The headband itself is a soft, stretchy material that was inspired by that used with ski goggles. It is attached to the headset via small metal loops and it holds itself on via velcro.


The headband has an attractive design on it, but can be removed, machine washed and replaced if desired with either a custom headband, or any of the additional designs available from SteelSeries.


The earcups are attached using an angled and rotatable arm that also allows the earcup to pivot backand forth a little.


Showing of its flexibility, we found that the Arctis headset can rotate and open up completely flat, showing off the large earcups and padding. The airweave cushions have a hex pattern design on them.


The earpads are also removable and replaceable, SteelSeries have leatherette, velour and airweave flavours available. On removing the earpads we can see the exposed S1 drivers.


The base of the left side earcup features the various IO and controls including a small microphone mute button, volume dial, the audio input port and finally the audio share port. Remember, that the 3.5mm port is for output only, not to be confused with the main connection cable.


The Clearcast microphone retains the retractable design found on many other SteelSeries headsets. It has a wide oval shape that is narrow on edge and is easy to pull out and to push back in.