Page 2 - Physical Look - Hardware
The ASUS ROG Cetra II Core Moonlight White is quite the appealing set of earphones. As you may assume from the name, it is a recolor of one of their previous products, the ROG Cetra II Core. This color variant uses a white and grey color scheme, much like the other Moonlight White peripherals. Each ear has a ROG logo on it as well as a left and right indicator on the ear fins. The design looks quite nice and is very fitting for a clean looking, gaming-focused product. The material is a plastic that feels quite sturdy. I have no doubts regarding the durability of the earbuds, but I would have personally preferred some sort of braided cable. Braided cables will not only help with durability, but it will also help with untangling the wire by having a smoother texture. The cable length is 125cm. Being able to choose between what type of material you use for the tips is quite nice, as some people prefer silicone and others prefer foam. I will expand in more depth between the difference of the two materials shortly.
At a weight of 18g, the ASUS ROG Cetra II Core Moonlight White are average. With earbuds, I typically prefer them to be lighter, but this weight is not too heavy for prolonged use. The different tips and fins are nice for personal adjustment. The ROG Cetra II Core Moonlight White is designed for a select audience in mind as ASUS is focusing on gamers who do not find headphones comfortable or want portability for mobile gaming but also do not want to be disadvantaged in competitive environment. Of course, comfort in this scenario comes down to preference. I personally prefer headphones, but I can understand if someone would want to use a lighter audio option. As well, I think the ASUS ROG Cetra II Core Moonlight are quite comfortable. I was able to wear them for a couple of hours on end. I also preferred the silicone tips over the foam ones. The foam tips seemed to be a little too long, making the weight of the earbuds more noticeable.
As mentioned previously, each ear has an “L” or “R” marker on the fin to indicate the corresponding earbud. On each of the earbuds, we have drivers made out of a “liquid silicone rubber” material. ASUS claims these drivers are designed to provide "stable speaker performance and strong bass". They have a rated frequency response of 20Hz to 40kHz. These specifications go beyond the hearing range of a normal human at the higher frequencies. The size of the drivers is 9.4mm. Meanwhile, these earbuds have an impedance of 32 ohms. Like many other in-ear monitors, the drivers aim directly into the ear for a more direct and transparent sound reproduction. The tips assist to aim into the user’s ear canals. Since these earphones are designed for a closed configuration, the ASUS ROG Cetra II Core Moonlight White have passive noise cancelling. As mentioned previously, the tips and fins come in many sizes, and there is an additional set of foam tips. Some people find foam tips to be more comfortable and better for noise isolation. Others like silicone more because they find foam tips to wear out too quickly. Ultimately, the choice is up to preference, but it is nice that ASUS has provided both to begin with.
Along the cable with the right earbud resides the inline controls for use with your phone. When using it with my phone, it has the standard functionality of volume up and down as well as pause and play. If you press the pause/play button twice, it skips the track. Having inline controls is nice as it is a simple way to adjust volume, pause and play, or even skip the track when your phone is in your pocket. The buttons are nice and responsive. The microphone is also on the back side of the inline controls as seen on many other headsets of this nature.
With these details in mind, let us move on to our subjective audio analysis.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware
3. Subjective Audio Analysis
4. Conclusion
