Customer Reviews

Ear Force PX5 Programmable Wireless 7.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound Headset with Bluetooth

5 star:		(128)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(27)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

I started out the X4's, then the X41's. So two years of better gaming. Both were great for many reasons. I even thought they were perfect. Now owning the PX5's for a week, it makes the other ones I have owned seem flawed. They really did justice to the PX5. Cable fits more snug to the Xbox controller, the volume control has a better range, and interference is little to none with the PX5. And even though the sound on the X41 is outstanding, the sound on the PX5 is even better.

If you have the money or can scrape up the money and you play a lot of MP type games, you really need a good headset to step up your game. Being able to know someone is coming, how close the might be, and what direction they are coming from really helps. Even if you just play on campaigns, these headsets really help to immerse yourself into the game's environment.

The biggest plus with any headset for speakers is being able to play games loudly without keeping everyone else awake. More importantly, if you play games that has harsh language and you have kids, then you keep them from accidentally hearing it.

UPDATE 4/13/2011

Well, a few weeks of use now. I use them with the 360 and so far, I am averaging 10 to 12 hours of use before replacing the batteries. I use rechargeable NiMH batteries. The best feature they added to this headset, that the other models did not have, is they finally give you a warning your batteries are about to die.

The sound is still great. I have tried the various presets and they really help depending on what type of game you play. Still highly recommended.

I've had the Triton AxPro, X41, X31, Astro, and now the PX5.(All from Amazon, which was awesome this time as always) These are the best sounding by a landslide. Why the 4 star rating? Well, until I can customize my mic settings and edit my audio presets, and change "the voice" (yes, the headphones talk)... I can only rate it four stars. 5 is perfect. These are not. I facebooked TurtleBeach and asked whats up with the software that the manual and box say is on their website. "It isn't up there yet, it will be in a couple of days". Furthermore, that same manual makes mention of a Bluetooth adapter for the 360 controller for complete wireless chat... Also absent from their website. So those are the shortcomings for now. I hope the website is updated within 27 days, if not I will have to return these as they are only half what the box says they are. No editing mic levels, no voice morph, no custom presets, and no Bluetooth dongle.

All that said, they are awesome. Switching from Pandora on iPhone 4 to Black Ops is effortless. In fact they can be done at the same time! And I've named "her" Barbra. She tells me where we are in the presets: 1 ... 2 ... 3 and so on, or "Bluetooth on" or "Headset pairing". They are really quite amazing. The distance is larger from base to head as well. I can clearly hear BLOPS in the bathroom for those 1 minute breaks- whereas with the x41 I was constantly met with signal loss. When these do lose signal, the transition is MUCH less jarring. The game sounds simply cut in and out until they are gone all together. They fade back in the same way. Lastly, not one pop, absolutely no hiss, not one crackle in range. The only audio flaw is that when "she" says "Bluetooth powering off" the "...off" fades out a bit. Those other things missing are icing on the cake. But the cake cost 250$ and I don't like cake without icing. Hopefully an update will follow, that is positive.


FOLLOW UP:

I had to return the headset to Amazon. Booooo. Yes, there is some software on TB website. As kitschy as a "voice morph" is... It simply doesn't warrant a 250$ price tag. The actual "real" software is still absent from their website (Whatever "Coming Soon" means). I want to adjust, at the very least, some generic "bass" setting or tinker with a "treble" slider. In addition to that flagrant faux pas, there is no Bluetooth dongle to be had for us 360 exclusive gamers. BOTH of these items are listed IN THE MANUAL and in the description of their product on their own site! This is not to diminish the quality of either the build or the sound. Both are superior to their the X41 model. But not for almost double the cost. Until the price comes down, and/or these other two items are available... I will not recommend this product. Continue to enjoy the X41. In fact, buy two and let the wife enjoy some quality sounds while gaming or watching a flick or two. I do miss these cans, but I not as much as I missed the $$$. I hope to update again soon. I also hope I can do more than be blinded by their beauty and gush over their sound. Maybe I could even review this elusive software, and even more mysterious Bluetooth dongle. By then, I bet they are at least 50$ cheaper too. Which in turn will likely pay for a portion of the sure-to-be over priced dongle.

Also, I don't care to be involved in the flame debate below... Nothing personal, I'd just rather be playing video games... Or eating broken glass.

Second Follow Up:

As of late July 2011 the software is up on TB website. I will review them again once the Bluetooth adapter is available... Maybe. Or I'll just get the Xbox version of the PX5, to be released "soon".

