Picked up a pair of Tritton Technologies AX 720 headphones a couple weeks ago. I recently reconfigured my home office and moved my xBox 360 into the room. The downside is that my office is right below Carter’s bedroom – so loud noise from 12-3 and after 7:30pm are a bad idea. Actually, for as long as I can remember, I’ve pretty much only gamed at night, well after everyone’s in bed – so I’ve never been able to enjoy the subtle audio cues and soundtracks to most games.
Anyway, I’ve had several pair of standard headphones over the years. Most last 6-8 months and then start crapping out, so I was looking to move to something a little more high-end. Granted, at $120 (much, much less after my Best Buy Reward Zone certificates) there are definitely more expensive headsets on the market, but I don’t think I’ve ever paid more than $20-30 bucks for a pair. “You get what you pay for” really applies in this case. I was between these and a pair of Turtle Beach Ear Force X31 headphones for $99. The X31s were wireless, but only really worked on the xBox. The AX 720s were wired, but worked with PS3, xBox, PC and Mac. So far, I can only speak to how they work with the xBox – and they are awesome.
Out of the box you get the headphones, a detachable microphone and a small amplifier. You plug the amp into an AC outlet, the xBox into the amp, and the headphones into one of the inputs on the front of the amp. I think you can plug in two different inputs, but not sure how you switch between them. A big plus is that you can connect the audio via digital optical (easy to do on the PS3, and easy on the xBox – with an additional cable). The headphones have a pretty generous 12′+ cord, so snaking it around my office to keep it hidden was easy. There’s a small controller built into the headphone cable to control game audio and voice audio (if using the microphone). There’s also a jack where you can plug an included cable into the xBox controller so you can chat on xBox Live. There’s also a usb jack on the hub which you can use to enable the microphone on the PS3 and PC/Mac.
I chose to forego the wireless capability (I read a few reviews where the audio was a little spotty on the X31s) in favor of the variety of connectivity options. I’m looking forward to hooking this up to my Boxee-powered MacBook Pro to see how they work. All in all, they seem to be like a really solid investment. Audio is crisp, lots of connectivity options, and they are really comfortable – even after a couple hours of straight use. If you’re looking for a gaming or computer headset, I’d recommend spending the extra cash. These are definitely a step up from the $20 throw-aways.
Oh, man… those look freakin awesome! So shiny!
I have the Ear Force One. Mostly because the name is just so cool.
They have a wire and work wonderfully. Kinda defeats the purpose of having a wireless controller, oh well, but the wire is also super long.
They used to have this little foam thingy that covered up the mic but it comes off easily and would scare me sometimes when it would touch my lip. “eek! what’s that, a zombie mouse?!”
It’s long gone now (probably swallowed it in the heat of battle). It really is worth it to have a nice headset, you can hear every nuance of the game while letting the kids sleep peacefully. Unless you are loudly trash talking a bunch of kids in free for all or screaming because a jockey is humping your face.
I had those Ear Force ones in my hand several times, but in the end I went with these because of the added ability to hook them up to laptops, PS3, etc (even though I haven’t yet). Totally worth the money. You’re right – blasting the game audio while everyone sleeps rocks!