First a bit of history:I've owned and loved many SteelSeries products in the past, from the Senei to the Xai and arguably my favourite PC gaming headset ever, the Siberia V2. So when it came time to replace my aging Astro A40s on the PC I did the usual YouTube review rabbit hole of research into headsets and these consistently came up as "the best gaming headset ever" or "A true contender to the Astro A50" (In the case of the wireless version).So, I pulled the trigger. There were a few things I was looking for in a headset:1. Comfort2. Spatial audio3. Sound qualityComfort:Although the ski goggle and "airweave" fabric design seems to be, on paper, like a good idea, in practice it falls short. Side clamping force on these is actually greater than my old A40s and that bothers me as a glasses wearer. Also, the headset makes a the kind of rubberized deep "creaking" noise when you flex yor jaw or move your head as the material slips against the arms of your glasses. On the contrary, the "fuzzy" material on the A40s never did this, also the headband, despite not being made of this goggle material, is more comfortable.Not only were the Arctis pro less comfortable, but the suspension headband isn't as adjustable as it seems. I had to have it near the end of its adjustement for my head and the velcro fastener was alreay hanging half-off its mount just to try and get that extra 2-3cm of reach.Back to the clamping force, these headsets tend to "pull up" on your skull rather than rest on them. The elastic goggle band works as a spring, pulling the earcups back upwards creating a rather unsettling feeling on the side of your face.Spatial Audio:DTS Headphone X 2.0 is billed as the holy grail of positional audio for this headset, it's also the first to support it. The problem is, there is literally ZERO mention about how it's implemented. Do games have to explicitly support it? Does it magically enhance existing stereo and surround streams? No answer, and no information is given about this other than a rather silly info-article on Steelseries' website disguised as an "interview" with the lead DTS engineer for Headphone X.Also, theoretically, Headphone X seems misguided. It bills itself as able to "reproduce the original mixing room" audio of the source material without actually questioning whether the creator wants that to happen to begin with.Take the excellent sound design of Battlefield 1, for example: When DTS is enabled, (tested with every in-game setting) the audio tends to be hollowed out, and the soundstage widens but precision as actually lessend for it. I really tried to give it some time for my brain to adjust to it but a few things finally made me give up. First, the "room simulation" tech in DTS was so aggressive that the orchastral score played during BF1 matches was absolutely ruined by the effect, and second the female voice announing key milestones during the match became so echoed that i had to double check my settings again and again.It seems to me, at least for game audio, that Dolby has had the upper hand for years on DTS and that trend doesn't seem to be reversing anytime soon.Sound Quality:Spatial audio aside, i have to give it to the Arctis pro's here. The drivers are deep, crisp and clean after adjusting the EQ to my taste (slight bass boost and tiny drop in mids / tiny increase in treble) i found the stereo presentation quite nice, full bodied, albeit rather "closed" in terms of sound compared to the semi-open A40s and A50s.I played some tracks in iTunes and A/B tested my Steelseries with my old A40s and the Steelseries generally come out ahead, slightly. They sound "brighter."Conclusion:The GameDac is nice, the menus are really quick and snappy and turning on/off DTS Headphone X is a single push of a button. I tested the Hi-Res mode but have no content (and little to zero game actually support 24bit/96Khz) to prove its worth. I simply used my iTunes store tracks to experience the Hi-Res mode and heard only the tiniest of differences in the "smoothness" of the presentation of tracks, something i might have actually been cognitively biased towards so a blind test might have been better for me.For the price I paid, and for what I wanted (something to absolutely blow away my old A40s) I didn't get the real deal from Steelseries. There are two things needed for this product to succeed and it falls short there: 1. Ditch DTS for Dolby as the spatial signature of Headphone X is awful whenever I experienced it. 2. Re-do the comfort and fit of these headphones, the "ski goggle" idea is cute but ski goggles aren't supposed to be the holy grail of comfort, they're designed to stay on your skull as you rip down a mountain, comfort is secondary. Why take inspiration from a product that isn't even aiming to achieve your paramount goal?Although my old A40s