Review of the Turtle Beach X11 headset

First, I should mention, this headset will work for your XBox, and your pc. It will NOT work for your Wii or playstation or any of your other consoles, and maybe not even for Mac.

Okay. I got tired of using cheap chat headsets for gaming. I needed a headset that I could use that would have a reasonable price, would be decent quality, would let me turn the tv down and listen to games through the headset, and would handle chat well.

The solution I found was the Turtle Beach X11 headset. Most places will sell this set for under $60, so the price is reasonable compared to many upper level headsets.

It is a wired headset, which is fine with me, as I do not want to be bothered with the headset dying in the middle of gaming, which seems to happen a LOT to people. It is powered by usb, meaning that the XBOX itself provides the power to the headphones. You end up with one wire running from your box to you, so you need to be okay with that LONG wire, something like 16' of it!

Hook up was pretty straight forward. There are several ways to hook this puppy up. Plug in the usb, plug in the sound to the TV out left and right channels (the plugs are male/female, so you can still plug in other outputs as well. [warning: some tv's will change the level of output along with the change in tv volume, which means if you do it like I did you will have to have the tv volume up to hear the game, but there ARE other ways to hook up the sound]. Leave the mic plug alone, as it is only for use with a pc. You then plug the short mic cord into the little white control box, and the other end to your xbox controller.

The control box has a mute, which is nice, and independent chat and game volumes, which is a must. The only thing that is really missing is a clip so you can connect it to your shirt. I hate hunting around for the thing! They DO make a puck connector for the mic, which attaches to your controller. That way you can easily reach the chat volume and mute without hunting for the control box. It costs about 5 bucks from the manufacturer.

The fit is nice. These are light, and are easy to wear for long periods. I haven't had any problems with comfort, but they are angled a little weird. I think this is some sort of ergonomic thing, but it doesn't bother me at all. Overall the fit is very nice.

Sound is great. These are amplified headphones, so there is a slight hiss when there is no other sound going on. You do not notice it when gaming, or really when chatting with someone while waiting for Lala to start the game! This is not a surround sound headset, just stereo, but the sound quality is nice. They do make a small interface that will turn these, or any stereo headset into surround sound, but it costs 90 bucks. Maybe later. Still, it is nice that I can upgrade some day.

So far they seem to be pretty durable. I haven't had any issues after several weeks of play by everyone from my seven year old boy, to my teen age daughter, to me.

The mic is sensitive, but not so sensitive that it will pick up your chewing or breathing. It does, however, pick up my son from time to time! The set has mic feedback like your phone. A portion of what the mic pics up is sent to the headset's speakers, allowing you to hear yourself. This helps eliminate the "talk loud" phenomenon that sometimes happens when people use headphones. Very nice feature.

If you are looking for an affordable headset solution, I would think that this headset is a good blend of performance, afford-ability, with an option to upgrade them to a truly good surround sound headset. The sound is as good as some much more expensive headsets, and is just as comfortable. It also eliminates game sound picked up by the mic, so no annoying game sound is sent to everyone you are chatting to.

pros:
affordable
good sound (stereo)
good mic response
separate chat and volume control with mic mute
upgrade-able to full 5.1-7.1 surround sound
usb powered (no batteries) with amplification and bass boost
voice feedback
game sound mic elimination
replacement parts available
accessories (puck, surround sound, ac to usb plug if you need all your usb plugs)

cons:
no shirt clip for control box
small hiss noticeable by some when no audio is being put through headphones
wire runs from your xbox to you.


If you like this idea, but want surround sound out of the box, try the DX11 headset. It comes with the surround sound box I mentioned. It will bump your cost to $129, but is less than buying the parts separately.

Now for the pics:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYWvhNub0A4[/youtube]