ROCCAT Elo 7.1 Air PC Wireless Gaming Headset, Surround Sound Headphones with Detachable Noise Cancelling Microphone, 50mm Drivers, 24 Hr Battery Life, RGB Lighting, Black

Purchased December 2020Update March 2023PC use, over two yearsSound Quality- Im no audiophile, but the Elo 7.1 Air are more than adequate for music, movies, and gaming, along with anything else that pumps sound through the drivers. There could always be more bass, but for over-ear headphones, they are much better than others Ive encountered. Id also like to say that the heavy foam earpads offer great passive noise cancelation.Build quality and Comfort- Ive always been impressed by how heavy duty these have felt. Although almost two years into use the plastic above the ear cups did crack open but a simple and partial fix was to wrap it a few times in electrical tape, and this was a good enough fix for the few more months I do plan to continue to use them. The side I had to fix on doesn't exactly lay flush to my head anymore so I have to deal with a little breeze on my right ear. The pleather earpads have lasted far longer than I have expected them to. The headset is quite heavy and will fall off your head if you decide to break a move, but other than that, they sit up there pretty comfortably.Mic- Cant compare the quality of the mic to something wired, its just not close. Ive always opted to use my offbrand boom mic for activities like gaming and discord, BUT, it works when I need it to: like when I need to leave my desk, Ill just pop the jack mic in and use it for when im away from my office.Battery- The battery life is great, its an advertised 24 hours and Im sure it meets that. It can go days of moderate use without a charge, and when it is time to charge, no worries because you can just plug it into your computer with the super long usbc cable thats providedConnectivity and Software- I used to have lots of issues connecting to my pc until I relocated the receiver to the front of my pc. The range isnt great either but its good enough for what I use it for (might sound splotchy when you walk to the kitchen). Roccat swarm software has been worst downfall of this headset. There seems to be updates for the software anywhere between a few times a month and a few times a week. When theres a pending update I have to stop what Im doing and update or else I just wont have any audio. The update doest take long its just tedious because youve gotta plug and unplug both the receiver and the headset from the PC.Knowing what other headphones are out there, Im not sure if id recommend these or not. But I can say that I am more than happy with the quality that is still present over two years later. I use these a few hours a day, every single day. I initially rated these 4 stars because of the flaws I found, but Ive decided to bump that up to 5 stars because they just work, and they have worked constantly. Despite the inconvenience of the software not being the most reliable, and the minor repair I had to do, I love these headphones

These are some pretty good wireless headphones, with a detachable mic which makes it even better for travelling and compact storage. The sound quality is great for wireless headphones, and the mic monitoring is useful if you need to watch how loud you are or to know where you need to have the mic for optimal voice input. The headphones are moderately comfortable, and I barely notice them after a few hours of wear. The Swarm software is okay, it does the job I need it to do, but it is a bit complicated.The only thing I dislike is how the Swarm software is set up. You may have seen other comments about the mic monitor and other settings resetting themselves, and that's because you actually have to hit "apply" at the bottom right of the window. That's right, without making any sort of attempt to tell you, you have to apply changes to make them stick, rather than the changes you make automatically taking effect. As an aside, you can hear the changes you make, such as turning the mic monitor volume off or turning on surround sound 7.0, but these changes only stick around until you close the Swarm window.I only discovered this recently (having had the headphones for a few weeks now). There's also an auto-apply option, which shows that Roccat's software is capable of applying changes as they're made, but decided to make a hard to see option on the bottom of the window instead.Seeing as Swarm is still getting regular updates, Roccat, I think that you should make "Auto Apply" on by default. It's just good UX, you know? If you can hear the changes, you expect them to be applied already.Besides that small issue with the software, I think these are some really good headphones.Nearly a year later, these finally broke on me, but they had a long and eventful service. I still dislike Swarm, and it's one thing I'm glad to see go while I upgrade.The area above where one of the cups swivel is what finally broke, even though I was convinced it would be the mic for all the abuse I put it through, frequently taking it out and putting it back in. Overall, I would still recommend these if you're seriously considering them, and you can deal with Swarm (after setup its not so bad, especially knowing what I know now about the auto-apply).