Page 4 - Conclusion
After putting the ROCCAT Elo 7.1 Air through our tests and inspections, I am feeling a bit mixed about the outcome. On one hand, ROCCAT has a good combination of looks, comfort, and features here. The decently thick foam earcups and headband makes the Elo 7.1 Air comfortable to wear with a balanced clamping pressure while feeling light. The many dials and buttons on the side are much appreciated for quick adjustments. The overall battery life is quite good, even with the lights turned on, and wireless range is another good point. The ROCCAT Swarm software offers many customization options for both the sound output and microphone input, even if the interface feels outdated. When it comes to audio performance, the Elo 7.1 Air performed well in games, but music revealed a few more misfires. On the positive side, we had excellent directionality for a realistic audio image in games. The microphone was decent for a gaming headset. On the flip side, the overall sound was dark and unnatural due to a boosted but hollow bass. There were notable dips in the different regions and transitions which contributed to a thinner detail. Despite the strong directional capabilities, the soundstaging lacked depth. Finally, the sound isolation could have also been improved as noise leaked in and out. Outside of the audio performance, I found the ROCCAT Elo 7.1 Air's inconsistency in pairing to be my most frustrating part of using the headphones, especially as I needed to restart the headphones often just to get them connected. As for the side inputs, I would have appreciated if ROCCAT differentiated the two volume dials in a tactile way so that I would not accidentally adjust the wrong thing. At the time of this review, the ROCCAT Elo 7.1 Air can be found for around $100 USD. This price is pretty reasonable for a pair of wireless RGB headphones, but there are just a few too many points that need to be addressed. ROCCAT is on the right track, and further improvements in their pairing implementation and audio performance will make their next revision a winner.
ROCCAT provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
APH Networks Review Focus Summary:
6/10 means A product with its advantages, but drawbacks should not be ignored before purchasing.
5/10 means An average product with no real advantages; drawbacks and advantages just seem to cancel each other out.
-- Final APH Networks Numeric Rating is 5.8/10
Please note that the APH Networks Numeric Rating system is based off our proprietary guidelines in the Review Focus, and should not be compared to other publications.
The ROCCAT Elo 7.1 Air is an RGB gaming headset that impresses on paper, but has several key areas to improve on.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware and Software
3. Subjective Audio Analysis
4. Conclusion
