Published: December 22, 2017 | Source: Roccat | Author: Bryan Waters

Roccat Khan Pro Headset Review

Conclusion

Clearly the Roccat Khan Pro has a major selling point, so let’s quickly go over everything else first.

At a mere 230g the Khan Pro is extremely light and, thanks to some large ear cushions combining with that low weight, comfortable to wear for long periods of time. The flexibility of the hinges ensures that it conforms to almost any head shape. There is a long braided cable that gives a lot of wiggle room, and the use of the 3.5mm jacks as well as the included cable combiner means that the Khan Pro is compatible with just about everything you would wish to plug a headset into. The decision to have a microphone which automatically mutes when in the vertical position has enabled Roccat to place the volume control onto the headset itself, a solution we definitely prefer to the inline remote method which never quite sits where you wish. Although the Khan Pro is light it doesn’t feel flimsy, with the steel band adding rigidity and the design of the hinges – always a weak point in any headset – feels like they will last a long time. The same can’t be said for the leatherette/pleather/whatever that is used on the ear cups. Leather lasts forever, foam lasts forever, fake leather always cracks and flakes, and the thinness of the ones on the Khan Pro does give us the impression – borne of lengthy experience – that in a year or so of heavy use it’ll be flaking.

Of course getting the design things right is something that Roccat has been famous for since they first appeared. Does the wider frequency response of the Khan Pro deliver?

Kind of.

There is no denying that the wider frequency response really gives sweeping orchestral and similarly expansive music a new lease of life. Despite being a closed back design there is a sense of spaces that you really wouldn’t expect to find in closed back headsets. If your audio source has sounds across the spectrum then it is only enhanced by the capabilities of the Khan Pro. The better the sound design, the better they perform. If you have a love of John Williams scored films, mellow music or other wide ranging sound pleasures then you’ll be delighted with the results you get from the Khan. However, there is something about the frequency tuning that means the sound is always slightly distant and it is almost impossible to obtain any really pounding audio from it. Amongst our plentiful tunes we use to test headsets we have a lot of songs where either the bass drops, or the guitars kick into overdrive, or the music swells. In all cases the Khan Pro remained resolutely disinterested in providing something meaty. If we can liken it to soup, and we can, then the average headset might be thick hearty vegetable soup – fairly plain but chunky and savoury – whilst the Khan Pro are more akin to a consomme – richly flavoured but endlessly thin. That audio profile makes gunfire, rumbling V8 engines and jet flybys come across as rather weak and bland.

The Khan Pro then. Absolutely exceptional at one particular thing – playback of richly tonally varied music – and decidedly average at the majority of things we ask of a gaming headset. They’re comfortable and affordable, but really lacking in girth and no equaliser tuning can overcome that. A shame.