Turtle Beach Promises Premium, Wireless Audio For Xbox One With Elite 800X Headset
Turtle Beach announced a new gaming headset for the Xbox One console. The Turtle Beach Elite 800X is the first 100 percent fully wireless gaming headset for the console, and it is available now. Turtle Beach says its Elite 800 series headsets are the "most advanced gaming headsets ever launched," and with the list of specs provided, you'd be hard-pressed to argue.
The 800X features full wireless connectivity. What this means is there are no wires from the Xbox, and no wires from the controller. The headset is capable of delivering both chat and game audio using intelligent channel hopping to ensure both come through interference-free.
The headset includes quite a list of advanced audio features:
- DTS Headphone: X 7.1 surround sound includes a number of custom DTS sound modes, as well as some genre-specific presets to improve sound immersion within games, movies and music.
- Superhuman Hearing is a Turtle Beach proprietary technology that amplifies even the faintest of sounds, allowing you to hear approaching enemies with more clarity than ever before.
- Active Noise-Cancelling to reduce distractions from the real world. This feature is available while connected to tablets or smartphones as well.
- Independent Volume Control for both chat and game sound controlled from the headset itself.
- Mic Monitoring allows the players to hear their own voices while talking.
- Dynamic Chat Boost automatically raises the chat volume during loud scenes.
- Dual High Quality Hidden Microphones feature noise-cancelling and come loaded with environmental presets to ensure the best possible sound no matter where you're playing.
Although the Elite 800X was primarily designed to be used with Xbox One, the headset is not limited to just that system. It includes Bluetooth connectivity for use with mobile devices and tablets. While paired to a phone, text messages and phone calls will even ring in the gamer's ear.
Turtle Beach has also included a few customization options. For example, the side plates on the earpieces can be swapped out very easily. New plates can be purchased here, and they come in all sorts of designs. There are also licensed Marvel and CoD plates.
Setting up the headset is said to be very simple. The base station, which is used as the wireless transmitter and the magnetic charge stand, plugs directly into the Xbox One console with a USB cable and an optical audio line. The company has also provided a companion app to use on PC, Mac or Android devices. The app lets you change presets wirelessly on-the-fly, allowing you to fine-tune the sound the way you want to hear it.
The Turtle Beach Elite 800X will be priced at a premium at $300, but with that you'll also receive an Elite Membership. The membership includes either a Turtle Beach T-shirt or a sweater, two additional sets of speaker plates, a free trial membership to Twitch Turbo, two years warranty, early access to the latest news, and exclusive offers from Turtle Beach. Those in the U.S. or Canada can also enjoy concierge product support service, though the details are sparse on what this actually offers.
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Kevin Carbotte is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware who primarily covers VR and AR hardware. He has been writing for us for more than four years.
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jasonelmore Console Wireless Headphones = $300Reply
PC Wireless Headphones = $99
TLDR: console gamers pay more to play games than pc -
kcarbotte ReplyConsole Wireless Headphones = $300
PC Wireless Headphones = $99
TLDR: console gamers pay more to play games than pc
Actually, the exact same headset has already existed for a while for PC, and is the exact same price.
If you want a headset with these types of features you need to pay on either platform. -
iPanda So with Microsoft pushing for windows 10 on xbox one, why not make these PC compatible as well? Or perhaps Turtle Beach is waiting for that to pop up then refresh headsets?Reply -
spin156 So, when I got my Turtle Beach 500x it was touted as the "first totally wireless" gaming headset for Xbox One. How many times do they figure they can use that marketing tag??? It is a very nice headset, but this piece is puzzling.Reply -
shotgunz Since my HD800 already has a 360° soundstage, would enabling DTS headphone X give me a 720° soundstage?Reply -
thatdrh I had the 800x for about 3 hours before I took them back. Until they allow to customize the equalization with the "Advanced Sound Editor" these sound just like the muddy astros. I used a map in call of duty with rain falling down on the buildings. No matter what preset I used, all of that was dampened. I had my XP 7's still connected as well. I put those on, everything was crispy as it should be. The only setting that wasn't over powering in low-end frequencies was the "STEREO" mode Setting, with "BASS AND TREBLE" preset selected. Unfortunately they dont have a "TREBLE" only preset. Now as far as my credibility with hearing various frequencies go. I can clearly hear the super high pitched whine from the wireless. Also, you can hear the harddrive scanning as you go back and forth through the menu pages in the xbox menu. TRY IT!Reply
Bottom line. Unless the advanced sound editor comes back with the ability to tailor the sound, I wont buy another set of beaches.. I will be using Sennheisers with the Turtle Beach XP 7 Controller. when the sound controller breaks, I'll buy them from used ebay...