Acoustics
Headphone
Although
these are nice looking and good quality headphones, the sound is a what actually
matters. To test the Kave XTD 5.1 Analog we listened to different audio sources including games, music, streaming media and high-definition movies. Roccat has chosen to use 40 mm ear cups with a big soft bolster that isolates your ears. Despite being a gaming headset, we were pleasantly surprised by the good balance between high and low
sound, even the mids are on a good level without being too dull. The remote control placed on the cable works well,
and only with a high volume, we detected an excessive sound distortion. When it
comes to movies, we used exclusively titles with 5.1 audio AC3 and DTS-HD, the classic encoding that you can find on DVD and BR. In these scenarios, the Roccat Kave XTD 5.1 Analog behaved overall very well,
and we believe that only the bass reproduction is not completely clear, but can
be rather described as "hit and run".
The most interesting aspect of these headphones certainly concerns the presence of four independent drivers, three measuring 40 mm (front, center, rear) and one 30-millimeter, which acts as a sub-woofer. However, despite the fact that Kave XTD 5.1 Analog headset are true 5.1, we can say that the sound is not near as immersive as a 5.1 speaker set. In some fields, we found slightly muffled tones
which are without depth. In addition, we haven't seen any difference between "Movie" and "Gamer" mode.
Microphone
The microphone in our opinion is very good and the design used by Roccat is a great addition. The design chosen by Roccat is great and gives the headphones a very stylish look. On the end there is a blue LED that signals the activation or deactivation of the microphone. The sound captured can be described as natural on Skype and Team Speak.