New gaming headset.

Turtle Beach X11's are the new x1's, albiet corded, they are made for long gaming sessions, and are all you'll ever need out of gaming headsets. Plus, they're only 60$, rather than 160$

 

I have Turtle Beach X41. They are EPIC. I wouldn't know what to do without them.
If you get a Turtle Beach, don't get any less than X41.

Anyway, I haven't tried the others but I sincerely recommend Turtle Beach X41 for sure.

 

Trudat, actually the only thing I don't like about the Turtle Beach is that you need AAA batteries. I have 4 of them, you only need to, so I just swap them out and charge them. So it's fine for me, but if you don't have them and the other doesn't take batteries, I'd use those.

To be honest, I'm getting over the dependence on batteries, but it worth it for the wireless. Also, the Turtle Beaches don't use a power point, the plug into USB, so any USB would work, I use the one at the back of the 360, though it's not like you have to use a 360 USB if you're using them all.

Another thing, I'd buy a better Optical Audio cable then the ones that come with the headsets, usually they're dodgey. Apart from that, tells how it works out, I'd be interested to know.

 

I don't have much direct experience of the various headsets, Insane is more knowledgeable on that front, I know the generally appreciated pros and cons of the major ones, so you may find some of this useful.

X1's are the only full headset I do actually have experience of, I owned a set a while ago until it broke. I don't know how the X11 compares to the X1, but this is obviously issue one with the latter for me. Build quality was OK, but if you're transporting these from place to place with any sort of regularity you're gonna want to ensure they're safe from being bent or having pressure applied to them. As for sound, with the switch from a standard xbox mic you'll notice one thing straight away: bass. Obviously this is inherent in a full headset system that includes gamesound as well, but the bass on the X1's was still overpowered and very loose and flabby as well. It applied to the chat voices as well, and made some people significantly harder to understand/have at a comfortable volume in comparison to others. Basically, with sound quality you get what you pay for, and whilst they were far from unuseable (I still picked them over a standard mic and tv sound every time), the X1 had a lot of room for improvement in that area.

But my biggest gripe with them was comfort, which I notice is one of your priorities from the OP. After owning X1's, comfort is now my single biggest priority for a gaming headset, when using them for 3+ hours they really started to get very uncomfortable. Tbh I'm going for Astro A40's when I next buy a headset for this exact reason, the circumaural design (basically they sit around and over your ear as opposed to on top of it).

About Astros and quality, everything I hear points towards it being true. The A40's are supposed to be worse quality than other options around or even slightly below that price, the two main selling points being comfort and the mix amp. The new A30 version is supposed to have better sound quality apparently, as well as being a little bit cheaper than the A40. It's smaller, and one which sits on top of your ears unlike the A40, but I've heard that it's a nice headset even though still a little overpriced since its Astro.

You always have the option of making your own set up, since basically the reason everyone cares about Astro is the mix amp, buying just that and a separate headset is a pretty popular option too. I was looking at buying a mix amp and a Sennheiser PC350 for a while. This route takes a little more research, but it's an option, and you can basically get better sound quality with all the benefits of the mixamp.

For Tritton AXPro's, Insane is definitely your man. He's had them for a while now, and seems pretty happy with them, though he says they're not as sturdy as they could be.

 

I own the Tritton AX Pros, Astro A40s, and used to own (until I sent them to Shanon) the X1s. I've also used a few other ones, including X4s and X41.

The Trittons are REALLY cool, they just....break. Alot. You get free returns and all that, but they're extremely easy to break. They're a little clampy on your head in comparison to the Astros, but so are all the Turtle Beach products. The Trittons are fairly heavy though, and while not uncomfortable (you can play a good many hours without them bothering you), they're definitely noticeable. So they're both pretty decent in terms of comfort, personally I prefer the Trittons, but the X41s aren't uncomfortable either.

The major advantage of the X41 is that it's wireless, and that's that. There's no other wireless headsets on the market that come close to the Turtle Beach stuff, unless you buy an Astro mixamp and use a PC mic. If you need wireless, spring for the X4/X41. X3/X31s are just wireless versions of the X1/X11, which I don't recommend unless you can't afford anything else.

Trittons, though heavy and breakable, have several advantages in my opinion. I prefer a wired headset, which they are (though the amount of wires is a little ridiculous). They have true surround sound, which means they have 4 speakers in each ear, instead of one that simulates surround. The Astros are also simulated, but they do a decent job...Turtle Beach's simulated surround really isn't very accurate. Trittons also let you adjust each channel, which is a cool feature I wish the other headset companies would pick up on.

