Xbox One Stereo Headset

On the Xbox 360, I owned and used a pair of Turtle Beach X11s. On the Xbox One, it was important that I had a set of headphones so that I may guard my family from the profanity-laden games that I play, and so that I could hear where that punk with the suppressed weapon is so that I could knife him in the back. I want to say how well the Bass frequency response is on this headset, but it would be unfair, because these cans produce all frequencies well. We have two sets of these in our home and use them for watching movies late at night. I haven't listened to music through them, so I can't comment on that aspect. I wear glasses and find this headset to be comfortable due to the wide strap design. The folding mic is nice too and you can position it right where you need it to be. The mic is also on the left side, and you can't put it on the right because then your left speaker would be on the right ear and vice versa. But that's ok because the left side is the best place for the mic to go anyway. At least that's what promotional material for the original Xbox headset showed. There is no mic monitoring, so you can't hear yourself when you talk. This means you will talk like a loud idiot until you get used to the fact that you sound great to those in chat with you, even when you are talking quiet. Once you position the mic correctly, this headset will make you sound crystal clear over Xbox Live. My son has a set and his mic went out, but he was known for nervously twisting the cable into a knot. I don't think you are supposed to do that. With Turtle Beach and others offering some great headsets this generation, there is no shortage of quality headsets for gamers. But this is a solid first-party set. P.S. The packaging is very nice. Microsoft has been killing it with packaging lately. Seriously, Surface Pro packaging, MS Band packaging, Headset packaging. They are just great fun to open.

The Xbox One Stereo Headset offers performance and comfort at a value that is very hard to beat. Unless you're wanting to spend $80+ on ultra high end headsets, this is probably the optimal sweet spot for a good value, good performance headset. First, the ear muffs are very comfortable. I have large ears, but these fit over my ears quite well and are nicely padded. Yes, you'll get some of the warming effect that always goes with wearing over-the-ear headsets, so if it's warm/humid in your house, you may find yourself taking them off or moving them around on your head to occasionally let your ears breathe. But you can wear them for an hour or two without discomfort of any kind. The headband does not pinch too tightly, and the adjustable length seems adequate even for folks with larger heads like mine. Second, the sound quality is very good. Certainly, it sounds better than the average television speakers, and there is an appreciable improvement in situational awareness based on sound direction. Contrary to what some other reviewers have said, you definitely can tell if a sound is coming from the left or the right of you much better than you can through mono/television speakers. Is it as good as full-on high-end surround sound? Of course not, but it is adequate to give you better situational awareness in games such as Battlefield 1, where it helps to know if those footsteps (or tank track/engine sounds) you hear creeping up on you are to your right or your left. Third, the microphone works great. A simply "Hey Cortana"--even in a fairly low/soft spoken manner--pulls up Cortana to run a search, and when chatting with friends, they seem to hear everything fine without complaint. I also like that the mic is low-profile. It almost vanishes into the headset when retracted, and when deployed, does not wrap around to the front of your mouth like other, more obtrusive microphones. I generally play in a relatively quiet room, so I've never had complaints about the mic picking up other room noises either. It seems to lock in on my voice fine. However, if you play in a loud/noisy room with other environmental noises, I really can't say for sure how it will fare. My guess is it will be fine, though. Finally, the HEADSET ADAPTER IS INCLUDED with these headphones. That saves you approximately $20-25 over other low-end/mid-range headsets for which you might still need to purchase Microsoft's adapter. That made the decision easy in my mind, since most of the more affordable-seeming headsets still need that adapter, and thus, can actually cost significantly more when you consider the total cost. If you're looking for a solid, comfortable, reliable, good performing headset, this is a very good bet. Highly recommended.

Good design, looks nice, but lack of bass... and the quality need to be improved! I have to say I wait over 3 weeks to get this headphone because I lives in China. but price is good at exwork 72 USD. Let me simply review this: 1. comfortable: if you wear it right, it is nice and comfortable, but there is a great chance that you may not wear it correctly, so an instruction is need to show how to do it to make yourself comfort, not only put on is the right way. to be a headphone which you may need to wear over 1 hour or even 3+ hour, you should wear it in right way! 2. sound: well, the bass is poor, but still there, this may due to it's a new headphone, I will check after 100hour to see if the bass improved. But the sound showing very clean layers, you can figure out cleanly for different sounds, this is good for game. Maybe less bass will not make me feel BOOM BOOM BOOM all the time like other heavy bass headphone especially when I play a FPS game. 3. microphone, I did see some people said there is a micro phone problem that you should speak very loud to let your friend hear you. OK, if you have this problem, please follow this: TRY TO ADJUST THE MICROPHONE 2 CM AWAY FROM YOUR FACE, DO NOT MAKE IT TOUCH YOUR FACE OR TOO CLOSE TO YOUR FACE(LESS THAN 1CM). I am highly recommend you try this and test it with your friend, your friend will hear very clean and loud voice from you now. I have to say stupid MS, please put one instruction for the headphone in your box, so people can make it right! 4. Quality, I have to say sorry for this, the adapter has an spot like some glue on it, and can't be cleaned. The headphone has a small hole on the ear cover material which may become bigger later. due to I bought it from amazon, and now it is sold out, I can't simple replace it. and I don't want to wait another 3 weeks for the new one....:) so be it.

