Last week, I met up with gaming audio hardware manufacturer Turtle Beach for a private meeting discussing their upcoming products. In one impressive demonstration, they shot audio beams at my head with their HyperSound Clear technology.
After using me for ultrasound target practice, the Turtle Beach representative laid out a spread of upcoming headsets that are scheduled to launch later this year. Here’s a quick rundown on what I saw.
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The Recon 50 series is Turtle Beach’s mid-range wired headset. The cups feature large 40mm Neodymium speakers and are wrapped with the same synthetic leather they use on most of their older products.
Volume control and mic mute are placed in the classic Turtle Beach location, tied to a wired dongle. The microphone is removable, so I can avoid looking like an air traffic control agent while watching a movie.
The Recon 50P and Recon 50X are identical, outside of branding and color. One is obviously being marketed more as an Xbox One product (green), and the other is being pushed as the PlayStation 4 equivalent (blue). You can plug either headset into anything that supports a 3.5mm audio connection. Although Turtle Beach warns that some Xbox One controllers may require purchasing the Ear Force headset audio controller.
The regular Recon 50, no P or X, is the PC marketed version of the product. It’s only difference from the other two is that it comes in red and will include a pink and green PC-Y splitter cable. All are priced at $40 and are due out later this year.
Recon 30X
Some people already have a killer gaming speaker set up and don’t want to seclude the audio to a pair of headphones (and probably don’t live in an apartment with thin walls), yet they still want a quality mic that isn’t one of the ganky-as-hell options Microsoft and Sony pack into their consoles. Turtle Beach is trying to address this demographic with the Recon 30X.
What we have here is a single ear cup and microphone headset. The ear cup is slotted so that audio coming from an external source, such as a speaker — or your neighbor banging on the walls telling you to turn your crap down — can be heard while still being able to receive mic chatter. It’s a better setup than what I typically do, which is resting my mic’s ear cup on my temple and pumping up the chat volume.
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It’s incredibly lightweight and can plug into anything that supports a 3.5mm jack. Look out for it later this year, priced at $25.
Ear Force PX24
Now we’re crossing into Turtle Beach’s higher end products. The Ear Force PX24’s design is heavily based off of the company’s most popular lines of headsets: the X12 and PX22.
The ear cups feature a 50mm speaker that’s wrapped in a cloth mesh. I personally prefer this over leather, especially if I am going to be wearing the headset for a long period of time.
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The microphone is one of those “bendy straw” setups which also swivels vertically on the left cup. Controls are located on a dongle connected to the headset’s wires. Physically, the Ear Force PX24 is a slight update on everything I expect from a traditional Turtle Beach product.
The audio component, however, is where Turtle Beach has done a little bit of tinkering.
The Ear Force PX24 features a virtual surround sound system, which has become obligatory for most higher-end gaming headsets. What’s new here, however, is a “Superhuman Hearing” option on the control dongle. The theory, on paper, is that this tech will be able to distinguish which pieces of the audio are soft versus which are loud, separate the soft layers, and pump them up.
A good example would be if I am playing any title from the Modern Warfare series, and I am facing someone that is using a stealth-heavy load out. If I think that player is nearby, I can switch on the Superhuman Hearing and have an easier time hearing their light footsteps.
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This is all bad news for me because I love knifing people in the back in Modern Warfare.
On paper, this tech sounds like a cool idea. Potentially controversial, even. In practice, I’m not totally sold yet.
I gave Superhuman Hearing a test run in the diner intro of Batman Arkham Knight. When I switched the feature on, all it seemed to do was make everything louder. I mean, that’s what it is supposed to do, but even the loud stuff seemed louder. Maybe I need to give it another try with a better set up. In either case, I think it’s something worth checking out.
Like the Recon 30X, the Ear Force PX24 will work on anything with a 3.5mm plug. Look for it later this year for $80.
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Stealth 450
We’ve reached the top of the high-end headsets Turtle Beach had on display. The Steal 450’s physical design features cloth mesh wrapped ear cups running 50mm Neodymium speakers, and a bendable microphone, which is removable. Seeing as the headset is wireless — with a rechargable internal battery offering 15 hours of life — all controls are located on the right ear cup.
Instead of just virtual surround sound, the Stealth 450 supports DTS Headphone: X 7.1 Surround Sound. The Superhuman Hearing feature found on the Recon PX24 is also available.
Essentially, this is everything cool about the PX50/50P/50X and Recon PX24 in a wireless model, with certain things such as the surround sound options and speaker size bumped up a peg. The Stealthy 450 is hitting later this year at the $130 price range.