Turtle Beach Ear Force X41

Because we love the headphones around here, we've got this shiny review of Turtle Beach's latest wireless offering. I know what I think when I hear "Turtle Beach," but maybe SirPoonga can change my opinion... Here's his review.

I live in an apartment and can't have loud noises at night. I bought a used Tritton AX360 set, and while that is a very nice headset with very good sound, it is wired. In my new living quarters, I sit eight feet from my TV. The AX360 has a long enough cord, but it is rather annoying to be tripping over the cord or picking it up all the time. I like having surround sound in the games I play, so I was intrigued by the Turtle Beach X41s and decided to give them a shot.

I mostly play military shooters, Forza and sports games. In racing I want to hear what side of me another driver is on. In military shooters I want to hear what direction shots are coming from. The AX360 did a decent job at this by utilizing several speakers in each ear cup. While the true surround sound effect isn't there, I can tell which speaker sounds come out of. The X41 took a different approach to surround sound. It only has one speaker in each ear cup – that's right, it is a stereo headset. However, it uses Dolby surround sound processing to create a virtual surround effect. My first reaction to that was one of skepticism, but after reading some user reviews on the internet I decided to give them a try.
 
The X41 has many excellent features, such as Dolby 7.1, Pro Logix IIx decoding and chat boost to increase chat volume when game sound gets louder. For wireless technology it uses 2.4ghz RF, which does not require line of sight to the base unit. For Xbox chat, the headset plugs into the Xbox 360 controller. I prefer this as it means less battery power needed from the headset. The base unit has digital optical pass through, auxiliary input, wired headset port that outputs surround sound, and is powered using a USB cable. Since the base unit is powered using USB, this makes a great set of headphones for LAN parties or traveling.

The surround sound effect is done very well. To test it, I used three games – Forza 3, and Operation Flashpoint, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. With Forza 3 there is so much engine noise from the car, hearing other drivers is difficult. When the other drivers are close enough you can tell which side they are on, and I could easily tell where the waterfall on the Fujimi Kaido track was as I drove by it.

I think Operation Flashpoint was a better test. The game has many sound effects, from armored vehicles shooting their guns to mortars in the distance. I chose a level in which the squad starts next to an armored vehicle shooting its machine gun at enemies. It stays there until you clear out the rocket teams ahead. I slowly turned around at the start and could tell the direction the vehicle was in. As I did the mission, I tested if I could still hear the direction of the vehicle. The sense distance isn't as good as my home theater system, but the direction of sound is excellent.

Modern Warfare 2 also sounded great on these headphones. Like Operation Flashpoint, MW2 has excellent surround encoding so you can tell which direction effects are coming from. In multiplayer this means you can hear someone's footstep around a corner and be ready.

The sound quality is great. I would give the AX360 headset the upper hand here but not by much. The only issue I have with sound quality from the X41 is the highs sound harsh. With the bass boost on there is good depth on the low end. Sound effects are clear and music is clean. Voices from chat are clear but a little lower in pitch than the Microsoft headset. Others have told me that my voice is clear but lower in pitch.

The build quality is excellent. The headset feels sturdy, no flimsy parts anywhere. There is plenty of padding on the headband and ear cups, and the ear cups are big enough for my ears to fit completely in. Considering it uses two AAA batteries the battery life is decent. One hardware issue is the microphone jack on the headset is located at the bottom of the left ear cup, and it is easy to accidently pull the cord out.

When the battery becomes too low voice chat pops and hisses. When the batteries completely drain the headset will give a large screech. After the batteries that came with the headset died I tried my rechargeable batteries. With those batteries voice chat had some hisses and pops all the time.

One claim Turtle Beach makes is the X41 doesn't have background hiss like the X4. This is true when the chat cable is not plugged in. However, when the chat cable is plugged into the Xbox controller it introduces a hiss, though you can't really hear the hiss while playing a game as the game sounds drown it out.

Overall I am pleased with the Ear Force X41 headset. The sound quality is excellent, the virtual surround effect works, the build quality is good and the feature list is ideal. I highly recommend the headset to anyone who wants wireless surround sound without bothering others.