Some readers may remember me from my X4 review. Here we are a little over a year later and I am once again tearing into the box of a shiny new pair of Turtle Beach headphones. I liked the X4s, so why did I invest another $200 on the X41s? Because the X4s had some issues, common issues included sound glitches at certain frequencies (press the B button in Shadowrun), interference from other IR sources (like the Wii sensor bar), and a noticeable hiss when using the voice function. These issues did not ruin the X4s, in fact they were still one of the best gaming centric headphones, and THE best wireless gaming headphones, but the issues could be annoying. Thankfully, the X41s claim to fix everything wrong with the X4s and add some new features to boot. Do they live up to the hype or have hidden issues?
For the rest of my review I will be doing some comparison to the X4 in every aspect of these X41 headphones, as well as comparing them to the other options available. I may leave out some details that I already covered in my X4 review, if something doesn't make sense or you would like more detail check my X4 review to see if I covered it there. In this review I will mostly be pointing out what has changed from X4 to X41. Finally, I personally own 6 pairs of gaming headphones, from the aging AX360 to the Astro A40 and X4. I will be giving my opinion of the X41s performance compared to my experience with most of the other competitors on the market.
Headphone design and feel:
The X41s really shine in this area, like the X4s they are extremely light and comfortable. In addition, they have added a new type of breathable fabric to the pads which keeps your ears cool and comfortable through hours of play. They have also increased the size of the space for your ears. The end result is headphones that are easy to forget exist. The headphones are well built in every other respect. The Bass boost switch is now a button, the headset is black rather than grey, most of the other changes in this area are minor. The X41s are an improvement over the X4s and one of the most comfortable of all the headsets I have used.
Audio Quality:
One of the big draws of the X41s is the new DigitalRF which claims to increase sound quality while decreasing interference and hiss. This claim is completely factual; the X41s have excellent sound that rivals even top level wired headsets. In addition, the X41s have fixed all of the X4s sound glitches, no more will you hear disturbing static or interference when a certain frequency is played. In my experience the X41s reproduce the game sound perfectly without any degradation from being wireless.
On the other hand the extremely low level hiss is still present in the X41s, though perhaps even quieter than the X4 ambient hiss. As I said in my X4 review this constant hiss is impossible to hear if any game sound is playing, and is probably mostly amp noise created by the 50mm speakers an inch from your ear. It is nearly impossible to engineer something like the X41s and completely remove this type of hiss. Thankfully, the X41s do remove the increased hiss when using voice chat that was present on the X4 headset. With the X41s you cannot tell the difference between having the voice chat hooked up and not using it. With the X4s as soon as you plugged in voice chat the normally unobtrusive hiss would double or triple in volume and become quite noticeable. This is a pretty major improvement for the X41s, as the hiss while using voice chat was a common complaint of the X4s.
The X41s have also enhanced their Dolby DSP to handle up to 7.1 surround sound and PL2X. This is not as noticeable as the Digital RF but it is an improvement. The excellent surround sound from the X4s is made even better, and it is even easier to pinpoint exactly where a sound is coming from. The surround sound here is really fantastic, don't believe the hype about "true 5.1" headsets that have multiple speakers in each ear, this Dolby processing creates a better surround sound experience. In addition, because there is only 1 speaker per ear the speakers are much larger which makes the excellent audio quality possible. Comparing the X41s to my Tritton headsets is really one sided, the X41s are hands down better in every way when it comes to audio quality. Bottom line, 2 great speakers and Dolby Processing is far better than 8 tiny speakers.
The short version here is that the X41s are a worthy improvement in terms of audio quality. They have fixed essentially all of the major problems the X4s had and added some new features as well. The X41s perform very well when compared to wired headsets also, for the same price you could not find a 5.1 headset with better audio quality than the X41s, and the X41s are wireless.
Other Features:
The X41s don't change very much in this category from the X4s. You still get the excellent voice chat implementation, which will balance voice and game audio so that you can always hear everything clearly. As I already mentioned the noticeable hiss while using voice chat has been removed, so that is a major improvement here.
