Ear Force X41 (XBOX LIVE Chat + Wireless Digital RF Game Audio with Dolby Headphone 7.1 Surround Sound) - Get Your Cheap Gadget

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Jordan G. Roselle (Laramie, WY USA) –

  

= Fun: 

Some readers may remember me from my X4 review. Here we are a little over a year later and I am once again tearing into the box of a shiny new pair of Turtle Beach headphones. I liked the X4s, so why did I invest another $200 on the X41s? Because the X4s had some issues, common issues included sound glitches at certain frequencies (press the B button in Shadowrun), interference from other IR sources (like the Wii sensor bar), and a noticeable hiss when using the voice function. These issues did not ruin the X4s, in fact they were still one of the best gaming centric headphones, and THE best wireless gaming headphones, but the issues could be annoying. Thankfully, the X41s claim to fix everything wrong with the X4s and add some new features to boot. Do they live up to the hype or have hidden issues?

For the rest of my review I will be doing some comparison to the X4 in every aspect of these X41 headphones, as well as comparing them to the other options available. I may leave out some details that I already covered in my X4 review, if something doesn’t make sense or you would like more detail check my X4 review to see if I covered it there. In this review I will mostly be pointing out what has changed from X4 to X41. Finally, I personally own 6 pairs of gaming headphones, from the aging AX360 to the Astro A40 and X4. I will be giving my opinion of the X41s performance compared to my experience with most of the other competitors on the market.

Headphone design and feel:
The X41s really shine in this area, like the X4s they are extremely light and comfortable. In addition, they have added a new type of breathable fabric to the pads which keeps your ears cool and comfortable through hours of play. They have also increased the size of the space for your ears. The end result is headphones that are easy to forget exist. The headphones are well built in every other respect. The Bass boost switch is now a button, the headset is black rather than grey, most of the other changes in this area are minor. The X41s are an improvement over the X4s and one of the most comfortable of all the headsets I have used.

Audio Quality:
One of the big draws of the X41s is the new DigitalRF which claims to increase sound quality while decreasing interference and hiss. This claim is completely factual; the X41s have excellent sound that rivals even top level wired headsets. In addition, the X41s have fixed all of the X4s sound glitches, no more will you hear disturbing static or interference when a certain frequency is played. In my experience the X41s reproduce the game sound perfectly without any degradation from being wireless.

On the other hand the extremely low level hiss is still present in the X41s, though perhaps even quieter than the X4 ambient hiss. As I said in my X4 review this constant hiss is impossible to hear if any game sound is playing, and is probably mostly amp noise created by the 50mm speakers an inch from your ear. It is nearly impossible to engineer something like the X41s and completely remove this type of hiss. Thankfully, the X41s do remove the increased hiss when using voice chat that was present on the X4 headset. With the X41s you cannot tell the difference between having the voice chat hooked up and not using it. With the X4s as soon as you plugged in voice chat the normally unobtrusive hiss would double or triple in volume and become quite noticeable. This is a pretty major improvement for the X41s, as the hiss while using voice chat was a common complaint of the X4s.

The X41s have also enhanced their Dolby DSP to handle up to 7.1 surround sound and PL2X. This is not as noticeable as the Digital RF but it is an improvement. The excellent surround sound from the X4s is made even better, and it is even easier to pinpoint exactly where a sound is coming from. The surround sound here is really fantastic, don’t believe the hype about “true 5.1″ headsets that have multiple speakers in each ear, this Dolby processing creates a better surround sound experience. In addition, because there is only 1 speaker per ear the speakers are much larger which makes the excellent audio quality possible. Comparing the X41s to my Tritton headsets is really one sided, the X41s are hands down better in every way when it comes to audio quality. Bottom line, 2 great speakers and Dolby Processing is far better than 8 tiny speakers.

The short version here is that the X41s are a worthy improvement in terms of audio quality. They have fixed essentially all of the major problems the X4s had and added some new features as well. The X41s perform very well when compared to wired headsets also, for the same price you could not find a 5.1 headset with better audio quality than the X41s, and the X41s are wireless.