I'm not an "audiophile" (god, I hate that word. It sounds like a sexual fetish. Also, my hearing isn't great because I went to Iraq twice and was subjected to explosions and gunfire), but these headphones sound great to me. When I first got them, they cut out a little frequently, then they stopped for a couple of months, now they've started back up again. I'm not sure what the problem is, but it's worse than ever and starting to get a little irritating. The microphone can be hidden in the ear-stem thing and then moved down to your mouth when you need it, which I find handy, because it means that my girlfriend might be willing to not dump me as long she doesn't see me with the microphone deployed (fingers crossed! I really like her!). The microphone boom can adjust toward your mouth and away, but it can't extend, which is a problem for me. I have a comically-oversized head (seriously, I would wear a size 8 hat if I wore hats, but I can squeeze into a 7 3/4), so if you've got an astronaut-helmet-sized cranium like me, it can be difficult for friends to hear you due the microphone boom's inability to telescope, because the microphone doesn't get close enough to your mouth for them to hear. Despite my nugget almost being large enough to have its own gravitational field, I find these headphones comfortable, even for long periods of time. They fit into the standard 3.5 mm headphone jack, so you can use them on other devices. Additionally, you can hear TV, Netflix, Pandora, (I would include HBO GO if they'd ever release the effing app), etc through the headphones. The TV's volume makes no difference, so you can have the TV muted while rocking out on your headphones. These headphones come with the adapter that retails for $20-25, so don't buy that if you're looking at getting these headphones. The adapter is similar to the one that's included on the Xbox Live headset that ships with the Xbox One console, except there is volume control for game and chat for whenever your friends are wildly celebrating their marginal, digital accomplishments. All in all, I'd say that these are solid headphones, but I'm starting to get concerned about the cutting out. I've updated my controller again, but other than that, I haven't really looked into the problem, as I don't use these terribly often.

I was looking for a replacement to the cheap headset that came with my Xbox One. This Xbox One Stereo Headset was very appealing because it included the headset and the headphone adapter for the controller. Because of the inclusion of the adapter, the cost of the actual headset can be considered that much cheaper. Comparing the price of this headset with the original low quality headset, they were quite similar in price (not including the cost of the included adapter). I decided it was worth it to get this headset, considering how poor quality the other headset was. I have owned this headset for approximately four months and I am very impressed with its quality. The wrap around the ear part is cloth, and it breathes quite well. I have been able to wear these comfortably for over seven hours at a time. The headphones fairly effectively dampen outside sound, which can be both good and bad. On the good side, you only generally hear what is in your Xbox. On the bad, it is really hard for someone to get your attention with these on (some might still consider this a positive). Something I learned the hard way on the audio controls with the adapter: the buttons on the left control the BALANCE of the sound in the headset. If you press the symbol that looks like a person, it means more of the sound comes from chat, rather than the actual game. As an example, it may start with 50% chat and 50% game sound. If you press the person button, it might make it 60% chat and 40% game (I don't know if these are the exact percentages they change to, but you get the idea). If you press the person button until you hear a beep, it means 100% of the sound is chat. If you press the controller button until you hear a beep, 100% of the sound is game. The buttons on the right control the actual volume of all sound coming into your headset. The middle button controls mute. I like this headset so much that I will occasionally use it for sound when I am watching a video on my iPad as well, since it plugs into a standard headphone jack.