One notable change to the X41s is the new talkback cable that is now free of the puck. This new cable is simply 2 standard mic connections with volume control and mic mute on a little box in the middle of the wire. This cable uses heavier wire than the old X4 cable, and seems like it will resist the rigors of use more efficiently. In addition, because they did away with the puck the X41s are now compatible with any headset connection. This means with the right USB adapter and cables the X41 voice chat can be used with a PS3 or PC as well as the Xbox 360. This is really a pretty awesome addition, and one that is not touted on the box.
The X41s also have a headset jack for a wired headset with its own volume control. This headset receives all the Dolby Processing and the same sound the wireless one receives. This is nifty if you want to have multiple people listening to the same audio on headphones, and is a better option than the X4s "buy another $100 headset" approach.
The X41s are now powered via a USB cable, which you can hook to your Xbox or any other powered USB port. Not sure if I find this positive or negative, but it is a change from the X4s.
Overall:
The X41s are a worthy improvement over the X4s. The decision to upgrade is something each individual will have to consider, but if some of the X4s flaws or glitches have been bothering you the X41 does a great job of solving those issues. In addition, the X41s add a lot of great features, from Digital RF to the new talkback cable. These features make an already excellent headset even better. As far as gaming headsets go the X41s are among the best. The implementation of voice chat is second to none, and since the X41s eliminated the loud hiss found during voice chat on the X4s, this feature is nearly perfect. The sound quality is excellent, and the Digital RF really does rival wired headsets, and is completely free of audio glitches. You no longer need line of site, and the signal seems very robust and interference free even around multiple wireless networks. The X41s are also significantly more comfortable than the X4s, and the new fabric for the ear pads makes a noticeable positive difference in keeping your ears cool and comfy. In the end, for anyone looking for a gaming headset that incorporates voice and surround sound, the X41s get my unwavering recommendation. They really are the best gaming headphones available right now.
I have rated the X41s 5 out of 5 stars, compared with the X4s 4 out of 5 stars. I would not say the X41s are perfect, just surprisingly close.
Update (Roughly a year later): After a year of using the X41's, with hundreds, or perhaps thousands of hours of play across all platforms. I just want to reaffirm that I still think they are an amazing pair of headphones, and the best wireless sound solution for gamers. A few things that I have noticed in the last year.
First, when the batteries die the headphones often make a violent crackling screech noise (for perhaps a second, very short). This is annoying, not something I find bad enough to reduce the score, but I hope in the next iteration Turtle Beach fixes this, even if it means I get 30 minutes less battery life. I would rather the headphones beeped at me when the battery was low, or perhaps some indicator on the base station could show when the batteries are getting down there. Then when it got critical just make the headphones power off gracefully, rather than dying in a screech and crackle of rage.
Second, they are actually susceptible to interference from 802.11G wireless. In general they work great, but if you position stuff such that some wireless device (be it a router or a wireless client) is closer to you than the base station you can get interference. In general this is easy to fix, for instance I put my wireless devices on the opposite side of the TV from the base station and interference is a thing of the past. It is something to be aware of though, depending on your situation, especially in an apartment or dorm with tons of wireless everywhere, you could have trouble avoiding interference. To fix this perhaps Turtle Beach will switch to the 6 Ghz spectrum and use something similar to DECT. This would increase range, and should completely eliminate interference.
Finally, a quick tip on hooking these up. I found that the best way to hook the headphones up to any modern TV was to plug the X41 power USB cable into the USB slot on the TV (generally used for displaying pictures or similar features). Then use the Optical out on the TV as the connection to the X41 base station. Then you just plug all your devices in with HDMI cables and you can enjoy Dolby Digital on every device without any switching or special adapters. Plus, when you turn the TV off the base station goes off, turn it on, base station is on. In my opinion it is pretty much perfect, and is a joy to switch from watching TV with DD5.1, to my Xbox 360 or PS3 or PC, simply by pressing the source button on my TV remote.
If anyone has any specific questions feel free to comment on my review, I generally try to answer questions posted in comments. Ear Force X41 (XBOX LIVE Chat + Wireless Digital RF Game Audio with Dolby Headphone 7.1 Surround Sound) - Turtle Beach - Wireless Headphones - Surround Sound - Gaming Headphones'
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