Unveiled back in May, the Roccat Syn Pro Air has finally been released to the PC gaming community. A major milestone for Roccat, as this release serves to be their flagship headset, promising to deliver sounds like no other headset before it. With Turtle Beach now owning them, there is much to be excited about with the Roccat Syn Pro Air, as it takes everything you love about Roccat, and mixes it up with some of the latest and best technology offered by Turtle Beach. The results? A strikingly, beautiful headset with incredibly, rich and immersive sounds. Audiophiles prepare to be blown away.
Roccat’s Best Design Yet
I have to say, this just might be the best headset design yet from Roccat. Immediately upon opening the box, there was a sense of premium from the headset. You know that feeling you get when you buy something really expensive, that you don’t even want to touch it, and just want it to sit there to be stared at it? Well that’s exactly how I felt grabbing the Syn Pro Air. Just look at it, and tell me it isn’t beautiful.
And having this in person, it is so much better, especially when you start seeing all the tiny design choices that Roccat went with in order to deliver on its ultimate experience.
Take the adjustable banding, probably my favorite out of any headset I have ever had. You see, a lot of headsets offer the ability to adjust the headband, and those familiar will know that is usually accompanied by a loud clicking sound. This is because, in most cases there is an internal band that gets slid into the main band. Example can be seen below.
There’s nothing wrong with this, but the Roccat Syn Pro Air really proves that this classic mechanic can be improved on, and it does so by offering a silky smooth, noiseless motion. It’s achieved by engraving a groove into the band itself, with the earcup joints being able to slide freely between it.
It feels fantastic, and I’m amazed by the lack of clicking. Furthermore, I think this design is going to provide less wear and tear since it’s mostly concealed, an issue I notice on my other headsets as there are markings and plastic shavings building up. The only downside to this is if you have a very large head, as you may find it doesn’t offer enough range to be comfortable. In my case, it was perfect.
The microphone itself is fully detachable, though this is probably the only design issue I had. Being detachable is fine, and in fact a great option, especially to those who just don’t use it, but it’s the rough movement offered when attached that I’m not a big fan of. Moving the microphone from off to on and vice versa has a very rigid motion that locks in place. This made the whole headset move, which could be felt from the top of the band to the other earcup. It’s not that big where you’ll need to readjust the headset position, but it’s definitely noticeable.
The material used on the microphone is along the lines of the unbreakable rubber you may find in other mics. I actually like the overall mic build in that regard, because the rubber doesn’t feel flimsy where one slight push it going to move it completely. There’s strength to it, but enough flexibility to allow you to mold either close or away from you. I love that it’s not a massive boom mic either, but also not a super thin one that just feels tacked on. It fits nicely in the realm of sleekness, and matches beautifully with the overall design.
For the cushioning, the Syn Pro Air opts for athletic fabric covered earcups with memory foam built inside of it. A big worry I had here that because it’s not using leather, the earpads would be prone dust collecting like many other headsets that use similar fabric. Well, after using the headset extensively I’m glad to say that issue isn’t as noticeable on the Syn Pro Air as I expected it to be.
This may be due to how the stitching was done on all the padding, as it’s not so quite smooth, but instead etched with tiny patterns. The great thing is they don’t have much of a feeling to them, if any at all.
On a comfort scale, the Syn Pro Air is perfect. Extremely light in weight, the cushioning from the memory foam offers extreme comfort with no noticeable irritation from the fabric at all. The earpads are great at blocking outside sound, as with blocking any leakage for the microphone to pick up on.
And of course there are the features build on the headset itself. For volume, there are two dials one for sound and the other so that you can hear your own voice. Easily accessible as they are large dials, one on each ear side.
Then there’s the incredible RGB lighting. If you have read any of my past Roccat hardware reviews, you’ll know that I’ve had nothing but high praise for the company and how they handle RGB lighting in their new highly durable, lightweight bionic Shell. Yep, the Syn Pro Air features the very same design spotted in Roccat Gaming Mice.
The light comes in a rather faded look when you look at it from the sides of the earcups. It’s beautiful, and with different patterns available via software, the RBG lighting of the Syn Pro Air is certainly one to rave about. What I love even more is that the light stretches to the backside of the headset, with it being brighter, giving it even more style.
All in all, the design of the Roccat Syn Pro Air is certainly one to smile about, as it offers everything you want in a headset. It’s light weight, yet extremely strong, all while offering the ultimate pleasure of comfortability. This is all coming off for just the design side, as the best part of the headset is easily how it sounds.
The Ultimate Gaming Sound
If you’re looking for a headset that is going to guarantee 100% gaming immersion, then look no further. Right out of the box, the Roccat Syn Pro Air impresses with its deep, high channeling sounds that echoes in clarity through both speakers. Hearing the sound come out of these for the very first time was an absolute awe moment for me.
The sound from the Syn Pro Air is so rich in detail that it’s easy to breakdown exactly what you’re hearing. For big multiplayer fans, you’ll find these offer a nice boost in a competitive edge as every footsteps, bullets fired, and character breathing can be heard and distinguished in the field of chaos for a game like Call of Duty.
