Turtle Beach seem to have virtually everything covered nowadays in terms of catering for every console and every eventuality with their range of headsets.

The one thing that has been missing in their armoury has been a wireless headset that is compatible for every format, until now!  The Turtle Beach Earforce PX5 headset has been very much anticipated since their announcement a couple of months ago so it is with great honour that the Turtle Beach guys have sent us a set before launch to have a look at.

For those of you that are not aware of what this headset can do, then you are just about to read about it and there is a lot to get through.  Believe me when I say that you may want to break the bank to purchase a set of PX5′s. Turtle Beach haven’t just advanced on an already successful formula from their X41′s but blown the bloody doors off, delivering you something that is packed full of features as well as improved on every single element of a tried and trusted blueprint.

The Turtle Beach Earforce PX5′s deliver RF wireless 7.1 Dolby surround sound to not only the PS3 and 360 but integrating bluetooth technology also allows for you to connect these to any media device that has bluetooth support.  Basically,the PX5 is a workhorse that can cater for every piece of tech that you have in your house as well as mobile phones and surround sound systems.  You may breath heavily initially at an RRP of £199 but when you think that you can pack everything else away and just use these then that £199 becomes very good value for money.

Build Quality

The Turtle Beach Earforce PX5 is substantially light and robust, dare I say even lighter than the X41 headset that sits comfortably on the head.  The padded, adjustable headband and mesh oversized ear cups allow for comfortable, extended use without losing sound from them because they are not covering or being to loose around the ears.  I also wear glasses and using the PX5 headset for long gaming sessions (I have had quite a few long gaming sessions with these already!) did not start to irritate my ears at all whilst wearing them with glasses on.  In fact, I quite comfortably embarked on a heavy Dragon Age 2 session for 6 hours and came away feeling like I had not really worn them at all.  With all the tech that is included in the PX5 I think Turtle Beach have done wonders with getting this headset to come in at 233 grams.

The mic boom also is it’s usual adjustable and detachable self and can be twisted and turned into any shape as to not interfere with your gaming and never feels like it may break, unlike some other headsets that I will not mention here.

The battery life also extends to over 15 hours of use but I have had the chat switched off with a set of rechargeable batteries and the battery life went way past what the manufacturer had given as a specification.  It comes with a set of AA’s pre packed, but my suggestion would be to start cooking a couple of pairs of rechargeable ones.

Setting Up

Setting up the PX5′s could not have been easier.  Utilising only a usb cable to power the main processor, some batteries to power the headset and an optical cable to connect the processing unit to your PS3 or 360, setting up took a maximum of 45 seconds.  This may seem sad but I timed it myself.  After unboxing the various leads and having them laid out in front of me, it took me more time to untie a cable tie than it did to plug the PX5 headset in and get it setup for my first game on the 360. Attaching the 360 gamechat lead and small controller from the headset to your 360 controller taking a a few seconds more.

The PS3, however works a little differently mainly due to the bluetooth technology for pairing the mic to the PS3.  You may be thinking now that there is a “but” coming but there really isn’t.  Once the processor is connected to the PS3 using the same system as the 360, all you have to literally do is go to the accessory settings, look for audio device settings and pair the headset up using the handy bluetooth settings on the right earcup.  Don’t forget that this also works the same way with mobile phones too and we have connected the PX5 to a HTC  Device with great ease.

Ease Of Use

The Turtle Beach Earforce PX5 really is a headset of two halves.  The left ear cup has some very easy to access buttons and sliders that control game volume and presets, which we will come to later, with the right ear cup presenting itself as the bluetooth part of the headset which include bluetooth volume, mic muting as well as your pairing button.  Everything on the headset itself is presented and designed for ease of use and accessibility and you will have no trouble in game adjusting various settings for better control.

The talkback lead for the 360 is a very, very small unit that carries itself off similarly to the normal 360 headset.  A chat volume slider and mic muting switch is all that is present here and if you play online already with a branded 360 headset then you will be at home here.

Sound Quality

I could go on about the how 7.1 will enhance your gaming experience to give you a more immersive sound environment to play in and, of course, they do and I will, but there is a bigger feature lurking in the PX5 headset that not only catapults this headset out of the reach of its competitors but will downright revolutionise how you will game forever.

The Turtle Beach Earforce PX5 headset does deliver up to 7.1 RF game sound to give a clear digital signal using Dolby Digital Pro Logic IIx technology which I found a lot cleaner and crisper than the X41′s, for example.  There is next to no hiss with this headset too, something that I did pick up with some Turtle Beach headsets before and is a welcome development with this set.

