Video Gaming without Waking the Baby:X3 Wireless Headset and Mic
Published by Jason March 16th, 2008 in Gadgets, Games, Survival. Share This
Look — when the aliens get here my child will be horrified if Daddy just lays down and lets them take over. She expects Pops to keep the reflexes sharp, crack a brute over the head, grab his weapons and get to saving New Mombasa.
How to do that while she is sleeping in the next room? Easy! The Turtle Beach Earforce X3 Wireless Headset ended my gaming draught.
Look the sound quality is nothing like my cheap Klipsch digital audio kit, esp if you can find the 5.1 version (disco’d I think) — BUT I AM BACK IN THE GAME.
Set up was reasonably easy — you basically shunt the sound via RCA adaptors into the RF unit and turn it on. This was a bit freaky for me as I used the optical out on my X360 to feed the Klipsch 5.1 system. The Xbox 360 HDMI cable had RCA outs for sound, so I tried them and they worked. Nice!
The headset fits well, the mic works nicely — there are independent volume controls for player speech and video game sounds: you can control the levels. They are light (but not cheap feeling) and unobtrusive. Sometimes I forget I’m trying to be quiet and my wife can hear a brief shout of “And thats how you use a chainsaw, Bitch!” over the intercom — but so far Baby has not woken up and Marcus Fenix can keep on keepin’ on.
If the line of sight from the IR looking RF unit gets broken sound can get crackly or disappear. As you’re generally stationary while gaming, while rocking back and forth like a rhesus monkey, I’ve found sound to be consistent and clear.
The only big issue thus far? Networked RockBand seems a non-starter with the guitar. The headset must be plugged into a handset due to plastic molding of the jack. Can’t plug it into the guitar and I haven’t really messed around to figure it out. Thats ok, I belong playing guitar on a stringed instrument.
All in all, this is a good solution that gets baby 100% of what she needs and me about 87% of the sound quality I’d like. Its a B+ on sound and an A+ on function.
Interesting - I’ve generally steered away from RF analog *anything* audio for awhile now, having been burned by far too many crappy wireless handsets in the past that would generate static every time I got to close to an electronic gizmo, or worse, when my GSM cellphone was nearby (man those can generate some serious interference!)
Up here in the Great White North(TM), I work from home and, while not a baby (unless you ask my wife), I do work only a few feet from our living room, and when she’s up for Rockband, she takes advantage of two technologies the PS3 already has to help in this regard - first is the wireless guitar (that I believe will be available for the 360 soon), and the second is her Jabra BT620 Bluetooth stereo headset, so she can rock on without convincing my superiors I’m actually a roadie for Aerosmith or something when they call.
I bought the X3 wireless too, but found it had too much hiss all the time. Kinda sounded like an old cassette tape. I had perfect line of sight and all, and the sound quality above the hiss was fine, it was just the underlying noise that bothered me, so I exchanged it for the wired X1.
I am happier with the X1’s sound quality, although it doesn’t have the feature which mixes some of your mic into the sound mix, which was nice for monitoring how loud you are speaking. The wires are quite long which is good while using it, but a bit cumbersome at times.