The Turtle Beach's PX5s are here to replace its predecessor - the X41s.
My best friend had those headphones but returned them because of this hissing, cracking sound that was god awful. However, TB has rid of this problem as it is no longer happening in the PX5s. THIS IS HUGE. If you do your research you will see a plethora of complaints about the X41s having this issue.

Further, if you are really into FPS games such as killzone, COD, BFBC2 etc, then you will appreciate some of the presets such as silent footsteps; some presets really immerse you in the game. Some ppl speculated that the presets may just be a gimmick or ploy from TB but INDEED THEY ARE NOT AND THEY WORK.

NOTE: Make sure to use ninjo pro on BO to really get the advantage or else you will end up hearing the sound of YOUR OWN footsteps, which is not desirable.

Lastly, you should know that MLG recommends the ASTRO A40s, which are also awesome but come with an even heftier price tag of 350+[(when you include the wireless option. Of course, these are wireless and have more features (voice changer, downloading more presets, comes with DUAL bluetooth capabilities which is something that you CANNOT get on the astros)]. The latter feature helps a lot since my gf likes to bother me while I'm gaming and my Android can be answered by a click of a button through the PX5s; pretty cool, eh?!
Also it is helpful for you to know that the Astros are known for really good Ambient sound and Narration. Also, the astros made an improvement with their 2011 edition giving better bass containment then they offered before. The px5 don't have a bass booster toggle like the x41s, however, this is no longer a single-option-feature since the presets coupled with the ability to self adjust/customize the sound at an even greater depth is ALL at the user's fingertips.

The Px5 are probably the most advance and best WIRELESS GAMING headsets you can get on the market right now and with amazon's superb CSRs and pricing, you can't go wrong.

PS please don't bother comparing these to the Tritton Pros and/or the 720s - it really undermines the Px5s, they are not in the same league.

Update 4/1/2011

After muh more use and playing around with the headsets, I decided to give an update. Honestly, I have a issue with the lack of proper bass; that is there is not a fair balance of adequate/tight/clean bass - ESPECIALLY is you are on preset 2 or 4. If someone throws a grenade and it lands by me or if there of many sounds going on out once, there is CONSIDERABLE distortion. This is not acceptable for such an expensive headset. So yeah, it has a multitude of features, but what is the point if you are not getting quality sound. Aside from that, the mids and highs are pretty good.

Here is what I wrote in response to a comment: "Now honestly, these are not going to sound as good as the 598s, or 555, the guy who has some distortion in the bass does not have a defective product, it's just like someone said here, these aren't going to be comparable to HD cans from a company like Senn,denon, etc. I swear they sound pretty good and I enjoy them but of course they are not up to par with some of the foregoing headsets mentioned above. Do they blow the Tritton 720/pros (crap madCatz) and px21s out of the water? Yes! But don't plan on getting the best GAMING headphones (on balance) and expect sound quality which you would receive from a similar priced audiophile company...it aint gonna' happen (at least not right now)"

Hope this was helpful...

OH and ONE LAST THING, to the guy who said he got 20hrs plus, YEAH RIGHT. That is NOT true unless you have the mic and bluetooth off. Sorry. Just had to clarify for everyone. It is entirely feasible and average for 6 hrs use if the bluetooth function is on all the time bc boy does that sure drain the batt.

This is my day 1 review, but after about 4 hours playing yesterday this is an AWESOME headset and no regrets dropping the money for this one. All the other reviewers covered the performance aspects of this headset which totally sold me on it and I have nothing to add.

The one thing I wanted to share were two points about the setup process and how to integrate this into your existing home theatre for those of you who use your PS3 as the DVD/Blu-ray player in your Home Theatre.

BACKGROUND:
For both of these points it's important to first understand the wire connections between the PX5 to your PS3. You'll use:
(1) the included toslink cable to connect your PS3 optical audio out to the PX5 optical audio port;
(2) the included USB cable to connect an open PS3 USB jack to the PX5 power jack (this one kind of stinks because USB is on the front of your PS3 which makes hiding the wires a bit harder).

SETUP CLARIFICATION:
The instructions for the PX5 are not completely clear on the fact that there are 2 steps to getting the Audio and Voice Chat to work. Which, if you're like me, will mean you'll start up COD and end up with a very nice headset for chat but hear no game sounds.

1) For voice chat, the instructions are out of order - you first Bluetooth pair the PX5 headset to your PS3 (using the provided instructions and the PS3 menu Settings > Accessory Settings > Manage Bluetooth Devices); and THEN set your PS3 to use the PX5 headset for voice chat (using the provided instructions and the PS3 menu Settings > Accessory Settings > Audio Device Settings). Don't be confused that the Audio Device Settings having the Output Device means you'll get the game sounds through the headphones - this only sends chat output to the headphones.

