The Asus ROG Kithara sounds amazing, but here’s why you shouldn’t buy it at full price

The Asus ROG Kithara is a premium open back gaming headset and a collaboration between Asus and HIFIMAN — renowned manufacturer of affordable audiophile headphones.

Asus promises incredible sound from the Kithara, with the detail and soundstage of HIFIMAN’s open back cans. And, yeah, the headset delivers pretty much exactly that. It’s also lightweight and comfortable, simple to operate, and great for music too.

Unfortunately, the usual afflictions of HIFIMAN gear appear, with a cheap headband that needs tightening to avoid slippage. Its mic is lackluster, and compounding both these issues is an unwarrantable price tag of nearly $300.

But could this still be one of the best gaming headsets for audiophiles? Find out in my full Asus ROG Kithara review.

Asus ROG Kithara review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? A premium open back gaming headset, and collab between Asus and HIFIMAN
• Who is it for? Gamers wanting spacious, audiophile-tier sound
• What does it cost? A whopping $299 / £285
• What do we like? The beautiful sound, lightweight fit and simplicity
• What don’t we like? The poor build quality, lackluster mic and high price

Asus ROG Kithara review: Specs

Asus ROG Kithara review: The ups

The Asus ROG Kithara is, first and foremost, about sound, which is where it excels with open, spacious and detailed sound. It’s also lightweight and comfy, not to mention being about as simple as headsets come.

Spacious, detailed sound

The Kithara is essentially just a set of HIFIMAN open back headphones with some Asus branding. It uses the planar magnetic drivers that HIFIMAN is renowned for, and which I have a fair bit of experience with — I’ve used the HIFIMAN Sundara ($179) and 400SE ($109) regularly for comparative testing open back headphones. The drivers in the Kithara are enormous at 100mm, and bigger than the 90mm planars in the Audeze Maxwell ($299), Maxwell 2 ($329) and Maxwell 2 ANC ($449).

The Kithara sounds pure HIFIMAN, albeit with a gaming tune — it’s mostly a neutral, reference-style tune with some extra amplification at the high-end.

When driven properly, there’s plenty of detail across the highs and mids, in large part thanks to the ultra fast transient response of the planar drivers — basically, they can start and stop vibrating very quickly, giving more definition and a cleaner sound. As an open back headset, the Kithara boasts very open, wide sound and strong spatial imaging, too. All of this helped me hear and pinpoint enemy cues, like footsteps and reloads, to get the drop on unsuspecting foes in Hell Let Loose and Counter Strike 2.

The flat tuning means this isn’t a very bassy headset, even though the response range bottoms out at an impressive 8Hz — while the drivers can technically replicate that low, there’s not much amplification there. Explosions in Hell Let Loose lacked the impact you’d get from the bassy SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Omni ($399) and Audeze Maxwell 2.

Tonal separation is really strong, which was perfect for the beautiful campaign soundtrack of Total War: Rome II. Each of the instruments, from flutes through to horns and percussion existed on their own isolated plane, and I could pick them apart with ease.

Naturally, this all makes the Kithara great for listening to music, too… as long as you’re not a bass fanatic.

Listen along to my testing playlist on Qobuz, our favorite music streaming service for audiophiles.

Audiophile accessories included

Like I mentioned above, the Kithara is ideal (and indeed intended) for music as well as gaming. As such, it’s great to see an array of audiophile accessories included. There’s a headphone cable without a mic for listening to music, and no fewer than three swappable jacks included: 3.5mm, balanced 4.4mm, and 6.3mm.

The Kithara even comes with a diagram of its individual frequency response curve from quality checking, which is really cool. I’d expect no less from a set of HIFIMAN cans.

Refreshingly simple

The Kithara is a super simple headset. It’s literally plug and play. No batteries, no ANC, no companion app. Obviously, this gives you fewer features than, say, the Arctis Nova Pro Omni or Maxwell 2, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes it’s nice to cut the clutter and use a plain old set of headphones (with a mic).

Open back awareness

Thanks to the open back design, the Kithara lets you hear everything around you, so you can stay aware of your surroundings. Now, I know, I know — gaming is often about immersion and concentration, right? Not always, I’d say.

Sure, in FPS games like Counter Strike 2, or strategic stealthy games like Sniper Elite: Resistance, I found myself missing the isolation of my closed back Fractal Design Scape ($149) or the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 Gen 2 ($199).

However, in less intense gameplay, like Rome II, I really appreciated being able to hear one of my dogs barking to tell me she needed to go out for a wee; or my wife calling from downstairs to tell me my cup of tea was ready. My wife and I work in the same home office, and I also enjoyed being able to chat with her while I gamed.

Naturally, this also has its downsides when it comes to distractions and immersion-breaking, which I’ll cover a little later. But that’s kinda the price you pay for open back space.

