The Khan Aimo is the ultimate piece of Roccat’s good RGB peripheral puzzle – or no less than it’s so far, anyway. Like their Horde Aimo keyboard and Kone Aimo mouse earlier than it, the Khan Aimo makes use of Roccat’s clever RGB system to create a synchronised gentle present that adapts to the best way you’re employed and play, rippling and fading with each click on, faucet and pause throughout every of your units.
Of course, except you frequently have out-of-body-experiences if you’re taking part in video games, the RGB impact on the headset can be just about misplaced on you, as there’s no method to really see any of it when you’ve put it on. Not that it’s significantly overt within the first place, with solely a skinny strip down the aspect of every ear cup and a tiny little sliver on the base of headscarf, however no less than your mates will suppose you’re “Très Cool” if you rock up with every little thing at your subsequent LAN occasion. Okay, so the lighting is likely to be a bit pointless, however to dismiss the Khan Aimo on these grounds alone can be short-sighted, as that is additionally one other Hi Res audio licensed headset similar to the Steelseries Arctis Pro. It may also do Hi Res and encompass sound on the similar time – one thing the Arctis Pro is decidedly missing.
Now, I’m as skeptical about Hi-Res audio as the following individual, and check out as I would by way of a number of demo periods and enthusiastic advertising and marketing individuals telling me that, sure, I actually can hear singers respiratory and coughing once I couldn’t hear them spluttering and inhaling earlier than, I personally can’t inform the slightest little bit of distinction between the 2.
Theoretically, Hi-Res music ought to sound extra detailed and extra naturalistic than CD high quality music, however you want a 24-bit 96KHz audio supply to start with, and I’m not precisely certain what number of video games really help this if you get down it. Hi-Res is nice you probably have one thing like a Tidal subscription or personal quite a lot of Hi-Res music tracks, however in video games, I’m not satisfied you’re really getting a lot profit.
That’s to not say the Khan Aimo doesn’t sound good, after all. Doom’s thumping bass, as an illustration, sounded pretty and weighty in opposition to the throaty cries of its resident demon people, and the feeling of being surrounded by noise, whether or not it was the clunking machine of the UAC base or incoming plasma hearth, felt splendidly slick and exact. And but squishing imp heads in by way of your gory finisher strikes left me feeling a bit chilly, as if the squelchy highs and dripping element ended up changing into misplaced considerably within the surrounding battlescape.
I had an identical niggling feeling once I booted up Hellblade, too. While the voices inside Senua’s head whisked themselves convincingly round my ears, their tone and timbre as soon as once more sounded barely skewed towards the bassy finish of the spectrum, making them sound a tad synthetic and never fairly actual.
Then once more, different video games resembling Final Fantasy XV sounded unbelievable. Here, the sport’s sweeping orchestral overworld themes sounded hotter and richer for having a bit extra bass at their disposal, and better, extra delicate particulars like chocobo squeaks and the lads’ sword swings nonetheless got here by way of loud and clear.
The Khan Aimo additionally excelled once I began listening to extra common music as nicely. Vocals in rock and indie tracks had been heat and crisp, and I not often felt like something was being strained or overpowered by different components of my take a look at tracks. It even coped admirably with Turin Brakes’ Long Distance, which might typically turn into a little bit of a cludge if a headset’s been tuned with a specific bias in thoughts.
This makes the Khan Aimo a little bit of a tough one to pin down. In some methods, its sound was a bit disappointing, however in others it whopped the air-weaved cushioned behind of Steelseries’ Arctis Pro after which some.
Sometimes, although, it’s the little issues that find yourself dragging a headset down. For occasion, the Khan Aimo’s quantity slider on the appropriate ear cup is a little bit small for my liking, and its reminiscence foam ear cups began to make my ears itch after about an hour’s use. I additionally began to really feel its headband urgent down on my head round this time, too – an issue I additionally had once I examined Roccat’s Khan Pro.
The Aimo’s fold-down, bendable microphone sounded very echoey as nicely once I recorded myself speaking in Audacity, and its lack of LEDs meant there was no method of figuring out whether or not I’d really muted it utilizing the button on the again or not.
I additionally just like the comfort of the Arctis Pro’s devoted DAC, because it made it a lot simpler to fiddle round with its settings in-game. The Khan Aimo, however, has its 24-bit 96KHz DAC sound card constructed straight into the headset, which implies you’ll need to put up with Roccat’s Swarm software program if you wish to regulate any of its settings. These are all pretty sensibly laid-out, supplying you with an equaliser, pattern fee choices, encompass sound and microphone settings, and quite a few completely different audio profiles to select from, however it’s only a little bit of a ache having to open up one other piece of software program on a regular basis.
One huge glad Aimo household
Then once more, the Steelseries Arctis Pro is greater than twice the worth of the Khan Aimo, the latter costing simply £105 / $120 versus £249 / $249. That’s nonetheless a good chunk to spend on a pair of headphones, after all, however it’s rather a lot inexpensive than different non-Hi Res headsets just like the Turtle Beach Elite Pro, and it’s solely simply over £30 / $20 greater than Roccat’s personal Hi-Res licensed Khan Pro.
In the top, I feel it will likely be a matter of private desire whether or not you get together with the Roccat Khan Aimo or not. If you like your bass to be extra outstanding, you then’ll most likely really feel proper at residence. Those after a barely cleaner, extra balanced sort of tuning, nonetheless, are most likely higher off wanting elsewhere – both to the marginally dearer Steelseries Arctis 7 or HyperX Cloud Flight or the cheaper Corsair Void Pro.
