Turtle Beach headsets

[racerx]

My parents just bought my son a Turtle Beach Ear Force X41 wireless headset. I must be missing something, because every headset I've seen from Turtle Beach seems to be a giant step backwards.

 

Why is it that a cheap $20 headset can be plugged into a controller, but the TB headsets need all kinds of other connections to work properly? The X41 needs to be hooked up with a Toslink cable. We got an older 360 without a Toslink port...everything we have goes HDMI to our receiver, then to the TV. Turtle Beach says that we need to buy an Xbox 360 Audio Adapter Cable, which is disco'd by Microsoft.

 

Yes, I get it's 7.1, blah blah blah...but now we have to buy an additional mostly useless adapter, and add another transmitter. The Xbox is already Bluetooth enabled, and sitting in the middle of a WiFi network. I mean, really? This is the best way to do this? Don't get me started on their $250+ Extreme Mega Hardcore Gamer Tournament Champion CoD Ultra Edition models, lol. I'm remembering why the last console that was really mine was the Dreamcast.

[onlysublime]

you can get the audio adapter for like $5 at monoprice or amazon.

 

 

there are a lot of connections involved because the headset is more than just chat audio. it's chat audio + game audio. you'll appreciate it more since you won't have to hear the TV or stereo when your son is playing. the X41's are really a nice set and should be appreciated. most of the connections can be hidden away like any other AV cables. you're lucky you have a wireless headset. I have 15 foot cables on my wired headset (which is quite useful when I want to do chat parties on the Xbox while I do work on the computer across the room). also, you'll appreciate optical cables for surround sound. While HDMI can also transmit sound, it's very finicky with a lot of receivers during the handshake process and if the handshake is misaligned, the audio comes out stereo instead of 5.1/7.1.

 

the surround sound on TB's is fantastic. you can pinpoint enemies wherever they are. if some guy is above and behind you, you know it. some great positional audio games are games like Left 4 Dead.

[pce_collector]

I second the adapter purchase. It may seem like a hassle, but the Turtle Beach headsets I've used have been high quality. And as sublime said, you'll appreciate the fact that you can't hear the game sound when your son is playing Xbox in the evenings.

[cimerians]

I agree, I have a Turtle Beach as well. High Quality and have been happy with it for the last few years.

[madmax2069]

Heck I just use the audio out from my TV with my 360 connected by HDMI. My TV has dual outputs, a headphone Jack (I use a 3.5mm Jack to red and white RCA audio cable) or just normal red and white RCA cables connected to the TVs RCA audio out. I then turn off the TVs internal (built in) speakers that way no one else has to hear the games audio.