With the ROCCAT Kave headset being designed for gaming its only fair that we observe its performance in the gaming environment. Although it is primarily a gaming peripheral, that isn't to say it won't be used for other applications such as music and movies. Its useful to those reading this article that I report the Kave's performance in multiple environments. So bearing all these aspects in mind - gaming, music and movies will be considered to give a decent and profound assumption of the performance of our headset today.
Its good practise to compare the headset in question against other solutions too, so I will be testing the Kave headset along-side the Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty, SteelSeries Siberia V2 and 7H. These headsets are well regarded gaming peripherals within the community. They are recognised as being quality audio solutions. It's also important to keep the testing on a fair plane - so for the purpose of this examination, audio will be provided via the 5.1 onboard solution found on the ASUS Rampage III Formula.
Gaming
Gaming headsets are generally designed with FPS (First Person Shooter) gamers in mind especially as the Kave is 5.1 it will be useful in isolating sound from specific directions in-game. So the following games were loaded up for some hardcore FPS gaming sessions.
Call of Duty Black Ops
Battlefield Bad Company 2
Both are extremely popular titles and feature not only intense visual action but also strong, pulsating audio tones from explosions, gunfire and other audio effects.
The audio performance is obviously quite variable to the remote control unit having the sliders for center, front, rear and bass. I found the sweet spot to be with center 1/4, front and rear 1/2 and bass (sub) 3/4.
Picking out each individual sound can sometimes be a difficult task when sampling audio, especially in-game. The Kave did a great job at locating directional sound. Noise coming to the ear is rich, accurate and lively. Low, mid and high tones are easily picked up. Enemy creeping behind are easily traced and the direction of battles going on elsewhere can be identified quite easily. So on the audio side of things the Kave does a fantastic job at delivering a surround sound solution. I especially like the way that you can modify the equalizers on the fly and mute should you need to. I found placing the remote right next to the keyboard - so that it was out of the way but easy to reach was the best option. On a whole, I'm pleased with the playback from the Kave headset.
NOTE: I did test the microphone out and discovered no apparent flaws. It was precise, accurate and crisp as with other mic's we have tested on headsets.
Music & Movies
For this series of tests. I played the following tracks which offer a vast range of audio tones and also watched a short action scene of Clash of the Titans on Blu-Ray.
The Naked and the Famous - Punching in a dream
Milk Inc. - In My eyes
Linkin Park - Waiting for the End
Audio playback featured in the tracks above and the movie scene were handled rather well by the Kave. Music was fairly average compared to the recently reviewed 7H (treble suffers) but were the Kave did shine was during the movie phase. The native surround sound could only be described as excellent. The action scene that was played featured some dramatic background music and sword action with plenty of well planned choreography . The audio delivered via the Kave was very pleasing and I can't really fault it at all.
Comfort
The Kave headset is a rather large headset compared to other offerings. After some time using it, you can feel the weight impacting the neck slightly. Around the ears the cushions were good, but not the most comfortable I have tested - I don't think the weight helps this. Memory-foam would have been a better solution to integrate here perhaps.
