SteelSeriesArena 9 Illuminated 5.1 Desktop Gaming Speakers – 5.1 USB Surround Sound – Wireless Rear Speakers – 2-Way Speaker Design – Subwoofer – RGB Light, Bluetooth – PC, PlayStation, Mobile, Mac

The media could not be loaded. My friends and I live across country from each other, but we still manage to hang out every night in Discord. We watch movies, play games, or just chat in voice. My laptop has a garbage microphone like most do, so I’ve been on the hunt for a good headset. I’ve had two sets of Steel Series gaming headsets. One wired (and I tried to take my laptop for a walk far too many times) and the Arctis 9’s. The Arctis head set is really nice and I love that it is wireless but they kill my ears. I’ve tried all the hacks and nothing worked. I’d had my eye on these desktop speakers for some time but was afraid to make such an expensive purchase with all the mixed reviews.It took FOREVER for these speakers to arrive for being a prime purchase. I ordered them the 11th and got them yesterday (the 18th). I was just too excited lol.Once they arrived I got them all set up and immediately they need a driver update. No surprise there. So I do the update and the light on the right speaker starts blinking purple and they won’t work. I’m trying everything in my pcs settings and nothing works. I try messing with the Steel Series GG settings, and still no luck. I try restarting my pc… nothing is working. So I google. I see this is an issue for a few people after updating the drivers and I’m panicking. Some people are stating they had to return the speakers because of this issue and that Steel Series doesn’t have a fix. Now this is the biggest reason I’m writing so much detail in this review.I thought for sure I would have to return them, but after I restarted my pc and reopened the steel series app… probably 10 minutes after, I get another notification to update the drivers. I figure what the hell, can’t get worse. Update the drivers again and voila! They worked! So, if you are getting the purple flashing light of death, I suggest updating the drivers again! I couldn’t find anywhere on the internet people stating there is a fix for this now, so I wanted to make sure to include it in the review. Hopefully if others have this issue they will find this and be able to fix the issue without having to send the speakers back.These speakers do sound amazing! I got the Arena 7’s and they fill my 400sqft apartment with enough sound that I worry I might annoy my neighbor. They sound better than the headphones imo. The lights are fun to play with, and they can be set pretty bright, or off. They have a ridiculous amount of adjustability. You can sync them to your games to tell you different things like your health. I can set them up in Discord to represent different notifications, like who is talking or if someone left or arrived. The possibilities seem endless.I do use these in conjunction with the Steel Series Arena Microphone and my friends stated they couldn’t hear anything but my voice on my end. And when I first got the speakers up and running I did have them pretty loud. The Mic is amazing and I actually forget I’m wearing it. Idk why it isn’t sold on Amazon, but it works beautifully with this speaker set up for people who have sensitive ears like I do.

Cables are roughly 6-8ftft. This is for a personal gaming computer(not a living room surround sound). Rear speakers wirelessly connect to system for data, but they connect to each other via an rca type connector and one has a power cable(I use 120v, but I think you can power with usb-c also.) front speakers connect to subwoofer(including center) with a proprietary connector or rca. Subwoofer connects to computer via a usb cable(might need a longer cable or usb extender). Front 2 satellite speakers have rgb lights(helps my eye strain in the dark). You can download software from Steel series to setup the lighting however you want(many timing patterns or solid colors). Control pod/puck is intuitive and practical(plugs into subwoofer). Subwoofer has a power cord.Sound quality is good but not the best in the industry(if you don’t need surround sound, consider elsewhere). The thing I’m not too happy about is how the volume highs and lows are very dynamic meaning as soon as a scene gets intense, the sound volume explodes. You can tweak this with a smart volume setting in the software you can download from steel series(it’s basically “normalization”), but it didn’t work that great to me. There are probably other softwares that help you normalize sound too, but who wants a bunch of software that is prone to cause even more complications. Overall you totally get what you pay for.Note that most media on the web is not surround sound. Games ARE usually. Some content on Netflix and YouTube are, but even content that you think should be surround sound on these type of platforms doesn’t play in 5.1. There is an option on the control puck for surround sound 5.1 up mix but all it does it play the same thing on the rear speakers as are on the front and it causes some reverb (room echo) type mixing to make it more like surround, but it isn’t real surround sound. Not a big deal though. Its a good option.The rear speakers have the normal standardized female threads that you would use with many cameras for example. I already had some security camera mounts that I used with mine.Overall good for the price, but some of the info I’ve included here in text and photos should have been included straight from steel series so you can make a smarter decision, so I’m not impressed by steel series on this front. In their photos they do not show how everything is hooked up properly. Different people have different requirements and I almost did not buy this product due to lack of information.