And now it’s time to put the Elo 7.1 Air through its paces, to see if it’s worth the £89 pricetag.
Thanks to the headset’s one-size-fits-most design, with the suspension style headband and metal straps over the top, the headset slides on and immediately fits. No messing about with clips or presets along the sides. Pulling the headset on for the first time was lovely, immediately greeted by comfort and a nice, roomy earcup.
However, things don’t quite carry on that smoothly; the clamping force was too much for my head, which brought on genuine discomfort within about 20-30 minutes, almost as though I was suffering from some pressure points being compressed or something like that. I did ask my girlfriend to test out the headset over the course of a weekend, and she found no issues with discomfort at all, so it may just be my large head (around 60cm above the brow).
The strange thing at this point is, despite the clamping force causing a headache, the headset would move around on your head without much effort at all. The leather used for the earcups is too smooth and slidey to hold the headset in place. If you have multiple monitors, as many people do these days, and find yourself turning your head a lot, you’ll soon notice what I’m talking about. Even if you don’t, you’ll still move your head at some point and the headset will shift, without doubt.
Build quality feels really good, the headband looks beefy, the retraction system is perfectly balanced but strong, the hinges are reassuringly stiff. Everything is produced to a good tolerance and feels great. The only issue with the build quality is a clicking noise as you move around, the only way to explain it is like something is releasing tension within the design. Whatever is causing the creaking/clicking doesn’t matter, it’s very annoying and ruins the headset for me.
Sound quality is a much happier story, they feel nicely balanced with a good, rounded sound stage. The software makes it easy to make small tweaks, if you like your sound a certain way, but the default settings are great for a headset in this price range. The bass was heavy and very noticeable, in a good way, not over-whelming at all with the mids and highs still being perfectly clear. Voices are easy to pick out, details in the music are all there; it all sounds great. Turtle Beach and ROCCAT have done a grand job here.
As is often the case with 7.1 surround headsets using only two drivers, software trickery needs to be employed to mimic the direction of the audio, this isn’t something I particularly like because it never feels natural, but the ROCCAT Elo does a fairly decent job of it, you can get a good sense of the placement of sounds within your games, which could give you a competitive edge. ROCCAT have also developed, thanks to Turtle Beach’s extensive research, the Superhuman Hearing which over-pronounces certain sounds within your game to help you survive up to 20% longer and improve your K/D ratio by up to 44%. Of course, your mileage will vary, but it did definitely change the way things sounded and subtly improved the way footsteps, gunfire, or any kind of movement could be heard. I’m not sure it would improve my K/D by 44%, but that’s more a reflection of my ability.
With this being a closed backed headset, you’d expect sound isolation to be strong, allowing the intended audio to be undisturbed and heard as it should be, but this headset really doesn’t do a good job at all; sounds leak in and out of the headset with ease, even with the volume turned up quite high I was still able to hear external noises. Those with kids or pets, or if you just prefer to have a better idea of what’s going on around you, will find this a helpful feature but I personally prefer to be absorbed by the audio in my headset and would use speakers otherwise.
Battery life, which is super important on today’s wide selection of wireless headsets, is definitely something that needs to be tested. ROCCAT claims the headset lasts for 24 hours, but this must be without the RGB lighting, we found it lasted closer to 18 hours, which is still plenty. Charging is nice and quick, and thankfully ROCCAT have equipped the Elo with a Type-C port so you get a robust charging connector if you do need to wear them while they charge.
The RGB lighting on our white unit looks fantastic, it’s crisp and vibrant and features all of the same customisability that you’d expect from their keyboards, mice or other peripherals. AIMO intelligent lighting is also an option here so your entire system can be paired together to put on a truly impressive light show. The software makes tweaking any lighting effects super easy as well.
Last but certainly not least is the microphone, the sound picked up is decently accurate for a wireless headset, nice and clear for your team mates, but any of the plosive sounds you’ll make while speaking can sound a bit poppy. We also found the microphone picked up the raspy sounds of air passing over the microphone a little too often, and external sounds in the room were detected easily as well. The recently widespread adoption of systems like Discord’s Krisp and NVIDIA’s Broadcast will help with this, but if you don’t have those features then your buddies will suffer.
