After having tested the ASUS Strix Claw mouse and the Strix Tactic Pro keyboard, it is time to test and review the ASUS Strix Pro gaming headset. This is one of the most imposing looking headsets that we have seen, with a unique design and quite a few tricks up its sleeve. Let's learn more about this headset and see how well it performs:

Unboxing The ASUS Strix Pro Gaming Headset

The headset is packaged in a transparent protective plastic case wrapped inside a cardboard box with the Strix branding all over it. On the front side of the box there's a large cut-out that allows you to peek at the headset before you unwrap it.

The back of the box offers quite a lot of information about the technical specifications of the headset and its compatibility with various devices and platforms.

Once you open the box, you'll find the headset itself accompanied by a detachable unidirectional microphone, a Type A (CTIA/AHJ) audio adapter cable for smartphones and consoles and a Type B (OMTP) audio adapter cable for older Nokia, Sony Ericsson or Samsung devices.

There's also a separate USB power cable together with a pair of 3.5mm audio and microphone header jacks, all three of which are attached to a quite solid volume knob.

The volume knob has a reflective texture and the "box" it's attached to also has a slider that you can use to mute the microphone and a noise cancellation slider on the bottom.

Along with this, you'll find a quick start guide and the warranty.

Hardware Specifications

The headset uses 60mm neodymium-magnet drivers with 90% environmental noise cancellation capabilities and PC, Mac, PlayStation 4 and smart devices compatibility. These headphones don't work with an Xbox One though because this console doesn't use traditional 3.5mm audio jacks.

The headphones use a 5-pole zero-crosstalk 3.5mm connector that you can plug either into your smart devices or into the control box for PC use. The headset cable is 1.2 meters (3.9 feet) long and the audio box one is 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) long. That makes for 2.7 meters (8.85 feet) of cable for when you're using the kit connected to a PC. All the cables included in the set are braided. The speakers have a 32 Ohm impedance and a frequency response range between 20Hz and 20KHz all this with a 90dB sensitivity level.

The headphones weigh 320 grams (11.2 ounces) without cables and are quite large at 112 x 226 x 224mm (4.4 x 8.9 x 8.8 inches). The microphone is detachable and has a 50Hz - 16KHz frequency response rage with a -40 +/- 3dB sensitivity level.

The audio control box is USB powered and provides 90% environmental noise cancellation.

You can find the full set of specifications of the headset here: Strix Pro - Specifications.

Using The ASUS Strix Pro

The first thing that catches your eye when you use this set is the owl eye design on each of the cups. The body has a black matte finish and a few orange accents.

ASUS designed this product for gamers and you should expect a more playful, unusual design, which is exactly what you get. This does come at a price though. The headset feels really big and quite massive, especially when you actually wear it. The cups cover your ears entirely and they isolate the background noise quite well.

You can also tilt the cups backward which gives the headphones a very nice effect, the owl's eyes facing away from you if you're just wearing the headset around your neck but not listening to anything at the moment.

The cups have a leather padding around them and a bright orange speaker protective cloth which looks quite nice. A soft padding is also present on the headband, which makes wearing the headset quite enjoyable.

Moving forward to sound quality, the Strix Pro does not stand out as an audiophile headset, but rather as an all-rounder. We've used it when playing games, watching movies and listening to music on both computers and smartphones. The sound was clear and crisp in all situations and more important, it was well balanced. Do not expect extreme bass levels or distorted high frequencies, as you won't get any of these.

In games, the sound was clear with good spatiality effects, meaning that you won't have trouble estimating whether your enemy is to your right or to your left. The stereo sound panning does a decent job in the absence of a dedicated 3D sound hardware.

While testing the headset connected to the computer, it was plugged into an ASUS Xonar DG sound card and we had enough audio options and settings to configure and choose from, thanks to the Xonar sound card software. Of course, using a quality sound card makes a huge difference when you want quality sound, so make sure you're not using the Strix Pro with an onboard sound card, as you'll be limiting its performance.

The microphone is a good quality one: Skype calls were loud, clear and crisp and we had no problems making ourselves heard on the other end of the line. The ENC (environmental noise cancellation) module works, meaning that it does diminish the background noise well, but it also makes your voice quite difficult to hear. This was the biggest problem that we have encountered while testing this headset. As soon as we turned on the noise cancellation module, the other party had trouble hearing us.

Overall, the ASUS Strix Pro is a well balanced headset that is comfortable to wear and provides good sound quality. It does, however, have a design that is geared towards gamers and younger audiences in general, so if you're looking for the best music headphones, for example, you should look at other models.

Verdict

ASUS Strix Pro is a good product that fits well into the Strix family and offers good quality sound. If you're a gamer and on the lookout for a new headset that you can use during your online raids and matches, this headset will be a good choice. The sound quality is good, the spatial effect is well emulated, even though it's not a 5.1 or 7.1 model and the headset is comfortable to wear during long gaming sessions. Gaming is pretty much the apex of the Strix Pro in terms of sound quality. We've also tested the kit while listening to music and watching movies, but the sound quality in these scenarios was only average. If you know that you'll spend a great deal of time in long gaming sessions and you want a good pair of headphones with a good microphone that also have a unique look, then you'll most probably be satisfied with the ASUS Strix Pro.