Today we’re looking at the ROCCAT Renga Boost, a lightweight headset with 50mm neodymium drivers and support for a wide range of devices.

Product on Review: ROCCAT Renga Boost
Manufacturer: ROCCAT
Street Price: GBP £49.99 / USD $59.99 / AU $96.99

ROCCAT are well-established within the gaming sphere, launching targeted, well-made products for several different price brackets. The heatset we’re testing today is the budget-option within ROCCAT’s over ear lineup, at £49.99/$59.99/$96.99.

The ROCCAT Renga Boost is the natural evolution of the ROCCAT Renga, with claims to improving the 50mm neodymium drivers for better bass and enhanced audio performance overall. Those of you that might’ve read our review of the original Renga may remember the distinctive blue cable, that’s been swapped for a black replica this time around.

The Renga Boost remains a lightweight 210g and retains the original shape completely. The same compatibility is also carried through with a 4-pole adaptor for your games console or mobile phone.

Let’s tear the headset open and test her out.

ROCCAT on the Renga Boost:

The Renga is built for gamers who demand more from their headphones. With multi-platform support and 50mm drivers for deep bass, its rich sound is perfect for gaming, music, movies and more. Its ergonomic headband and ear cushions guarantee comfort for undivided in-game focus.

Technical Specifications

Measured Frequency response: 20~20000Hz
Impedance: 32Ω
Height: 20.0 cm
Width: 21.0 cm
Length: 10.0 cm
Weight: 210 g
System requirements: 1 x 3.5mm jack (sound), 1 x 3.5mm jack (mic)

Packaging, Bundle & First Look

ROCCAT packaging seems to follow a strict guideline of: black on black. However, at least it’s consistent and informative.

The rear shows the key features, along with annotations, and lists the key plus points.

There aren’t any fancy additions with the headset, just an information document and the headset itself.

First impressions of the headset are a little mixed, there doesn’t appear to be a great deal about the headset, but it’s light and feels reasonably well made.

Closer Look

The ROCCAT Renga Boost weighs in at 210g, making it one of the lightest over-ear headsets on the market, with included microphone, mounted on the left ear-cup, which is standard for most headsets. The microphone can only rotate down to around 130°.

The right-hand side is identical, save for the microphone mounting point now being home to a fancy ROCCAT logo.

The top band, we believe, is supposed to appear as leather, whereas it’s a piece of plastic across the top with two suspension-style loops across the top to provide the squeeze that’s required for the headset to remain in place.

Inside the leatherette earcups are a thin layer of foam padding over the 50mm neodymium drivers. As you can see from this angle, the headphones are open-backed which are generally more comfortable in the summer due to less heat build-up, but they’re also less isolating.

Closer Look (Continued)

The cable measures 2.5m and is coated with a thin layer of grippy rubber, instead of a more premium offering such as braiding. The cable splits into 2x 3.5mm jacks at the end, for stereo sound and microphone, though to allow compatibility with your mobile phone or games console they’ve included a 2 to 1 splitter for 4-pole 3.5mm devices.

Around 370mm from the earcup sits an in-line remote, with volume function and microphone mute switch.

The microphone is a small unit at on the end of a 175mm arm.

Performance Testing

Design & Build Quality

Kicking off with the build quality, the Renga Boost feels reasonably well put together though it does lack any kind of premium feel, however, we must remember that this headset RRPs at only £50 in the UK (US: $60/AU: $97) so we can’t expect too much, as obvious economisations must be made in specific areas.

Comfort is perhaps the most important aspect of any headset, and the ROCCAT Renga Boost does fairly well here but I’d definitely like to see the “clamping force” be lessened to a certain degree but I do have a larger-than-average head so you may well fare better than me, depending on your head size. The clamping force lead to a feeling of a headache quite quickly, which obviously isn’t conducive to any kind of pleasant experience. My girlfriend didn’t suffer from the same feeling and found it to be much more comfortable, so take from that what you will. The ear cups are a decent size but they don’t quite encapsulate the ear, instead sitting on top of the ear slightly. This wasn’t an issue at first but resulted in discomfort eventually because of the cushioning pinning my ears to the side of my head.

Thanks to the lightweight in-line control, the headset doesn’t pull noticeably to one side, despite both the microphone and cable attaching on the same side, though the cable doesn’t feel too substantial and tends to retain its shape if it’s coiled up.

Multimedia

Sound quality is next up, which is certainly somewhere I was pleasantly surprised. The “Studio Grade Sound”, with the best will in the world, is an exaggeration, but at this price point, it’s absolutely acceptable. ROCCAT claims to deliver “deep bass” with the Renga Boost, which just isn’t the case, unfortunately; certainly, the bass is present and is clear, but it’s not deep or hard-hitting by any means, this is most likely due to the open-backed nature of the headset, with bass being something they typically struggle with.

Overall sound quality, however, is good and well balanced, but volume is lacking. I found myself pushing the headset to 100% in all of my tests for any kind of real oomph, but even then found myself wishing I could push it a bit further. The Xbox One and PS4 controllers both came up lacking as well, and due to the open-backed design, we found that other household noises could interfere with the immersion too easily.

Microphone

After using the headset for a couple of online sessions with some friends in Battlefield V, I asked for comments on the microphone (Through Discord). It was found to be a little heavy on the bass, but otherwise clear and easy to understand. It would be nice to be able to position the microphone a little better, however, with us struggling to mount the microphone directly in front of your mouth for better pickup.

Conclusion

All in all, it seems that ROCCAT have carried forward their previous design with some small improvements, with a much less unsightly black cable now being replacing the previous blue one, and improved sound.

The compatibility with several devices obviously adds to the overall appeal of the Renga Boost, especially if you own a few games consoles and wish to use this with your mobile phone.

At £50 in the UK ($60 in the US and $97 in Australia), the Renga offers very good value, allowing you to team up with friends online, listen to music and enjoy a balanced soundscape. Though, with the lack of bass and open-backed design, paired with the distinct lack of volume, you may find them to be irritating if using them in a noisy environment.

Finally, there’s the issues I encountered with comfort, due to the small earcups which didn’t align with my ears and the tension placed onto the sides of my head by the suspension style frame across the top of the headset. But, please don’t forget that other users didn’t suffer from the same discomfort so this may be a personal issue but is definitely worth considering.

One final point to make is that we struggled to find any discernible difference between the original Renga and the Renga Boost, apart from the obvious blue cable being swapped out, which raises the question regarding the £10 increase.

So, to sum up, the headset offers good sound and excellent value but it’s difficult to see what they’ve improved, if anything, from the last release.

Pros
+ Lightweight design
+ Good sound
+ Excellent value
+ Widespread compatibility

Cons
– Lacks volume
– Feel cheap
– Microphone adjustment could be better

Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.

Stay connected with the Vortez Social Media pages:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

Join in with the discussions on Discord

Tags:

ROCCAT