartphone at the same time, but I've no doubt that this will work as promised - and it's a great feature for anyone with multiple consoles/PCs attached to the same display.

Do you have any questions that you'd like answered in the full review? How do you rate SteelSeries headsets generally? Let me know in the comments below.