I-rocks is a computer peripherals manufacturer Taiwan. I-Rocks has sponsored a number of Professional gaming teams, the most well known of all of them is World Elite of League of Legends fame. รย They have produced a lot of great products with innovative designs and great quality, and that quality has led them to produce the Rock Series of gaming peripherals. This is the last of the four B2G Rock Series reviews, the I-Rocks Rock Series A05 Gaming Headset
Specifications
Headphone:
- Type: Close-back Dynamic
- Driver: 40mm Diameter
- Frequency Response: 20-20 KHz
- Sensitivity: 100 dB
- Impedance: 38รย รยฉ
- Connector: Gold-plated stereo 3.5mm
- 1.2m Coiled PU litz wire
Microphone
- Type: Noise Cancelling
- Impedance: 2.2 K รยฉ
- Sensitivity: -46รยฑ 3dB
- Frequency: 100-10 KHz
A Closer Look
Packaging
The packaging of the A05 is blessed with the color scheme of the Rock Series peripherals: black and green. The whole front is basically a 3/4 view of the whole A05 wrapped in see through plastic for a great preview of whats to come.
The right side of the box is a list of illustrated features of the A05, among them are the top class top-class 40mm drivers, and the Special Trimming Acoustics.
The back of the box contains a shot of the A05 with its microphone attached. Besides them are the cables that are included with the package and their uses. If you look a bit lower, you’ll see a more detailed list of features and specs of the A05, as well as the full list of contents in the package, to help you keep track of your stuff. Also included are the translation of the specs and features in Chinese.
What’s Inside
The package contains the following: the A05 Gaming Headset, audio cable with volume control, 1-to-2 adapter and a detachable microphone.
The cables of the A05 are pretty bland when it comes to features. The only feature that is present here is the volume control, which is located at the center of the inline control station.
When using the A05 on the PC, you can connect the audio cable to the 1-to-2 adapter, which has 2 cables for the mic and speaker.
The microphone is adjustable at the body and can be connected to the right side of the headset.
I-Rocks Rock Series A05 Gaming Headset
Compared to other gaming headsets, the A05 has a slightly smaller build. This, in turn, leads to its lighter weight and adds to the comfort. The headband is all plastic at the top, with a white I-Rocks logo located over it.
The bottom of the band contains a leather memory foam. It kind of thin but gives just enough of a cushion to relax the head. At the sides, the A05 widens out a bit for the head to fit. the ear cups can be adjusted vertically to provide the right amount of positioning to maximize the noise cancellation. since the earcups are round and small.
The earcups also have the same leather cover as the headband, which give the right amount of space for the ears to be cool.
When the A05 is adjusted, you’ll see the steel frame that holds it all together, signifying that I-Rocks delivers on their mission: a great quality product.
Testing
For testing purposes, we used The Ultimate Headphone Test from Audiocheck.net. Ti ensure that we cover all that we need, there will be five sets of tests for the A05 to go through. First is the Frequency Response test: In the first test, I heard the sweeping noise from 20Hz onwards, but in the second test, I only started to hear the high pitched sweeping tone from 18Khz. This shows that the A05 is still a quality headset as it has good bass extension but a slight dip in the Treble extension might cause it to slip in the scores a bit, Second is the Dynamic Response:
For this test, I heard the voice upto 48 dbFS, which is a great performance by the A05. This test shows that the A05 is not lacking the the isolation it gives to the user. Third is the Quality:
The A05 showed its a-game right here as neither a parasitic buzz, nor rattling ever happened during the test, which is in large part, thanks to the steel frame of the A05. Fourth is the Driver Matching Test:
For this test, the A05 was a little bit shaky, as the sound as kind of moving a bit when the middle part of the test was playing, although it played perfectly at the other levels. Fifth is the Wiring Test:
The wiring test was passed by the A05 with flying colors. When the audio for the left ear was played, I only heard sound from the left side, and the same with the right audio happened. The polarity of the A05 is great as well, since when the center audio was played, I can easily pinpoint that the sound was coming from the center of my head while when the twisted audio was played it came from the sides of my head. The last of the Ultimate Headphone Test is the Binaural Test:
Although test sound of the doors was very realistic to me, the sound seemed like the doors were a little further way than I expected.
User Experience
To test the actual performance of the A05, we used it while playing League of Legends, since excellent audio gives players a bit of an advantage. While using the A05, I can clearly hear when a champions farms in the jungle and the soft audio that happens when an enemy teleports into an unwarded bush that’s warded by an enemy, hence giving me time to do a play to escape. The only thing that kind of bugs me about the A05 is that it sometimes has issues when using the mic for communication, as the noise cancellation of the mic does not really do a good job in cancelling out other factors, but the voice quality remains as sharp as ever.
Conclusion
Overall, the I-Rocks Rock Series Gaming Headset embodies the Rock Series as a whole: products with superb quality and functionality while a bit lacking in other features that you would normally see in other products. It would have been better if the A05 had a software that would enable the user to configure its sound quality to his liking. And the mic could improve on its noise cancellation a bit. But, what it lacks in features, it more than makes up for it with its quality. The A05 is a very stable headset that can be used for a long time. Its sound quality is also great enough that sometimes you don’t feel the need for a software. A great product and a great bargain that give more bang for your buck. Highly Recommended.