ROCCAT Elo 7.1 Air Wireless Headphones Review

The ROCCAT Elo 7.1 Air have a somewhat bulky, gaming-oriented appearance. While their all-black color scheme isn't especially flashy, their two-piece ski-band headband and RGB logo on their ear cups ensure that they stand out in most settings. Unlike the Astro A20 Gen 2 Wireless, they have an RGB lighting feature that can be customized through their companion software.

The ROCCAT Elo 7.1 Air are decently comfortable. They should feel relatively light on your head, and their ear cups do an effective job of distributing their somewhat high clamping force. However, their headband can become loose fairly easily, and achieving a comfortable position with its ski-band headband can be tricky. For more comfortable gaming headphones, check out the Razer Barracuda X Wireless.

The headphones' controls are passable. There are dedicated scroll wheels for volume control and channel mixing as well as power and microphone muting buttons. The buttons yield good, clicky feedback, but the channel and volume wheels can be hard to tell apart and they scroll infinitely, so there's no way of knowing once you've reached a maximum setting. If you're connected to a PS4 or PS5 console, the volume control wheel also doesn't work, so you need to adjust the volume directly from the console.

Like most over-ear gaming headphones, the ROCCAT Elo 7.1 Air aren't very portable. Even though they have ear cups that can swivel flat and a removable boom mic that slightly reduces their overall size, they're still bulkier than alternatives like the SteelSeries Arctis 7P Wireless.

These headphones don't have a case or pouch.

The ROCCAT Elo 7.1 Air are well-built. They're mostly made of sturdy-feeling plastic, though their outer headband is made of metal. Faux leather and cloth are used to line the ear cups and inner headband. They feel quite solid overall, though their ski-band headband does seem like a potential weak point.

These over-ears have an adequately stable fit. Despite their fairly high clamping force, they're likely to loosen on your head and move around with moderate to high-intensity movements. They should have no trouble staying in place if you're wearing them while gaming, however. Their wireless design eliminates the risk of an audio cable getting snagged on something and yanking the headphones from your head.

• ROCCAT Elo 7.1 Air Wireless headphones
• USB-A dongle
• Detachable boom mic
• USB-C charging cable
• User manual

The ROCCAT Elo 7.1 Air have a somewhat boomy sound profile, which should help emphasize in-game sound effects, but without totally overpowering dialogue or music thanks to their well-balanced mid and treble ranges. If you'd like to fine-tune their sound profile to your liking, their Roccat Swarm companion software features audio presets as well as a graphic EQ.

These headphones have middling frequency response consistency. Audio delivery can vary dramatically depending on the ear cups fit, seal, and positioning. This could be especially annoying if you have thick hair or wear glasses, as this can affect their seal and lead to a reduction of intensity in their bass delivery.

These headphones have good bass accuracy. They're lacking a bit of low-end thump and rumble, but their overemphasized high-bass range should provide extra warmth to in-game sound effects, though at the expense of sounding a little boomy. That said, their bass delivery can vary drastically depending on their fit, seal, and positioning.

The ROCCAT Elo 7.1 Air have excellent mid accuracy. The range is very flat and even, yielding full-bodied and clear vocals and lead instruments that are present in the mix.

The ROCCAT Elo 7.1 Air have very good treble accuracy. The range is fairly flat but a little underemphasized, so vocals and lead instruments may lose a bit of clarity. Their uneven mid-treble range can give sibilants an alternatively slightly dull and harsh quality. Their treble delivery is very sensitive to their fit, seal, and positioning, so your listening experience may vary.

These headphones have decent peaks and dips performance. A bump in the high-bass through low-mid ranges can generate some boominess and clutter vocals and lead instruments. The dips in the low-mid and low-treble ranges can thin out vocals and lead instruments and veil them, respectively. A rise in the mid-treble range makes sibilants sound piercing.

The ROCCAT Elo 7.1 Air have impressive stereo imaging performance. Their weighted group delay falls entirely beneath the audibility threshold, resulting in tight bass and transparent treble. Their L/R drivers are also quite well-matched in regards to amplitude and phase response, with only minor frequency mismatch being present. This means that objects like footsteps and voices should be fairly accurately placed within the stereo image. That said, these results are only valid for our model.

These headphones have an acceptable passive soundstage. It should be perceived as sounding natural and as if it's coming from out in front of you rather than from the inside of your head. However, it may also be perceived as being small and closed-off. Since they have a closed-back enclosure, their soundstage isn't as spacious as open-back gaming headphones like the Astro A40 TR Headset + MixAmp Pro 2019.

These headphones offer support for 7.1 Surround Sound through its Roccat Swarm companion software. However, we don't currently test this feature.

The ROCCAT Elo 7.1 Air have passable weighted harmonic distortion performance. While audio reproduction is fairly clean and pure at normal listening volumes, some audible distortion is present across the mid-range at max volumes, which could be noticeable with real-life content.

These are the settings used to test these headphones. Our results are only valid in this configuration.

The ROCCAT Elo 7.1 Air have poor noise isolation. They do almost nothing to block out the low-pitched rumble of sounds like bus or truck engines. They don't filter out much in the way of ambient chatter either. However, they do a good job of blocking out the high-frequency hum of an AC unit.

The ROCCAT Elo 7.1 Air's leakage performance is okay. People nearby may be able to hear what you're listening to in quiet environments if you're listening at a high volume, but leaking audio should be lost beneath the noise floor of a normal office.

The ROCCAT Elo 7.1 Air have a detachable flexible microphone.

The boom mic's recording quality is good. Recorded speech should sound full-bodied and natural, though a little muffled and distorted.

The microphone's noise handling capability is very good. Teammates and people on the other end of the line should be able to understand you clearly, even in noisy environments.

The battery performance of these over-ears is great. They supply roughly 16 hours of continuous playback time with their RGB lighting turned on, which should be suitable for a couple of long gaming marathons. They're advertised as having a 24-hour battery life with their RGB lighting turned off, but this wasn't tested. They're also equipped with an adjustable auto-off timer to help conserve battery life when not in use. They take over 3 hours to charge, which is comparable to other wireless gaming headphones like the Logitech G PRO X WIRELESS LIGHTSPEED Gaming Headset, but can be used even if they're plugged in.

The Roccat Swarm companion software is great. It offers users a couple of sound customization features, like a graphic EQ and audio presets, as well as some mic adjustment functions, such as voice modification and voice clarity. You can also use it to set the length of the headphones' auto-off timer or adjust the RGB lighting on their ear cups.

The ROCCAT Elo 7.1 Air aren't Bluetooth-compatible.

Update 12/09/2021: These headphones have been updated to test bench 1.5. In this update, we made changes to the way we test latency. We now use a click track in our software, and we measure latency three times and average the results. This new method has resulted in different latency values than what we had reported in our previous test bench. As a result, we have updated our review to reflect these changes.

The ROCCAT Elo 7.1 Air have okay non-Bluetooth wireless capability. Their USB-A wireless dongle has high latency, which could cause syncing issues between your audio and visuals.

These over-ears aren't compatible with any wired connections. They come with a USB-C cable for charging.

The ROCCAT Elo 7.1 Air aren't compatible with Xbox One consoles.

The ROCCAT Elo 7.1 Air come with a USB-A dongle compatible with PC, PS4, and PS5 systems.