Page 3 - Subjective Audio Analysis
For all the audio products we review at APH Networks, it takes quite a bit of experience and training of the ears before we can assess with fair judgment. Even for many audiophiles, it can be hard to produce an exact or accurate evaluation of a product without a familiar product to use as a reference. While I am still relatively new when it comes to audio testing, I have worked with Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Kwan extensively to accurately evaluate the audio quality. There are no true objective measurements for audio sounds quality, but as a reviewer, I will put the ASUS ROG Cetra II Core Moonlight White through a series of subjective tests to try and come up with the most objective rating as I can. The audio tests were conducted on my PC by connecting the earbuds directly to my computer via the included splitter and with my phone.
After taking some time to get used to the ASUS ROG Cetra II Core Moonlight White, I put the earbuds to the test. All tracks are uncompressed or high bitrate audio files. Equalizer settings were set to flat for testing purposes. For gaming, I played VALORANT and osu!. First-person shooter games are probably the most important type of games to test these headphones with, as the gameplay can heavily rely on hearing to gain information. I find that playing rhythm games like osu! can also be very important to test latency, but in this case, the latency is basically zero since it is wired.
Let us start with the ASUS ROG Cetra II Core Moonlight White’s lower frequencies. In this section, I found the headset produced a deep and round sound. The headset articulated a nice solid bass, albeit a little bit boomy. The output was relatively smooth. My biggest issue was the heavy boost in the bass. I can say ASUS has produced an “incredibly strong bass”, but at what point is it too much? I personally would have preferred it to be a bit lighter, but I do know many people who would enjoy it. In games like first-person shooters, low frequency sounds would correlate to things like footsteps. Footsteps were very easy to listen for with the ROG Cetra II Core Moonlight White. If you use these for music, the bass will feel a bit on the stronger side of bass boosted, but it will work great for gaming audio.
Moving on to the midrange, this is where these earbuds sounded very well in my personal opinion. The sound was boosted, but remained quite thick and natural. There was a nice richness to the voices. Despite this section sounding nice, it also was overpowered by the bass. The upper-midrange felt a little bit more recessed compared to other portions. Although the midrange is not that important for strict gaming like the bass for footsteps and treble for reloading, it is still useful for hearing what your teammates are saying or your abilities. Hearing voices and abilities may get overshadowed by footsteps, which is not the worst for a tactical shooter.
Continuing with the treble, I found the sound the earbuds produced to be not quite the cleanest, having a dry sound. The upper end was also rounded off, making the higher pitches sound a bit more attenuated. In games, the treble would be recognized as glass breaking or guns reloading. Glass breaking or reloading were still audible with the attentuated nature of the treble, but can be missed at times. The combination of an attenuated treble and an extreme bass boost means the treble will inevitably spotlight the bass and leave the treble to be less prominent. Overall, the sound signature of the ASUS ROG Cetra II Core Moonlight White was quite interesting, having a huge bass boost that slowly falls, sort of like a Poisson distribution if it started at the peak.
The soundstaging was a mixed bag for gaming scenarios. I found it to be good enough to pinpoint my opponent’s general location when sound was produced, but there were instances when I was not completely sure. When it comes to music, you could say the depth and width covered was almost nonexistent. Distinguishing the instruments was incredibly hard, as they all sounded close together. To put bluntly, soundstaging for music was not good at all, but given the limitations of the form factor, I can understand why. These are earbuds built for gaming, so better performance in this area is preferable.
When it comes to layering, I found the ASUS ROG Cetra II Core Moonlight White to be adequate for gaming in regard to detail and precision. In music, the detail felt a little more convoluted as the tracks became more complex with more instruments and voices. The frequency separation was not very distinct, particularly between the upper-midrange and the treble. From the lack of separation came a lack of cohesion and cleanness.
Because the ASUS ROG Cetra II Core Moonlight White uses an earbud design, there is not much sound leakage in comparison to something like an open-back full-size headset. Having the drivers point directly into your ear canal really limits where the sound is going to, which is great. With this, sound is isolated to the user adequately. I personally do not have much preference in the matter of sound isolation, but I understand this is important for some gamers. As previously mentioned, you can use foam tips to better isolate the noise.
As for the microphone quality, I used Audacity to record and export the audio as an MP3 file. From this, you can hear the microphone is able to pick up my voice quite easily. I was unsurprised by the results of the test, as my expectations were not high given the context. I found the audio to be quite left-side dominant. The microphone was able to pick up my voice relatively easily, regardless of distance. However, the microphone also picked up the sound of my computer’s fans quite loudly. The sound of my voice came out slightly muffled, but I do not believe you can expect anything significantly better for this form factor. For voice communication, I would say this microphone would suffice, but with how much external noise it picks up, a webcam with a built-in microphone will perform similarly. If you were looking towards a streaming path, I would recommend a dedicated microphone like the ROCCAT Torch.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware
3. Subjective Audio Analysis
4. Conclusion