So, overall I think Trittons are the best bet for your money, but you need to know that they're probably going to break. If you need wireless, spring for the X4s or X41s (the difference is less than the make it sound).

Also @Red Army: All optical cables are nearly the same, actually. Fiber optic quality doesn't really change, the difference in expensive cables and cheap cables is that they are more sturdily made, often the cheap plastic optical cables ends will snap or bend very easy, or the cable will be frayed, and since fiber optic is basically just light, the sound won't be able to get through. So, there's really no reason to get another optical cable if yours works fine.

 

That's what I meant in quality. Generally you'll get very thin frail ones that are just so flimsy. Yeah they work fine but I would prefer something that's a little more secure. Especially if you'll be moving it around.

 

Since people are mentioning the X11s... I have a set. They're perfectly comfortable thanks to the cup going around rather the ear rather than resting on top of it like the X1s did. In that regard, all of the X_1 series is good. The X11s are also cheap.

The downside is that they're just stereo rather than full surround sound, and they have a white noise background hiss that can get annoying when no other sounds are playing. Apparently the sound quality is bad compared to other headsets too, but I can't tell.

 

I got the Turtle Beach X1s and they are amazing. They broke once, but that was only the $5 cord that was easily replaceable. Other than that, they have lasted the longest of all of my headsets. When I had the Turtle Beach X41, they had some sort of problem where both mine and everyone else's voice would screech like a dying cat and people could hear it. I think it was my router (D-link N Gigabit) that caused the problem (what sites told me)

The only downer to the X1 is the cables, they limit your distance and they annoy the hell out of me because they twist like crazy and feel as if they cannot be fixed.

 

Quality is really not very good on the X1/X11s. But, it's cheap

The X41 problem is a problem where something wireless that uses the same channel is on the same frequency as the wireless part. I thought it was silly that they switched from the X4's IR which wouldn't be interrupted to something that's quite easily interrupted by routers, radios, wireless phones....even microwaves technically could.

 

I have X41s, so does everybody else in my team and none of them reported any connection problems. But maybe we have different frequencys or something I have no idea about this.
In my opinion, the X41s are by far the best online headsets you can get, if you have enough money, they are pretty expensive over here, at Amazon they cost 220€, I found some for 150€, but that's very much too. But theyare worth it, the sound on CoD 4 and MW2 is great, if you set them up right you may hear Dead SILENCE AND Ninja Pro sometimes, but the Map has to be quiet. They also work great for all Halo Games, especially in Reach the footsteps are louder than before.
The batteries last for about 20-25 hours, so you won't have to change them too often.

The disadvantage, besides the prize, is the fact that they are wireless. If you plan to attent some tournaments like MLG, you are not allowed to use wireless headsets.

 

"In my opinion, the X41s are by far the best online headsets you can get"
Have you compared to other headsets? How many have you used? This is DEFINITELY not true....but they are the best if you need wireless. For the best online experience from what I've used, I'd have the say the Astro A40s. It's close between that and the Trittons, and while I prefer the true surround sound they have, the Trittons have little gaps of surround that very occasionally people are in the perfect blind spot in between center and back and such.

"I have X41s, so does everybody else in my team and none of them reported any connection problems. But maybe we have different frequencys or something I have no idea about this."
This is only if whatever router or device you're using uses the same frequency as the router. So, depends on the hardware you're using. But it is always a possibility which is a weird choice by Turtle Beach to move from IR.

"The disadvantage, besides the prize, is the fact that they are wireless. If you plan to attent some tournaments like MLG, you are not allowed to use wireless headsets."
Nor are you allowed to use Trittons, because they use power.

 

I tried the Astro A40s, the Turte Beach X1s, the original XBox Headset xD, some Medusas and Sharkoons .. I don't know the name of the last

 

Then you'd know that the A40s are infinitely more comfortable and have way better sound quality, surround, and balanced audio than the X41s. Though for many that doesn't warrant the somewhat outrageous pricetag ($250, not including an optical cable and shipping).

 

You forgot to mention the part when you pulled the Trittons apart while testing the elasticity of the top of the headset. lololol <3

Personally, I haven't had any issues with my headset physically breaking, but my mic cord broke during shipping. Tritton's customer service is really nice though. :]