Turtle Beach Elite Pro Headset Designed To Keep Ears Cool, Accommodates Glasses
Turtle Beach, a maker of a number of high end gaming headsets, revealed the Elite Pro Series, a high-end headset and accessories with revolutionary features designed for eSports players.
Blessings For The Bespectacled
Turtle Beach said it has been working on refining the Elite Pro series headset and accessories since 2013, and the company is finally confident that it has something special with the series. The company went back to the drawing board and built the Elite Pro headset from the ground up. With competitive gaming in mind, the company focused on comfort and audio quality.
The Elite Pro Tournament Gaming Headset includes multiple innovative features that change the way a gaming headset can be adjusted. Turtle Beach’s new ComforTec Fit System allows you to control the tension on your headphones so you can set them up as tight or as loose as you prefer. The headset also features an adjustment for head size, plus a floating strap to suspend the weight.
Turtle Beach spent a good deal of effort to create the Aerofit Ear Cushions, which are made of memory foam that is infused with cooling gel, and the cushions are wrapped in Asahi spandex to keep your ears at a comfortable temperature during long gaming sessions. Turtle Beach even went the extra mile for gamers who wear glasses: The company built a groove into the foam cushions that relieves the pressure placed on eye glasses. Turtle Beach calls this the ProSpecs Glasses Relieve System. The Elite Pro headset also features customizable speaker plates, which can be found on other Turtle Beach headsets.
The Elite Pro Tournament Gaming Headset features a pair of 50mm Nanoclear speakers and a pro gaming microphone with Turtle Beach’s TruSpeak technology. Additionally, an Elite Pro Tournament Noise-Cancelling Microphone is offered as an optional accessory. Turtle Beach said the upgraded microphone has been tuned for eSports.
Sound Card Replacement?
Turtle Beach is also launching the Elite Pro Tactical Audio Controller (T.A.C.), which adds DTS Headphone:X 7.1 Surround Sound and Superhuman Hearing to the Elite Pro headset. The T.A.C. will also let you quickly tune your audio input and output levels with audio mixer fingertip slide controls. The T.A.C. includes Background Noise Limiter and Outbound Mic Boost control, and with these technologies, Turtle Beach claimed your teammates will be able to hear your voice, even over the roar of a cheering crowd.
You can use the Elite Pro T.A.C. as a standalone USB 7.1 surround sound card, eliminating the need for a high end internal sound device. If you have multiple Elite Pro T.A.C. units, you can daisy-chain them together with standard Ethernet cables to create an offline LAN for group chat.
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Consoles, Too
Turtle Beach plans to launch the Elite Pro lineup with accessories that enable use of the headset features on the Xbox One and Playstation 4 consoles. The Elite Pro Tactical Adapter for Xbox One plugs into the port on the Xbox One controller to enable Dynamic Hearing, Dynamic Chat Boost, Bass Boost, Mic Monitoring and Turtle Beach audio presets. The Elite Pro A.M.P for Playstation 4 plugs into a USB port on the console. Turtle Beach said it will work with PS4 and PS3 hardware, but it amplifies only the existing audio and enables mic monitoring so you can hear yourself.
The Elite Pro Tournament Gaming Headset, Elite Pro T.A.C and their accessories aren’t available yet, but Turtle Beach will start taking pre-orders on May 24, with expected delivery later this summer. The headset will sell for $299.99, the T.A.C. will sell for $199.99, and the accessories start at $39.99.
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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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RedJaron Too expensive for me, but it's nice to see audio companies throwing some love toward those of us who wear glasses. Maybe they could add this feature to their mainstream models?Reply -
cctaylor88 $300 normally sounds like a ton for a headset... but these are "elite" AND "pro" so I'll be pre-ordering two at a minimum.Reply -
basroil $500 for that? $500 will net you an HD598 + AT2020USB+ + nice DAC/amp or even better.... TB isn't exactly known for high end audio, so their asking price is down right ridiculous!Reply -
arossetti Turtle Beach lost me as a customer and someone who could ever recommend their products after I bought a pair of Ear Force Sevens for $299 and the plastic part that holds the ear cup broke. Probably costs 30 cents for a new one but I was told that I'd have to buy a whole new headset because they don't repair them.Reply
I just took my money to a competitor instead. -
Gam3r01 As someone who wore glasses (now contacts) I have a problem with that groove.Reply
Firstly, I dont even see any such thing on the example product shown. I never had any discomfort from gaming with glasses on in the first place except with a pair of TB headsets.
Also, that groove must be fairly wide if it is expected to line up with glasses while remaining adjustable with varying headband levels, which if it is would impact acoustics. -
beoir Turd Beach has a long history of putting out gear of a bad build quality. I'd stay away.Reply