Roccat Kave 5.1 Headset Review
Roccat Kave Features
Published: 25th May 2010 | Source: Roccat | Price: £72.72 |
Roccat Kave Features
Firstly Roccat have taken into account the fact that not everyone wants to compromise their sound quality when taking their headsets to LAN parties or similar. Without needing to remove anything or flip any switched the earpieces fold inwards to compress the size of the headset to transportable dimensions.
The cans themselves are exceptionally well padded and covered in high grade leather. A mark of the quality that pervades throughout them is the high-class stitching. Effort put into these little details is very reassuring.
The headband is also very thick with a quality Roccat logo embossed into it. You can also see one of the three 40mm speakers that produce the surround.
No plastic here. The sizing band is made of very sturdy metal and has a very smooth action allowing for precise size control that wont slip at all once in place.
The microphone is both very flexible and also nice and thin. We've seen a lot of microphones that were so large they were almost distracting. However it still provides excellent quality both across Skype and other VOIP applications, as well as in game communications.
As you can see, even vertically it holds its shape without issue. For when you need to transport them, or should you just wish to separate the microphone for some reason, it comes off easily thanks to it's RF style jack.
Attention to detail extends even to the jack plugs. Have you seen such well looked-after jack plugs before? The sleeving is, although plastic, also very high quality and the plug covering is as good as we've come across.
Roccat call this a "Tip N Control", whereas it's a volume control and so much more. The Ring controls the volume of the entire headset, similar to any other volume you've come across. The centre of the ring is a large mute button. Very handy indeed as anyone who's struggled to quickly hit a tiny mute switch will attest.
If you want to make sure your discussion about what's for dinner isn't broadcast to the world then there is also a nice large Mic Mute button that, well, mutes your microphone. This is also easy to hit in a hurry, or in the dark. Kudos needs to go to Roccat for covering every little thing so well. When the microphone is muted the little clear ring near the end you can see above glows blue so you can tell at a glance why your team-mates aren't following your orders.
Finally if you lift the flap, the Tip part one assumes, you uncover a multitude of sliders that allow you to adjust the volumes of the Centre, Front, Rear and Sub channels respectively. This is an absolute boon and makes fast changes to the sound quality a cinch. Below that is the toggle that swaps between the game and movie modes respectively.
In design terms it's as solid and user-friendly as almost anything we've seen. Let's find out if the sound matches up.
Most Recent Comments
Had my pair for about two months now and can't say I've ever been so happy with a headset. These things are much higher quality than my Sennheiser PC-350 headset. The sound quality is miles apart, even more amazing considering they costed about 70% of the PC-350 cost at the time.
The only draw back for me is that I find the ear cups to feel a little warm on the ear on extended use (7+ hour sessions)... but those sessions aren't a frequent thing for me.
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Originally Posted by name='AMDFTW'
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Three things I need to know though. (1) How do they compare sound wise to the Logitech G35? (2) How comfortable would they be for glasses wearers (I have to wear glasses) for a few hours? I have Technics headset (Brilliant sound BTW) and after an hour of wearing them my ears hurt because the earpads press against my ears. (3) where can I order this headset from Ireland?
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Originally Posted by name='steve30x'
I need a good surround headset because I just moved house and my computer is in my bedroom (the only place where I have room for it) which is right next to my neighbours bedroom. Being a considerate neighbour I dont want to be a nuisance so this headset looks like what I am looking for.
Three things I need to know though. (1) How do they compare sound wise to the Logitech G35? |
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Originally Posted by name='steve30x'
(2) How comfortable would they be for glasses wearers (I have to wear glasses) for a few hours? I have Technics headset (Brilliant sound BTW) and after an hour of wearing them my ears hurt because the earpads press against my ears.
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I really couldn't feel any pressure on the glasses from the headset, it sits quite lightly over the ears so you don't really get much of a problem with extra pressure.
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Originally Posted by name='steve30x'
(3) where can I order this headset from Ireland?
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So all my comfort tests are done "with glasses on".
Apparently its a problem with windows 7... any1 had same sort of troubles?
Nvm, system reinstall solved everything.
Well I just tested it on my wife's netbook with XP on it and everything seems to work well. I tried to reinstall my X-fi drivers, searched solutions on line and I cannot find anything. I can mute/unmute microphone, the equalizer works, just volume control and mute button doesn't. Any help highly appreciated.
you will get there soon
Thanks.
Although, I have a pair of Kaves myself and they are indeed lovely.
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