2) For game/movie audio output, if your PS3 is currently hooked up to your TV or Home Theater using only HDMI cable or AV Multi connector you likely have no audio coming to the headset or at best you will have downgraded 2-channel audio coming to the headset. You have to modify the Sound Settings to send surround sound to the Optical audio output jack (using PS3 menu Settings > Sound Settings > Audio Output Settings and setting the Digital Out (Optical) to have 5.1 sound coming out). This will also turn off your HDMI / AV Multi sound output meaning your TV/Home Theater go deaf unless you also turn on Audio Multi-Output (using PS3 menu Settings > Sound Settings > Audio Multi-Output). When you enable multi-output, the multi-output can only output surround sound out of a single output at a time and all other outputs get just 2-channel audio.

Which brings me to my second point.

HOME THEATER SETUP:
The PS3 has a limitation to only send digital surround sound output through 1 output at a time: either HDMI or Digital Out (Optical). So if you're currently using your PS3 in your Home Theater and you rely on HDMI cable to send the Audio and Video to your TV / Receiver you're either going to have to keep switching the Audio Output Settings back and forth when you want PS3 to output to Digital Out (so you can use your PX5's) or HDMI (so you can use your Home Theater). OR you can pick up an extra toslink cable (like AmazonBasics Digital Optical Audio Toslink Cable, 6 Feet) and then read this setup suggestion. The PX5 has an Optical Input and Output jack so you can connect PS3 > toslink > PX5 > toslink > TV/Receiver. Then you can leave your PS3 permanently outputting surround sound to Digital Out (Optical) and your PX5 will forward the signal to your TV/Receiver so it has available surround when you want to listen via your Home Theater.

Hope this helps you avoid a second order if you order the PX5 and extra toslink cable at same time.

The sound is crystal clear, and the mic works perfectly. Wanna know the best thing about these headphones? No more complaining from my girlfriend about all of the loud gunfire and explosions during gameplay. And even if she did complain, I couldn't hear her.

I really like these headphones it is too bad they decided on having it transmit a 2.4ghz. Really bad idea. That alone is why these are going back and instead I will get the Astro A40s that transmit on the 5.8ghz.

I used these Turtle Beach PX5 for a week really attempting to overlook the glaring flaw of the 2.4. It can't be done. These headphones, pop, crackle and snap. They cut out all the time. There is nothing worse then playing a game or chatting and have the sound drop out every 5 minutes.

If you go onto their support they say , turn off other devices that are WiFi, move the PX5 receiver away from TVs and routers, move the transmitter up high, have a direct line of site, and also watch out for interference from neighbors routers. Who do they think are buying these headphones? Its gamers. Of course we have multiple WiFi devices. I have 2 wifi laptops, an Ipad, a Wireless sub-woofer, wireless TV and DVD player, wireless controllers, and multiple consoles, they really didn't foresee that and just avoid it all together by using the 5.8ghz range?! They really want me to turn all that off. No thanks Ill spend 50 more dollars and go for the Astro A40. The PX5s are already in the box headed back to the store.

Coming from an Astro A40, the sound quality is just as pleasing when considering music(Almost entirely rock. I'm no bass junkie.), movies, and games. I don't plan on using the other presets as I'm no competitive gamer. The possibility of presets geared towards certain games is enticing, though. Let's hope that happens.

I am primarily a PC gamer. This headset is clearly marketed towards PS3 players, but I thought it would transition nicely with use of a Bluetooth dongle. Much to my dismay, the sound quality of Bluetooth in Skype and Vent was abysmal. People said I sounded far away and I could not stomach the terrible voice quality I was receiving. I don't understand this. The sound quality of music from my iPod Touch was fantastic. The same, if not better, as from an optical connection to the transmitter from my sound card. Anyway, I ended up getting gouged by TB for a 2.5mm to 3.5mm adapter cable. The sound is much better now. I'm still tethered, but only when playing with my friends online. I can unplugging and reconnecting is not much of a hassle.

Both the headset and transmitter are made of plastic, but they are so light that dropping them does not worry me. I've been through my share of headsets where the ear cup snaps off. I'm not very worried about that happening with these as even when I'm tethered by the mic cable, it should easily disconnect and I have a cradle on the transmitter, which they won't fall off of. The tight fit of this headset also helps them cling to the transmitter. It's not the most comfortable headset I've owned, but it shouldn't be much of a problem. I just wish my ears weren't touching them. Comfort is where I'd give Astro the edge. Astro's detachable mic solution is also much better. This headset leaves a plastic arm on the cup after removing the mic.
While writing this review, my Wireless-N USB adapter decided to distort the audio. I moved it slightly and all is well.

