Roccat, Turtle Beach’s PC gaming branch, recently released their ELO series. These gaming headsets range from around $50 for the X Stereo edition to the three figure range for the 7.1 Air edition.
In this review, we’re looking at the more budget edition, the X Stereo, starting at around $50. How does it perform for gaming, music, microphone quality, etc?
The Verdict
The ELO X Stereo headset is a budget-friendly, highly affordable headset for those who are looking to purchase their first gaming headset to see if it would make a difference in their gaming performance.
This headset is not for those wanting to listen to music on them as well. The sound quality for music is not as great, as this is not the intended purpose of this headset.
It has decent microphone quality as well with a conveniently detachable microphone.
Read on to see the complete review. To read more about what others think about the product, you can check it out on Amazon.
In The Box
Inside the box, we have the following parts:
- Headset – The headset is what we will focus on the most in this review. It is an all-black design with comfortable cushions
- Detachable Microphone – The microphone is all black with an exposed microphone. There is no wind screen to protect it from picking up breathing sounds.
- 1-to-2 Splitter – For cross platform compatibility, it comes with a splitter to allow the microphone to also work on PC.
- Manual – For more information, the manual can be consulted. The manual explains how to connect the headset to all of its compatible platforms: Xbox, PS4, PC, and mobile.
Build Quality
The overall build quality of this headset is decent. It has a metal frame at the top which makes the headset very sturdy.
Despite this, the plush headband that touches your head is lined with soft memory foam cushioning. This headband is extremely flexible and can be twisted and manipulated in every way possible without any creaking or cracking.
The headband is self-adjusting. This means that there’s no need to increase or decrease the side arms of the headset to fit your head. The band will expand to fit your head perfectly. This is really convenient to just pick up and play without finagling with it. Great way to start playing games!
The sides of each earcup are made of plastic pieces held together via different screws. They are quite hollow, so make sure not to drop your headset.
One small detail (this may be nit picking) that I do not like is that there are small rubber pads on each earcup to prevent the headset frame from hitting the earcup. It just seems like it was an afterthought during the design process.
Each earcup hinges about 120 degrees to ensure a comfortable seal around your ears.
Overall, for the price, this headset has decent build quality. It is entirely plastic with a metal frame around the top.
The Sound Quality
The sound quality of this headset will vary from platform to platform as well as what you are listening to.
Gaming
When it comes to games, there are many different genres. After using this headset for a variety of different games, the following observations explain how the headset performs for each game type.
Story-based Games
When gaming the background music in the game tends to lack a bit.
When playing story-based games where the music is important to fully immerse yourself into the story and feelings associated with the story, this headset underperforms slightly. Although at the low price, this is to be expected.
The melodic harmonies are somewhat muddled and not as vibrant as they could be. When playing games such as Final Fantasy, Monster Hunter, Legend of Zelda, and more, the headset prioritizes the bass sounds.
The menu sounds, the highs, are very pronounced as well, which may cause you to have to turn the volume down, depending on how sensitive your ears are.
The headset is very good with directionality and separating the sounds for each side. This was an enjoyable experience and very immersive for RPGs.
First-person Shooters
The Roccat ELO X Stereo headset performed exceptionally well in shooters. The bass is punchy and it picks up the loud noises in-game along with the footsteps.
However, if you do play many FPSs, this headset will help you perform better by letting you hear where grenades are coming from, if any enemy is nearby or not via their footprints, and gunshots from the distance.
You can tell if someone is shooting on your left or right, quite convenient. But also, it’s quite distracting sometimes as well.
Music
Just like gaming, there are a ton of different genres for music as well.
This headset performs decently in all genres. Although there can be distortion, especially with high bass responses.
When listening to pop songs, the bass and highs do well, but fall a bit flat in the mid-range.
Keep in mind, this is not what the headset is made for. It is tuned to perform better in certain kinds of games much better.
That doesn’t mean that you can’t listen to music. It will still play music fine as long as you keep the volume relatively low. The higher the volume, the more distortion there will be.
The Microphone Quality
The microphone quality is pretty good.
When speaking, I recommend moving the microphone to its furthest position. That way, it can pick up your talking without picking up the excess noise.
If your keyboard or mouse is too loud, the microphone will also pick up those noises as well. This is not ideal for someone who is streaming on Twitch or other associated streaming platforms.
In these cases, make sure you have some kind of noise gate that will establish a certain noise threshold before letting in sounds.
For a budget headset, however, I would say the microphone performs above-average and it’s the same microphone used in the higher-end version of the headset.
The Comfort Level
This headset is not too bad when it comes to comfort either.
When worn for over 2+ hours, it starts to feel a little hot around the ears, but compared to other headsets it does well.
The headset is designed to be one-size-fits all. Where the suspending band self-adjusts based on headsize and shape. This is super convenient because you don’t need to worry about adjusting anything.
On the otherhand, you are stuck with whatever way the headset conforms to your head giving you less control over the fit.
Either way, there is a tradeoff to the convenience and depending on your head shape/size this can be a win or loss for you.
Cushions
The cushions are a plush memory foam encased in leatherette material. It doesn’t have too much give, but it’s not too thick either.
It would’ve been nice to see cushions that have more give and a more cloud-like feeling.
If you’re a glasses-wearer, the cushions conform to your glasses with their ProSpecs technology making it put less pressure on the sides of the glasses. I definitely noticed a positive difference.
Cross-Platform Compatibility
One of the best features about this headset is that it works with all platforms. Many headsets are only compatible with console or only PC. This is inconvenient because then you need many headsets for different occasions.
I like that Roccat designed the headset mainly for PC, but made it usable on a wide variety of different platforms. Making this headset quite versatile all-around.
Conclusion
At it’s low price point, the metal construction is a nice surprise and I hope other budget headset manufacturers follow suit.
The headset feels durable, comfortable, and super convenient to use on the fly. Not to mention the mic performs well and sound quality is decent depending on the application.
There are a few downsides to the design, such as the bulkiness. In addition, the suspension design can be polarizing depending on what style of headset you prefer.
At the end of the day, there are enough features and the build quality is high enough for me to recommend this headset, especially at the super low price point.
Good luck!