Review - Turtle Beach earforce X4

[Luke_Retrofly]

https://news.cnet.com/i/bto/20080707/earforce-x4_540x484.jpg

Price: £130

I've had these for a few months so thought I'd pop up a quick review.

My current setup is using the optical audio out of my 360/PS3. For the PS3 this is fine, but for the 360 if your using the HDMI out socket you either have to buy an xbox adapeter to get the optical audio out:
https://i21.ebayimg.com/08/i/001/44/a2/5ddf_10.JPG

or hack the original one that comes with the xbox

https://farm2.static.flickr.com/1326/1473305444_e9a000bf7e_o.gif

This is because the original cable with optical out doesn't fit into the back of the xbox while the HDMI cable is plugged in, but as you can see if you remove the casing you can squeeze it in. I did both and they worked fine. I managed to find a cheap adapter and switched to this beacuse the old way just looked messy (Yes I'm sad)

The X4's are wireless and come with some batterys (not rechargeable) which last about 20 hours. SO I purchased a cheap recharger and some AAA recharables for about a tenna. It all seems to work well and last for more than enough time, I can only rmemeber switching the batteries a few times despite putting alot of time into MW2 (About 60 hours )

The headphones come with a wireless transmitter with lights on the front wich I think looks cool (gadgety geek speaking), the optical audio cable plugs into the back of this and is transmitted to your headphones.

I sit quite close to the transmitter and get perfect 5.1 sound, there can be some hiss when the headphones are turned up fairly loud but its more of an indication that I have the volume up too loud than an annoyance.

With MW2 the surround sound works brilliantly, I'm able to position direction and sometimes distance of noises happening in the game, great for multiplayer and you can tell the difference between directly infront and behind, which I thought was pretty cool and not really expecting, despite it being advertised with real 5.1 surround sound.

They are really comfy even after a 6 hour session (once ) they fit just right and the mic is flexible and in the right place, it can swivel out the way when not required (or even diconnected completely if you wish)

Volume and power controls for the headset are on the bottom of one of the ear pieces, this was a bit fiddly to get used to at first but now I use the switches without thinking about it. It also has a BASS boost option which works really well, I dont use it for multiplayer gaming but nore normal playing/movies the bass is really good. (Note with the bass boost on the battery life is reduced but not enough for me to notice, not so far anyway).

The mic seems to be only compatable for Xbox, it comes with a cable that runs from the headset to the Xbox controller which has the normal xbox volume controls for incomming VOIP. This can be plugged and unplugged into the headset/controller when needed.
I did find however that when the mic was plugged in there is a notable hiss, this is due to the headset feeding back your mic input back into the headset (so you can essentially hear yourself talk) this is suppose to stop you from shouting donw the mic, but I dont think there is any real use for it and I'd rather not have the hiss.

The headphones also have a volume compensation function which increases the voice chatter from friends if the ingame volume gets too loud, this is pretty cool meanign you can hear people even if all hell is breaking loose ingame.

The bulid quality seems fairly good and they seem quite robust even with my heavy handed use. A redlight on the side of the headphones flickers to let you know its switched on, this light stays constantly on if the battery is low which is quite good, and off when the headset it off (obviously).

They are a bit pricy at £130 for a set of headphones, but if your an avid gamer you will certainly get enough use out of them, as far as gadgety things go this this has been one of my best/favorite purchases ever. I certainly couldnt go back to "normal" headphones, let alone speakers ()

Great

Note: I have heard of some problems with interfearence, and the range isn't that good (If I walk near the door of my small room they get alot of interfearence), as I'm always close to the tramsitter I don't have any of these problems so can't comment, but I've heard of TV's and other electricals messing with the signal, though this is a common factor in all wireless headsets (Apparently)
____________________
Flounced - Long overdue
Fuck you bitch I'm in the top 10 list I can do the what the fuck I want!

[CaPo]

Theres an upddated version just out that my brother has ordered, the X41, thats supposed to address a few of the issues youv mentioned. They are now 7.1, and use a different type of wireless signal to increase range and eliminate the interference issues.

[Luke_Retrofly]

Cool I think I looked at those but were a bit more pricy, I think they are about £140-£150 now though
____________________
Flounced - Long overdue
Fuck you bitch I'm in the top 10 list I can do the what the fuck I want!