Roccat Kave Headset Review

Testing the Kave

The first impression of a headset is its comfort level. The three pads inside the headband may seem tiny, but they provide a comfortable rest for the head. We cannot complain about this aspect. However, the rectangular shaped openings for the ears are too small, and despite increasing the acoustic isolation, they feel a little claustrophobic and uncomfortable. After some hours of gaming, the sensation lessens a little, but still the experience is different from a headset with ear cups featuring a traditional round opening.

The microphone is excellent, both for its flexibility and for the voice capture. Our gaming friends complimented the sound of our voice over a teleconference through Skype. The fact that the illuminated tip of the microphone goes dark once it is on mute is great, because the user doesn’t have to take his eyes off the monitor to check if the microphone is muted, nor does he or she run the risk of speaking something inappropriate without noticing if the microphone is still on. There’s also a click noise once the microphone is muted to further alert the user. Nice touch.

Figure 10: Illuminated microphone tip

The surround experience is good, but it depends upon adjustments on the Windows to fit the user’s tastes. As always, we tested the Kave playing Battlefield 3, an FPS game known for its rich sound environment. The headset performed well when reproducing heavy bass (explosions, cannon shots) and immersing the user (helicopters flying overhead, gunshots from several spots), as well as vibrating to add to the experience.

We didn’t see much difference between the game mode and the movie mode. The equalization is more dependable on the user’s fine tuning. In our experience, the Kave responded better while gaming than listening to music or watching movies.