ROCCAT Syn Pro Air Wireless Headphones Review

The ROCCAT Syn Pro Air Wireless are gaming-oriented headphones with an all-black design and customizable lighting on each ear cup. They have a detachable boom mic and a somewhat more sleek, casual appearance than the ROCCAT Elo 7.1 Air. However, they're still a bit bulky, with thick padding and a wide plastic headband.

The ROCCAT Syn Pro Air Wireless are comfortable headphones. They feel light and don't clamp onto your head very hard. The headband and ear cups are well-padded as well. You can adjust the headband with a sliding mechanism, but it's hard to push it upwards.

The ROCCAT Syn Pro Air Wireless have gaming-oriented controls that are somewhat limited. They're easy to use but don't include functions for calls, music, or channel mixing. There's a mic monitor wheel on the right ear cup and a volume wheel on the left ear cup. Unfortunately, they scroll infinitely, and there's no chime or voice prompt to let you know when you get to the minimum or maximum setting. There's also a clicky power button on the left ear cup that's easy to hit by accident when you're adjusting the headset. On the plus side, you can flip the boom mic up or down to mute it or unmute it, and you hear a chime to confirm that it worked.

The ROCCAT Syn Pro are decently breathable. They trap much less heat against your ears than some other closed-back gaming headsets like the Logitech G PRO X WIRELESS LIGHTSPEED Gaming Headset or the Astro A50 Gen 4 Wireless 2019, but they aren't designed for sports use, and you may sweat more if you use them during a workout.

The ROCCAT Syn Pro Air aren't very portable, like most gaming headphones. They're quite bulky, and while you can swivel the ear cups to lay flat, that doesn't reduce the amount of space the headphones take up.

The ROCCAT Syn Pro Air don't come with a case or pouch.

The ROCCAT Syn Pro Air have a good build quality. The headband and ear cups are well-padded with fabric-covered foam. The sliding part on the hinges allows you to change the size of the headband for a better fit, but the mechanism can be a bit difficult to push upwards. The plastic yokes don't feel extremely durable, but they swivel to give the ear cups a good range of motion. Like most gaming headsets, these headphones don't have an IP rating for dust or water resistance.

The ROCCAT Syn Pro Air are reasonably stable and should have no issues staying in place when you're just sitting and gaming. However, they aren't intended for use during physical activity and have a fairly loose fit, so they shift around a lot when you move. Fortunately, their wireless design means you don't need to worry about the cable snagging on something and yanking them off your head.

• ROCCAT Syn Pro Air Wireless
• Detachable boom mic
• Cover for boom mic port (for when mic detached)
• USB-A to USB-C charging cable
• USB-A transmitter
• USB-A to USB-C adapter for transmitter
• Quick Start Guide

The ROCCAT Syn Pro Air have a well-balanced, somewhat bright sound profile. They lack a bit of thump and rumble in the bass range, and instruments and lead vocals sound somewhat thin, while certain sibilants are piercing. That said, their sound delivery varies a lot depending on their fit, seal, and positioning on your head. Conveniently, there's a graphic EQ in the companion software that you can use to customize their sound.

The ROCCAT Syn Pro Air have poor frequency response consistency. Their audio delivery can vary a lot depending on the ear cups' fit, seal, and positioning, especially in the bass range. Users who wear glasses or have thick hair may experience a drop in bass. You likely need to adjust the headphones every time you use them to achieve a consistent sound.

The ROCCAT Syn Pro Air have excellent bass accuracy. The low-bass is underemphasized, so they lack a bit of thump and rumble, but the rest of the range is quite well-balanced, so your audio should have the right amount of warmth and punch. That said, their bass delivery can vary dramatically based on their fit, seal, and positioning on your head, and this result represents their average response.

The ROCCAT Syn Pro Air have good mid accuracy. The low-mid is underemphasized, which thins out instruments and lead vocals, but the rest of the range is quite accurate, and those elements are still clear.

The ROCCAT Syn Pro Air have decent treble accuracy. The low-treble is somewhat underemphasized, so instruments and lead vocals lose a bit of detail. Meanwhile, the mid-treble is overemphasized, making sibilants like S and T sounds and cymbals seem piercing. Their treble delivery is also quite dependent on the headphones' fit and positioning on your head.

The ROCCAT Syn Pro Air have passable peaks and dips performance. There's a bump from the mid to high-bass range that adds a bit of boominess and a dip in the low-mid that thins out vocals and lead instruments. There's also a peak between the mid-mid and high-mid, making the upper harmonics of vocals and lead instruments sound slightly forward or harsh. A steep dip in the low-treble makes those elements sound less detailed, and a big peak in the mid-treble makes sibilants piercing.

