Xboxaddict.com Article
Roccat Syn Max Air Headset Review
by Adam Dileva
Specifications:
Form Factor: On Ear
Speaker Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20kHz
Speakers: 50mm with Neodymium Magnets
Weight: 326 grams
What’s Inside:
ROCCAT Syn Max Air Gaming Headset
Charging Dock
Removable microphone (with removable microphone slot cover)
USB-A charging cable
USB-C charging cable
USB-A to USB-C adapter
Quick-start guide
While there’s not much special about the packaging or unboxing, there’s some quite dense foam inside to keep the headset and dock quite safe from movement, with the accessories housed with a small cardboard case underneath. For such a pricey headset, I was hoping the unboxing would be more of an experience and feel premium.
To the Max (Air)
Having recently discovered Roccat in the last year or so, I’ve quickly become a fan of their gaming line peripherals. Turtle Beach purchased Roccat back in 2019 and it seems they’ve made quite a commitment to continuing to create new lines of gaming products since. A follow-up to last year’s Syn Pro Air, the Syn Max Air adds some new features that is sure to excite some, but with the new features and accompanying dock, there’s also a price increase as well. The Syn Max Air is an all-around headset that offers comfort, features, and while it’s targeted as a ‘gaming’ headset, there’s no over the top gaudy RGB that might dissuade those that just want a simple yet stylish looking headset.
Gamers choose headsets on a variety of different focuses. Some prioritize comfort due to playing for hours on end, other choose battery life (with wireless headsets), and others the audio soundscape and what it can deliver. Now, being primarily a ‘gaming’ headset doesn’t mean you can’t use it for listening to music, watching movies or TV shows, but the gaming aspect is where it really shines. Are there better and more specialized headsets out there for music instead, of course, but Roccat knows its target audience and has created a headset with a bevy of features that should tick most boxes.Want a comfortable headset? I can attest to this, using the Syn Max Air for hours on end playing games, binging Netflix shows and listing to hours of music through Spotify as I write my reviews. Want features? How about a wireless range of about 50 feet or so, Bluetooth connectivity, 16 hours of battery life and a charging dock? The Syn Max Air checks a lot of the boxes, but if it doesn’t sound good it won’t matter what features the headset boasts. While not the absolute best sounding headset I’ve used, it does make a decent soundscape that will certainly be more than enough for the average gamer.
Let It Dock
One of the more unique additions with the Syn Max Air is the inclusion of its dock. This is the cradle that the headset sits in to rapidly charge. While the battery life is said to be about 16 hours or so, I found it to be a bit less with the volume high and RGB at maximum. That’s not to say the battery life isn’t good, as it’s quite rare that I’d need my headset for more than 12 hours straight or so at any given moment, but with the docking station sitting on my desk, placing the headset on there once done using, I never had a problem being out of a charge when wanted. A quick 15 minute charge should give you a 3 hour charge, so never fear.
This dock is also the direct wireless connection to your PC, and while it will work with Playstation via USB cable or Switch with Bluetooth, it seems like it’s really meant to be pimrarily a PC headset. Sadly without a 3.5mm jack, it’s not usable on Xbox, even passively. While the headset has RGB, which I’ll talk about shortly, so does the base rim of the dock, syncing with your predefined settings. While the dock may act as a fancier version of a wireless dongle (when not using Bluetooth), it of course does add the overall price ($319.99 CAD / $249.99 CAD MSRP).
I’m all about the dock though, I like the idea of having a dedicated spot for the headset to not only charge, but rest, as I usually have to just place or hang them wherever I have some free space near my desk. The headset is meant to simply drop in place on the dock with its magnetized ear cup, and while it’s quite obvious which way it’s supposed to rest in the dock, I found getting it to sit properly wasn’t always quick. The notches carved out of the dock make it seem like you can’t mess up the connection and placement, but more than once I found out it wasn’t charging because I didn’t place it perfectly vertical, slightly at an angle instead. This of course meant it didn’t charge. Not a deal breaker, but I find I have to consciously and carefully place the headset onto the dock properly rather than setting and forgetting it.
It’s All About LooksWhile many might not initially care about how a headset looks for one that will most likely stay at home in the gaming room, it doesn’t hurt to have a good looking headset, especially when the price is a big ask, like with the Syn Max Air. A mix of plastic and aluminum, the headset does look sleek with a matte-like finish, but this material is also a fingerprint magnet. The ear cups are almost a different color due to the fingerprints from normal use, easily seen with some light shone on it. The aluminum rods where the ear cups adjust is a slightly different color, making for a subtle contrast to the rest of the headset.
