Roccat XTD 5.1 Analogue initial 2 week review

[asim1999]

Here i will post my initial thoughts on this headset. I will focus on audio and surround sound as i have not tested the mic yet

Comfort 8/10

These headphones are very sturdy and give me no discomfort over long periods of time. However, i do find the cups a little large for my ears and therefore audio isolation is not perfect. The padding on both the headband and the leather earcups feel excellent and there is no pressure or discomfort after some small adjustment. My only gripe is since it uses onboard sound it is not a portable headset and needs to be permanently connected to the PC at the back , This is not an issue as the headset is too big for easy transportation anyway 

Audio Quality 9.5/10

The audio quality is great out of the box. Since the drivers in the headphones are large 40mm drivers (unlike a lot of the 'real' surround headphones that only have 20mm drivers) the sound quality when in stereo and in surround is great. The only difference when  using surround is that you have better positional awareness. However, i will have to adjust thee EQ to hear footsteps better. This is not a fault of the headphones, but of the games i play (BF3 and 4 in particular(, 

Surround sound 9.5/10

I love the implementation of surround sound in this headset. it is pretty much perfect. the headphones use 2 40mm drivers and a 30mm driver and going with 5.1 rather than 7.1 makes a huge difference to audio quality. Even in stereo the sound does not feel tinny or empty like a lot of surround sound headsets. using 7.1 rather than 5.1 does not make a difference in positional awareness due to the small diameter of headphones and the closed nature of most gaming headsets.The transition between drivers when panning around in game is perfect due to their large nature and lack of reliance on bundled software/ I prefer the analogue implementation as the operating system deals with stereo and surround on the fly. This is much better than a USB implementation as there is less software adjustment required for different tasks. Also the games handle the surround better than traditional USB headsets due to the driver placement being pre defined by the operating system after setting up the headphones. Just select surround in game settings and you are good to go!

For example in BF4, i can hear where things are, and i can even hear a tank approaching or leaving my position even if it is 100-200m out. I can also hear aircraft above me and i know roughly where to aim even with my eyes closed. Enemy footseps are hard to detect unlike friendly footsteps in open maps, but this is a fault of the game, and most people have this issue. However, Battlefield 1 puts a huge emphasis on footsteps and youtubers like Levelcap have noted that the footsteps are easy to detect unlike in BF4. I look forward to testing out this when the BF1 beta rolls around

Value: 10/10

These are £65 right now and IMO beat every headset out there when it comes to surround sound. The sound is not dealt with by clunky software like USB headsets and the drivers are large enough for them to be a viable option as a stereo headset when on the PC . For purely gaming these headsets are perfect when it comes to audio quality. If you want more flexibility however, i would pay more for a true audiophile grade headphone if you are using this on multiple devices. 

[roughavoc]

For £65 I am almost 100% certain it has terrible Audio performance compared to a normal pair of headphones

My go to low price headphones are the Creative Aurvana Live! Headphones, you will find it hard to beat these, they offer a very solid sound overall

[Guest]

Looks too plasticy for my liking. Also, I think that the microphone would start annoying me within the first 5 seconds.

 

I'm more of a hifi headphones with a proper microphone kind of guy when I'm gaming. I prefer stereo with a dac to 5.1 or 7.1 and gaming headsets tend to have awful audio quality anyway.

[asim1999]

16 minutes ago, spidsepttk said:

Looks too plasticy for my liking. Also, I think that the microphone would start annoying me within the first 5 seconds.

 

I'm more of a hifi headphones with a proper microphone kind of guy when I'm gaming. I prefer stereo with a dac to 5.1 or 7.1 and gaming headsets tend to have awful audio quality anyway.

True, but the microphone is detachable. The audio quality of these is great though, and is better than most gaming headsets out there. 

[Guest]

Just now, asim1999 said:

True, but the microphone is detachable. The audio quality of these is great though, and is better than most gaming headsets out there. 

I'd still rather spend 4x the money on some proper hifi headphones than to buy a gaming headset.