GoKawiilis an editor covering deals and gaming hardware. He joined in 2018, and after a two-year stint at Polygon, he rejoined The Verge in May 2025.
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I really liked the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless, so the company didn’t have to say much to get me excited about its successor. The $399 Nova Pro Omni that came out on May 5th has a similar design to the 2022 model, but with some new and improved features — support for wireless hi-res audio (24-bit / 96kHz audio over 2.4GHz), better mic quality, and compatibility with all consoles in every model, to name the big ones. All the $599 Nova Elite has on the Omni is better build materials and bigger drivers.
But things got interesting when, just a few weeks before the Omni was announced, Turtle Beach showed off its Stealth Pro 2. To say that it’s inspired by previous SteelSeries headsets is putting it lightly. It has swappable batteries, a battery-charging wireless base station, a companion app for quickly changing audio settings, and the ability to listen to 2.4GHz and Bluetooth audio simultaneously. To top it off, it offers wireless hi-res audio support, too, and a slightly cheaper $349 price tag.
So, I did what was necessary: I called in both to test them concurrently to see which I thought was the best value. What I realized was that SteelSeries’ $399 Arctis Nova Pro Omni and Turtle Beach’s $349 Stealth Pro 2 are both great for several reasons, but they aren’t worth buying based on their hi-res audio capabilities alone — a major selling point for both. I couldn’t notice the hi-res difference compared to the default bit rate (24-bit, 48kHz) on my Windows 11 PC.
The GameHub charges a spare battery and serves as the brain for your audio devices. On it, you can swap sources and adjust many headset settings. The Stealth Pro 2’s base station just charges a battery and transmits audio. I wish it did a little more. The Stealth Pro 2 includes two 3.7Wh batteries, while the Omni includes two 2.5Wh batteries. Battery life isn’t an issue since their included base stations can keep the spare charged.
I tested out several albums’ worth of lossless tunes in Qobuz, and played a lot of Marathon, which is full of little location-based sounds that can hint at my impending doom. I can’t consider myself an audiophile because I have tinnitus, which prevents me from hearing some high-frequency sounds. Regardless, I’m in good company with many other people who cannot reliably spot the hi-res difference. It all sounded the same to me. Good, but not good enough to encourage you to spring for a new headset.
Functionally, the AirPods Max-inspired Stealth Pro 2 is the better option if you don’t have all of your gaming devices in a centralized location. Mine are sprinkled around my apartment, so I like that the Stealth Pro 2 has a button that toggles between transmitters (all while maintaining a simultaneous Bluetooth connection to my phone).
The Nova Pro Omni look more like everyday wireless headphones, and it’s nice to be able to tuck in the boom mic when I’m not gaming. The Stealth Pro 2 has an AirPods Max-esque headband design with some aluminum detailing around the ear cups. The Stealth Pro 2 have plenty of on-device controls, unlike the Omni. The multi-source GameHub might make the Omni worth buying for those who have all of their gear within reach of its two included 5-foot cables.
Both the Omni and the Stealth Pro 2 let you make on-the-fly adjustments to equalizer and mic settings through a mobile companion app over Bluetooth, so you won’t have to race to your PC to tweak settings. However, Turtle Beach’s headset gives you more on-device control options. You can shuffle through equalizers with a button on the Stealth Pro 2, and there are three dials to adjust USB source and Bluetooth volume independently and adjust game / chat mix levels. You can also customize what some of its additional inputs do in its app. SteelSeries delegates most of the controls to the GameHub station.
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