The ear pads and gel headrest is also black, also a similar typical black shade. The pleather outside of the earcups are very lightly textured and the foam part that actually sits on your ears is a darker tone and fabric, again adding a slight contrast at first glance which I like. The ear cups have the Roccat Syn branding without being overpowering, and the tip of the microphone also is branded Roccat.
Is a gaming headset truly a gaming headset if it doesn’t have RGB though? At the bottom corner of each ear cup you can see a subtle honeycomb pattern underneath. When the RGB lighting is turned on, this shows much more clearly. It’s different than most headsets, which I like, and also not completely overpowering or pronounced. While some might enjoy max RGB lighting, it’s just enough to add some ‘flavor’ and personality without looking too much like a gaming headset. Simply a clean look.
With the Roccat Swarm software, this is where you’ll be able to change your audio and RGB settings of over millions of colors. Compared to other Roccat devices though, the RGB settings are nowhere near as robust. You get a few different options for lighting patterns, from AIMO (basically syncs with all of your devices), Wave (slowly changing colors from one to the next), Fully Lit for those that want a specific color to match your gaming room aesthetic at all times, Breathing and Heartbeat. The shine that comes from behind the honeycomb pattern is a nice change from the normal, the only thing that bugs me is that the angled RGB pattern isn’t exactly symmetrical on both ear cups, slightly larger on one side. I also seem to have a slight scratch or something on my left ear cup, so the RGB shines through that. Sure no one else would ever notice, but now that I’ve noticed it, I can un-see it.Right in the Feels
While the Syn Max Air is comfortable, it isn’t without its caveats. The headset is lightweight given it’s a mixture of plastic and aluminum, and I do enjoy the soft plush ear pads and gel headrest, but the plastic on the headband does come across feeling a bit too ‘plasticy’. I don’t want to say cheap, because it’s not when compared to entry level headsets, but it also doesn’t scream premium, which is a bit of a concern at this asking price. The aluminum arms feel sturdy and great, it’s just an odd combination.
The headband is squishy gel, as you’d expect, as that where the weight is going to rest on the top of your head when in use. The ear pads are comfortable and you can certainly see some of Turtle Beach’s influence, especially with their ProSpecs feature, making it more comfortable for those with glasses to play, allowing not as much pressure on the pad pressing on the arms of your glasses. The ear pads themselves are quite soft overall and the foam part that rests on your ears keeps them cool and sweat free for the most part. Even after a really long binge watch one weekend, my ears never really became hot or uncomfortable. Because the ear cups are quite deep, your ear doesn’t actually rest right on the speakers either, which probably helps with the airflow.
Adjusting the sizing it easy enough, simply pulling down the two sides to your preference, but there’s no notches or markers on the arm bands to indicate what ‘setting’ they are currently at, meaning those that share the headset might need to take a few extra moments to get that perfect fit once again. While I don’t have a large head, I adjusted the sides to be basically as small as it can go, yet over time and use, it seemed to slightly stretch. This meant that the more I moved, the looser it got, and if I bent over to pick something up, it may come off if I wasn’t careful. This will obviously vary based on fitting and head size, but was something of note for those with smaller noggins.
In Control
As for the controls on the headset itself, there’s not all that much. On the main left cup you have the standard volume wheel that scrolls mostly smoothly with the odd notch and a power button. On the right, another wheel for the variable mic monitoring adjustment and the Bluetooth button. There’s no mute button as that’s done with a flip of the boom arm itself. While adjusting the volume is simple with the wheel, on PC it oddly changes the actual Windows volume, not the volume of the headset itself separately.
With only a singular Bluetooth button, this is not only to enable syncing to new devices, but also meant for the controls when using in conjunction with your mobile device. I appreciate that work has gone into using this button to enable media controls, answering calls and doing more, but there’s no way I’m going to remember what a single, double or triple press does for each command. There’s even combinations of presses and holds, but without constantly practice, I’m not sure how you’re going to memorize all these with a single button.
Hear You Loud and Clear
The microphone boom arm is detachable, also coming with a small circular rubber patch to cover up the hole where it attaches if not in use. The arm itself is bendable, so getting it the perfect distance from your mouth shouldn’t be difficult. The arm itself raises to be parallel with the headband, indicating it’s muted, or pulled down towards your mouth which will unmute. Thankfully there’s an audible ‘beep’ when muting and unmuting, but the RGB on the dock will also indicate if muted or not as a visual reminder too. The Roccat Swarm software is where you can make a few adjustments, also allowing a Noise Gate option that should cut out a lot of your background noise in your party, like the nearby fan or clicky keyboards to your party or discord chat.
