ROCCAT Syn Pro Air Wireless 3D Audio RGB Gaming Headset

Material information:

ROCCAT Syn Pro Air 3D Audio RGB Wireless Gaming Headset

Specifications: Over-ear headphones 50mm Nanoclear drivers with neodymium magnets Frequency response: 20Hz-20000Hz Connectivity: 2.4 GHz Stellar Wireless (PC, Nintendo Switch and more via USB dongle) Wireless range: 30 ft Microphone type: Detachable microphone, with flip-up mute ProSpecs fabric ear cushions memory foam with foam padding Talk and volume wheels Power buttons USB-C charging port Expected battery life: 24 hours Fast charge; 15 minutes of charge provides 5 hours of battery life Glasses-compatible design Immersive 3D audio via new ROCCAT Neon software Fully controllable RGB lighting AIMO compatible Includes approximately 1.5m long fabric-covered USB-C charging cable Manufacturer's warranty 2 years Price:

$149.99

(Amazon Affiliate Link)

Thank you

ROCCAT/Turtle Beach

for sending us this helmet for review!

I've been lucky enough to be able to test out three Turtle Beach 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 found 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. This latest ROCCAT helmet, the Syn Pro Air, is their latest flagship model, and is above the

ELO 7.1 Air which I have already reviewed here

, which was their best helmet. . 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 little confession to make: I tend to open my headphones to see how they work, because I'm curious. I've even been known to modify headphones on occasion, hoping to tweak them to my liking in some way. 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 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 this one's configuration directly uses Turtle Beach's unique approach - something I haven't seen in any other headphones or headphones.

For closed headphones (those where the sound doesn't leak out because the earcup is sealed), the vast majority will use as much of the internal volume of the earcup as possible in order to take advantage of the space inside, at the both as a tuning mechanism (often to improve bass), and to create a more spacious sound. In contrast, newer Turtle Beach products use a small but tight-fitting space around the driver that is fully enclosed (with vents where needed), with the electronics, wiring, and battery located in the otherwise unused area behind. this sealed chamber. The result of this difference is that the audio presentation is highly visible - it has 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 tried to open - it might cause permanent damage). 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 more directly compare the sound of this Syn Pro Air headset with the ELO 7.1 Air, I would say the ELO's soundstage is a little wider, but the sound signature is lower overall and less detailed. This 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 previously used in their Stealth 700 Gen 2, their "Nanoclear" drivers. Comparing the Syn Pro Air and the 700 Gen 2 directly, the family relationship is pretty obvious. They have a fairly neutral presentation, with tons of detail, and a less "open" soundstage. 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 Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" by pure chance (gotta love the shuffle!) to make up for the lack of space behind the driver, this model has plenty of room in front of the driver, with particularly deep ear pads. While I wouldn't say these are the deepest pads ever, they use an unusual design that props the pads up with a plastic backing and then houses thick padding on top. So no matter how much you smash them, your ear won't touch the conductor. It's an interesting design, but it means 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; the microphone works great, and I really like the flip-up mute; the volume and mic volume dials are very sturdy and work great; easily folds flat; very light; seems quite robust; 3D surround modes work reasonably 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 (quite large) head is the maximum size these headphones can handle, while previous models could handle larger noggins; no easy place to put the USB transmitter

Luckily, they're quite comfortable in general use, as they're covered in deep-stitch fabric that breathes really well. Although some may find them a bit rough, I would say that their comfort will likely improve over time as they sink in, and they feel like they should be quite 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. For comfort, these are really excellent, and while some other headphones may have better earpads or a better headband, these are one of the most comfortable headphones I've used overall. You can absolutely use them for over 5 hours at a time with very little fatigue; I know, because I used them during a long day at work, and used them a bit more at night with very little irritation.

As far as build quality goes, they're all visibly plastic and fabric, with some aluminum internals for the yokes as per the tech spec list. I'm not about to take the headband off so I have to take their word for it, but overall? I am generally impressed with their durability. There's no way of knowing how they'll hold 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. Thing is, being super tough doesn't guarantee they'll last longer; if they are too rigid, they can become brittle and break easily under the effect of shocks. So I would say that given the design, there are no obvious weak points where I would expect them to break. And given how light they are, I think they've done a great job at it.

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. It was honestly long overdue! Now you always know the left volume wheel is volume, and you won't hit the wrong one by accident. These wheels are also excellent mechanically - better than most helmets I've used. The power button is large and easy to press (but also easy to turn off in the event of an accident). The USB-C charging port works as you'd expect, and I'm really glad to see the slow death of micro USB ports. I particularly like the flip-up/down microphone; it's so handy to be able to quickly mute when you want a bite to eat during a game!

So they sound great, are super comfortable, and have a perfectly positioned microphone that sounds great. What is there to say? Unfortunately, I have some things that I hope they can improve. I actually delayed writing this review because of some of these issues; unfortunately, not all of them left after the 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 v0.7.10-beta, and it shows. Sometimes the software won't detect the headset (though it works on Windows), or the volume adjustment, via the wheel or the software, will simply stop working if Neon is left open for a while. He 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, though 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 cool effects, but the difference is not clearly explained in the app itself, as the help text is not populated yet. Fortunately, 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 meant 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; it adds a bit of soundstage in a rather innocuous way that sounds pretty good most of the time.

The 3D audio feature, as well as 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 alter 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's worth testing in a competitive environment, to see if you can hear your opponents better.

3D audio is also situational, but it works well enough. It has a “Game”, “Music” and “Movie” setting. I tried using 'Music' in a game and it really didn't do a very 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 to play it - it's awesome!). I tried Game Spatializer, and everything went well. 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 the software does, as I feel like there's a lot of untapped potential here.

Other features offered in the Neon software include Illumination 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 equalizer, and it works very well. Luckily they sound so good out of the box that I doubt many would actually need to use the EQ - the default sound out of the box is very good which is always the way to go. follow if possible. There are also ways to adjust the game dialog and noise gate thresholds.

Another difficulty 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 over your head, as the power button is exactly where I would naturally grab when adjusting the headset. Luckily, you don't have to do this very often, as the self-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 great. The Nintendo Switch also works perfectly with this headset. Tried it with my PS4, as it supports USB headsets, and although it technically "works" and does sound, unfortunately it's not very loud, even on the highest volume setting . It could be used in a pinch in a quiet room, but it's far from ideal. Although this is not an advertised feature, I hope they consider fixing this.

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 fix. That said, they work fairly plug-and-play 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 an excellent 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. Although there are currently some notable bugs with the software, this is a brand new product with brand new software and firmware. Once they fix those issues, they'll be easy to recommend, because the fundamentals - great sound and great comfort - are very well made. I wish there was an easy place to store the USB transmitter in the headset though - it's awfully easy to lose!