Recommended Award
ROCCAT CROSS
RRP : $ 69 | Website : www . roccat . org
Here is ROCCAT again , back with an non-traditional stereo ' gaming headset '. There ’ s a billion companies making peripherals lately , each specializing in gaming headphones , keyboards , mice and all other related products that claim to improve your gaming performance . That said , having many players in the market isn ’ t necessarily a bad thing , inevitably , if what all other markets are anything to go by , they ' ll be whittled down to a smaller more meaningful number of competitors .
ROCCAT Studios , one of the giants of the market that consistently stays on top of the ball , along with a handful of others will stick around . That said , with products such as the CROSS , there ' s finally an admission that there are interested parties in their products that don ' t fit the stereotypical gamer mold .
These are the kind of headphones that have always appealed to me ,
44 The OverClocker Issue 40 | 2017 significantly more so than any other set of cans aimed exclusively at gamers . This is from all vendors and of course from ROCCAT themselves .
If it were up to me , these would be the only kind of headphones ROCCAT would be making going forward , as they are surprisingly competent at designing and producing them .
Sure enough , there could be a myriad of improvements , but for their first attempt , they are a solid offering , capable of matching some of the best gaming cans out there , if not in sound quality at least in practicality and comfort .
As with all gaming headsets , one cannot talk about these in earnest without mentioning the old HyperX Cloud set from years gone by . To this day , there are no headphones to match the Cloud ' s sonic abilities , presentation etc . This is not a direct comparison as that headset was over the $ 100 mark , but rather look at the Cloud as the benchmark by which all gaming cans are measured against .
What you ' ll notice immediately is that the CROSS set is light . I was truly convinced they would not be worth the bother as weight can be a sign of build quality or the lack thereof . Fortunately , I was wrong and I ' m glad I was . Take for instance the headband , even though it ' s flexible , it ' s rather robust and took some serious abuse without blemish . It also places just the right amount of pressure on your head to stay in place without irritating your ears . Some may prefer a snugger fit , but as far as gaming cans go , this is more than enough , especially for onear phones .
There are only two parts to this headset . The first which will matter to many I suspect , are the aesthetic qualities . It ' s all black with the ROCCAT insignia on either ear cup . That ’ s about it . There ’ s no blue cable or anything that would suggest to you that this is a ROCCAT headset from a distance . The design is certainly modern and perfect for city dwellers , but not unique or