Roccat’s current design aesthetic appearances so futuristic you might easily move any of the company’s products– the Roccat Kone XP, or Roccat Burst Pro Air mice consisted of– onto the set of a Blade Runner remake and no one would even blink an eye.
It’s with this same brush that Roccat has primped the Syn Max Air, which is the follower to the company’s Syn Pro Air gaming headset. The Syn Max Air doesn’t reinvent the wheel but does go one much better than its predecessor in terms of sound quality, comfort, and the included benefit of a cordless charging station.
With excellent cross-platform compatibility and versatile connection in the type of double wireless (Bluetooth and 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi), it likewise enables one of my all-time preferred gaming enjoyments– streaming music while video gaming on my PC.
That stated, the Syn Max Air does have an extremely small candy bag-sized cluster of niggling quirks, primarily focusing around its microphone. While these quirks do not ruin the experience, they might leave you questioning its rather high $249.99 cost.
How does the Syn Max Air’s design vary from other headsets?
Amongst the first things you’ll notice is the square cuboid-shaped cups, which use players a refreshing alternative to the ordinary round cups that have ended up being the predominant style of option. Of course, square cups aren’t anything brand-new, however glasses friendly ones with ProSpec earpads like the Syn Max Air’s are– the style of the cups supplying grooves for phenomenon frames to fit through.
Beyond that advantage, though, personally I liked how limit Air’s cup shape reminded me of timeless characters from classic sci-fi TV shows like the Cyberman from Dr Who. What’s definitely more essential is that the cups fit well, and luckily, they did.
One problem about this headset’s predecessor was the scratchy mesh material that made up the inner lining of each earcup. The cups have plenty of memory foam cushioning on them too.
These comfort gains aren’t compromised by the Syn Max Air’s 11.5 ounce (325 gram) weight either, which is only partially much heavier than the 10.97 ounce (311 gram) Syn Pro Air’s weight. Attempting it on, I discovered it to feel weighty but not to produce any type of fatiguing pressure.
The building is a fascinating mix of plastic and light aluminum. The black matte plastic in the cups isn’t the lightweight kind that likely had you in tears as a kid because your RC cars and truck got pulverised by a truck. No, it’s a lot stronger than that. The band being obviously consisted of metal is more powerful still– although remarkably, there’s a complete lack of clamp pressure.
What there’s no lack of, however, is RGB lighting. Here, Roccat’s spending plan could have been squandered on simply a simple RGB ring, however it’s been put to excellent use illuminating honeycomb layers in the bottom corner of each cup and beneath the charging station. All this RGB is programmable and likewise suitable with the Roccat’s AIMO RGB ecosystem.
The headband uses a special cylindrical rod system to adjust the height of the cups. The very same kind of stubborn immovability can be discovered in the cups.
What kind of controls do you get in the Syn Max Air?
There aren’t truly a lot of controls on limit Air to play with. You get a volume wheel, a mic monitor button, power button, and Bluetooth button. The Syn Max likewise comes with a detachable unidirectional TruSpeak microphone that clips into the left earcup. This has flip-to-mute functionality, which conserves a great deal of fumbling around in the dark.
For the $249.99 sticker price there’s no point mincing words about the sort of controls I want limit Air had. For beginners, I would have liked to see the addition of a 3.5 mm auxiliary port for the flexibility of having the ability to hardwire my connection on the fly.
Furthermore, I could have made with an audio mixer and Bluetooth control– both of which are controls you can discover in the Logitech G’s Astro A30 Wireless– which is a wonderful video gaming headset that ships for $20 less. Still, the fact you get a charging dock rather offsets the rather standard selection.
Roccat Max Syn Air compatibility and connectivity
You can utilize the Roccat Syn Max Air with Microsoft Windows 10/11 PCs but likewise your Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5 and cellular phone too, that makes it a do-almost-everything device.
The connection consists of 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi along with Bluetooth, or a wired connection via the provided USB-C to USB-A cable. The Wi-Fi and Bluetooth can be utilized concurrently, which is a really cool function. It means you can stream an extra audio source of your option to your headset while playing– however more on that later on.
