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This is the flagship product for turtle beach, so to expect anything less than perfection would be selling them short. We’ve tested some of their flagship headsets in the past, and certainly weren’t disappointed, but this one is on another level. Using the headset on its own, plugged into a console such as the PS4, Xbox One, or a mobile device (we used the Nvidia Shield Tablet), and even PC, was an absolute blast. The noise suppression from the thick padded ear cups is mighty impressive, and when it comes to extended use, the versatile headband adjustments and padding means it is incredibly comfortable too. The snug fit, combined with big drivers equally a big sound, with thundering bass, detailed mids and soaring treble; you couldn’t hope for a better sound!
Of course, things get dialed up to 11 when you’re rocking the amp, and while I must admit that basically doubling the price may put many off, those interested in eSports, or being more competitive in general, as well as streaming, will want to start getting their credit cards out of their wallets right now. The range of connectivity on offer here is simply stunning. You can have your game playing through the surround sound processing, which sounds flawless, then you can apply a range of custom EQ profiles to suit your tastes, you can dial up how much active noise cancellation you need, how loud your mic is for your listeners, and how much microphone monitoring you want and the end result is a sound mix that you’ll be 100% happy with and so will your teammates and/or viewers.
Let’s dig into the details a little here, the sliders for the controls are really easy to use, they have a smooth but weighted movement to them, meaning minor and steady adjustments are easy to achieve while you’re gaming. The noise cancellation is fantastic, with the microphone picking up a surprisingly amount of ambient noise so you can hear your surroundings, but dial up the ANC and slowly but surely, the world around you fades away. You can tune it just right so that it doesn’t pick up the sound of your breathing, but start talking and the microphone gets all the sound it needs to through the amp. Combine this with the mic boost and the monitoring, and you’re well on the way to ensuring your streaming/gaming gets the best sound levels to enjoy.
With a huge amount of outputs on the back, connectivity isn’t a problem. I love that you can daisy chain them using RJ45 too, and while expensive, you could invest in a set of these for each member of your eSports team, pair them together for lag free, high-quality audio that is not network dependent. Then you’ve got optical pass-through, which means you can keep the loop going through to your AV receiver and not need to swap around cables when you’re done with one or the other, and with AUX in and Stream Out, you can plug in mobile devices, mp3 players and more to the mix, or have a dedicated out for any additional hardware you need to hook up to.
The sound quality through the amp is certainly superior too, giving some serious punch to the headset, or any headset you plug into it for that matter. With dedicated microphone and headphones ports, you could easily use this with your own mic, your own headphones and get some great results. Of course, the Turtle Beach headset is some pretty serious hardware in its self, and as great as it sounds on its own, it works very well with the EQ and surround modes available. You couldn’t ask for a better sounding headset without spending a lot more money, and given this is already costing north of $400 with the amp and mic add-ons, that’s getting into dangerous territory for your wallet.
The Tournament microphone is a big step up from the stock one. It’s more durable, has a better dynamic range, better noise cancellation, a greatly superior and directional designed windbreaker and finally, I’m amazed this one isn’t included as standard, because as good as the stock one is, it’s nothing to write home about either.