The ROCCAT Syn Pro Air have a decent imaging performance. The group delay falls above the audibility threshold in the bass range, resulting in a somewhat loose bass response. There's also an audible phase mismatch between the left and right drivers in the bass range, which can cause inaccuracies in the placement of objects like footsteps in the stereo image. It's noticeable when listening to regular content, but these results are only valid for our unit.

The ROCCAT Syn Pro Air have a disappointing passive soundstage. Sound is mostly perceived as coming from inside your head rather than from speakers in the room around you. Their closed-back design means they create a less open, less spacious-seeming soundstage than most open-back headphones.

The ROCCAT Syn Pro Airhave a few virtual surround sound features. In the app, you can choose to turn on 'Superhuman Hearing', '3D Audio', and 'Game Spatializer'. The companion software doesn't include very much information about these features, which could be because it's still in its beta version. Turtle Beach, which owns ROCCAT, has more information about them on their website.

The '3D Audio' feature is a virtual surround sound feature intended to take music or game audio in a multi-channel format and convert it for headphones to create a more immersive listening experience. Meanwhile, the 'Game Spatializer' feature takes stereo audio and adjusts it to simulate multi-channel audio, so it's intended to make sound seem like it's coming from all around you rather than only from the left and right. The 'Superhuman Hearing' setting is supposed to help gamers hear sound effects like footsteps and gunshots more clearly. However, we don't currently don't test any of these features.

The ROCCAT Syn Pro Air have a good weighted harmonic distortion performance. The entire range falls within good limits, resulting in clean and pure audio reproduction.

These are the settings used to test the ROCCAT Syn Pro Air. Our results are only valid when they're used in this configuration.

The ROCCAT Syn Pro Air have a poor noise isolation performance. They don't have active noise cancelling, and their design doesn't block out any bass-range noise like the rumble of bus and plane engines. They don't do a very good job isolating you from mid-range noises like ambient chatter, either. However, they block out a decent amount of high-pitched noise like humming A/C units.

The ROCCAT Syn Pro Air have an okay leakage performance. If you listen to your audio at a high volume, the audio that leaks is loud enough to be heard in an average office, so people sitting nearby can hear what you're listening to. Some of the sound that escapes is in the mid-range, so it's relatively full-bodied.

The boom mic has an okay recording quality. Your voice sounds thin and lacks body, but it's bright and understandable. If you're looking for a headset with a better mic recording quality, you may prefer the Corsair HS80 RGB WIRELESS.

The boom mic has a good noise handling performance. When you talk into the boom mic in a moderately noisy environment, your voice sounds clear and seems to be in front of background noise. If you're somewhere loud, your teammates may hear some background noise, but your voice should still be easy to hear.

The ROCCAT Syn Pro Air have a good battery performance. They last for just under 24 hours on a single charge, close to what the manufacturer advertises. You can also use them while they're charging if you're connected via the USB transmitter. They take about 90 minutes to charge, which is quite fast. However, battery performance can vary with real-life use, so you may have a different experience.

The ROCCAT Syn Pro Air have a decent companion app. It's easy to use, but we experienced some issues with some of its features. This could be because the software, Neon, is still in its beta version.

Neon includes a 10-band graphic EQ and on/off toggles for the headphones' other sound customization features, including 'Game Spatializer', '3D Audio', and 'Superhuman Hearing'. You can check their battery status and adjust the master volume, the game dialogue volume, and the mic sidetone. There are options, including a color wheel to customize the lighting on the ear cups. You can also turn on 'AIMO' lighting, advertised to allow the colors to change over time and match other products that you have with AIMO lighting.

During our testing, we had problems turning the ear cup lighting off and changing the color. To get the lights to turn off, we had to turn the headset on and off, and then there was a delay between changing the setting in the app and the lights going out. There was a similar issue with the volume control, which occasionally stopped working in the software until the headset was turned on and off again.

The ROCCAT Syn Pro Air have passable non -Bluetooth wireless connectivity. When you use their USB dongle to connect to a PC, they have somewhat high latency. If you use the USB-A to USB-C adapter to connect the dongle to an Android phone, they provide a very low latency connection. You can also use it to connect with an Android tablet with a USB-C input.

Note: If you're trying to use the adapter to connect to an Android device and can't get the audio to work, enabling 'USB Debugging' through 'Developer Options' on your device may fix the issue. However, this isn't part of the manufacturer's set up instructions.

The ROCCAT Syn Pro Air can't be used with a wired connection. They come with a USB-A to USB-C cable for charging only.

The ROCCAT Syn Pro Air offer full compatibility with PCs if you use their wireless USB dongle to connect.

The ROCCAT Syn Pro Air offer full compatibility with PS4 and PS5 consoles if you use their wireless USB dongle.

The ROCCAT Syn Pro Air come with a USB-A dongle compatible with PCs as well as PS4 and PS5 consoles. There's also a USB-A to USB-C adapter that you can use to make it compatible with Android devices with a USB-C port, like a tablet or phone.