HARDWARE REVIEW

Roccat Khan AIMO Gaming Headset Review

by Luke Walsh, January 16th, 2019

The Roccat Khan Aimo is the next in line of gaming headsets for Roccat as it looks to improve their range with better audio for gamers. Boasting 7.1 high-resolution audio, the arms race for “HD sound” is upon us. The Aimo looks to be your go-to for better gaming audio but does come with a slightly tacky finish and the usual RGB lighting if that is the sort of thing you are looking for.

Design-wise it looks almost identical to their previous headset the Khan Pro, which makes sense to as why it kept the name. The Aimo comes with a leatherette over the ear cups, has a black plastic chassis underneath and white on top if you had the white version like the one we reviewed and a steel headband with padding that has a notch style adjustment to it.

Roccat with the Aimo have gone down the more traditional gaming headset route with the microphone stuck on the outside on the left ear cup and the volume controls sitting on the opposite right earcup. In white, the AIMO looks a lot nicer than the black counterpart, in my opinion, it is still not the sexiest gaming headset but stands out more than their plain black version and also suits the Kone Champion edition mouse.

The non-removable and not hideable microphone seems a little strange as it means taking it out the house becomes almost impossible unless you want to look silly. Being a USB headset though that would be unlikely unless you are heading to LAN party or E-sport tournament.

The RGB lighting is featured on the two ear cups in two thin strips at a slight angle on the lower part of the headset. Like most companies, you can adjust the colours and other bits in the proprietary software but is becoming less necessary as time goes on with a lot of companies moving away from lighting up your hardware like a Christmas tree.

Unlike the Khan Pro which connects via a 3.5mm jack connection, the Khan AIMO uses a standard USB which means you can use it with a PC and games console if you have a long extension lead or sit very close to the TV. The sound quality through the USB though is second to none as explained later on.

Comfort

It might not be the sexiest headset or the sleekest but it one of the lightest and most comfortable headsets you can buy at the moment on the market. Playing games for hours on end was no real issue at all.

The earcups might be a little on the smaller end for some ears but they do create a nice seal around them which adds to the ambience without causing any of the pressure you can sometimes get for a headset that is too tight.

The leatherette ear cups are padded enough, creating a nice amount of softness while not being too soft that it moulds away losing shape. Asking a couple of friends to try on the headset over the couple weeks reviewing it and they were able to agree as well on the comfort levels.

Gaming & Music Performance

Testing the headset using a number of different games; Overwatch, Fallout 76, Neverwinter and a couple of other short gaming sessions. There’s a load of options using the Roccat Aimo software that allows you to choose from a number of equalization options.

With each of the different tests and choosing different sound options, all the options produce one result, the sound was clear and crisp. Of course, some soundscapes are better than others for certain games. In Overwatch having the bass down a little but mid-tones up, footsteps are easily heard. While in Fallout 76, A slightly more bassy option made fighting fun with stuff like the nuke launcher and gave combat a bit more weight behind attacks.

I was impressed even with the bass turned up, you can still hear the high and mid-range tones through and there was no distortion of sound at the higher volumes, not that you’d want it up high for long as the AIMO’s drivers can get pretty loud. It made it quite effortless to hear a lot of different things all at once, highly useful when in a game like Overwatch or Battlefield where an enemy can easily sneak up behind you.

Music Performance

The Khan AIMO sounded great when listening to music on Spotify. Price, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Video game soundtracks and much more came out clear, punchy and balanced. The Khan handled many different types of genres well and vocals were clear while backing sounds were bassy but not too overpowering.

Features & Microphone

One of the biggest features for the AIMO as the name suggests is the software that can be used to sync up the colours of your device for actions that happen in the game. So you could make your mouse turn red when your health is low or when your cooldowns become active again.

For the headset, these features are not as useful seen as you well can’t see the lighting yourself and although in theory sounds tried and tests, in practice many gamers will probably not look towards these sorts of features.

The Swarm software lets you customise your headset and profiles much like Razer’s Synapse or SteelSeries Engine. Every Roacatt device you own will be housed in one place to manage and with the Khan, you can tweak your voice to mask it to sound like a cartoon or the opposite gender. Fun to use but in-game, not 100% useful unless you really want to get into character as your MMO female counterpart.

Microphone

Testing out microphone was a joyful experience as it’s crystal clear and easy to use. To turn the microphone on you just flip the mic down from its upward position and the reverse will mute it. You’ll also get a tactile click when it flips onto “on” mode so you know it’s ready to be used.

The design choice I was not a massive fan of, with most microphones being detachable or retractable, the flip-down microphone makes you feel more in a call centre or pilot (which is probably cooler). There are reasons why other headsets on the market are starting to change the way mics are used and stored which felt like a slight miss on Rocatt’s part leaning more towards the “traditional” look and feel for a gaming headset.

Don’t get me wrong though, the microphone works well and is functional to use so there are no issues with it for party chat, voice calls or video calls. I’d have just preferred if be detachable if they were to remake it but keep the current design.

The AIMO being USB only just means you can’t use it on your mobile phone which is a shame but with the microphone also not being concealable, you’d probably not want to be sitting in public with it anyway.

Final Thoughts

The Roccat Khan Aimo is a solid favourite of mine. It’s not without its issues though, the design is a little dated and the microphone although brilliant in sound quality fails to modernise with others in the same space. There are also some missed chances on making the headset more versatile for other devices such as mobile phones.

With all that said, the Khan still stacks up as a solid USB headset which you could use for your PC gaming or when plugged directly into your PS4 or Xbox One. You’ll be hard-pressed to find another which produces this level of quality and comfort for a singular purpose.

The current price of the Roccat Khan AIMO is £119.99 which you can grab through the Roccat website.