ROCCAT Syn Pro Air Wireless 3D Audio RGB Gaming Headset
Material information:
ROCCAT Syn Pro Air Wireless 3D Audio RGB Gaming Headset
Specifications: Over-ear headphones 50mm Nanoclear drivers with neodymium magnets Frequency response: 20Hz-20000Hz Connectivity: 2.4GHz Stellar Wireless (PC, Nintendo Switch and more via USB) Wireless range: 30ftMicrophone type: Detachable microphone , with flip-up mute ProSpecs memory foam cloth ear cushions with foam padding Talk and volume wheels Power buttons USB-C charging port Expected battery life: 24 hours Quick charge; 15 minute charge provides 5 hours battery life Glasses-compatible design Immersive 3D audio via new ROCCAT Neon software Fully controllable RGB lighting AIMO compatible Includes approximately 1.50 meter fabric-covered USB-C charging cable 2-year manufacturer's warranty Price:
$149.99
(Amazon Affiliate Link)
Thank you
ROCCAT/Turtle Beach
for sending us this helmet to review!
I've been fortunate enough to be able to review three Turtle Beach headsets and now two ROCCAT headsets since last fall, and got a pretty good idea of what they offer as a company. While I was Skeptical at first, I realized that their products are very popular for a reason: they sound great and offer attractive features that gamers are looking for. And their high-end models sound legitimately good. Air, is their new flagship model, and is above the
ELO 7.1 Air which I have already reviewed here
, which was their best headset. As I'll explain shortly, this one is clearly full of Turtle Beach DNA - and sounds better than the ELO 7.1 Air, even though the value of this model is unbeatable.
I have a small confession to make: I tend to open my earbuds to see how they work, as I'm curious. I've even been known to modify earbuds on occasion, hoping to fit them to my liking one way or another. So I opened up each of the Turtle Beach headsets, as well as the ROCCAT Elo 7.1 Air, to figure out what makes them sound the way they do. But I haven't didn't need to open them, although I did later to confirm my suspicions. Why? Because I already know why they sound that way from my previous experiences. The ROCCAT Elo line uses a more traditional driver arrangement , while the configuration of this one directly utilizes Turtle Beach's unique approach - something I haven't seen in any other headphones or headphones.
For closed-back headphones (those where sound doesn't leak because the earcup is sealed), the vast majority will use the internal volume of the earcup as much as possible in order to take advantage of the space inside, since the two one tuning mechanism (often to improve bass) and to create a more spacious sound. In contrast, more recent products from Turtle Beach use a small but tight-fitting space around the driver that is fully enclosed (with vents as needed ), the electronics, wiring and battery being in the otherwise unused area behind this sealed chamber. The result of this difference is that the audio presentation is highly visible - it exhibits a "wall of sound" effect and most details are clearly discernible. It also means that all sound wave reflections are either immediate or minimized (that really secret sauce, what's inside the little driver cavity, I haven't e tried to open - it could cause permanent damage). The back wave reflections, if timed incorrectly, can really blur detail, so their approach is fascinating. It also creates a bit of an "in your head" effect, but it's not objectionable at all, just different.
So, to compare the sound of this Syn Pro Air headset more directly with the ELO 7.1 Air, I would say that the ELO's soundstage is a bit wider, but the sound signature is lower overall and less detailed. latest headset has Turtle Beach's house sound, so if you've heard a Stealth 600 Gen 2 or the Stealth 700 Gen 2, you have a pretty good idea what to expect. Turtle Beach calls their flagship drivers, which they used previously in their Stealth 700 Gen 2, their "Nanoclear" pilots. Comparing the Syn Pro Air and 700 Gen 2 directly, the familial relationship is pretty obvious. They have a pretty neutral presentation, with tons of detail, and a scene sound less "open". That said, positional cues, like being able to tell if a sound is coming from the left or the right, are clearly discernible. While writing this review, I was listening to Led's "Whole Lotta Love" Zeppelin by pure chance (gotta love the shuffle!)
In order to compensate for the lack of space behind the driver, this model has plenty of room in front of the driver, with particularly deep ear cushions. Although I wouldn't say these are the deepest ear cushions of all time, they use an unusual design that props the earpads up with a plastic backing, then houses thick padding on top. So no matter how hard you smash them, your ear won't touch the driver. is an interesting design, but it does mean that these ear pads are virtually uninterchangeable with third-party pads, so hopefully ROCCAT will offer replacements in the future.
Strong points:
Strong points:
Quite impressive clear and balanced sound; very comfortable fit that you can wear for hours; microphone works great, and I really like the flip-up mute; volume and mic volume knobs are very sturdy and work great ;folds flat easily;very light;seems quite sturdy;3D surround modes work quite well
Weak points:
The software and firmware are rather new, and are unfortunately somewhat buggy; the power button is too easy to press accidentally, and I wish it had another function like on other ROCCAT and Turtle Beach headsets; my head (large enough) is the maximum size these headphones can support, while previous models could support larger noggins; no easy place to put the USB transmitter
Luckily they're quite comfortable in general use, as they're covered in a deep-stitch fabric that breathes very well. that they sink in, and they feel like they should be pretty durable. They use the same fabric and memory foam on top of the headband, and as a result, they cushion your head perfectly - and really don't put a lot of pressure on any particular spot. the most comfortable I've used overall.You can absolutely use them for 5+ hours at a time with very little fatigue;I know that because I've used them through a long day at work and I love them. used more in the evening with very little irritation.
