Written by do_0h | 28 April 2012
Posted in Articles - Reviews

I've heard many positive opinions about the ROCCAT products, but never had the opportunity of trying them out. It all changed two weeks ago, when I got ROCCAT Kulo for review. It is our second product from the German based manufacturer ROCCAT, one of their top notch products, as many of their products are. I'm not pro player, but I am one of the long time user type of guy, so you can imagine that for me comfort is the main thing. In this review I'll share with you my impressions and conclusions related to sound quality, design and software of ROCCAT Kulo.

Headset specifications

• Frequency response - 20-20,000 Hz
• Impedance - 50 ohm +/- 15%
• Sensitivity at 1kHz - 102dB +/- 3dB
• Max. output - 80mW
• Driver diameter - 40mm
• Driver magnets - Neodymium
• Acoustic design - Close
• Connectors - 2 x 3.5mm
• Weight - 178g
• Cable length - 2,5m
• Warranty - 2 years

Microphone specifications

• Frequency rate - 70-20,000 Hz
• Sensitivity - -47dB +/- 3dB
• Signal to noise ratio - 50dB
• Impedance - 2,200 ohm
• Directivity - Bidirectional

The Box

From the very start we can see that the manufacturer of headset Roccat Kulo have set themselves to build in the best product possible, the quality of the product shows even without opening the box, and the work thrown into building the box itself reveals that the same hard thought was applied in building the product itself. The box has a cut edge which gives a plus to the overall style. The window in the box reveals some of the headset, not too much and not too little, just enough to raise your interest and make you wonder what lies behind the plastic window.


The box is packed with useful information about the headset itself and designed based on professional gamer feedback  Sebastien 'krl' Perez from Counter-Strike: Source. It is always great thing to know that some professional player had an impact on a certain product, just because you know that that player knows what he needs and wants from that certain product, being a long time user and such.

Unboxing

As all ROCCAT products, the box has futuristic design but regardless to this it's easy to open. You just need to remove four stickers and that's it.

Inside the box there are the Roccat Kulo headset, two exchange ear pads, 7.1 USB soundcard, installation guide on 10 languages and ROCCAT registration card, which contains the number you will use to create the Roccat account.


Going on, my first impression about the head set was "wow" as the design is impeccable, every angle of the headset looks great, and even though it a relatively small headset, the shape allows it to sit perfectly on every type of head. The access to the headset itself is easy, as you only have to remove three wires that hold it into its place.


The attention to details continues even inside the box, as the support on which the headset sit has little sponge squares to maintain a perfect position of the headset while in transport and prevent scratches.


Upon removing ROCCAT Kulo from the support case, and first time holding it in my hands, my second impression of it was "so lightweight". I know the box, the commercials and all users said this, but it was lighter than I've expected it to be, another plus from my point of view as, this increases the comfort in case of long term usage. Examining the headset further more I've seen all the refined details on it, the excellent quality of the materials used, interesting design and shape. Than I've started to look at each accessory that this headset has came with, first stop were the two extra ear pads, the "memory ear pads" at first they do not look that much, or that impressive, but later I found what they are all about. I'll describe them in In Usage section. 

In Usage

Even though the ROCCAT Kulo itself came with a lot of accessories, it's still possible to use it as a "plug and play" product, as it does not require the software to be installed to give you a good sound quality, or to be able to use it day by day, weather you watch movies, listen to music, use it at games, or any other thing, but do not expect to get the better out of it without installing the software.

At first I've decided to use the headset with original ear pads. They felt good, but from my point of view as time passes by, and I used them it felt that the ear pads are rather stiff. After few hours of non-stop usage my ears started to overheat, but need to say that this issue is common for all headsets with closed acoustic design.

I've decided to give the two "memory ear pads" a go. The switch is simple and the manufacturer even gives a detailed scheme on how to do it. You just have to gently grab the ear pad, from the base and rotate it clockwise till you hear a "click" than just pull it out and you are done


To put the new ear pad on, you have to reverse this move. Just press the ear pad on the earpiece and rotate anticlockwise till you hear the click. The exchange took me a few seconds. When I put the headset back on, immediately felt the difference, as the comfort of the headset increased dramatically.


What these two ear pads are? Well, from what I've seen they are made out of one "fluffy" sponge like material coated with a leather like material, which allows them to fully reproduce the shape of your ears.


