Tt eSports Cronos Riing RGB 7.1 Review

Tt eSports Cronos Riing RGB 7.1 Review

Manufacturer: Tt eSports
UK price (as reviewed): £79.29 (inc VAT)
US price (as reviewed): $77.21 (ex tax)

It's been a little while since we've had a Tt eSports product cross our desk, so it's nice to see what it's doing for gamers at the moment. Today, we shall be looking at the latest flagship headset. This 7.1 virtual surround sound headset promises comfort, great sound, and a whole host of other features.


Inside the packaging, the contents are pretty basic. There is the headset, a user guide, and a warranty guide. This is fine, though; we don't really need a huge amount of accessories for a headset.


The ear padding is quite thick but also quite firm, similar to memory foam. Although there is 50mm of space for your ears, due to the firm padding they can feel squeezed in a little. Also, as the space is a perfect circle rather than an oval, anyone with ears that are long will struggle.


The Cronos Riing RGB 7.1 uses a dual-headband system for comfort, and both of these layers are plastic, which results in a lot of flexing. There is also a nice bit of foam which makes contact with you. We are usually big fans of this dual-headband design, as it typically relieves the load placed on your head. I tried this with three other people and two thought this headset was comfortable. However, I personally struggled with this one, as it seemed to be tight on my ears but loose on my head. This could be down to my head though; small and round as it is, sometimes headsets just don't agree with it. As already mentioned, others tried this headset on, so it seems it is mostly down to personal preference. The headphones have two pivot points, so they can be folded flat or angled towards or away from your head.


The wire is very long at three metres, so it will reach behind your computer easily. It's unsleeved, so it won't snag on anything and has a USB connector on the end. There is an inline control, too, 450mm away from the actual headset. The wire between the headset and the inline remote is a light, flat cable, but from the USB plug to the remote it's a chunkier, more hard-wearing, round cable. This will ensure durability where needed, but you won't feel the weight of the cable from the control to the headset - a very nice touch.


The inline control can alter volume and scroll through your preset EQ modes. Ther's also a 3D 7.1 button to turn this mode on or off. I wasn't a big fan of the 7.1 surround on this headset; it really just sounds like your head is in a fishbowl rather than sounding immersive. There are options to tweak to make this sound better, but even at its best, it wasn't great. On the rear of the control, there's a nice little clip that enables you to attach it to yourself to prevent it from swinging around all the time.


The microphone pulls out from the left and is on a nice malleable boom arm. It can be tricky to get it back into its enclosure, though, as the shape means it can only go in one way. This took a little getting used to but is something that over time you will master.


The trend nowadays dictates that this headset wouldn't be complete without RGB lighting. The Tt eSports Cronos Riing RGB 7.1 has plenty of lighting options that do change the look of the headset substantially. Even the inline control changes colour to match!

Tt eSports has also released a software suite for the Cronos Riing RGB 7.1, so let's take a look at that. My first gripe was the download speed from the Tt servers. The software is 94.2MB, and it was downloading at a paltry 34KB/sec. I tried it again today, and it is now at 63KB/sec. Compare this to the 13MB/sec of a test file at the same size and my download speed of 25.6MB/sec on Steam, and it is painfully slow. Okay, okay; I know it isn't a huge deal, but as I wanted to try this headset on a few systems, it starts to bug you.


This is the main screen; you simply right click on the speaker to get all of the options up. I found myself only using the volume control and equaliser. We did, of course, try all the other features, but unless you were doing a specific task, they generally didn't make a noticeable difference.


We did have a little hiccup with installation, as Windows decided it didn't like the install. This isn't the first time we have had this issue with Tt products, and it is a minor problem; if you just run it anyway, it installs perfectly fine. It would be nice to see this resolved, as it did do this on multiple machines.


We are not really fans of 7.1 virtual surround sound, and the Tt eSports Cronos Riing RGB 7.1 does what most other headsets do: wash out the audio without really giving any directional audio. This is to be expected, though, as there are after all only two drivers rather than the eight you'd need to deliver true direction. You can edit the surround a little to make it sound better, but we used it without the 7.1 surround feature in games, as it sounded far better, and you actually gained more awareness. The only time we tried 7.1 and thought it added anything extra was with a movie, and even then we would have preferred to have a cheaper price point and the feature removed.

Thankfully, the bass on this headset is great. It's well balanced, as are all the other levels, and there are plenty of equaliser options if the default sound isn't to your taste. With music, the bass was really nice and wholesome yet not too "in your face", and the treble and mids complemented each other well.


The lighting modes can also be changed from the software, too, and there are numerous settings to pick from. You can set the colour from a range of presets or choose your own, and there are dynamic options as well as static modes. If you're not a huge fan of lighting, you can turn the lighting off completely.

Conclusion

By now, you may be thinking, 'Blimey, Dave really doesn't like this headset; he is slating it!'. Not true: I am actually really split down the middle with it, and I'm struggling as to whether I like it or not. Personally, the headset is uncomfortable, but others that I've asked seem to really like it. It would seem that this headset is very much down to whether it fits you right or not, and I can't fault Tt eSports too much for it not fitting my particular noggin, although there are definitely headsets out there that are more universally liked - the HyperX Cloud and Cloud II, for example. Similarly, the sound quality is really good for a gaming headset (without 7.1 enabled, at least), but it doesn't stretch to the quality of those HyperX headsets.

Other areas are not so good. The materials used in the Tt eSports Cronos Riing RGB 7.1 quite honestly could be better. They do flex quite substantially, especially on the headbands, but the earpads at least feel sturdy enough, as do any parts that pivot. The software works fine, although it is a little clunky and took a while to download. There are plenty of features there to keep you happy and for tweaking the sound to your liking. The microphone could be better, but again, it works.

Overall, if this headset was £15 or £20 cheaper, we think it would do far better, as you would be able to be a little bit more forgiving with the various little issues. As it stands, however, the HyperX Cloud II at £65 is easily a better purchase, and RGB lighting won't change that no matter how many LEDs or effects are available.