I bought these as somewhat of an inpulse buy because I wanted some good headphones for my XBox and would have had to buy the "puck" to plug the headphones into and the price for this was pretty good so I hit two birds with one stone with this. OVERVIEW: Boy was I surprised, the headphones sound GREAT, and the headset mic hiding away with a magnet is pretty ingenious. These things will work with cellphones as well so that's a bonus if you want to use them for everyday listening, and for over the hear headphones these things are comfortable and don't get your ears too hot, if you are like me and prone to overheating. My only complaint is that because the headband attaches near the bottom of the earphones the band looks a bit odd as it goes out wide on the side of your head (only a concern if you use them in public. The puck is great too, in addition to a general volume it has a balance between chat and game audio so you can adjust those to your preference. I'm also very happy that they went with a puck in general, because having a mute somewhere reachable without taking your hand off the controller is much better than having to grope for the inline connector when you feel a sneeze coming on. SOUND QUALITY: Like I said these things sound great, Bass is a little overdone, but is about inline with Beats, the mids could be brighter and highs are crisp, overall pretty on par with the high end Beats in every way. There isn't any active noise cancelling because these are unpowered, but it passively blocks out a good 85% of all sound, so don't expect to hear anyone talking to you especially if you're "bumping the jams". My only real complaint in sound and it is super minor, is that there is a bit of a hiss when navigating the homescreen on the XBox One, and the range is only about 20 feet max. In addition to that the mic sounds great, I used them on my PC (after buying a splitter to separate the headphones and mic plugs) and everyone said I was crystal clear. Also because the mic is about 2.5 inches long it doesn't extend in front of your face so you don't get any mouth or nose breathing on the mic. Overall this is fantastic, especially considering the price, if you need a good sounding pair of headphones with or without a mic for gaming, PC or for XBox, this is THE BEST value period.

I had to buy a headset to play multiplayer games. I always had turtle beach on my mind. You know, given that I had heard a lot about that company since I got my XBOX 360. Time passed but the prohibitive price tag on that set kept my hands tied. In retrospect, it is difficult to say whether I did not play MP games a lot on XBOX because I did not had any headset or not. But, anyways. Coming to the point. About this headset, As soon as I opened the box, I was pleasantly surprised to see its size. It is humongous and the product picture belies its actual size. Of course, this means that this is not for kids but only for adults. I have another stereo headset from SONY, but not for XBOX. I really liked that one, but after using this one, wow, the difference is noticeable. What's in the box: a) A stereo headset which performs excellent. Sound quality is amazing. The headset's pin is regular, which means, I can enjoy music from iPhone, connect to my mac for voice chat or enjoy a movie, apart from using it listen to in-game sound. b) An adapter to connect to the controller. This is only for XBoX one controller connection. It fits snugly with my controller. c) Lastly, another surprising item: a micro USB cable! I knew that my controller was having trouble to connect to XBOX console for a while. I googled and found that may be updating controller's software would help. However, I needed a micro USB Cable to do that. If you've a Samsung S4 or similar android phone, the charging cable can be used for this, but I don't have one. I placed an order for a USB cable for like $8. As soon as I discovered this item in the box, you can guess what I did next. Yup, I canceled that order. Note to readers: Of course I gave 5 stars because the headset is performing better than I expected. I never bought the turtle beach, so I can't compare. I would say that for the price 50 odd dollars, this headset is worth every cent.

A lot of reviews focus on sound quality and the other standard things you need to know about headsets, but I wanted to add some detail about this headsets and a few competing products. I am going to focus on comfort and sizing, since not a lot of reviews cover these in depth. My ears stick out a bit, and it has been quite a journey trying to find headsets with a good ear cup size that remain comfortable over longer gaming sessions. Still, my overall rating on the product does reflect the general opinion I have on these headsets, and I will cover a few points on how I decided on the rating. First though, a word on the measurements. Instead of the good old American Freedom units, I'm going to use metric units since they are a little more granular. Feel free to use google to convert them to numbers you might understand. I measured everything by hand, so these measurements may not be 100% accurate, but they should be within a millimeter or two. Microsoft Xbox One Stereo Headset: The Microsoft Xbox One Stereo Headset weighs in at 246 grams, or 254 grams with the cable. It is the lightest of all the headsets I tested, and also the simplest. The ear cups are massive on the outside, and the internal dimensions are as well at 62mm tall and 42mm wide. The ear cups are uniformly deep, but at a reasonable 23mm. The padding is fairly comfortable, and the head band is not too tight. Overall, sound is fairly good, and the design is pretty good. However, the retractible boom mic is a somewhat short, and this can make you sound a little far away. A friend with this headset often sounds quiet and distant unless he pushes the ear cup onto his cheek so that boom mic is closer to