Turtle Beach Ear Force HPA Headset

[Rob Williams]

Can't set up a 5.1 speaker setup, but want true surround sound? Maybe you want surround sound to have late at night when your families in bed?! We are taking a look at a new 5.1 headset from Turtle Beach, and throw many tests at it to see just how good it's 5.1 capabilities are.

Discuss the review here! If anyone wants to recommend me good DVD movie playing software, please do. I am hating WinDVD, but Nero Showtime has treated me good so far. I want to make sure my 5.1 issues with the headset are not related to the soundcard or software.

[Shadow_1]

Hey Rob, nice review.

I'm currently using Cyberlink PowerDVD (Version 6.0 Deluxe), and it is great. Have not had any issues with it. Might want to give that a try.

Hope that helps,

Shadow_1

P.S. Got a new headset, the Plantronics Gamecom 1. I really like it, great performance, doesn't press too tightly on my head, really comfortable. Seriously, at one point I'd forgotten I was wearing this headset (either that or I had extra great hearing :P).

[Jakal]

I HIGHLY recommend PowerDVD. I've used it since WinXP came out. It's easy to use and has some great features. Here's a comparison between the versions. I'm sure there's others out there that offer the same thing, but I just thought I'd give you my opinion of it. Skins, ease of use, and features are my favorite parts about it.

My only issue is that I, personally, wouldn't spend more than $40 or $50 for a set of headphones. Nothing against the review, I think you covered each topic well. Good to hear they work well with your glasses. I've already become accustomed to these Logitech's that I've got and forget I'm wearing them often. I've tried walking out of my room and found myself being snagged by the cord , or having them snatched off my head.

I do like the surround sound aspect, and think that's a major plus. I do leave the surround sound up to my speaker set, though. The set is definitely a great purchase for the enthusiasts among us. For about $70 on Buy.com, they are definitely worth looking into.

[Buck-O]

Couple of things.

The design of the "holes" in the headseat are part of its audio design.
There are two basic types of headphone...circumaural and supra-aural.

Check out this page, for a full run down of the two different types of designs.

http://richardbrice.net/headphones.htm

Essentially, with the air holes in the back, allowing the drivers to "breathe" this wouldbe refered to as a semi-circumaural design.

Another point of information...the orange cable not only carries the sub woofer data, but also the center channel data as well. And some soundcards may have the channels reversed (and most good ones actually have a check box in the options to reverse them should you need to). So you should consult a speaker test/setup routine on your soundcard to make sure that all of the connections are proper before going any further, with your testing. It could very well be that your weak center channel performance could be becuase of this issue.

But, after yovue tested and ruled that out. I believe your issues with your audio can be easily resolved with some re-EQing.
Most games that "claim" 5.1 are actually 4.1 and as such you would never notice the weak center channel.
WHere in a movie 90% of the main dialog comes through the center chanel speaker. And in the case od a concert DVD, the dialog is spread across the whole front soundstage, and relys heavily on the front mains, to give you that "in concert live" soundstage that fills the entire area, not just the focal point.

It could also be a result of the decoder you are useing to watch your DVD;s with. Some software decoers have some very poor center channel performance, and need to be bumped up through a tweak, in order to get it to work at the same level as the rest of the channels.

I would recemend setting all of the levels on the headset at just about their maximum level, and then turning down the ones that seem overpowering. And then adjusting the total volume at the headset. While leaving the PC's volume levels at a constant.

THe bad thing about DVD's, and general consumer audio as a whole. Is that nothing is set to a proper reference spec as its being encoded, and distributed. While in the mixing process, and the recording process, everything is set to a strict set of reference levels. But when it gets to the DVD...all bets are off. ANd the fluctuations in range between teh channels can swing my a large margin from DVD to DVD. So your probibly going to have to reset the levels for each piece of source material you audition.

Then again, it could be that the center channel drivers are very weak,a nd simply cant keep up.

[Rob Williams]

So you should consult a speaker test/setup routine on your soundcard to make sure that all of the connections are proper before going any further, with your testing. It could very well be that your weak center channel performance could be becuase of this issue.

Thanks, I will give that a shot tomorrow.

Jakal and Shadow, thanks guys I will try out PowerDVD tomorrow. I have it on a disc somewhere. So far I have tried Nero Showtime, VLC and WinDVD. I can honestly say that I hate WinDVD.. it's a bloated piece of shit.

Oh, and Jakal, you linked to the wrong headphones. NewEgg currently doesn't carry the HPA's... yet.

[Jakal]

WHOOPS..sorry! Fixed now. Buy.com comes with free shipping, making it cheaper than Newegg, which has the other model.

[Rob Williams]

Today was a busy day so I didn't have time to deal with this stuff. I will try again tomorrow!

[Rob Williams]

Alright, I decided to tackle the problem before bed.

My primary problem was an option called "Magic 5.1" that was enabled under the Subwoofer section. After I disabled it, my problems were pretty much gone. Center/LFE Swap under the Center options made the voices even more clear. The movies both sounded amazing now!

Thanks for the help guys.

[Buck-O]

Fantastic, im glad that solved your issues with the sound.

Can we assume that you will be updating the review with these new changes?

Also, did you run though a speaker setup on your soundcard to see if the channels where all properly assigned?

[Shadow_1]

Yeah, glad to hear that Rob.

Not sure if you guys have heard this before, but listen to this for a taste of 3D sound (Just need a headset to experience this, won't work on speakers):

http://media.putfile.com/Cereni---Holophonic

Seriously, I had to look over my shoulder

Was in the market for a new headset and came across the TB HPA's. I have the edimensional but they just broke. Im not a sound enthusiast but like what I read about these.

I also am looking at the Razer Barracuda's. They seem to be the same style of headset but the Razers "look" way more comfortable as the ear pads on the TB look very thin.

Plus the Razers are 30 to 40 dollars more expensive. The only plus is that the new razer soundcard yet to be released will supposedly take advantage of these headphones. These are going to be strictly for gaming as I dont watch movies on my pc. thanks for any info

Had them for two days and the screw holding the ear piece came off and fell into the unit. Barely got them exchanged...