don't sound as nice, their spatial Dolby audio setting is rock solid without much distortion or muddy room-effects added to the game sound. I'll wait for another offering from Steelseries or simply see what Astro has in store next.I bought these in November of 2020, and I was very happy with the quality of sound and the included DAC (if it could even be considered a DAC when it still output via USB to the headset itself). Mic quality and sound quality was good. Included software is alright, but the issue with these headphones is that they are notorious for cracking where the singular connection point from the metal joint into the plastic cup is found. It's obviously not designed and manufactured well enough to continue living on through regular use and I've now cracked my second pair (after first was warrantied). Unfortunately they are not honoring any sort of warranty against obvious defects because the original 1yr warranty is up even though they've provided yet another pair of defective headphones.I would say to strictly stay away from any of the arctix series of headsets that utilize this same connection point as it's a very widespread issue and you WILL be left out in the cold when they repeat the same defect and you've had them for any length of time. No exceptions, just an instant denial of warranty.Do not waste your money.This is one nice headset. Construction is top notch and the headset and GameDAC is a mix of aluminum, steel, and plastic, but there's no creaks or weird noises. Comfortable, but due to some design changes, not as nice as the Steel Series 5. The headset is very horseshoe-shaped so there tends to be a bit of extra pressure near the bottom of the ear cups against your head.Sound wise is where it touts it's biggest features. It sounds really good. It doesn't have the same "warmness" as the Arctis 5s, but that can be remedied with the equalizer. The "high resolution" audio is a bit pointless. While it claims it's range is 2x wider than what the human ear can hear, Steelseries goes into depth on its website about how it adds increased frequency and bitrate can enhance the sound. But that would only apply for a lossless audio source, and you're not going to be using Hi-Res Audio mode for gaming, which is not compatible with it's DTS/surround sound.Unfortunately, the volume level is set artificially low due to some countries' regulations. You can increase the gain from low to high, but it's still a bit lacking, and depending on the game you can find yourself cranking the GameDAC volume to 2/3rds.The headset sounds excellent in non-DTS mode. There a few included equalizer settings plus 1 custom profile you can modify. It takes a bit of fiddling to find an equalizer setting that really emphasized footsteps and quiet sounds though. 1 or 2 extra custom profiles would have been helpful. Enabling DTS does work and you can discern where sounds are coming from. Definitely noticeable if you a load up a game with good sonics, such as Destiny 2. In surround mode, aka: "DTS", despite the claims, the headset does still have a bit of the "tunnel effect" that afflicts many surround sound headsets. Hopefully that's something that can be tuned with a firmware update later down the line.The retractable mic is the same Clear Cast mic found in the other headsets, is excellent, no complaints there.The supplied cables are SUPER short. They obviously didn't think people might sit on the couch to game. I ended up having to pickup a longer USB extension cable and optical TOSLink cables.The GameDAC has obvious comparisons to the Astro MixAmp. They both have the same basic functionality, but the GameDAC doesn't have the team/tournament features to link your teammates, it does have more customization. It has a fancy OLED display, stream output, and mobile input (but at a really low volume). More importantly, it will let you change chat/game balance, which is important for those people that leave their mics open. It has a physical mute button on the back of the headset, but I didn't find that as convenient as an inline mute on the cable personally. You can set the mic to light up whatever colour you want when it's muted, or live via the Steelseries Engine. The GameDAC also lets you control basic features on the headset, like the RGB colour, stream output settings, etc. but it's not as comprehensive as using the Steelseries Engine software on a computer though.Overall, this is a pretty great headset. The downsides are pretty minor, and the only real deal breaker is the price. If your wallet can take the hit, this is one of the best headsets you can get for the PS4.Pros:Sound qualitySurround sound on PS4GameDAC for modifying and mixing the soundExcellent retractable micCons:PRICENot as comfortable as the Arctis 5You'll probably never use Hi-Res audioShort cables