Roccat Vire

Testing

Methodology

Headsets, like many other peripherals, are quite difficult to test as the results are going to be based mainly around the user’s personal preference for bass and treble levels, and their ability to convey the quality of the sound; because of this, the testing is rather subjective.

To fully test the headset though, we play different types of music, movies and games while wearing the headphones, which give us as clear a picture as possible of what the device can do.

Results

Games

Call of Duty: World at War

Call of Duty World at War is the latest in a long line of the Infinity Ward/Treyarch series and takes you take to the intense fighting of the Second World War. It’s perfect for sound testing due to the constant bombardments of artillery, explosions and gunfire coupled with the packs of dogs which make for some very powerful sounds.

At mid to low volumes, the Vire held up well with good clarity and realism. However, the challenge for most sound equipment is its ability to maintain this at higher volumes. To the Vire’s credit it was able to and once I cranked the volume up, the explosions were just as clear and real if not more so – this is really very good.

The ability to increase the sound levels on Call of Duty really does transport you to a whole new level of intense gaming and if you’re not already doing so, I would encourage you to try it.

Crysis Warhead

Crysis Warhead is the sequel to the highly regarded Crysis for its high level graphics; the sound quality is not so high but still contains a varied mix of booms bangs and smashes which should put the Vire through its paces.

Again, I must comment on how clear the sound is with no fuzzing at all. Even at high levels the lightweight headset is able to relay great quality sound – this is impressive indeed and it really doesn’t feel like wearing a headset at all.    

Music

I played a recently created playlist which has a very wide combination of tunes from ‘Fire’ by Kasabian to ‘I’m Yours’ by Jason Mraz to ‘Rubber Lover’ by Marmaduke Duke. In each instance I was very impressed and didn’t really notice any distortion or any lapses in performance.

I even cracked up the volume on Tinchy Stryder’s new hit – Number One – to test out the bass and it coped admirably.

Overall the speakers are clear and produce a very crisp sound – perhaps the bass could be tweaked a little and it’s slightly tinny at times but looking at the bigger picture it’s very good.

Microphone

It’s quite hard to really ‘test’ a microphone but to give some sort of opinion on its performance, I held quite a lengthy voice conversation on Skype as well as using the mic in game and got my fellow competitors to give some feedback.

On all accounts, the response was very positive, with emphasis on the clarity of the sound; now this is really exciting as the microphone is tiny and you hardly notice it with it just being integrated on the cable.

Cost

The Roccat Vire come in at around £40 which does seem pretty good considering their other headset, the Kave, is double that. However, you always get the feeling with Roccat that you are also paying extra for the intensely styled packaging and added accessories. Nonetheless, £40 seems alright.

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