ROCCAT Kave XTD 5.1 Analog Review

👤by Tony Le Bourne Comments 📅20-05-15
Performance Testing
Setup, Design & Observations
Setting up the Kave 5.1 Analog, should initially ring some alarm bells for prospective buyers, being a REAL 5.1 surround headset, you need to make sure that your device has the output channels required I.E. front/rear and centre/sub. Once making sure each jack is in its rightful place, you also need a spare USB 2.0 port. Setting this up can be a pain if your PC is hard to reach or if you are short on free USB ports. It would be at this point you may or may not be filled with a sense of dread/relief depending on whether you are having to manually toggle between your headset and speaker system. When that is done and ready and you have fired up your system, you will then need to configure your headset settings in windows or audio drivers to be set to 5.1 audio output.

The headset itself is a reasonable weight, not too heavy though some may find it so after extended periods. I would argue that this is due to the weight of the cable adding to that 335g. The headband padding is soft and squishy while the earpads are firmer, relying on your ears to fit into the kavernous ear hole. The downside to this design is, that anyone with larger ears may find this rather uncomfortable, which will ring true too if you wear glasses with large frames. For me the comfort was good as I didn't experience any of these comfort issues.

Moving to the inline remote, it is fairly heavy and the deskstand is a neat inclusion. Though, the positioning of the remote felt kinda awkward as the distance between the headset and remote was a little too short to push towards the back of the desk and a little too long for the edge only catering for the perfect 'upright office desk' seating position. This may pose an annoyance for those seated in a more dynamic manner and you may find the remote stand topples as a result, serving more as a distraction than what it is worth. The volume dials appear to do the trick without being frilly, while the master dial seems well made with a nice smooth adjustment. On the remote there are two switches, one for microphone mute, which will cause the microphone LED indicator to come on while muted and the other toggles between 'gaming' and 'movie' modes. The movie mode seemed to cause the audio to seem more open and spacious.



Multimedia
Listening to music can be a bit of a pain using the Kave XTD 5.1 Analog because often, by default, it will only use the 'front' channels thus nerfing your experience. This can be easily remedied by using features such as 'Stereo direct', or some form of speaker fill to render stereo audio via multichannels. You then need to carefully balance each of the channel volumes to get that 'right' sound. Once correctly setup, music playback was enjoyable though the vibration can accentuate the bass, after a long period it can be distracting and tickly and is clearly not a feature with music in mind. Turning up the volume there was little to no distortion or hiss noticed and the max volume is fairly loud, though this may depend on what soundcard you are using the Kave XTD Analog with.

Moving back into games, you need to make sure you have the headset setup for 5.1 rendering in your audio drivers. Games like DOTA 2 do not really give the best surround experience, but first person/third person games change the rhetoric by placing you in the thick of the action with Kave XTD 5.1 Analog providing a sensation of being surrounded by clear directional audio with Killing Floor 2 becoming insanely enjoyable while the vibration can add to the drama.

Switching into movie mode, it seems the soundscape has widened while there is little real need to inhibit the vibration so much as lively or dramatic scenes can really benefit from it. As with games, the Kave XTD 5.1 Analog excels with providing a rich and entertaining experience with your favourite movies.

Microphone
The microphone was considered to be 'ok' but seemed a little quiet and required the use of the microphone boost, in our setup we have a soundcard capable of very good noise reduction, but without this there was a fair amount of background noise picked up without any increase change in how your voice is picked up.


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