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Headphones for Xbox 360/TV
billwill
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
i'm in the market for some surround sound headphones.
IT NEEDS TO
+work with my Xbox 360.
+have good sound. (i'm no extreme, thousand dollar headphone audiophile, but i am a few cuts above an iPod toting, green day blasting teenage girl.)
I HOPE IT
+is wireless.
+doesn't cost much. my limit is 150 dollars. so basically don't come in and be all, har har, 150 dollars won't get you shit. just tell me the best shit i can get for 150 dollars.
+has a microphone, for cybersexin' through MW2.
THANKS!
IT NEEDS TO
+work with my Xbox 360.
+have good sound. (i'm no extreme, thousand dollar headphone audiophile, but i am a few cuts above an iPod toting, green day blasting teenage girl.)
I HOPE IT
+is wireless.
+doesn't cost much. my limit is 150 dollars. so basically don't come in and be all, har har, 150 dollars won't get you shit. just tell me the best shit i can get for 150 dollars.
+has a microphone, for cybersexin' through MW2.
THANKS!
I hate you and you hate me.
billwill on
0
Posts
Astro's wired, but honestly I'd recommend it over the Turtle Beach. However, their systems start at $230, and the Mixamp alone runs you $120 (or is it $130?) so that's no good.
The Turtle Beach Ear Force X41 is wireless, does Dolby Headphone surround (which is excellent, don't listen to the haters) just like the Astro, and has both TOSLINK and RCA analog inputs...it'll probably work just fine for you. It also comes in at right around $150. I hear mixed reviews on the build quality, but it should be alright for you.
My personal recommendation is the Astro Mixamp plus a cheaper headset like the Razer Carachias. That's going to put you at $200, and it's wired, so I'm basically completely ignoring your criteria. But if you can stomach the extra $50 I think you may actually be happier with this setup. Just get yourself a nice long optical cable, and keep the Mixamp on your end table by the couch or something. I have the A40 system (Mixamp+Astro A40 Headset), and honestly while the headphones are pretty sweet it's hard to recommend them as an additional $50 worth of sweet...any mid-range headset should do just fine.
Basically, the advantage here is that you aren't locked into a headset...the Mixamp takes Optical, digital RCA, and analog RCA inputs (as well as USB audio and 3.5mm analog), and will do either 5.1 or Pro Logic decoding to Dolby Headphone. It's compatible for voice with either PS3, PC, or Xbox. Then you just hook up any old headset using (standard) dual 3.5mm connections (or the Astro headset using their custom 4-pole connection) and you're golden. So if you decide the Razer headset isn't for you, or it breaks...you just pick up any other headset you like. If you can find a wireless headset with standard 3.5mm connections, you can even hook that up to it. Though it looks like any decent quality wireless headset (with mic) is going to have its own crazy base unit that does its own surround decoding and what not. There are, however, plenty of wireless headphones that would work perfectly with the Mixamp (by companies like Sony, Sennheiser, etc)...so eventually you could grab those for the movie watching/music listening.
tl;dr version: get over wireless, spend the little extra money, buy an Astro Mixamp and a $50-$70 headset. But given your criteria, it sounds like the Turtle Beach x41 is exactly what you're looking for.
I have the X4 (not x41) and am not really pleased with the purchase. Their is a slight hissing at all times, less noticeably when there is audio coming through. However, this ruins scenes that are supposed to be silent.
Mic/Sound quality are ok but it's very hard to distinguish voices vs in game audio in a lot of first person shooters like MW2.
I almost never use them anymore.
I'll point out that I have neither of these problems with the Astro Mixamp. I did hear that the x41 greatly reduced the hissing issue over the x4, though.
Does the astro mixamp do anything special outside of normal headphone amps?
I had $200 wireless sennheisers for my computer for years and they'd always hiss so I'm just not that into wireless anymore. My $50 wired headphones are at least on par for sound quality with $200+ wireless headphones. That's just the name of the game with the technology.
The only one of the qualifications this doesn't fit is wireless, but as I said... super long cord. They got upgraded slightly and the name changed, but the pricepoint is the same. Just look for the low priced wired turtle beach headphones. Should be around $50-60.
Define "special."
They do Dolby Headphone processing to provide virtual surround from both 5.1 AC3 or analog Pro Logic sources (you can turn this off too, obviously). They have pretty much any useful input you could want (including USB for both audio in and out). They have an input for the Xbox controller (or anything using a similar connection, like many cellphones), and separate game voice into a separate channel (the voice/game mix can be adjusted, too). They can be daisy-chained to create a local voice channel using the included adapter (though who uses this outside of crazy MLG teams is beyond me). They can be powered from USB, AA batteries, or a rechargeable battery back.
I have no idea what normal headphone amps do, but I'm guessing that at least some of those features are above and beyond.