TURTLE BEACH ELITE 800 REVIEW

Surround sound in headsets have always been a bit...iffy. In most cases, the virtual simulation used expands the soundstage but never truly improves the spatial awareness or the surround sound effect by a lot.

The Turtle Beach Elite 800 sets itself apart by adopting a newer technology called the DTS Headphone:X that apparently “reproduces the home theater surround sound experience” using normal headset drivers. It is also Turtle Beach’s creme de la creme of headsets at AED 1,299 (yes, almost the price of a PlayStation 4), with all the bells and whistles the company has ever come up with in one great looking package. But does it live up to its name and promise?

Design

Turtle Beach’s headsets have always been simple yet sophisticated in its design. They are neither over the top or too geeky but still offer a handsome outlook with a premium feel. The Elite 800 comes from the same textbook, albeit with a few touches of its own.

   The Elite 800 slightly resembles the official PlayStation 4 headset from Sony, as in they feel like they are made out of a single chunk of plastic rather than bolted together from different parts. Still, the Elite 800 is a much better looking package with its smooth matte finish giving it a sense of quality and durability. The shiny blue accent around the ear cups and the silver joints on the headband also gives it a very slick look.

But as nice as it looks, its doesn’t compensate for its unbearable pressure. The Elite 800 is significantly heavier than most headsets, and while Turtle Beach has ensured maximum use of memory foam on both the ear cups and the headband, it doesn’t do enough to alleviate the squeezing on my ear lobes. It’s acceptable for short sessions, but if you are in for a long haul, they will get increasingly difficult to wear. I used them to watch The Game Awards 2014 but after two hours I had enough and switched to my other headset instead.

Both ear cups feature a full spectrum of buttons to customize your listening experience. On the left, you will find the on/off button which also activates the noise cancellation, the volume buttons, and the Bluetooth button to connect to your smartphone. The right side will allow you to adjust the plethora of presets at your disposal, turn on the mic, and tweak the chat volume you want to receive from the speakers. The buttons are super sensitive to touch so you may find yourself accidentally turning on options or changing a preset. It was quite a hassle during the photo shoot for the headset as it would keep turning on and off from the lightest of touch!

The star of the show, however, is the base station. It acts as the hub for all your audio connections, but more importantly, it houses the magnetic chargers that recharge the headset. Unlike Turtle Beach's other wireless headsets, the Elite 800 doesn't require a USB cable to charge. They simply need to be 'dropped' on the magnetic chargers and it will charge the headset right up. It's a brilliant design and works extremely well, and I wish I had one for my mobile phone as well. The thing with this is that if you have the station connected to a powered-USB at all times, the headset will never run out of battery as it will immediately be charged the moment it is rested on the station (and looks awesome while doing so).

In terms of connectivity, the Elite 800 works well with both the PS4 and the Xbox One with full chat capabilities. The headset requires optical cable use for optimal performance, but you can connect it via a normal 3.5mm jack as well - all the cables are included in the box.

Performance.

There is quite a bit of literature to the Elite 800, but let’s focus on the more important part of it all - the surround sound modes. There are four categories to cycle through on the Elite 800: Game, Movie, Music, and Stereo. Each holds four to six presets which cater to very specific needs. For example, the Game mode can be tuned specifically for shooters, racers, or sports games, and if you are into multiplayer gaming, you can amplify footsteps and environmental noises with the Superman Hearing and Footstep Focus presets. Similarly, the Movie mode can be tuned for drama, action or horror, while the Music mode features presets for ‘stadium’, acoustic, and dance. If you don’t fancy any of these, you can simply use the ‘signature sound’ preset for each of the modes which have been optimized for best overall performance. You can also shut off the surround sound processing and use the Elite 800 as a normal stereo headset, which has its own Bass and Treble-focused presets to choose from.

Cycling through all of these options can be a pain as you have to hold the preset button on the headset to change modes, and click on it once to change between the presets. Thankfully, you have a pleasant voice cooing in your ears calling out any change you make. Alternatively, you can use the Ear Force Audio Hub app on Android to do all the heavy lifting. Simply connect the headset to your smartphone via Bluetooth and you are good to go. You can not only easily change modes and presets, but also optimize the headset for mobile use as well. At the time of writing, I did not find an iOS app, so if you are on an iPhone you are pretty much forced to skip this very handy utility.

                           

Coming to actual audio performance, the Elite 800 is a mixed bag. When it comes to the DTS Headphone:X 7.1 surround sound, the headset is supremely effective. In Destiny, each cue is easily distinguished with the sound having enough depth to help me not only figure out the direction, but also the height and distance it was coming from. At one point I caught myself saying “woah” as the bullets from a Cabal zipped and swooshed past my ears, making me feel like I was right inside the game world facing a giant alien species. It was almost three dimensional - very impressive.

Unfortunately, like most surround sound products, the DTS Headphone:X adds a hollowness to the sound. As a result, the worlds feel distant and empty. The bass becomes overpowering, and the mids plays somewhere in the distance, never truly coming alive. It also adds a bit of distortion to the sound when there is a lot of action going on. It was extremely noticeable in a firefight with the Hive in Destiny. Of course, most of this is alleviated by using the headset in stereo mode but I shouldn’t have to disable the main feature on a $300 headset just to get it to sound like any other pair.

Another drawback of the DTS Headphone:X is that it won’t work as intended on the PC unless your sound card supports Dolby Digital Live. Mine didn’t and the performance was poor with the surround sound modes. Everything sounded like it was coming from a single center speaker, with a muddled bass response prevalent on all modes. Of course, this is somewhat improved using the stereo mode but it pales in comparison to proper stereo headsets.

The Elite 800 is designed to use for multiplayer gaming so a good mic response is absolutely important. Here, a pair of microphones are fitted inside the ear cup rather than featuring a boom stick. While this does help maintain a clean look, it does no such favors to the sound quality. In complete Turtle Beach tradition, the mic too have its own presets, such as quiet room, normal room, loud room, and outdoor, which as the names would suggest are designed to perform in those specific scenarios.

Below is a short sample of me reading a comprehension of ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’. It was recorded on the PC using Audacity on the ‘normal room’ preset.