Roccat Vire ROC-14-200 Mobile Communication Gaming Headset Review

Usage
The first thing that I noticed when I first used the Vire headphones is that they are, as advertised, incredibly light. This means that when you have them in your ears you can hardly feel them, which is of course exactly what you want for an in-ear style headphone. They are, however, quite large which could be an issue to some people.

The cups themselves fit nicely into your outer ear. They are not in-ear monitor type and are totally solid with only a small amount of rubber round the rim help hold them in place. While they generally feel very comfortable – and despite fast movements and even a little headbanging they didn’t fall out – they are free to move around slightly and I found myself adjusting them a fair bit. This might just be my ears, but many people have this issue with headphones of this kind as they are not adjustable. Due to this design they also don’t cancel out any external sound at all. While at your PC at home this could be a good thing, but if using them on the bus on the way to work with your MP3 player surrounded by a bunch of screaming kids then it could prove to be their downfall.

The wire is split equally and therefore is not the popular style where you put one wire round the back of your head, meaning you have a cable coming from each ear. If this will suit you is entirely down to personal preference. It’s also worth noting that they don’t come with any form of clip with which to fasten the cable to your clothing to prevent it’s weight from pulling the phones, or to prevent it from snagging. While not really a major issue, it would have been nice for one to be included.

The microphone is actually a small plastic box installed in line on the left hand ‘phone cable, a few inches from the ear. It sits about level with your voice box. It’s position means it’s close enough to your mouth to pick up sounds, but it doesn’t get in your way or snag on your clothing.

The provided extension cord is handy and easy to use, making it no problem to use the headset with a desktop PC that is perhaps located on the floor or at the side of your desk. The case is high quality and you can use it to carry your entire MP3 player or even mobile phone as well as the headphones themselves. It’s not quite big enough for HTC Desire or iPhone sized devices, however, as they protrude out of the top a little too much.

The phones are comfortable, but due to their design they do move around a lot and I found myself adjusting them in my ear very frequently. To be fair I’ve never got on with this kind of headphones, so it might just be the anatomy of my ears and they do not perform any worse than similar models. They are of course very light, almost too light, so this again lets them move easily, especially when pulled by the cable. Perhaps surprisingly, they stayed securely in place despite me headbanging to some hardcore thrash metal, which was pleasing!

Sound Quality
[HR][/HR]I will be comparing the quality of the headphones to a similarly priced set of dedicated in-ear headphones, the Sennheiser CX 300-II Precision and a standard headset, the Creative Fatal1ty Pro Series Gaming Headset. I’ll compare the microphone to the Creative headset and my 5+ year old Labtec desktop mic.

I tested the Vire headset with a variety of sources ranging from several different types of music, voice chat, streaming videos including iPlayer to Blu-ray playback and radio. I used Skype and Ventrilo to test the microphone.

From the very start it’s clear that the Vire are lacking in bass. But we’ll come to that in a minute. In the mid range and high range they actually perform quite well. At the very high end they easily beat the Creative headset, sounding much more crisp and defined. Sadly though they don’t come close to the richness and clarity of the Sennheiser CX 300-II’s.

Ok, so back to the bass. With the Vire, put simply, there is nothing there. They sound hollow, empty and not at all fulfilling. With the Sennheiser’s, your entire head is filled with crystal clear yet powerful bass, complementing their exemplary range. Being a normal headset, the Creatives also provide a deep bass, though somewhat muffled. It’s such a shame that the Vire lacks in bass as without it everything apart from general voice sounds lacking and somewhat dead. For me at least they are useless for any kind of serious music listening. Software adjustments help, but do not solve the problem.

They scale well with volume, letting you crank it up probably way too loud with little or no distortion, which is a welcome surprise. They do, however, leak sound quite badly, so you wouldn’t want to use them too loudly on a quiet train journey, for example. Sadly though, there is no volume control.

The microphone is fantastic. Despite the fact it sits in a strange position below your chin almost, it picks up my voice with fantastic clarity, performing better than both the Creative Fatal1ty headset and my desktop microphone. This is definitely a bonus. My only complaint is that sometimes the mic twists as it is on the cable and gets muffled by your clothes, but this is not really a big deal and doesn’t happen too often.