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Turtle Beach Ear Force HPX on Game and Player

Turtle Beach Ear Force HPX

Ed Kirchgessner  //  April 15, 2009


Finally, some middle ground.

H

eadsets have been the bane of many a PC gamer's existence for as long as voice chat has been running in the background of WoW or Call of Duty — in a market that's been flooded with products for the "extreme" player, price (and branding) are by no means indicators of quality. Take Razer's Piranha gaming headset as a prime example. While that manufacturer's mice and keyboards have garnered a great deal of praise over the years for their robustness and performance characteristics, this mid-priced headset proved to be about as comfortable as a bear trap hat. There simply had to be a reasonable compromise between the disposable $15 headset and flagship products like Astro's $250 A40 Audio System. In a quest to find this holy grail of communication, I stumbled upon a gem from an old name in the world of PC gaming — Turtle Beach's Ear Force HPX.

The Ear Force HPX is by no means the most affordable headset on the market ($80 for most of its available configurations), but it blows away the competition thanks to a sturdy build and standout audio quality. From the moment I removed the HPX from its packaging, something special caught my eye: metal. A substantial portion of this headset's frame is metal rather than plastic, and while this may increase its overall weight, it certainly makes one feel like their investment may have been worthwhile. Ear cups are wrapped in plush velvet, and the head band's near infinite adjustability should lead to a comfortable fit regardless of your noggin's size — even my huge melon was easily accommodated.

It blows away the competition thanks to a sturdy build and standout audio quality.Further setting the HPX apart is its multi driver design. Whereas many higher end gaming headsets feature one driver per ear cup (a traditional stereo configuration), the HPX has four. Remember those extra ports on your sound card you've been ignoring all these years? Well, they're finally good for something. By attaching the appropriate breakout cable to the HPX, you'll be able to enjoy discreet 5.1 surround sound in your favorite shooters and action games. While the result was still nowhere near as immersive as my living room's home theater setup, the HPX delivered far more convincing surround than I've experienced via matrix codecs like Dolby Headphone. It made a huge difference when playing first person action titles and definitely heightened my enjoyment of World of Warcraft — I was treated to a near 360 degree sound field and crystal clear dialogue.

The HPX headset's detachable boom mic also seems to do the trick nicely. A number of players have commented on how clear I've sounded since upgrading, and the sturdy goose neck makes positioning the microphone a snap. The only drawback I've found so far is that it lacks an in-line mute switch — if you're playing your games in full screen mode, you'll have to tab out and mute your mic in your chat software. A minor gripe, perhaps, but a gripe nonetheless.

As I mentioned earlier, the HPX is of modular design. If you'd rather not wire it for discreet 5.1 surround, Turtle Beach offers a variety of configurations to choose from. Traditional stereo and output only cables are available, as well as an adapter which allows the HPX to interface with Astro Gaming's MixAmp outboard processor (this should be of particular note to MLG players). While all this choice is great, I do wish that Turtle Beach would have spent a bit more time designing the jack which connects to these breakout cables. Since breakout and headset aren't locked together, it doesn't take much force to disconnect the HPX from one's computer. As conducive as this breakaway is to safety, it stinks to suddenly lose all audio and chat during a raid's final moments.

All told, I'm happy to say that I've finally found a PC headset that fits my needs. The Ear Force HPX is comfortable enough to be worn for hours yet fits snugly so as not to require constant repositioning. Overall sound quality is superb (try listening to your favorite CD and you'll see what I mean) and support for discreet 5.1 is a nice touch — while headsets that utilize external sound processors like the Astro A40 may make it easier to fine tune audio levels, the HPX is more than capable when coupled with a quality sound card. If you're in the market for a decent headset but don't care to spend hundreds of dollars for the best, you can sleep soundly: settling for the Ear Force HPX hardly feels like settling at all.





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