Putting all that connection to great use I primarily used the device in Wi-Fi Mode on my desktop PC with the included 2.4 GHz USB transmitter, but the Bluetooth became incredibly convenient for gaming on my laptop when the restricted number of ports were all occupied.
Having a closer listen exposed limit Air’s chauffeurs to be particularly tuned for mid-range frequencies, a fact that’s going to specifically favor esports gamers of games like Fortnite or CounterStrike: Global Offensive.
I likewise utilized Bluetooth to take pleasure in a few hours of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on my Nintendo Switch. Oddly enough, in Bluetooth mode you can’t just change the volume utilizing the headset’s volume wheel; instead, you require to change the volume on the gadget itself, which is quite troublesome.
On the advantage however, the charging doc is very useful. It suggested I constantly had someplace to keep my headset safe. It likewise made charging easy enough, although according to Roccat the Syn Max Air gives you just 16 hours playtime on a single charge. Compare that to the 40 approximately hours you receive from the Razer Barracuda Pro and truthfully, 16 hours appears a little small.
Still, with your charging station established beside your rig, even 16 hours of battery life is never likely to be a much of a problem.
What’s it like video gaming with the Roccat Syn Max Air?
Updating the headset’s firmware in the Swarm companion software application app took longer than expected. Luckily, I didn’t terminate the mission, due to the fact that the audio was well worth the wait. The Syn Max Air’s 50mm Nanoclear drivers produced a nice well balanced noise that’s certainly a significant improvement on the audio quality of its predecessor the Syn Pro Air.
Having a closer listen exposed limit Air’s motorists to be particularly tuned for mid-range frequencies, a reality that’s going to especially prefer esports players of video games like Fortnite or CounterStrike: Global Offensive.
Beyond these superficial musings, you ought to also understand that compared to headsets like the Arctis Nova 7X and Logitech G935, which deliver a little cheaper, limit Air’s audio sounds slightly far-off, as if the noise is coming from even more away. That isn’t always a bad thing, however it isn’t going to be to everyone’s taste. I had some success making the audio sound a little closer by tweaking the 10-band Equalizer settings in Swarm, so it’s excellent to know you have that option.
When it comes to the directionality of the sound, I had no problems. In a video game of Insurgency, for instance, I took pleasure in a great soundscape of surges and ricochets from all the primary directions of a compass. This truly contributed to the sense of realism I got.
A much better service was simply switching on a setting called Superhuman Hearing, which essentially highlights crucial game sounds simply like gamer steps. Utilized properly this function can be a big asset for FPS players.
The genuine gem in the Max Air’s crown for me was the simultaneous Bluetooth performance. Coupling with my phone to stream music truly helped improve my efficiency– I imply who can resist the uplifting power of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers while lobbing a couple of grenades? That’s how I like to utilize this function anyhow, but you could just as easily use it to stream a podcast or take call too– other equally uplifting things.
That’s not to say everything worked effortlessly. I had a grievance with limit Air’s microphone in fact. Although it typically conveyed my voice plainly, it was a little too short to reach my mouth, got a lot of ambient noise, and at times its indicator sound simply went off all on its own, like some kind of battery-operated kids’ doll gone crazy.
These are concerns that didn’t leave a very favorable impression of the mic for me duration. However because I’m not a huge mic user anyhow, they didn’t do much to ruin my experience.
Should you buy the Roccat Syn Max Air?
The Syn Max Air is a leap ahead of its predecessor the Syn Pro Air in sound quality and is incomparably more comfortable. It also has good cross compatibility and synchronised double cordless connectivity– features any self-respecting players are going to enjoy.
While an underperforming mic, and high $250 price tag might give some players reason to pause at the checkout, simply as numerous will be blown away by features like its good 3D audio, glasses friendly style, dedicated charging dock, and fantastic RGB. Those features alone make it a rarity amongst headsets and a solid option worth thinking about.
