I have never been a big fan of wearing a headset for long gaming sessions. Sure, headphones make sense when you need to keep the noise down, but if you have the freedom to use speakers, getting rid of something clamped around your head can make gaming a lot more comfortable.
That is why the new ASUS ROG Gjallar caught my attention. This is the first gaming soundbar from Republic of Gamers, and while Dolby Atmos and a wireless subwoofer are nice, the more interesting feature is the ability to handle multiplayer voice chat without requiring a headset.
The ROG Gjallar uses a 5.1.2-channel speaker configuration with dedicated up-firing drivers for Dolby Atmos. ASUS says this creates a three-dimensional soundstage that can make things such as footsteps, environmental sounds, and other positional cues easier to locate.
That could obviously be useful in competitive shooters, but Dolby Atmos should also make the Gjallar attractive for single-player games where immersion matters more than shaving milliseconds off a reaction time. Movies and other entertainment should benefit too, making this potentially more useful than a gaming headset that spends most of its life next to one computer or console.
ASUS includes a wireless 6.5-inch 65W subwoofer for the low end. It connects to the soundbar using a dedicated 5GHz wireless connection, so you can place it around your setup without running an audio cable between the two. The subwoofer has a relatively slim design as well, which should make finding a home for it under or around a desk easier.
The part I find most interesting, however, is the separate audio control hub. It sits on your desk and has an LCD display for controlling volume, playback, inputs, EQ profiles, and Aura RGB lighting. More importantly, ASUS has built microphones directly into it.
Those microphones use a dedicated digital signal processor along with Acoustic Echo Cancellation and AI beamforming. ASUS says the system can distinguish your voice from the game audio coming out of the speakers while also reducing ambient background noise.
In other words, you should be able to sit in front of the Gjallar, hear your game through actual speakers, and talk to your teammates without putting on a headset.
That sounds great in theory, but this is also the feature I would most want to test before spending the money. Keeping speaker audio from bleeding into an open microphone has always been one of the biggest problems with headset-free multiplayer chat. If ASUS can actually make this work reliably at normal gaming volumes, the Gjallar becomes much more interesting.
The AI label doesn’t bother me much here either. There is plenty of questionable AI being stuffed into consumer electronics these days, but using it to isolate a player’s voice and reduce unwanted audio is at least solving a legitimate problem.
Customization is handled through ASUS Gear Link, a web-based platform that doesn’t require installing a traditional desktop application. From there, users can change EQ profiles, microphone settings, Aura RGB lighting, display preferences, and other options. Firmware updates can be handled through Gear Link too, and ASUS also offers a mobile app.
Connectivity is another strong point. The Gjallar has USB-C, HDMI 2.1 with eARC, optical audio, 3.5mm AUX, and Bluetooth 5.3. ASUS says it works with gaming PCs, Macs, mobile devices, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and televisions.
HDMI 2.1 supports video passthrough at up to 4K and 120Hz, so using the soundbar doesn’t mean giving up the high-refresh-rate output offered by modern consoles and gaming PCs. There are also two USB Type-A ports for wireless dongles and other peripherals, which could help clean up a crowded gaming desk.
Of course, none of this comes cheap. The ASUS ROG Gjallar costs $599.99 in the United States. That puts it well beyond basic desktop speakers and into territory where buyers have plenty of good audio options to consider.
But the Gjallar isn’t really trying to compete with a cheap pair of speakers. ASUS is pitching it as an audio hub for an entire gaming setup, with enough connectivity to bounce between computers, consoles, handhelds, and a TV. Add Dolby Atmos, the included wireless subwoofer, and that unusual headset-free communication system, and there is at least a reason for the premium price.
The ASUS ROG Gjallar Gaming Soundbar is available now in the United States for $599.99 from Best Buy. For gamers who are tired of wearing a headset but still want to talk to teammates, the Gjallar could be an interesting alternative. The big question is whether its echo cancellation works well enough to make leaving the headset on the hook practical rather than just possible.
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