Roccat Khan Pro
The world’s first hi-res audio gaming headset
IN LATE 2014, the Japan Audio Society (JAS) and the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) agreed on a specification that products would have to meet in order to be allowed to wear the hi-res audio certification badge. Defining hire solution audio as “lossless audio that is capable of reproducing the full range of sound from recordings that have been mastered from better than CD quality music sources,” the JAS and CTA require hardware to have a 20 Hz–40 kHz frequency response range in order to accurately reproduce that lossless sound. Although even the sharpest human ears can’t hear anything above 20 kHz, all that extra headroom above it in the hi-res audio tech standard allows the full harmonic range of each sound to be voiced, which means a fuller sound in your ears, even if you can’t perceive the individual frequencies.
Enter Roccat’s Khan Pro headset. It’s the first ever gaming headset to come with certified hi-res audio status, bringing that requisite 20Hz–40KHz response range in tow. Its marketing materials make all kinds of promises about transformative sound quality, and getting the edge on your competition—that sort of thing. But when you get right down to it, what does hi-resolution audio really do for a gaming headset?
We’re pleased to report that the answer is: a great deal. We weren’t immediately convinced by the Khan Pro upon taking it out of the box, because like other Roccat headsets we’ve tested, the construction materials and visual design here don’t scream “premium.” A largely plastic body and slightly creaky earcups prove to be only minor marks against the Khan Pro, though—elsewhere, it’s a deceptively brilliant headset. Controls are kept to a minimum, with a simple volume scroll wheel at the back of the left earcup, and a mic mute function tied to the swingarm itself. We would ideally have liked a chat/ game mix scroll, too, at this price point, but looking at the big picture of what these cans offer, we can let that one go. The braided cable connects via two 3.5mm audio jacks for mic and audio, rather than USB, and there’s a single-input adapter for mobile devices included in the box. So far, so no-frills. RESPONSE TIME When you start pushing sounds through the Khan Pro headset, though, it’s extremely difficult not to be impressed. Starting with a highly compressed YouTube video, it managed to find more clarity, bass response, and articulate mids, far better than most other headsets we’ve tested. Moving up into higher quality compressed audio, courtesy of Spotify’s 320kb/s streaming, and older games with compressed audio files, the Khan Pro finds great sound there, too. Its response sounds similar to our ears to the venerable HyperX Cloud and Cloud II from Kingston, albeit with a slightly less emphasized low-end response. In other words, it’s very good indeed.
It shouldn’t be a surprise, then, that Roccat’s hi-res audio certified cans sound dreamy when listening to lossless audio and games with uncompressed sound files, such as Wolfenstein: The New Order and Titanfall2. The real question is: How often do you personally listen to hi-resolution audio? Because, while it’s certainly growing in popularity in PC games, it’s by no means the standard. (Pro tip: If the Steam install is less than 20GB, it’s almost certainly not using uncompressed audio.)
So, is it true that Roccat’s Khan Pro headset can give you the edge when playing multiplayer? To be honest, it’s pretty unlikely. Most multiplayer games simply don’t hit those fidelity levels, and you’d have to be playing at the very upper echelons of esports for something as incidental as the precision of footstep proximity to have a meaningful impact on your performance.
That isn’t to say Roccat hasn’t produced a really impressive headset—it has. In the process of hitting a technical standard that, let’s face it, works primarily as a marketing tool, the Khan Pro can articulate great sounds from audio of all quality levels, with a fantastic stereo spread, and a reasonably flat response. If that exemplary sound quality came in a more luxurious overall package, this would be a genuine best-inclass contender. –PHIL IWANIUK