Gaming Headsets · owner-verdict comparison

Cloud III vs Arctis Nova 5: what real owners say

Real owners lean toward the Arctis Nova 5: 63% of 71 owners recommend it, vs 53% of 138 for the Cloud III.

Verdicts aggregated from Reddit, enthusiast forums, and YouTube owner comments — affiliate reviews excluded. Sample sizes differ; judge accordingly. How we score

Cloud III

53%of 138 owners recommend
53% recommend · 31% neutral · 16% don't
Owners praise
  • Custom EQ profiles (via NGENUITY, Equalizer APO, or DTS Sound Unbound) turn a mediocre stock sound into something owners call amazing, with many saying it saved them from returning the headset
  • Comfortable for long sessions, with several owners saying comfort is noticeably better than the Cloud II despite the added weight
  • Strong value at the roughly $39-40 price point, called the best bang-for-buck wireless gaming headset in its class
Owners complain about
  • Out-of-the-box sound is flat, muffled, dull, or watery until owners apply an EQ
  • Directional/positional audio in competitive FPS games (footsteps, gunfire location) is weak or inconsistent for some owners
  • NGENUITY companion software is buggy: EQ settings randomly reset, volume drops unexpectedly, and DTS:X built-in support is widely called broken
Full owner report →

Arctis Nova 5

63%of 71 owners recommend
63% recommend · 19% neutral · 18% don't
Owners praise
  • Lightweight and comfortable for long sessions, including with the StealthZ pads
  • Priced well under the rivals owners cross-shopped, without feeling cheap
  • Long battery life, with the 5X variant offering roughly double runtime
Owners complain about
  • Some units produce garbled, distorted, or harsh/tizzy sound that owners call a dealbreaker
  • Default/vanilla EQ sounds flat and bass-light, requiring manual tweaking or the cinematic preset to sound good
  • Wireless dropouts and dongle flakiness, sometimes needing an unplug/replug or swap to the adapter
Full owner report →

Which should you buy?

Get the Cloud III if
  • ✓Budget-conscious gamers wanting solid comfort and sound around $40-130
  • ✓Competitive FPS/CS2 players willing to apply EQ or NGENUITY presets for footstep positioning
  • ✓Wireless users who value long battery life and low latency over long sessions
  • ✓Owners comfortable tweaking EQ APO or NGENUITY software to fix the flat out-of-box tuning
Skip it if
  • Anyone expecting great sound straight out of the box with no EQ tweaking
  • Audiophiles or music listeners who found the default tuning flat, muffled, or thin
Get the Arctis Nova 5 if
  • ✓Budget-conscious gamers who want a comfortable, lightweight headset for long sessions
  • ✓Multiplayer gamers who'll tweak EQ presets to fix the flat stock sound signature
  • ✓Users who value long battery life and portability over audiophile sound quality
  • ✓PC/console gamers okay with the Sonar app for chat-mix and EQ control
Skip it if
  • Music listeners seeking accurate, detailed audio - owners call the stock and even tweaked sound muddy or 'cybersound'
  • Anyone prone to reliability issues - recurring reports of random disconnects, garbled/distorted audio, and units failing

What Cloud III owners say

“these sound great!”
— Boring-Ad-8227 on Reddit
“That works for me.”
— Poolplyr28 on Reddit
“Sound quality trash, straight cheap plastic headphones, and now to top it off they are poisoning you. The only good thing about them is their noise cancelling features work well.”
— Booliano on Reddit

What Arctis Nova 5 owners say

“I doubt there is anything better for the price. I mean, they don’t sound like my $300 Audeze Maxwell’s but wouldn’t expect that for the cost difference. I like them enough”
— genxdud3 on Reddit
“been using this for awhile, sound are pretty details.”
— Kiryoxe on Reddit
“Yup, same issue Made a post about it yesterday and there’s been plenty of complaints on this sub. Wish SteelSeries would address it as there’s clearly an issue with the Nova 5.”
— WorthyJoker on Reddit

Cloud III vs Arctis Nova 5: frequently asked questions

Is the Cloud III or the Arctis Nova 5 better?

Real owners lean toward the Arctis Nova 5: 63% of 71 owners recommend it, vs 53% of 138 for the Cloud III.

Who should get the Cloud III?

Owners point the Cloud III at budget-conscious gamers wanting solid comfort and sound around $40-130, and competitive FPS/CS2 players willing to apply EQ or NGENUITY presets for footstep positioning.

Who should get the Arctis Nova 5?

Owners point the Arctis Nova 5 at budget-conscious gamers who want a comfortable, lightweight headset for long sessions, and multiplayer gamers who'll tweak EQ presets to fix the flat stock sound signature.

What do owners complain about?

The most-cited downside of the Cloud III is out-of-the-box sound is flat, muffled, dull, or watery until owners apply an EQ. For the Arctis Nova 5, it's some units produce garbled, distorted, or harsh/tizzy sound that owners call a dealbreaker.