Asus ROG Centurion 7.1 Headset

How many drivers can dance on the head of a gamer?

PRICE $ 469 www.asus.com.au Despite

the headset looking something like an angry, hungover owl perched on your head, we did like a number of aspects of the previous Asus 7.1 headset, The Strix 7.1. The sound was excellent, and the base station/ external DAC that the headset attached to had some very nice built-in features and presets. The Rog Centurion 7.1 is a rather excellent rethink of the idea, doing away with the wireless connection of the Strix 7.1 in favour of a cable, cutting down on both size and weight. While still being huge and heavy - an unfortunate necessity given the five drivers crammed into each earcup - the lighter, smaller Centurion 7.1 fits better on the head and has a better head strap, making the headset much more comfortable over long periods.

Sound quality is excellent, with good directionality to the surround sound and crisp, clear performance in all ranges otherwise. Having surround active when listening to a stereo source can add a hollow, effect to sound, but that’s a problem endemic to surround sound headsets, both real and virtual. The breakout box/DAC is excellent, giving quick access to volume, levels and a few presets designed to highlight voice, gunshots or footsteps. It seems as though Asus has also fixed one of the niggling problems with the Strix 7.1. In the previous headset the active noise cancelling sometimes picked up the user’s voice as being environmental noise and blocked it. Thankfully that doesn’t appear to be a problem anymore. DANIEL WILKS