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Tt eSPORTS CRONOS Riing 7.1 HeadsetIt is time for another review. It's been a while since I've reviewed a headset, so that I will do this time. In this review I'm going to listen to and look at the Tt eSPORTS Cronos Riing RGB 7.1 Headset. Tt eSPORTS is a section of Thermaltake and they now also use the same names, as Riing are the names of Thermaltake RGB fans. It will be interesting to hear whether the headset play well, and see if it looks cool.
Tt eSPORTS has been kind enough to make a small presentation video. You should not be cheated from seeing that, so after this little demonstration, we look at the technical specifications.
The technical specifications. Loudspeakers:
Microphone:
Accessories:
Let's see how the headset is packed. The headset comes in a nice box, where you can see the product through the plastic. There are fine illustrations and specifications on the outside. There is no doubt about what to buy when you take this package off the shelf.
When you open the box and unpacks it all, you will find in addition to the headset is also a quick installation guide and a warranty description. It is not much that comes with it, but what more do you also need.
Let's take a closer look at the headset, before the testing begins.
The headset has a good physical size. It is in black sturdy plastic, so you are not afraid that it breaks. It folds flat, so it is easier to transport when going to a LAN party, etc.
On the headband is printed with a nice Tt eSPORTS logo, so you can see who the manufacturer is.
The headband is firm, but the cushion is sitting on a flexible strip, so the headset automatically adjusts to your head.
The earpad is made in memory foam, and the headset is a so-called on-ear headsets. The diameter of the hole for the ear is about 50 mm and the entire ear cushion has an outer diameter of about 90 mm. Firstly, when you put on the headset, the ear cushion seems a nit hard. But when the headset comes on the head and the earpad becomes warm, it wraps the ear nicely and is quite soft. That is how memory foam works.
The microphone is pulled out of the left ear cup, and is mounted on a small flexible armk. It has a red ring that glows red on the tip. This red light has nothing to do with whether if the microphone is active or not, the light is just red all the time.
About 45 cm below the cable is a remote control. It has some buttons on it so you can control the sound in the headset. You can increase or decrease the volume, but also select the equalizer mode and turn the virtual surround on and off.
On the back of the remote control is a clip so you can attach the headset to your clothing. That way you hold a track of both the cable and the remote control. However, it is quite difficult to put on the remote control, without pressing any buttons and change the settings. That's a little sad.
On the side of the remote control, is a switch to turn of and on the microphone.
Finally there is a USB plug, which sits at the end of the 2 meter long cable. It is gold plated, so there is a good connection every time you connect the headset.
Then there's the software. The software itself has three basic settings. There is the volume of the speakers, microphone sensitivity and the settings of light.
When you right click on either the speaker or microphone, you get a lot of opportunities for more settings. It is possible to make your own equalizer settings and create magical voice on the microphone and much more. It is only limited by your imagination. However, you must enter the settings each time you have to change these things. Only Equalizer and Surround settings are to be changed on the remote control.
How is the headset in use? I have used this headset for many hours in this test. Tested in different games and listened to a lot of music. All to hear and feel how this headset is performing.
The comfort: The comfort in this headset is all in all really good. It is very comfortable to wear, and it was only after many hours of use I had problems with soreness as I wear glasses. It's really well done by an on-ear headset. The soundproofing of the headset could have been better. I would describe this headset as semi-open as there is pretty much sound coming through the ear pads. However, under normal circumstances this not a big problem.
The sound: The standard sound in the headset is a missing a lot of details. It is not lacking bass and the mid range is also good. But the treble and the fine details lagging a bit. It is so fortunate that you are able to adjust the sound to suit your needs. And with a little fine-tuning on the equalizer you can actually get a quite decent sound in this headset. The headset is a USB headset, so you should not think of a sound card or anything. It's all built into the headset. That is a big advantage as we then must assume that the manufacturer has chosen some components that fit together and play well together.
The microphone: I've made a few recordings of the microphone, so you can hear how it sounds with and without background noise. I am not particularly impressed with this microphone. Neither related to the quality of the recording, or regarding the noise level. I think there is a excessive amount of white noise on the microphone sound.
The light: This headset is indeed an RGB headset, which means that you can adjust the light in 16.8 million different colors. As you can see below, the light is quite pretty, and you can give it different light effects. In the first video I showed, it seemed like you could give each ear-cup different colors simultaneously. Unfortunately it is not so. As you also can see in the picture, it seems that it is one LED behind the shell that lights it all up. Unfortunately, you can see the position of the LED and it would have been great if it had been completely hidden in some way. It gives an unevenness in light.
The light in the remote control follows the light in the earcups, so it all seems nice and synchronous. I wonder, however, why we not see the same on the light in microphone.
My opinion: I have listened to this headset the last week, and used it for both music and gaming. Overall, I think the headset sounds really good, and it is comfortable to wear. The sound can be adjusted to your needs, and the headset do not have any trouble performing in both detail and bass levels at the same time. The I am certainly not impressed by the microphone. It doesn't record so much noise from the surroundings, but, it makes a great deal of noise on its own. White noise unfortunately dominates the microphone in my opinion. I like when silence is silent without any noise. The light in the headset is quite pretty. However, it is not evenly spread as you see in the picture, which pulls a bit down compared to my expectations. If it would have been perfect, you would probably have used more LEDs, and made the light even more indirect, so you do not see the light source. It is not something that has an importance of the sound, but the overall impression is slightly bad in my eyes. Tt eSPORTS have not chosen that the light in microphone change color with the headset, which also seems a little odd to me when the light in microphone does not seem to have any meaning otherwise. Had it been an indicator of whether the microphone is active or not, then I could understand it. But it does not appear to be the case, because the light does not turn off when you turn off the microphone. The remote control is generally a great thing to have. You can adjust and control the basic things in the sound, which is great. However, it is not so great that you can accidentally change the settings in the sound if you un-mount the remote control or just adjust it. It would have been have been cool if you could turn the function keys off and on somehow. The headset has a suggested retail price of just around 630 DKK (90 USD) by Tt eSPORTS, which is actually a nice price for this headset. Unfortunately I could not find it in any Danish shops, but if it keeps the price in Denmark or Europe, it's a good price. You get much headset for the money. My rating of the headset is a fine bronze star. There are some small things that I think should have been better. The sound should have been perfected more so that the details had been in the basic sound. The microphone should have been completely free from noise and light should have been evenly distributed instead of you could see the light source. But there is no doubt, you get good value for your money in this headset.
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