Other Features:
The X41s don’t change very much in this category from the X4s. You still get the excellent voice chat…

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I purchased the Turtle Beach Ear Force X1 wired headset nearly 2 years ago; I love them even though they’re wired and hurt my ears after several hours of gaming. I though tried upgrading to the Ear Force X3 wireless headphones about six months ago, but they were HORRIBLE. Infrared technology should only be used for a TV remote. Any time someone walked in front of me or I turned my head the wrong way they’d stop working…. they were immediately returned. When I saw the Ear Force X41 headset at a local electronics store and read “7.1 surround” and “RF technology” on the package I couldn’t stop grinning… until I found the price tag.

With a great deal of hesitation I purchased the $200 Ear Force X41 headset… I took a bit of coaxing to convince my wife it was a worthwhile purchase.

COMFORT: The x41 is slightly more comfortable than the old EarForce x1. The earpiece is slightly larger, more circular than the old X1 – X3′s by Turtle Beach, and they’re also padded with thicker foam and cloth; rather than the old thin foam and leather-like material. They still press a bit tight against the ears, like the old X1/X3′s, which cause a bit of discomfort after a few hours of game play. (the top “headband” is well padded, and the leather like material is far superior to the old headsets.) The boom mic placement is a bit further away than I’d like too. Overall I’d have to say they’re SLIGHTLY more comfortable than my old Ear Force X1 headset.

BUILD QUALITY: The x41 is fairly impressive as far as build quality goes. The plastic used is much thicker and feels more sturdy than previous Ear Force models. The boom mic is removable, the arm of the boom mic is made of a flexible metal, and the mic is much nicer than my x1′s. The Volume, Bass Boost, and power buttons are extremely easy to access and won’t require you to remove the headset to locate them.

The transmitter base is very nice. It’s sturdy, not bad to look at, and doubles as a stand for the headphones when they’re not in use. The transmitter accepts standard left/right (white/left) audio input, as well as digital optical input… it even has a digital optical out which is necessary if you use the optical output on the Xbox 360′s HDAV pack.

SOUND QUALITY: When I first turned the X41′s on there was a noticeable hiss. I turned the volume down all the way and it was still there. It wasn’t BAD, but I did notice it. When audio is being played through the X41′s it’s impossible to hear the hiss, which made me quickly forget there was even a hiss to begin with. Even during quiet sections of certain games I didn’t notice it, but since I do hear it when I first turn them on before playing a game, I thought it would be necessary to write about it.

It’s also notable that when the boom mic is connected, you can hear ambient noise as well as your own voice being amplified by the mic. If you hate hearing your own voice through the headset, or are playing a single player game, I strongly recommend removing the boom mic from the X41′s.

The first game I played was a Samurai/anime title on my Xbox 360 with the X41. The dialogue sounded a bit hollow and it echoed a bit… it didn’t sound horrible, just a bit odd. I popped in an old movie that has one of my favorite THX intros for my second test. I was surprisingly impressed. I could rewind the intro, close my eyes, and tell exactly where the little robot repair guy was while he was flying around the THX logo performing his repairs… I could even here subtle clacks, clanks and tings during the intro that I couldn’t hear before when using the Ear Force X1′s.

While playing an extremely popular first person shooter I was floored by the surround reproduction. I could hear bullets whizzing by my head, could tell which direction the shots came from, and hear the footsteps of my enemies slowly creeping up behind me… I can honestly say that I now have a slight advantage over any one of my friends who use standard stereo headphones to play during our late night online gaming sessions… I’m not sure the advantage was worth the price tag on the X41′s, but it’s pretty darn close.

CONCLUSION: The X41 is wireless. This headset isn’t infrared (IR) like its predecessor, these bad boys are 2.4 GHZ wireless digital RF! What this means is that you don’t have to sit directly in the line of sight of the transmitter! (It’s about time!!!) I was able to wander out on my back porch and to the kitchen to grab an adult beverage without any interruption in voice chat or game audio.

One feature I was pleasantly surprised by is the ability to connect any pair of stereo headphones, or in my case my old pair of Ear Force X1′s, to the transmitter/Dolby decoder and share the 7.1 experience with a friend. (Yes, standard headphones will sound like full surround speakers when connected!)