Thus fitting much better on your ears and apart from isolating, it does increase the quality of the sound. Also the "memory ear pads" have a special coating that allows them to quickly lose the heat that accumulates during the long time use, for example, if you take the headset off for just a few seconds, the material will lose the heat almost instantly and when putting the headset back on, you feel like you've just started to use ROCCAT Kulo.

The earpiece of the headset has a unique shape. The middle of the earpiece is fixed to the rest of the headset and allows the earpiece to move. One thing that I found is that the movement of the this earpiece is not that big, sure it moves as much as you need but the lack of self adjusting capacities is one tiny minus.

The head band also slides down as much as 5 centimeters to allow the headset to fully fit all sized heads, and the top of it is coated with a material that ensures extra comfort while wearing. The metal piece in the headband ensures an extra durability of the headset and allows the headset to maintain the shape.


The design is kept also in the shape of the microphone. It's easy to fold up and down, and really flows with the curves of the headset. ROCCAT Kulo has that nifty feature of auto mute the microphone while it's folded up. Just fold down the mic and you can chat with friends in game, on Skype, make audio calls, etc. When you need to mute the microphone just fold it back up and you are done. Easy! The quality of the voice is great. I've tested the capacities with at least a dozen friends and none of them complained of strange noises, modified voice or any other thing that a lower quality microphone could bring to the table.

The format of the headset is close acoustic and the noise cancellation works perfect. While wearing this headset even at a low volume you barely hear the noise outside it, for some this might be a minus, but from my point of view this is good because the headset can be used at LAN events where when there is money on the line, you have to hear every bit of sound that can make the difference between a lost or a won round in Counter-Strike for example. Sure by using a close acoustic design, the problem of overheating your ears while using the headset is present, but the shape of this product, which does not cover the whole ear makes it work with this type of acoustic design.

Moving on, the cable is 2,5 meters long, which is more than enough for every set-up. The volume control is classic and set on the cable, but this is where it ends, as the designers behind this headset did not use the plain old scroll that every headset has, instead they used a sliding rood that easy moves up and down, to lower or rise the volume, if you want to mute the sound simply slide the rood down to maximum in the "- minus" position and you are done.


The sound quality is awesome even without the software installed. The balance is just perfect and the treble is well blended in with the bass.

Installing the software requires using the ROCCAT official site as there is no installation CD in the box. Some may say this is not good, but from my point of view, such move from manufacturer is better, because you will always know that the software you install is up to date with new features and fixed bugs.

Installing the software is pretty easy. You have to go to Support section, than select the product you want, in this case the ROCCAT Kulo 7.1 USB, and hit the download button.


You can register on website with your ROCCAT ID-Card which comes with ROCCAT Kulo for getting bonuses from manufacturer such as wallpapers, ringtones and so on.

One thing to be aware is that after installing the driver as long as the sound card is in the USB slot your main soundcard will not work. After installing the driver, the interface can be launched via the ROCCAT icon in tray.

The interface looks like a standard sound card interface, and this is another big plus, as the simple the program is the easier to discover what you can do it is. There are some nifty features like the microphone boost, picking up the perfect environment for your setup, testing your headset and so on. There are some "trolling" features as well which from my point of view are funny, like the Karaoke/Magic Voice feature, which allows you to fool around with your friends while chatting with them with a cartoon like voice or with the voice of a monster.


The menu of the software contains all settings you can find on a basic soundcard, settings that allows you to tweak your headset as you please, but there are also some extra features like selecting the distance between you and the speakers, if you use speakers for example, or selecting the size of the room you live in.

Regarding the sound quality after installation, well if you already have a 7.1 soundcard as your main, do not expect any improvement, but if you don't, than you will feel the difference, as the sound will get much clear, and while playing a fps game for example, in my case Counter-Strike, you can clearly hear from where every sound comes and thus allowing you to improve yourself as a player overall. While listening to music I realized that the difference from my onboard 5.1 sound card to the ROCCAT 7.1 USB card is kind of big, as the bass got much better with the ROCCAT 7.1, and the treble got much clear, which from my point of view is a good thing to have for like 40Mb of memory in installed programs.

Conclusions

Pro:

• design
• Good sound quality
• Slim microphone, who's design flows with that of the headset
• Great voice quality
• Automated mute feature
• Long cable to ensure perfect mobility while wearing the headset
• Extra ear pads, that ensure perfect comfort
• Plug and play product
• Easy software interface

Cons:

• Basic ear pads that are a bit stiff and cause some overheating in long wearing sessions
• The ear piece does not have the best mobility
• Non-detachable microphone