Thanks to the headset’s one-size-fits-most design, with the suspension style headband and metal straps over the top, the headset slides on and immediately fits. No messing about with clips or presets along the sides. Pulling the headset on for the first time was lovely, immediately greeted by comfort and a nice, roomy earcup.
However, things don’t quite carry on that smoothly; the clamping force was too much for my head, which brought on genuine discomfort within about 20-30 minutes, almost as though I was suffering from some pressure points being compressed or something like that. I did ask my girlfriend to test out the headset over the course of a weekend, and she found no issues with discomfort at all, so it may just be my large head (around 60cm above the brow).
The strange thing at this point is, despite the clamping force causing a headache, the headset would move around on your head without much effort at all. The leather used for the earcups is too smooth and slidey to hold the headset in place. If you have multiple monitors, as many people do these days, and find yourself turning your head a lot, you’ll soon notice what I’m talking about. Even if you don’t, you’ll still move your head at some point and the headset will shift, without doubt.
Build quality feels really good, the headband looks beefy, the retraction system is perfectly balanced but strong, the hinges are reassuringly stiff. Everything is produced to a good tolerance and feels great. The only issue with the build quality is a clicking noise as you move around, the only way to explain it is like something is releasing tension within the design. Whatever is causing the creaking/clicking doesn’t matter, it’s very annoying and ruins the headset for me.
Sound quality is a much happier story, they feel nicely balanced with a good, rounded sound stage. The software makes it easy to make small tweaks, if you like your sound a certain way, but the default settings are great for a headset in this price range. The bass was heavy and very noticeable, in a good way, not over-whelming at all with the mids and highs still being perfectly clear. Voices are easy to pick out, details in the music are all there; it all sounds great. Turtle Beach and ROCCAT have done a grand job here.
As is often the case with 7.1 surround headsets using only two drivers, software trickery needs to be employed to mimic the direction of the audio, this isn’t something I particularly like because it never feels natural, but the ROCCAT Elo does a fairly decent job of it, you can get a good sense of the placement of sounds within your games, which could give you a competitive edge. ROCCAT have also developed, thanks to Turtle Beach’s extensive research, the Superhuman Hearing which over-pronounces certain sounds within your game to help you survive up to 20% longer and improve your K/D ratio by up to 44%. Of course, your mileage will vary, but it did definitely change the way things sounded and subtly improved the way footsteps, gunfire, or any kind of movement could be heard. I’m not sure it would improve my K/D by 44%, but that’s more a reflection of my ability.
With this being a closed backed headset, you’d expect sound isolation to be strong, allowing the intended audio to be undisturbed and heard as it should be, but this headset really doesn’t do a good job at all; sounds leak in and out of the headset with ease, even with the volume turned up quite high I was still able to hear external noises. Those with kids or pets, or if you just prefer to have a better idea of what’s going on around you, will find this a helpful feature but I personally prefer to be absorbed by the audio in my headset and would use speakers otherwise.
Battery life, which is super important on today’s wide selection of wireless headsets, is definitely something that needs to be tested. ROCCAT claims the headset lasts for 24 hours, but this must be without the RGB lighting, we found it lasted closer to 18 hours, which is still plenty. Charging is nice and quick, and thankfully ROCCAT have equipped the Elo with a Type-C port so you get a robust charging connector if you do need to wear them while they charge.
The RGB lighting on our white unit looks fantastic, it’s crisp and vibrant and features all of the same customisability that you’d expect from their keyboards, mice or other peripherals. AIMO intelligent lighting is also an option here so your entire system can be paired together to put on a truly impressive light show. The software makes tweaking any lighting effects super easy as well.
Last but certainly not least is the microphone, the sound picked up is decently accurate for a wireless headset, nice and clear for your team mates, but any of the plosive sounds you’ll make while speaking can sound a bit poppy. We also found the microphone picked up the raspy sounds of air passing over the microphone a little too often, and external sounds in the room were detected easily as well. The recently widespread adoption of systems like Discord’s Krisp and NVIDIA’s Broadcast will help with this, but if you don’t have those features then your buddies will suffer.
