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Turtle Beach XP400 wireless gaming headset hands-on
Turtle Beach announced a duo of new XBOX 360 and PS3 gaming headsets on day one of CES, and we were able to spend a bit of time with one of them, the XP400, on the show floor. It’s Turtle Beach’s flagship gaming headset, featuring adjustable Dolby 5.1 virtual surround sound, a non-AD2P dual-pairing Bluetooth radio for picking up phone calls during gaming sessions, a 15 hour rechargeable battery and dual-band 2.4/5GHZ built-in WiFi.
The actual over-the-ear pieces have a much better layout from previous models, though there are almost as many buttons as there are on the controller you’d be wielding — with volume up / down, chat volume up / down, mute, Bluetooth pairing, limiter button and tone buttons. The included dual-band WiFi adapter that connects to your gaming console of choice is small and pretty minimalistic in design. The adjustable surround angles feature seems useful but we can’t help but to feel it’s a bit gimmicky — we have a hard time figuring out which setting is better. One feature that we really like is the new Limiter function, which allows you to keep the volume relatively high to listen for those footsteps (lower in volume) but won’t blow your ear drums out when a RPG rocket (explosion-like volume levels) hits you in the face. The sound was also crisp and loud as we completed our spec-op mission at the Turtle Beach gaming booth, where the headset’s noise-blocking abilities proved to be particularly handy. Hit up the gallery below for a close look at the $220 gaming headset set to be available this quarter.
Plantronics Voyager HD headset knows when it’s kissing your cheek
If you drive around all day bumping your gums with remote friends and colleagues, then you can’t really get along with those more diminutive headsets on the market. That’s where the fat and proud Voyager range from Plantronics comes in, with features like all-day battery life, a long boom, A2DP and an InstantMeeting app to connect you to conf calls on your iOS, Android or BlackBerry. The latest Voyager HD model is the first to contain sensors that detect proximity to your jowls and allow the device to re-route calls appropriately. The HD is available now at $100, which includes a year’s subscription to the company’s Vocalyst voice recognition service — although we suspect a certain newcomer might have that area covered. The full PR is a click away.
Jaybird JF3 Freedom Bluetooth stereo headset shipping next week, enhanced with new cushions
Jaybird’s been pretty quiet about its latest Bluetooth offering. In fact, the company actually sneaked a few of its JF3 Freedom sports headphones into some stores back in April, but they quickly ran out of stock — we imagine it was either a test run or the product needed some tweaking. Regardless, we’ve just been informed that the JF3 will finally be available to all starting next week, with Jaybird’s online store currently taking pre-orders for $99 a pop (including free delivery), followed by wider availability at retail stores in late July. What’s more, these sweat-proof stereo buds are now enhanced with new blade-like silicon ear cushions — head past the break to watch Jaybird founder Judd Armstrong ecstatically shake his head to show off the secure fit.
Turtle Beach's XP500 headset brings totally wireless 7.1 to the Xbox 360, PX5 is mildly jealous
Turtle Beach’s PS3-oriented PX5 performed great in our recent review, and just after we’ve arrived at E3 the company has announced another new release for the show: the XP500 for the Xbox 360. It’s essentially a PX5, featuring the same design and programmable Dolby virtual 7.1 goodness, but with a Microsoft loving green trim and a rechargeable Xbox 360 Bluetooth Chat Adapter — the latter plugs into your controller for some wireless chatting action. This makes it the only other completely wireless Xbox headset besides the Tritton / Microsoft cans we got a glimpse of last week. The XP500 will cost $260 — $10 more than the PX5 — when Turtle Beach releases it this fall, but current PX5 owners can just purchase the $30 Chat Adapter to join the fun.
In addition, TB is also announcing the $30 XL1 as a replacement for your Xbox’s standard headset — you can view its full-on stereo glory alongside the XP500 in our gallery below. We’ll hopefully grab some ears-on time with all of the new gear while we’re here at E3.
Bluetrek releases lightweight Carbon: world's first carbon fiber Bluetooth headset
When this rather smashing little piece of gadgetry made its way through the FCC last week, we didn’t have a whole lot of details to share about the “world’s first carbon fiber Bluetooth headset.” Well, Bluetrek’s making the Carbon official today with a $70 price tag and a full set of specs. The thing weighs in at a mere .25 ounces, touts Bluetooth v3.0 support, and allows for four and a half hours of talk time or five days on standby. It also comes with a set of four earbuds in different sizes, so anyone can rock the lightweight headset no matter how big, or small, the ear hole. The Carbon is now on sale at the source link below. Full PR after the break.
