Wireless headphones are a blessing for many, making the Roccat Elo 7.1 Air Headset a real eye-catcher. In stores you can buy it for PLN 370, which seems to be a great price, and of the kind that immediately light a red lamp on the back of our head, as similar “on paper” sets for players are usually priced at 450-600 zloty. Originally, the set really cost so much, because you could buy it for 99 euros.
Roccat Elo 7.1 Air box and accessories included
The first moments with the Elo 7.1 Air Roccata are thoroughly positive. The graphics and renders on the box clearly show us the most important features of the product, and inside the handset along with a long, 2-meter USB-C cable for charging in a rubber braid, a microphone and a USB receiver are properly secured in a plastic case. Roccat also made sure that some elements were covered with foil to protect them from scratching.
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Roccat Elo 7.1 Air highlights
- General
- Predominant material: plastic
- Weight: 345 grams
- Closed circumaural headphones
- Adjustment based on the headband
- Charging cable: 2 meters
- 2.4 GHz radio communication
- Built-in rechargeable battery that lasts up to 24 hours
- Software support
- Compatibility: Nintendo Switch in docked mode, Windows and PlayStation 4/5
- Neodymium converters
- Frequency response: 20 – 20 kHz
- microphone
- Detachable on an elastic headband
Materials, workmanship and design
The Roccat Elo 7.1 Air is available in black or white, and as you can see from the photos, the tests were conducted on a white variant that has a range of gray finishes. This applies to both buttons and earmuffs, the headband cover and cables in nylon covers that connect both earcups to each other through the headband.
Elo 7.1 Air are unusual in that they use a less popular design based on a band limited by a metal headband, and not a full-fledged headband with adjustable spacing of the shells. This has its advantages and disadvantages, but also pitfalls that the manufacturer may fall into, but fortunately they do not bother this model. In brief? It is manifested by the lack of unpleasant pressure on the head, or on the contrary – keeping it too light on the ears. Roccat also made transport easier, providing the shells with the possibility of up-down and horizontal adjustment (up to 90 degrees).
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As befits a wireless model, the addition of an on-board battery has increased the overall weight to 345 grams, but this level is not particularly bothersome. On the other hand, the Elo 7.1 Air is far from being a light model, because we simply “feel” it on the head, and the use of thick, leather earpieces on the one hand is comfortable and does not even bother the glasses, but on the other hand it is fast, after several dozen minutes causes the characteristic “ear fatigue” by significantly increasing the temperature inside the earpieces.
However, it is difficult to call this Roccat model uncomfortable, because in fact the level of comfort it offers is high overall, but the overall impression is spoiled by the aforementioned lack of adequate airflow in the earpieces. However, this is so subjective that it cannot be considered a clear disadvantage – especially since we are dealing with a closed headset. It is also worth mentioning that the design of the Elo 7.1 Air is friendly to glasses wearers, which means that it should not put too much pressure on their head.
As for the “command center” of this headset, the manufacturer placed it entirely on the side of the left earcup. It is so rich that it comes down to two knobs (microphone sensitivity and headphone volume), two buttons (microphone deactivation / activation and on / off), a function diode and two ports. One port on the front of the earcup hears for a detachable microphone, and the one on the bottom (USB-C) for charging.
The workmanship, equipment and quality of the Roccat Elo 7.1 Air are difficult to attach to, even if you try to be as sharp as possible – it is surprisingly good for the price.
Software, connectivity and battery
You can configure Elo 7.1 Air on your computer with the Roccat Swarm application, which allows you to perform a simple firmware upgrade. We can set a lot in it, the most important functions of which include:
- Equalizer
- Functions that enrich (for some) the sound
- Several predefined modes
- Mode 7.1
- Microphone monitoring options
- Functions to deactivate the set after a certain time of no music playback
- Features of SuperHuman Hearing
Roccat in this model allows only for wireless connection using the included USB-A receiver. This is a radio connection on the 2.4 GHz band, which on the one hand consumes much more energy, which is crucial for the on-board battery, but on the other hand provides lower latency and higher stability than, for example, Bluetooth. It is also more versatile, because in practice turning on the Roccat Elo 7.1 Air set requires connecting the receiver to USB-A compatible equipment and turning on the set itself via the on / off button. The entire pairing process takes a while.
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A single charge of the battery provides up to 24 hours of play, which translates into about a week of daily use of Elo 7.1 Air for ~ 3 hours a day. At least, if you turn off the backlight, because with it the working time will be reduced by about 40%.
Evaluation of the sound and quality of the microphone
A decent mute (computer louder than householders’ conversations) requires a quieter environment to fully focus on the music and the game. It is definitely worth taking care of, because playing with Roccat Elo 7.1 Air is great when it comes to sound quality while maintaining the expected entertainment style that will satisfy everyone who lives with mainstream headphones up to PLN 500 on a daily basis.
This “entertaining manifestation” is obviously boosted bass, but not to an especially unpleasant degree. Especially that the manufacturer has also tuned the drivers so that they do not hurt the ears at higher tones, paying special attention to the key positioning in such a gaming model. This is not improved by the 7.1 mode (in my opinion it is more harmful to it), but next to the equalizer, the SuperHuman Hearing mode is definitely something that you should try, because it sharpens those sounds that can be crucial to hear your opponent, significantly suppressing the bass.
The microphone, in turn, is checked as follows (recording below). In brief? For a headset it is definitely good, but without a revelation when it comes to how it deals with muffling sounds from the surroundings.
Roccat Elo 7.1 Air test – summary
Roccat Elo 7.1 Air is one of those modern headsets that cannot be ignored by their price-performance ratio. Their valuation of PLN 400 significantly distinguishes them from other models on the market due to the above-mentioned advantages. The only drawback? You can’t connect them in wired mode to a sound source, but you can’t have everything, right?