As for the build quality, they're all obviously plastic and fabric, with internal aluminum for the yokes as per the tech specs list. I'm not about to take the headband apart, so I have to believe them on word, but overall? I'm generally impressed with their durability. There's no way of knowing how they'll stand up to years of use, but I think unless you sit on them, they should last a while. There is definitely some twisting if you do this - the headband will flex considerably if you twist it. If you pull it apart or push it together, it will also flex in those directions. The fact is that Being ultra sturdy does not guarantee that they will last longer; if they are too stiff they can become brittle and break easily under impact, so I would say that given the design, it doesn't there are no obvious weak points where I would expect them to break. And given how light they are, I think they did a great job at that.
Other subtle design elements are great too. For example, the volume and talk volume wheels (also known as sidetone - where you can hear yourself talking) are finally on different sides of the headset. This was honestly expected for a long time! Now you always know the left volume wheel is the volume, and you won't hit the wrong one by accident. These wheels are mechanically excellent too - better than most headphones I've used. The power button is large and easy to press (but also easy to turn off in the event of a crash). The USB-C charging port works as you'd expect, and I'm really happy to see the micro slow death - USB ports. I particularly like the flip up/down microphone; it's so handy to be able to quickly mute when you want to snack on something during a game!
So, they sound great, are super comfortable, and have a perfectly positioned microphone that sounds great. What's there to say? Unfortunately, I have some things that I hope they can improve. I've delayed writing this review because of some of these issues; unfortunately, they didn't all go away after release, so here we are.
First, it has to be said that the Neon software that ROCCAT is heading towards (a far cry from their older, more stable Swarm suite) is definitely better than Swarm, but it's nowhere near as stable. It's currently in release v0.7.10-beta, and it shows. Sometimes the software won't detect the headset (it does work on Windows though), or the volume adjustment, via dial or software, will simply stop working if Neon is left open for It will also forget that I turned off the lights; I prefer longer battery life to pretty lights, so if I see the headset lights come back on, it usually means the software has crashed again.
Most features are finally working in the current beta, although there's little to no explanation of what they actually do in most cases. For example, Game Spatializer and 3d Audio are mutually exclusive and have some cool effects, but the difference isn't clearly explained in the app itself, as the help text isn't populated yet. Luckily, Turtle Beach's Elite Atlas Aero has a similar feature set, so I was able to glean some descriptions from the support articles. Game Spatializer is a less dramatic effect than 3D audio, and it's supposed to simulate 3D surround with a stereo source. 3D audio mode is supposed to take a multi-channel source and make it work better with headphones. Game Spatializer just has an "on" and "off" setting, and is subtle enough that some users may choose to leave it on all the time; a way e rather innocuous that sounds pretty good most of the time.
The 3D audio feature, along with Superhuman Hearing (a Turtle Beach signature feature), are much more situational and are settings that I would only use on specific games or genres as they change the sound significantly. Superhuman Hearing is a unique effect that emphasizes certain sound effects like footsteps, gunshots, etc. It is configurable in a 'Default', 'Footsteps' or 'Gunshots' configuration. I'm not a fan of this feature , but it deserves to be tested in a competitive environment, to see if you can hear your opponents better.
3D audio is also situational, but it works quite well. It has a 'Game', 'Music' and 'Movie' setting. I tried using 'Music' in a game and it really didn't work. does a pretty good job, so stick with the recommended genres. I usually use the freeware Unreal Tournament Pre-Alpha as an FPS test case for games, because I'm very familiar with it (and more people need it). playing it - it's awesome!). Tried Game Spatializer, and everything worked fine. 3D audio in game mode worked much better - localization was indeed significantly improved over the default stereo sound That said, I'll be curious to see how these 3D audio effects improve as software does, as I feel like there's a lot of untapped potential here.
Other features offered in the Neon software include lighting to make RGB LEDs any color you want, including things like color wave visual effect and an EQ (for equalizer) tab so you can customize their sounds with a ten-band EQ. I tested the EQ, and it works great. Luckily, they sound so good out of the box that I doubt many will actually need to use the EQ - the default sound, right out of the box, is very good, which is always the way to go if possible. There are also ways to adjust the game dialog and noise gate thresholds.
Another issue I have is that pairing can sometimes take up to ten seconds or even require unplugging the USB dongle and starting over, while at other times it will connect quickly after just a few seconds. The same thing can happen when you turn the headset off and on again It can be especially frustrating when you accidentally turn it off while moving the headset on your head as the power button is exactly where I would naturally grab when adjusting of the headset. Luckily, you don't have to do this very often, as the auto-adjusting headband works just fine most of the time.
I've tested this headset on several devices, and it generally works well; I've used Windows, Mac, and Linux computers, as well as Android via the included USB-C to USB-A adapter, and it worked just fine. worked. The Nintendo Switch also works perfectly with this headset. I tried it with my PS4, as it supports USB headsets, and although it technically "works" and makes sound, unfortunately it is not very loud, even with the highest volume setting. It could be used in a pinch in a quiet room, but it's far from ideal. Although not an advertised feature, I hope they will consider solving this problem.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with the ROCCAT Syn Pro Air Wireless 3D Audio RGB Gaming Headset. There are definitely some firmware and beta software issues that I can't wait for them to be fixed. That said, they work just fine. pretty plug-and-play way about 90% of the time, and if you're willing to deal with some quirks, you'll be rewarded with a very comfortable, great-sounding headset with a great microphone that not only works well, but i love the up and down flip mute feature. Battery life and signal strength when properly connected are very good, and more or less what is advertised. there are some notable bugs with the software right now, this is a brand new product with brand new software and firmware, once they fix those issues, they will be easy to recommend, because the fundamentals - a sound excellent and great comfort - are very well made. I wish there was an easy place to store the USB transmitter in the helmet though - it's awfully easy to lose!