Of course multiplayer games aren’t the only games to benefit as you’ll also find total immersion in those epic single-player games. Playing through Resident Evil Village with the Syn Pro Air felt as if someone had dialed up the gut wrenching tension to a full 100. Always on my feet, hearing steps behind me, or the disturbing wet sound of something crawling through a corridor (shivers I tell you), which are the stuff of nightmares all brought to fruition with the amazing sound quality of the Syn Pro Air.
I am fully immersed in my gaming, and it just can’t get any better than that.
The microphone is also spectacular, picking up very little background noises. Playing Unfortunate Spaceman with some friends, all could hear me crystal clear, even during my screams my agony as a monster ripped me to shreds. There didn’t seem to be any audio leakage either from the well insulated padding.
Muting/unmuting is also very easy as all you have to do is raise or lower the microphone from it’s current position. This is met with a sound cues, each of them being different for the on and off. Love that, as many headsets don’t acknowledge whether you are muted or not, leading to some potentially embarrassing situations.
Goodbye Swarm, Hello Neon…Kind Of
The Roccat Pro Air Syn isn’t the only big thing releasing from Roccat as the long awaited replacement for their Swarm application is also making its debut with these headsets — and it’s a pretty app.
Meet Neon, Roccat’s newest driver software that packs a modern look. While the Swarm application was a pretty functional one and did everything users needed it to do, one of my past complaints was that it lacked in the visuals department. The Neon addresses this, as it goes for modern sleekness, with user accessibility in mind. Everything in Neon is laid out nicely in front of you, with just a click away from adjustments.
What’s more, much like all their past devices, Neon truly unlocks the hardware potential of Roccat devices. At the time of writing, the app only supports Syn Pro Air, but it will eventually span out to Roccat’s mice, keyboards, and other headsets.
For the Syn Pro Air, there are a number of configurations that users can mess around with, but more importantly this is where you can turn on 3D audio and Super Human Hearing. I was impressed with the sound prior to even using these options, and let me tell you, the 3D audio in the Syn Pro Air is absolutely out of this world.
Just hearing the directions of where every sound came in during my Warzone match just made my immersion all the better. Watching a movie, or listening to an soundtrack just made us feel like we were actually there. The 3D audio is a fantastic feature that users will want to experience for themselves.
As for the Super Human Hearing, it’s important to understand that this isn’t to make every sound better, but to hone in on the ones that matter. In Neon, there are currently two different presets, footsteps and gunshots. We noticed with either turned on that sound would become more “muffled,” but in a way that you would hear the selected choice better. So footsteps sounded louder, more so than the rest of the other sounds such as explosives, and the whirling blades of a helicopter. It definitely felt like I was gaining a competitive edge by being able hear exactly where everything was coming from.
The EQ setting was a new one for me and wasn’t there prior to release of the hardware. Love this option, being able to fine tune all the channels to however I like.
Now, the only issue I am having with the Neon software at the moment is the illumination settings. This was an issue I had before release where my headset would be forced to shut off, which now appears fixed as with a number of other bugs I had. The only thing is we can no longer access illumination since the launch day update rolled out it as of writing this review. A bit of a bummer, but seeing that all my previous issues were addressed, the guys over at Roccat will hopefully resolve this quickly. I will be sure to update this portion of the review when that does happen.
Does It Work on Consoles?
This section bears no meaning to my overall thoughts on the Syn Pro Air, I just thought it would be a good thing to include if you are a console gamer. Now, first and foremost, Roccat advertises the Syn Pro Air as a PC headset. Because of this, I can’t really recommend you buy these for consoles. However, I will point out that if you get these for PC and want to at least try these out on a console, they do work, kind of. All the sound benefits outside of real-time software tuning remains. Testing on the PS5, the console picks up (even displays its name) the headset via the wireless dongle and is able to transmit system audio perfectly to the set.
The only thing that didn’t work was the microphone sadly, which is why I don’t recommend getting these for consoles. Again, they were built with PC in mind, especially when you factor in the Neon software. I would have loved for it to fully work on the PS5, and perhaps down the road a software update may fix that. Shame, because Roccat makes amazing headsets that console owners would definitely love. Thankfully, Turtle Beach is there to accommodate with their excellent line of headsets.
Verdict
You know every so often a company releases a product that one can say is their crowning achievement, and that’s what the Roccat Syn Pro Air is. It is the culmination of over a decade of hard work in research, that delivers. Beautifully designed with the utmost comfortability, with sounds that bestows complete gaming immersion. What more could one ask for? At just $149.99, it’s safe to say that you are getting a full premium experience that doesn’t break the bank.
Pros
- Crystal clear sound
- Insane 3D audio that offers total gaming immersion.
- A microphone that feels great to adjust, and sounds just as good as the audio.
- Beautifully sleek and flexible design that is highly durable yet superbly comfortable.
- RGB lighting applied excellently.
- Battery lasts a full 24 hours, and with USB C it rapidly charges 5 hours in a matter of minutes.
Cons
- Neon software is missing functionality in it’s current state, though will be fixed via future software update.
Roccat Syn Pro Air unit provided by the manufacturer. Reviewed using a PC. The Syn Pro Air is now available for $149.99 on the official Roccat Website.
