Asus and its Republic of Gamers division announced a new "true 7.1" gaming headset, the Centurion, which sports 10 discrete neodymium magnet drivers (30mm center, 40mm front left and right, 20mm rear left and right, and 40mm subwoofer). Wondering how Asus ROG arrived at those different size drivers?
"The size of the drivers are selected according to their purposes. When you think about it, around 80 percent of the time there is important speech or sound effects coming from in front of you, which makes the center channel more important than the rest for mid-frequencies, so 30mm drivers are used. The front and subwoofer channels need to deliver a lot of bass so 40mm drivers are used. The side and rear channels are for indirect sound effects and bass is left up to the subwoofer so 20mm drivers are used. In general, you will notice the same goes with home theater speaker sizes," Asus says.
Asus ROG bundles a plug-and-play USB audio station with the Centurion. That essentially means you're bypassing your soundcard or onboard audio. To make that a more appealing proposition, the USB audio station packs a Hi-Fi grade ESS 9601 headphone amplifier, the same as used by some home theater audio brands such as Onkyo.
The headset comes with two sets of ear cushions, one that's made of protein leather and the other constructed from memory foam cloth. This is one of the differentiating factors between the Centurion and the similar looking Asus Strix 7.1. The other thing that's different is Asus swapped the detachable microphone for a retractable one. Otherwise, there isn't much that separates the Centurion from the Strix 7.1.
There's also a microphone built into the audio station. Asus claims it actively detects and counters more than 90 percent of environmental noise, including mechanical keyboard clicks and background chatter.
Other features include a headset stand, customizable lighting effects, and compatibility with Asus Sonic Studio, a software sound utility that includes an EQ and 7.1 surround speaker level-balancing. The Asus ROG Centurion will be available next month for £210.
