Possibly the most understated eye-catching gaming headset on the market right now, Roccat's new Syn Pro Air also stands out because of 3D audio emulation, which reproduces spatial sound similarly to how the Playstation 5 (PS5) console creates 3D audio. Speaking of game consoles, the Syn Pro Air is compatible with the Nintendo Switch (docked mode only) and PlayStation 5, as well as computers.
The Syn Pro Air is an exclusively radio frequency (RF) wireless headset that uses 2.4Ghz wireless to connect. A 2.4Ghz nano dongle (3cm long) is included and features Roccat/Turtle Beach branding, as well as a reset pinhole and a small led to indicate connection/pairing status. The 2.4Ghz connection works well without connection dropouts and delivers low latency, which is the main advantage you get with 2.4Ghz wireless headsets over bluetooth. Speaking of bluetooth, the Syn Pro Air doesn't support bluetooth nor wired connection, which means if you lose (or misplace) the included dongle you won't be able to use the headset at all. Roccat doesn't sell replacement dongles either.
The entire Syn Pro Air headset is made of nice quality plastic, including the headband which has a smooth matte finish on top with ridged accents on the under sides. The Roccat logo has been engraved on top of the headband. The Syn Pro Air headset has a unique headband yoke design, which breaks away from the traditional yoke sliding band. The Syn Pro Air uses a cylindrical L-shape piece, which is fixed to the outer side of the headband and can slide up and down for head adjustment.
While the L-shape yoke design is cool, it has a short travel (1.5cm), which could be an issue if you have a tall head. The clamping force of the headband is low/medium so, the earcups hug the ears comfortably without putting excessive pressure. The earcups can tilt and swivel so, you can rotate the earcups 90 degrees (one way) and lay the earcups flat against a desk. The headset weighs 312 grams, which is 30 grams lighter than the Elo 7.1 Air gaming headset.
The Syn Pro Air earcups have a rounded square shape with the same tinted smoked plastic finish as the Roccat Burst Pro gaming mouse. The earcups have a semi translucent honeycomb section on the bottom corner that lets the RGB lighting shine through. On top of each earcup, there is a vent port too to help the bass response. Below the left earcup, you find a USB-C charging port, a status led and a physical power button, as well as two rear-facing volume wheels (one on each earcup).
The wheel on the left earcup adjusts the volume sidetone. The wheel on the right earcup has master volume functionality so, it controls the volume in earcups and the computer. Master volume functionality isn't supported in the PS5 console. The volume wheels use rotary encoders so, they function just like a mouse scrolling wheel. Volume gets adjusted gradually, although there is no beep or voice prompt to alert you when you max out the volume.
The padding on the earcups is made with 2.5cm thick memory foam, which is firm but cushiony. The underside of the headband is on the thin side but, it has a firm cushiony feel to it. The ear padding also has a squarish-round shape with a large hole opening that measures 4.5cm wide and 5.5cm high with a 2cm depth to the drivers. The 50mm drivers are covered with a see-through rubber membrane mesh. The outer of the earpad measures 9.5cm high and 7.5cm wide.
The Syn Pro Air 3D audio works really nice, engulfing into the game and, you can tweak the higher notes too via the "Superhuman hearing" setting in the Neon software. The sidetone (mic monitoring) feature is a nice addition, especially since most gaming headsets don't include it. Sidetone is super useful because it lets you hear your own voice in the headset so, you don't shout into the microphone when talking to someone.
Fast charge is another neat feature you get with the Syn Pro Air, letting you hook the headset to a quick charger. From a 7 minute quick charge, you can get a couple of hours of playback time. The Syn Pro Air rechargeable battery can hold up to 24 hours of power, which translates to 3 days of battery life when using the headset 8 hours a day. If you use the Syn Pro Air headset just 90 minutes a day the battery life is around 2 weeks. The Syn Pro Air battery isn't the longest lasting but the fast charge feature makes up for it. A full charge to 100% only takes 60 minutes.
The Syn Pro Air headset is a equipped with a unidirectional microphone built-in to a detachable boom arm, which has a flip-to-mute design so, you simply flip the boom arm and it automatically mutes the microphone. The boom arm attaches to the side of the earcup via a male 2.5mm jack, which is concealed by a small rubber plug. The rubber plug is a neat idea, although having the plug cover attached to the headset would have been better to prevent losing it.
The Syn Pro Air boom arm mic measures 13cm long and weighs 15 grams. It has a flat shape with a bendy midsection that can be bent in place at different angles. The 2.5mm jack has a "twist lock" type mechanism with two small plastic guides. Once the boom arm is inserted and rotated down, it locks the boom arm mic securely into place. To remove the microphone, you simply flip the boom arm into the mute position and pull. The boom arm has a 90 degree range of motion. The Syn Pro Air microphone has a clinical sound that makes the voice clean and clear. Being unidirectional, the mic naturally suppresses background noise.
The Syn Pro Air headset is supported by the Roccat Neon software, which is currently compatible with Windows 10 computers only. The Neon software has to be downloaded because the main key features (e.g. superhuman hearing, 10-band EQ and 3D audio) are disabled by default. Superhuman hearing is, essentially, an extra EQ setting that lets you increase the higher notes so, you can hear the faintest of audio cues.
The Neon software also gives you access to other settings such as "game spatilizer", RGB customization, game dialog level and channel mix for adjusting the chat volume and in-game volume. Overall, the Neon software works well and has a sleak, clean design, although it doesn't currently support older versions of Windows (e.g. Win 7). It would have been useful if an extra button was added on-board the Syn Pro Air headset for enabling/disabling 3D audio on the fly.
The included 1.6 meters long cable is made of stiff fabric and has Roccat branding on one side of the USB-A metal plug connector and a headset logo on the other side. The headset logo etching on the plug is actually a neat idea because it differentiates the plug from the other plugs you have connected into the computer/ The USB-C plug connector of the cable is made of rubber. The cable weighs 37 grams. The Syn Pro Air headset comes inside hard cardboard box packaging with a plastic insert tray and a USB-A to USB-C adapter. You can buy the Roccat Syn Pro Air headset from amazon. Check out the review of the Burst Pro Air.
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