Roccat Khan Pro Hi-Res Headset Review

A Closer Look and Performance

Those of you familiar with the Roccat range will find the Khan Pro looks pretty familiar to their existing ranges. It clearly has the same designer as say, the Cross headset, but still has a few unique touches of its own. Weighing in at just 230g, it’s surprisingly lightweight. Not “super light” but certainly lighter than a lot of the big gaming headsets that litter the market these days.

Adjustments

The headset is super flexible, offering lots of adjustments. However, we wouldn’t expect anything less from Roccat, who’ve always pushed for great ergonomics and comfort. The ear cups rotate in 92-degrees, so the headset is more comfortable to wear around your neck while not in use. However, it’ll also help ensure it sits perfectly flat around your ears while you’re wearing it. There’s also a pivot on the ear cup, allowing some vertical movement, again helping to create the perfect weight distribution around your ears.

Closed-Back

The driver housing is pretty slick, with lots of curvy plastic. It’s finished in matte black with these funky silver decals on the back. They’re a bit flash for my taste, but at least they didn’t add in any RGB lighting, so it’s not “that” flash.

On the other side, you have some silver decals. I like that it’s not symmetrical, I don’t know why, but I just do. Here you’ll also find the microphone boom is built into the headset. I know, I know, I prefer a detachable one too, but it is what it is.

Headband

Everything on the headset feels both lightweight and smooth, but also nicely engineered. It has a real quality feel to it that makes it a nice pairing with my own current gaming setup of the Roccat Horde Aimo keyboard and Roccat Tyon Mouse.

On the top of the headband, there’s more of that silver detailing. I was a bit unsure of all the graphics when I first got this sample. However, they’re definitely growing on me. The headband is lined with an air-padded rubber grip coating.

It’s not the softest headband ever, but the grip of it is impressive. Not so much if you have long hair, as it tends to pull it around. However, if you’re quite animated while you game, it’ll keep it from moving around on your head, which is handy.

Drivers

The comfort on the ear cups is superb, with a soft memory foam padded leather. The ear pads actually sit over the opening rather than around it. So there’s actually more room in there for your ears that it looks. This means your ear and the driver sit much closer together. Furthermore, you get a good air tight seal without the need for excessive pressure from the headset. Combined, that means you get a more direct and powerful sounding headset, which a much better bass response.

Hi-Res

I’m a huge fan of Hi-Res audio, sure most normal MP3 formats are just fine for jamming out some tunes or watching TV, of course. However, stepping up to higher bitrates, having Hi-Res capable drivers, etc, all add up. The clarity on this headset is nothing short of remarkable. While listening to a few lossless FLAC albums, I found myself really enjoying this headset a lot. I’ll normally play a few songs and move onto gaming. Three days in, and I’m still going back to the Khan Pro for an album or two. It sounds surprisingly open and spacious for such a direct-to-ear driver with a closed back design; very impressive indeed.

Everything Else

I typically don’t like the term “gaming headset” but that is what this is. It’s not headphones, as I cannot remove that stupid microphone boom. I mean, I could wear this out in public, but I’d look pretty stupid. That’s a real shame though, as pulling it into your phone, tablet, etc, it’s great for listening to music and movies on the go. You can use it on consoles too, thanks to that 3.5mm adaptor. Just keep in mind, not everything you plug it into will support Hi-Res audio, but it will still work within the devices output range of course.

Gaming

Roccat are marking this as a gaming headset, even more so to the eSports crowd. It’s certainly well suited to both though, but I think it has more to offer to the at home gamer like myself. For those who work on their PC, love to listen to music all day, make the occasional Skype call. Then on an evening, you do a bit of streaming, play some single player gamers, and chat with your mates in Apex. It’s brilliant at all of them, so don’t think it has to be fixed to just LAN gamers.

Microphone

The “Real Voice” microphone is pretty fantastic too. It’s not the best microphone in the world, but for a boom microphone on a gaming headset? It’s a clear cut above the competition in my opinion. However, it’s just a shame that it’s fixed to the headset.

I feel like an Andorian with this stuck on the side of my head. That being said, the weight is light, and you can’t tell it’s really there when it’s folded up. Plus, it automagically mutes its self when you fold it up out of the way.