As for the microphone quality itself, it’s quite decent. Of the discord and phone calls I made with it, everyone said I sounded quite clear overall. Playing with a few recordings of myself, it will certainly do the job just fine, though obviously there will be better options if you are going to be streaming or doing any type of voice recordings.
But How’s it Sound?
The question many want to know, how does it sound? Choosing a headset, clearly the audio must be of quality or else why would consumers want to purchase it? This is where a lot of subjectivity comes into play, as I have somewhat mixed feelings here. First off, while there’s no ANC (Active Noise Cancellation), the ear cups sit around your ear and will do an alright job at blocking out a majority of sound in the room. There’s not much sound bleed escaping the ear pads either, as my wife said she wasn’t able to really hear anything from the headset when I was using it unless at maximum volume.
With large 50mm drivers, if you’ve ever had one of Turtle Beach’s higher end gaming headsets before, you’ll have an idea of what to expect when it comes to its audio soundscape. As I’ve been playing a lot of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II lately, I had no issues hearing everything that was happening around me, above and below. And like almost every other Turtle Beach headset, there’s an including Superhuman Hearing mode you can enable if you really want to have the audio focus on footstep and more minor audio around your character for a slight edge.
I always use the headsets I review for a few weeks before writing my thoughts, as I want to get used to its audio, able to switch between a few different headsets to compare. Over the last few weeks I’ve binged watch a lot of Netflix shows, watched a handful of movies on Plex, listened to music through Spotify and YouTube, played games via Bluetooth with my phone and of course, played a lot of games on PC. If I had to sum up its audio in a single word, it would probably be “decent”, not great or impressive, but will certainly be suitable for any audio task you throw at it.
I like bass in my audio, not to the point of vibrating my ear, but I want some punch, some ‘oomph’, to my music and explosions. The Syn Max Air really lacks here. Having played with many of the settings in the Swarm software, I was able to improve the audio to my liking with the EQ settings, but even then, the bass was my biggest letdown and sounded a bit washed out. The highs were decent, but with certain music that I know quite well, I certainly lost a little bit of detail compared to another one of my headsets. Mid’s were also alright, but I did find the “S” sound to be a bit sharp on the default EQ settings.
Out of the box, simply plugging and playing, will certainly work, but you’ll definitely want to spend some time after installing the Swarm software so you can customize your EQ settings to your liking. There are 10 premade soundscapes, many tuned for specific game genres, but you’ll need to absolutely play around with it to suit your preferences. There’s nothing inherently bad or wrong about the Syn Max Air for its audio, I just think I’ve been spoiled by other headsets that focus on different things. A gaming headset like this is like a jack of all trades, master of none, but with a high price tag, my expectations are certainly higher as well.
Final Thoughts
For every feature I liked, there was something I also questioned. My Pro and Con list when reviewing should hopefully be more leaning towards the Pro side when reviewing a high priced headset, but it was almost even with the Syn Max Air.
I normally wouldn’t think twice of the wireless range of my headsets, but it’s something I always test, even given my small apartment. In most headsets, me being in one corner and walking to the door is generally the max range, but with the Syn Max Air, I was able to actually be down the hallway outside a small bit before starting to have connection issues (wireless, not Bluetooth). The 16 hour battery advertised is realistically a bit less with the RGB on, but the included dock makes that a non-issue since you should be placing it to charge after each use.
That said, the dock itself has grooves to place the headset in properly, but you have to consciously make an effort to make sure it’s correctly sitting and charging. The RGB is a nice touch on the dock and headset without being too overpowering or ‘loud’. I do wish there were some slight accents on the headset to make it standout and not simply look like any other black headset, even an offset color of the Roccat logo on the top of the headband would have helped a little. I also had two instances where the connection to my PC simply stopped working mid-use, forcing a reboot to resolve, and one time even a firmware reset.
If you’re already a part of the Roccat ecosystem, of course the Syn Max Air is an easy sell, working in sync with your companion devices and RGB. I absolutely loved Roccat’s microphone and keyboards I recently reviewed, hoping the Syn Max Air would be the same, I’m just having a hard time figuring out if this was paid out of pocket if I would feel the same way, and I think that’s where my struggle is. There’s certainly a lot of features included, and I quite enjoyed the simultaneous Bluetooth audio connection with my phone that lowered the other audio when taking a call, I just simply wasn’t ‘wow’d’ as I expected to be. The Roccat Syn Max Air is decent headset for sure, but with a high cost.
**Roccat Syn Max Air was provided for and reviewed with a PC, Switch and Mobile Device**
Overall: 7.5/ 10