Lightweight and comfortable

The Kithara is extremely lightweight and comfortable, which is yet another benefit of that open back HIFIMAN design — both the Sundara and 400SE headphones are similarly lightweight. The Kithara weighs just 14 ounces / 420g, and I had no issue wearing the headset for hours on end.

The earcups are extremely soft and well padded. The default set of pads has a faux leather rim, but a second set is included which is completely velour and a little more breathable.

Stealthy looks

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, of course, but I think the Kithara is fairly nice looking. It’s not gonna win any pageants like the Fractal Design Scape or Razer BlackShark V3 Pro ($249). But clad in black and gunmetal, it’s pleasingly stealthy and much less garish than some of Asus’ other offerings — looking at you, Asus TUF H1 Gen II ($49) and ROG Delta II ($229)

Asus ROG Kithara review: The downs

The ROG Kithara has a couple of noteworthy flaws. It’s built like a HIFIMAN product, so not that well, and features a lackluster mic. I’d also argue that it’s downright overpriced.

HIFIMAN build quality

Asus hasn’t yet confirmed to me the extent to which HIFIMAN was involved in building the Kithara (I’ve asked). But if I had to guess, I’d say HIFIMAN built the whole thing and stuck Asus’ branding on it.

My first words on picking the Kithara up were: ‘yep, feels like HIFIMAN.’ And that’s not a good thing. HIFIMAN is well known for its build quality issues, with the popular Sundara being a ‘frequently returned product’ on Amazon due to headstrap build issues.

The Kithara feels no different. The head strap is made of thin, cheap-feeling leatherette, just like the Sundara. The headband is a thin piece of metal. The adjustment sliders constantly slip downwards from where you set them. Asus acknowledges this is an issue, and it can be solved easily with a T7 Torx driver, in fairness. But why should I have to fix my own headset from factory? At $300, that’s not acceptable.

Now, none of this bothers me too much on HIFIMAN headphones, because they’re cheap. The problem is that the Kithara isn’t cheap, at $299 / £285. It’s HIFIMAN quality; Asus prices.

Lackluster mic

I’ll preface this by saying that the Kithara’s mic isn’t bad. In both my testing calls and game chat, nobody had issues understanding me — that was super important in Hell Let Loose where team communication is vital.

My colleagues reported, however, that the mic sounded fairly tinny and low quality. Again, that stings a little when paying $299, especially as rivals like the Maxwell 2 and Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II ($349) offer fantastic, broadcast-worthy mics for only $50 more. If you’re going to be on stream, I’d recommend either of those.

Should cost half its MSRP

As I’ve already alluded to a few times, my biggest gripe with the Kithara is its price. In a world where the Sony Inzone H6 Air ($199) exists for a hundred dollars less, with spacious open back sound, premium build quality and an excellent mic, there’s just no way I can recommend the Kithara. That’s why I’ve scored this headset 3.5 — we define this score as very good, but it misses out on our Tom’s Guide Recommended award. I can’t recommend this headset over the higher-scoring H6 Air.

Open back might not be for everyone

Before you drop 300 smackeroonies into the Kithara, it’s worth making sure an open back headset is right for you. This isn’t really a con, so I’ve left it until last, but the environmental sound leakage may not be best for every gamer.

While the headset is loud enough for fine detail, some of that can get drowned out by external noise coming through the open driver backs. In Hell Let Loose, I sometimes found it difficult to hear the super fine interference noises of enemy garrisons and outposts, leaving me hunting around blindly and getting killed. This was only an issue when I had the window open, but could make the difference in shooters where enemy cue sounds are pivotal.

As I mentioned above, the sound is also nowhere near as immersive or intense as a closed back headset. Switching back to my Fractal Design Scape after testing the Kithara, the chaos, explosions and bullet hisses in Hell Let Loose sounded way more intense and frightening.

Like I said, this isn’t a con. If you’d like that more spacious, detailed and gentle sound, plus you game in quiet environments, it shouldn’t be an issue. If you’d rather a headset that fully isolates and immerses you, a closed back design with ANC is your best bet. These tend to cost more though, like the $399 Arctis Nova Pro Omni, $429 Audeze Maxwell 2 ANC and $599 SteelSeries Arctis Nova Elite.

Asus ROG Kithara review: Verdict

The Kithara is a very good headset. It offers extremely detailed, spacious sound that’ll appeal especially to any lovers of open back headphones, who want the same kind of experience when gaming. It’s great for music, too, while proving lightweight, comfy and fuss-free.

However, I pretty much summed up my verdict already in the price section. Our 3.5-star score means a product is very good, but we wouldn’t outright recommend it over cheaper rivals. The build quality is poor, while the mic is lackluster, neither of which is worthy of the $300 price tag. If you’ve got to have planar magnetic open backs, my advice is to invest in a set of Torx drivers and wait for a sale.