Everyone likes to crank up their bass a little for FPS’s to feel that sonic boom rattling around their head as a grenade goes off or an air strike comes in but when I first opened the box and unpacked everything I found Turtle Beach’s traditional bass boost options missing and there is a reason for it.  That reason being is that audio presets have been built into the headset that can be adjusted to suit the genre of game you are playing and really drop you into the gaming world like you have never experienced it before on a gaming headset.

If you have ever used a surround sound headset you will already be aware of the exceptional 360 degree audio that they deliver.  Being able to pinpoint a footstep or direction of bullet is advantageous to not only online gaming but your single player campaign too.  So the presets have been designed to not only give you that upper hand over people using tv speakers or a 2.1 headset but to also adjust various ranges in the sound  to pinpoint specific sounds better.

The basic presets that come with the headset include, dynamic treble boost for boosting the high end treble sound allowing you to hear casings drop to the floor clearer as well as cracking gunfire and reloads.  The Bass boost preset does exactly what is says on the tin.  The thumps around your head from boosting the bass is thunderous, allowing you to experience the thump of a bomb exploding like never before.  Mixing the two obviously amps up both high and low end sound with mid boost options, stereo expander options completing the basic preset mixes but this is where it gets interesting.  Turtle Beach have also included presets in the headset that channels the sound to tune out excess background noise so that you can hear footsteps even clearer and even has an option to accentuate the background noise around you so you can pick up noises that you never imagined were there, even if you thought you heard everything with an old set of surround sound cans.

You really have to hear it to believe it and after playing around with these sounds for many hours over different genres of games including Black Ops, Madden 11, Dragon Age 2, Gran Turismo, Need For Speed Hot Pursuit, Bulletstorm, (shall I go on?) my jaw was on the ground at the precision of the Turtle Beach PX5′s to pick out the sound levels and create a totally new experience every single time.  If that wasn’t enough you will be able to change, upload and download new presets straight into the processor when that part of the Turtle Beach site goes live to give you endless options of how to present the sound in a personal way to suit your needs.

Features

There are various small features that are also included with the Turtle Beach Earforce PX5 headset and while some people would be more than happy with what has been presented so far they do need to be talked about, a little, as it just accentuates the attention to detail that Turtle Beach have put into this headset..

It seems that Turtle Beach have listened to their consumers and fixed one of the big minuses from previous wireless headsets in their range regarding batteries and how they powered down without any knowledge for the user that they were going to do so.  Turtle Beach have addressed this by including voice prompts that will tell you that the batteries are low and stop that awful screeching that used to happen when batteries ran out.  Although some might feel that this headset should have included built in rechargeable batteries that were charged via the cradle I feel that they have figured out a way to address the situation and keep everyone happy.  These voice prompts will also tell you when the PX5 headset is powering down and if it is in 360 or PS3 mode, preset numbers amongst others.

The boom mic also has a filter that gets rid of any ambient noise to provide your party with clear and concise voicing that will enable you to chat and give commands without any misinterpretation.  Voice morphing is also present with the headset but I feel that this is a gimmick and best left for the kids to play around with.  Microphone monitoring and chat boosting will not only allow you to hear your own voice in the headset to stop you shouting like a crazed loon in your own front room but also balances out the other voices as your games gets louder of softer and is very welcomed to give an all around balanced experience that will not destroy your hearing.

Overall

The Turtle Beach Earforce PX5 headset could be considered at this time a freak of nature in terms of other gaming headsets out there.  Cross compatibility to anything that has an optical port or bluetooth technology with a refined and ambitious sound quality that really works for the gamer is great in its own right.  But when you add a package of presets for every gaming moment, mic is also crystal clear in game chats with a battery life that will please everyone into the mix it really puts this headset way ahead of the field, including their own range, in terms of sound quality, comfort and build.

The only downside to the Turtle Beach PX5 headset is that I have to give them back.  So it is with a very big tear in my eye that I am going to say goodbye to the greatest gaming audio experience I have ever had, for now, and if I could give these a six or seven stars out of five in my review I would.  They are that good!

The Turtle Beach Earforce PX5 headset will be due for release between April 12th and 17th in the U.K. with an RRP of £199.

For more information on this cracking headset you can visit the U.K. distributors, Lygo International website.