his mouth. However, this headset is a pretty good value since it come with the headset adapter, and is fairly comfortable overall. Turtle Beach Ear Force Elite 800X: The 800X weighs in at 374 grams. It is the heaviest unit I measured, but at least that is an "all-in" weight since it doesn't have any dangling cords. It is definitely a noticeable amount of weight when turning my head, but I wouldn’t say it’s too cumbersome. The band feels a little tighter than most other headsets, but it is necessary to keep them secure since they weigh a bit more. Still, it’s not too uncomfortable or noticeable over time. The ear cups measure in at 58mm tall and 40mm wide internally. The ear cups are mostly the same depth all around, but there did seem to be a minor difference with the front side depth being about 17mm and the back side depth being about 18mm. The ear pads are made of a leather type of material, and are meant to seal out noise for the headset’s noise cancellation feature. I found them to be quite comfortable, although after longer gaming sessions heat and sweat did start to build up inside. The reason I didn’t rate this higher is due to the mic performance and battery life. With the most recent firmware updates, friends in the Xbox live party chat still all claimed that I sounded a bit distant, muffled, or like I was on a speakerphone. Since my primary use for them is for Xbox Live party chat, this was not ideal- even though it technically affects my friends more than it affects me. I also found the buttons to be a little sensitive, and without tactile feedback, it can be hard to quickly and confidently find controls like the mute button while in the heat of battle. Furthermore, with a 10 hour maximum battery life, it isn’t quite enough to get through those occasional long days of gaming. The combo charger dock and transmitter is super convenient though- it’s really nice not having to manually connect a charging cable. Sound quality was good, and there are many EQ settings that will work for various media and game types. Still, for a premium price, they leave a lot to be desired in terms of comfort and functionality. Turtle Beach Ear Force Stealth 500X: The 500X weighs in a 302 grams. This includes the boom mic, but like the 800X this headset doesn’t need any additional cords so this is an all-in weight. Overall, the weight is not noticeable, and is spread between the ear cups and headband well enough to feel balanced. The ear cups are the biggest problem for me, at 59mm tall and 42mm wide internally, with a uniform depth of only 16mm all round. These are the shallowest ear cups of all the headsets I have tried, and thus press on my ears the most. The padding of the ear cups is fabric, but is soft to the touch and pretty comfortable. Over longer gaming sessions, the fabric ear cups breathe and help regulate sweat and heat a little better compared to the leather of the 800X. The head band doesn’t feel as tight, which makes the unit feel lighter than it is, but at the same time the headset will move a little as you turn your head quickly. The tactile buttons work well, and the dual volume wheels make it easy to “set and forget” the volumes of the game and chat independently. I would have liked the mic arm to work as a mute switch when raised, but the actual mute button isn’t too hard to find quickly. There aren’t as many audio EQ settings compared to the 800X, but you probably won’t miss most of them. The 800X has a nice touch where the audio mode is announced as you select it, whereas the 500X only beeps a different number of times to indicate which mode it is in, forcing you to remember the corresponding mode and beep count. Still, sound quality is very good, and the boom mic sounds crisp and clear to other Xbox party members. Unfortunately, this headset doesn’t come with a stand (although Turtle Beach sells a universal one) and the mini USB charging cable needs to be plugged in manually each time you are done playing. Another downside is that the receiver unit doesn’t have a USB port for the charger cable to pass through, so you may need to use two USB ports on the Xbox - one to charge and one to connect the transmitter. The transmitter also has blue LEDs- which is not a big deal, but I wonder if this is a cost saving measure with the PlayStation units, since it obviously does not match the green/black/white colors of the Xbox brand. Although not as sleek as the 800X, the tactile buttons, boom mic, true wireless audio/chat, and up to 15 hour battery life make this a strong contender for my goto headset, but unfortunately the ear cups depth makes my ears warm and irritated after long sessions. Mini rant: This is why exclusive partnerships for accessories are bad for consumers. My ears are apparently not Turtle Beach sized, and thus I have to compromise on comfort or wireless freedom. This is like Nike getting the contract to make shoes for the NBA, but then only making shoes that are a size 8. Astro A50 Wireless Headset: The Astro A50 weighs in a 366 grams without the cord. This headset is wireless for game/tv/app audio, but requires a cord to be connected to the controller for chat functionality. I didn’t have the cord handy when I weighed them, but it doesn’t add a noticeable amount of weight (probably around 10 grams). The A50 is the second heaviest headset, but for some reason it doesn’t feel as dense as the Turtle Beach 800X. I think it has to do with the ear cup size and weight distribution around the band. The A50 ear cups are deep in the cavity where your ear sits, but the rest of the ear cup which houses the drivers and electronics are not that deep compared to the 800X. This makes the A50 sit closer to your head overall, so you feel less weight/force when you turn your head quickly. The ear cups on the A50 measure 61mm tall and 43mm wide internally, and are more of a box shape than rectangle.They are tapered as