I have been whining at asking Christopher Coke for months to please find me a headset that I can comfortably wear with glasses. You see, I don’t wear just any glasses, I wear GLASSES as in the biggest, heaviest nerd glasses you can ever imagine your professor wearing. It took a while, but we finally landed on the Roccat Aluma in-ear headset.
Specifications
-
Driver Units
- Frequency Response - 20~20.000Hz
- Max SPL at 1KHz - 98dB
- Impedance - 16 ohms
- Max. input power - 5mW
- Drive Diameter - 08mm
- Cable Length - 1.2m
-
Microphone
- Sensitivity at 1kHz - -40dB
- Impedance - 1.6k ohms
- Directivity - omni-directional
)
I spend a lot -- a lot -- of time talking on Skype and playing games or listening to music at ungodly hours of the morning when I’m up working the news cycle and my family is still snoozing away. It has been a personal quest of mine to find a headset that accomplishes three things for me
- I need to be able to wear it comfortably for many hours every day without sacrificing sound and functionality
- I don’t want to have the earpieces of my glasses pressed into my head making those dents over each ear deeper than they already are. This has been going on for a number of years and through several pairs of glasses, some with heavy earpieces, others with minimalistic ones.
- I still want to be able to hear the sounds of my world around me, even if muted somewhat. Yeah, I’m one of those.
So it is here that the quest begins with the Roccat Aluma. The headset itself is more than reasonably priced for what it delivers to the niche audience that I represent. Amazon, for instance, sells it at about $34. The set comes with a number of goodies inside a hard case: 5 different sized sets of ear grommets, an aircraft adapter, a single 3.5mm 3-ring connection to a double 3.5mm male 2-ring connection for PC. One side of the case sports a net pouch for storing everything in that leaves the rest of the case for placing the headset.
The trick is to find the right sized grommet for your ear. It does make a difference in the sound quality. Once done, the earbuds will remain in place for long periods of time and are comfortable. I’ve had trouble over the years with “on ear” headsets and making the backs of my ears hurt from being pressed against the earpieces of my glasses. Obviously, with earbuds, this is a non-issue and a huge plus for me.
)
Unlike many earbuds, the cable is flat for easier storage. Sadly, the microphone is also on the cable and is just far enough down that it rubs against your shirt every time you move. There is quite a bit of transference through the cable and directly into your ear. You’ll hear rustling that can interfere with music or conversations. It’s equally as disturbing for listeners, though, when there’s no rubbing on the shirt, my companion said that my voice was crystal clear. The rubbing can be mitigated somewhat by looping the cable back over your ear and trying to point the mic upward, but that’s kind of a pain too. Placing the mic closer to the earbud would go a long way to improving the issue.
Sound clarity is pretty good and the grommets do a decent job blocking outside noises. As stated before, however, I have a relatively low bar for this as I actually want to hear what’s going on around me, even if quite muffled. No matter the kind of music I listened to, it performed well and I had no trouble hearing even the quieter sections of songs and bass comes through very well. For gaming, it’s much the same, with omnidirectional sound transferring nicely into the headset as well as the in-game sounds of footsteps, weapon sounds, etc. coming through perfectly. I’d have to say that the Aluma has better sound that my Logitech on-ear headset simply for having it being piped directly in.
OK this will sound kind of weird, but the earbud housing is mostly metal, minus the grommets. On a frosty day like today, they can be downright chilling if you take the set on the road with you. If, like me, this is the inside on the desktop headset you use for gaming or for sitting around listening to music, it’s not much of an issue.
Final Thoughts
If you’re looking for a minimalist headset to wear with glasses that you can take with you on the road or that you can use easily and comfortably while gaming or that you can use for hours on end speaking with others on Discord or Skype, the Roccat Aluma is the headset for you. It’s not the fanciest gaming headset you’ll ever own, but it’s serviceable and very well made and is a great deal. You’ll have to make some adjustments to keep the mic from rubbing on your clothing, but with the number of accessories provided plus the fantastic price, it’s a good all-around set.
Pros
- Sturdy and well made
- Tons of accessories in a great hard case
- Good quality gaming sounds for earbuds
- Excellent price
Cons
- Mic rubbing on clothes makes makes it hard to hear from time to time
- Same as the above, but disturbing to listeners on the other end of the conversation
The product discussed in this review was provided by the manufacturer for the purposes of review.