They’re expensive, they’re not as…

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I just purchased a pair of Turtle Beach x41′s off Amazon. Here’s a little review, based on my limited experience with them.

The Good:

+ Easy to setup. The instructions are somewhat abstruse, and not detailed. I had to sort of fill in the blanks, but overall it was quite easy. I think anyone can do it.

+ Comfortable. The headset is lightweight, and has decent padding. It does begin to hurt my ears after a couple hours.

+ Features. The x41 offers a ton of awesome features, including RF technology and Dolby Digital 7.1.

The Bad:

- The transmitter cannot be connected to my LCD HDTV via the optical port and still get Dolby Digital surround sound. You NEED the Xbox 360′s AV/Optical plugs in order to access DD 7.1. Most new Xbox’s don’t include this cable, so it’s an additional expense if you want to use this headset. No point in buying these instead of the x31′s if you can’t get Dolby.

- Occasional scratching, popping, cutting. Nothing destroys immersion and distracts me more than when the sound pops and cuts in the middle of your game. This is not associated with the chat cable’s notorious scratching and popping. This is due to a bad RF connection or interference or something. The problem is enhanced if you’re downloading anything via a nearby wifi. The headset will often pop so loudly, that all audio is cut for a few seconds, and gradually returns. The pops are occasionally so loud and abrupt, that I wouldn’t be surprised if it damaged someone’s eardrums.

- The volume turn dials are awkward and poorly designed. The volume dial on the headset won’t register any volume until it’s turned about 3/4 of the way to MAX. From the 3/4 mark, it increases RAPIDLY. The chat volume dial is even more sensitive. This makes fine tuning a ridiculous chore, and quite impossible.

- Can barely hear myself talk. Turtle Beach purposefully dialed back the monitor volume of the x41′s. When I talk into the microphone, it feels as if I’m deaf or underwater. The microphone has other issues with pickup. Sometimes my team mates can’t hear me, and other times they say my voice is too loud (because I have to talk loudly in order to get the microphone to pick up the sound). There is no consistency. Also, the microphone causes a steady hissing sound whenever it’s attached. When it’s not attached, there is still a noticeable buzzing hiss when the game or movie gets quiet.

The Ugly:

– This is the reason I returned this headset. The volume in the left ear cup is louder than the volume in the right ear cup. This is the case with every game and movie I’ve tried. I thought I may have installed it wrong, so I re did the installation and setup. Didn’t work. I tried changing out the brand new AAA batteries, nothing. I tried changing the setting on my Xbox, nothing. I contacted Turtle Beach, but they haven’t been able to help at all.

In every game with background music (all games?), I can only hear the drum and bass in the left side. I tested this with every game, and even audio CD’s. I also did a test on Xbox Live with some friends. In Modern Warfare 2, I had a friend stand a few meters in front of me and fire off his automatic rifle in the air. It sounded as if the gun was somewhere to the left. When he stood directly in front of me (1 inch from my face) and fired, it sounded as if it was coming from below me and to the left. Then I had him stand a few meters off and fire clips in the air while I stood in one place and spun around in circles. I was hoping the sound would be “circling” me, but instead it sounded as if it was coming from above/below me when it was supposed to be on my right side. Later in another match, I was approaching a doorway, and I heard someone reload on the left side of the doorway. So I watch the left corner when entering, but in turned out the guy was on the right side of the doorway. Because the headset was louder on the left side, it sounded as if the guy was to the left of me.

I put the headset down, and hooked up my $14.99 Microsoft one, and I guess that says it all. I wish this headset worked. I paid $170 for it, but the lop-sided volume is killing it for me. It’s unbearable, and surely less than what I expected for the price.

And don’t assume I have a hearing problem in my right ear. I’ve had several people verify that the left side is noticibly louder. Plus when I reverse the headset, the left side will be louder on my right ear.

I’m giving this headset 1 star, as I feel it’s defective. I’m exchanging them for a working pair, and will update this review when they arrive. Besides the negative things I’ve listed, I like these headphones. If the volume wasn’t lop-sided and utterly unbearable, I would’ve kept them and given them 3 or 4 stars…

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