well, so the front of the cup is 20mm deep, while the back is 26mm deep. This is smart, since human ears generally start out flush to the head in the front, and fan out somewhat toward the back. There is also some room behind the ear cushion, so it is actually even a bit deeper underneath the cushion where the outer edge of your ear would slide in- although it was hard to measure that depth. The padding on the A50 is a very soft fabric- almost velvet-like in feel, and it is very comfortable and breathable. Overall, the ear cups feel very roomy, and the headband weight and tightness feel very comfortable. Over long gaming sessions, the band did seem to slip ever so slightly allowing the ear cups to lower- but it was extremely minor, and it may have more to do with the fact that these are a few years old at this point. Still, it was noticeable, although easily fixed every couple of hours. The sound quality is great on the A50, and the mic seems to be very good, although not as great as the Turtle Beach 500X. There aren’t as many EQ settings, but honestly this is not something most gamers are going to mess with. The mic does mute when raised up, which is a nice feature to have. Setup can be a little tricky since you have to mute the game audio that comes through the controller (since it is redundant with the system audio coming from the xbox optical cable). Otherwise, you will hear a slight game echo. However, once you realize what is going on, it is an easy fix. This is a limitation of the headset receiving the game audio wirelessly and then the game audio AND chat audio through the controller cord. You have a set of controls on the headset (made for PC game and chat mixing) and the ones on the controller adapter which serve the same purpose. The one benefit of having the mixer on the headset and the cord for the chat is that if you are gaming by yourself, you can connect your phone to the chat cable and pipe in audio from your phone. You will still receive the game audio via the transmitter, and you can control the volume from the two sources independently. The A50 does come with a nice stand that holds the transmitter and the headset when not in use. In addition to the port that connects to the Xbox, the transmitter does have a USB port that is used to connect the charging cable to the headset. The means that you only need one free port on the xbox to power both the transmitter and the charging cable for the headset. Overall, this is a fantastic headset for the PC, and it’s pretty good for the Xbox- although you’ll always have that one cord tethering you to the controller if you want to use party chat. The chat cable can be removed from the headset completely if you are just watching tv, although that makes it one more thing that you could potentially lose. Still, this is definitely the most comfortable wireless headset for me compared to the Turtle Beach 500X and 800X. Sennheiser G4ME ONE: The G4ME ONE, henceforth referred to as the “Game One” for readability, is a wired PC headset. It weighs in 270 grams for just the headset, but weighs a total of 308 grams including the super long cable. The ear cups are massive on this headset- with an internal height of 69mm and width of 37mm. They are deep as well, at 19mm in the front and 26mm toward the back. Like the A50, there is also some more depth behind the ear cushion as well. The ear cushions are also a velvety fabric that is extremely soft and comfortable. The band is very comfortable as well, with just the right amount of tension for my head. The Game One is an open back headphone design, which means that people around you will hear the sound coming from them. It also means that you will be able to hear things around you- for better or worse. However, the sound is great, and the open back design allows for the most breathability of any of these headsets, so long term comfort is great. Sennheiser does have a closed back design (the G4ME ZERO) that is similar, but I believe it is designed to use an external amp so the xbox controller may not have enough power to properly drive the speakers. The Game One is an example of a PC headset that is compatible with the Xbox One, but not optimized. For instance, there is a volume wheel on the ear cup which is great for easy access, but is somewhat redundant with the chat pad controls. However, I suppose this might be a good thing for the newly announced controllers that have the headphone port built in, although I don’t think we know how those will control the audio volume and mixing yet. Back to the super long cord- It is extremely long (3m/10 ft). It is so long that it comes with a velcro wrap that can be used to tie up the excess cord. You will probably end up wrapping the excess cord about 3 or 4 feet from the headset so that it doesn’t weigh down the headset, but then you will likely have this little bundle of weight sitting on your lap or sitting beside you. It’s not the worst thing in the world, but it is definitely noticeable. The cord also comes with the split 3.5mm connectors- one for mic and one for audio, and you will need an adapter to combine those plugs into one in order to fit it into the chat adapter. So while the headset is great, it comes with a lot of baggage. According to the site, there IS a console version that comes with a shorter cord- which is good, although neither one has a detachable cord so you’re stuck with whichever length of cord came on the version you bought. The construction is beefy though, and the mic sounds fantastic and apparently features some noise cancellation tech- although that is harder to judge as the owner. It also has the ability to mute the mic when the boom mic is raised, which is intuitive and useful. Overall, this is a great headset, and probably the most comfortable one overall, but the cord and required cable adapter give it a little ball and chain that you’ll have to live with.