What Headset Should I Buy?

I've been considering getting the Turtle Beach X41. Is this the best around? Does anyone know where I can get the best deal on them?

imo turtle beach sucks and so does most wireless. Your paying that much for a brand name and for the no wires attached.

I use X41s and they're really good, the battery life is pretty solid. You should ask yourself though if you want to spend that much for sound quality/wireless capability. I bought my brother X11s, and he loves them, for less than half the price of the X41s.

Apparently they have a good reputation. I was given one as a gift, probably because of that same reputation. Come to think of it, since I have a little gaming blog I should make a review about this accessory. Personally, I don't really think it's worth the $200 I saw there, but I do have to admit my gameplay is a bit better than without having a headset at all. I can hear Assassin cloaks to the point that I can effectively pinpoint their exact location. The earpieces are remarkably comfortable, completely encompassing my ears, and it really feels like I'm somewhere else. I'm not a fan of the microphone's sensitivity, though. I'm a naturally loud speaker, so I get along just fine with any other microphone in that regard. It's so sensitive that if I decide to actually prop it next to my mouth (a habit of mine), other people can hear the audio from its speakers. I can't even take a breath without that sound registering.

Definitely a good accessory, but unnecessary. I'd say the best place for them is as a gift. I'd never buy this for myself, even though I do like it. I wouldn't possibly pay more than $100 for it, and there's a lot of other stuff I'd rather get for $100.

EDIT: Ok, so I misunderstood things. Clearly I have an X11, not an X41 mentioned here. Still, I think it could be useful insight.

X11's run for $60 from the company's website.

I guess I'm pretty good about picking prices, then. My actual comfort price I had in my head was $50, but I easily figured a substantial overcharge of $100 would occur.

For me, the option to independently change the chat volume vs game volume is enough to warrant the purchase of a headset.

I use the X11's because they're cheap, and provide great sound quality. The Astro A40's are some of the best headsets on the market, my friend has a pair and whenever I play with them it's just gold; but pretty pricey.

Is there not a very big difference in the sound quality between the X41s and X11s? I'm no audio buff, I just want to be able hear where things are coming from. Wireless is definitely a plus, but seeing the price difference between the X41s and DX11s, I could probably live without it.

That's not really helpful without a recommendation. I always research before I buy and never go for something just because it's a brand name. From what I've heard, Turtle Beach deserves their reputation.

I'm no audio buff either, but from what I can tell the X41s are 7.1 whereas the X11s are stereo. When I was initially researching this, I assumed stereo = the same sound quality as random earbuds I use with an mp3 player. Apparently that's not the case and for lack of a better reference, I know a number of CoD Youtube commentators use X11s including Xcal. My brother uses them and plays MW2 exclusively and soundwhores everybody with them.

You can sound whore fine in both MW2 and MNC with x1's and x11's.

X11's feel nicer on your head, and have slightly better sound quality, but the mic pics up pretty much EVERYTHING in your room. I can stand 8 feet away from mine and talk in a normal voice and people in the party hear me just fine. It picks up my breathing unless i jack the mic at a 90 degree angle.

I rock the retro X1's, which ive used since cod 4.

i bought the wireless x31s and i get an annoying hissing noise when i have my mic plugged in. others have had this problem as well and if i were to do it all again i would've kept my x1s because they were $45 and worked great. if i was gonna drop that much money on a headset i would just go with the astro a40s even though they're wired. if you're set on buying wireless i would just make sure you read a lot of reviews before you drop that much money on them

If you have a rechargeable battery pack plugged in, it can cause this.

I'm not really sure how the x41's work but I play with the x11's and I do like them a lot. I've had no problems with them so far and they have great sound quality. I've heard that the triton version of the x11's are pretty good too. I can't remember the name but they are priced at 60 bucks too.

All the newer Turtle Beach models (they have black earcups instead of dark grey ones) have alot of hiss that is always present whether the mic is plugged in or not. Even their most expensive wireless models (DX11 & X41). It absolutely drives me nuts. At some point they added 'talk back' so you can always hear your own voice through the headphones and when they did that this hiss popped up. On the older white models, theres no hiss. Best Buy often has a display/test station for TB headsets.. you can check it out there. I replaced my old X11's with the new ones awhile ago, noticed this problem.. took them back immediately. Checked out their display models on the floor.. same issues. I bought Tritton X180s instead.. they still have hiss, but its filtered so its a low his instead of a high freq hiss and is less obnoxious. I guess all gaming headsets suck right now.

I have astro a40's and they're amazing. The one thing to consider is the microphone breaks quite a bit. I've gone through 3, now on my 4th and it is also broken, microphones. You just have to tell the company and they will replace it, but it is sometimes quite frustrating.

7.1 = surround sound.. more chanels for your ears to freak out

stereo= 2 speakers and 2 chanels.. doesn't give you the same quality..

Its like watching a movie with stereo and then having a surround sound system

Play Cod WoW nazi and youll understand what i mean...

Music one chanel.. gun fire on the other... nazis on the one... etc...
It splits everything so it sounds more realisitic...

The 7.1 have many little speakers splitting the sound in them

I don't like TB, I had X3s and my brother had X2s and they were terrible. In MNC sound really isn't that important but if you really want a headset you could go with Astros or Trittons. I use sennheisers, they're only 100 bucks, super comfortable, and I've had them for a few years but they're headphones so you'd have to use a xbox mic with it.

That's what I thought at first too, however looking into it I've found that "stereo" simply refers to multiple audio sources. In most cases, such as your average TV or Radio that means only two, left and right, but stereo doesn't have to mean two. That's why I was originally shying away from Turtle Beach's low end models, because I thought they only did left and right and nothing more, but I don't think that is the case.

Right now I'm thinking of just grabbing a pair of the original X1's off of Amazon.

If you're willing to spend that much money you can go for the Eearforce HPX-1 and the Astro Mixamp. You can get both for around $180(If you don't go through their official websites, that is.). I've heard nothing but good things about this set up, even from the MLG Pros themselves.(Say what you want about competitive gaming, but those guys know their hardware.)

Note that the HPX-1's will not work with an Xbox without the Mixamp.

EDIT: ASTRO Mixamp: http://www.astrogaming.com/products/detail/69/MixAmp/
HPX-1s: http://www.turtlebeach.com/products/tou ... e-hpx.aspx