I am leaving the A40's at home and bringing the PX5's back with me to school.

For those who don't want to wade through those blocks of text:

Good:
-Default preset sound quality is great.
-Sound isolation is great. I can't hear much of anything when listening to music at a comfortably high level.
-Wireless
-Lightweight
-Bluetooth music quality
-Easy to manage. My desk will be slightly less cluttered.
-Range (I'm in a pretty small dorm room, so this is great for me.)
-The mic is plenty loud using the adapter cable and is easy to position to your liking.
-Price (when comparing to the A40's)
-Amount of connections.

Not so good:
-Bluetooth mic quality on PC (Skype and Ventrilo)
-Interference with wireless adapters
-Auto-off after 5 minutes of no sound. You have to turn it back on every time this happens.
-No rechargeable batteries included. You'll have to swap them out when they die. (I bought Sanyo Eneloops. Highly recommend them.)
-Accessories needed to get the most out of them.
-Durability is questionable, but I'm optimistic.

If the Bluetooth quality is not a limitation of the technology, please tell me. For reference, I have a 3.0 adapter.

It appears the quirks are outweighed by convenience. (I'll update this review if needed.)

UPDATE: These headphones have not disappointed! Once I got the mic feedback/delay figured out (operator error), I was much happier. My X41s were awesome, these are better. The layering of sounds is great for FPS and, to be honest, even the baseline default presets for both 360 and PS3 are extremely sensitive. Most gamers can use the basic settings and hear more fidelity than with other headphones they have tried.

Once you get familiar with all of the buttons, dials, and functions, you can definitely tweak for each game. Battery life hasn't gotten any better (especially with BT enabled), but I bought some rechargeables.

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I've had the Turtle Beach PX5 Wireless Headset for a few weeks now and I love them. I replaced a set of X41's (which were very good) with these because I was tired of having a separate headset for both the XBox and PS3.

PROS:
- ease of setup
- construction
- comfort
- range
- sound
- factory preset standards for XBox and PS3

These headphones were good to go right out of the box and the manual led you through setup step-by-step. I was able to configure the set for use with both my XBox slim and PS3 slim. They have a nice weight to them without being overly heavy. No problems with wearing during long gaming sessions. The advertised range is ~20 ft, but I have had success with further range and extended angles to both the left and right side of the base unit. The sound is superb, but I am not overly impressed with the simulated 7.1 surround. With only two earpieces and electronically enhanced sound, I could not tell much difference between 5.1 and 7.1. Standard sound presets for the headphones work well and you have the option for downloading extra additional presets from the Turtle Beach website.

**NOTE: If you want to use headset for both XBox and PS3, make sure you have multi-output selected in the PS3 audio menu which will allow you to feed your TV or theater tuner with HDMI and use optical cable for base unit. Also, the base unit uses USB power instead of a 110V power plug. For ease of use, I use the rear USB port on my XBox 360 as the permanent USB power supply for the base unit because the XBox USB ports remained powered even while the unit is off. When I want to use the headset for the PS3, I just switch the optical cables.

CONS:
- price
- hearing yourself talk in the microphone
- battery life

This headset costs more than I really wanted to spend; they are worth it, but still too expensive. One new option included in this headset is the enhanced microphone. The microphone is very sensitive, but you can hear yourself talk during multi-player gameplay which is a little annoying - especially with the almost 1/2 second delay. I am still trying to figure out how to bypass this. You had better get a supply of batteries! Since the BlueTooth has been integrated, these things eat up batteries. I get about half the battery life versus my X41s. If you invest in rechargeables, you'll be ok.

This would be a definite 5-star product if the price was lower.

Best I ever had! Had the Ear Force X41 and the Ear Force X31 before that, and was thinking, how much better can these really be? Hell of a lot better! The sound is so clear and crisp, and the base is awesome with a great punch. The presets are excellent as well, a sound for every source. Works excellent with my Xbox360 and PS3.

After spending hours and hours gaming with Turtle Beach's latest creation, I can confidently say the company has outdone itself. The headset's build-quality is better than most of its competitors, and again, the PX5s are super-comfortable to wear -- even for long periods of time. Five minutes after you get your head in the game, you'll realize why they cost $250 bucks. Sure, the price is a bit steep and we could live without the ability to customize presets, but if you're looking to make a solid investment that'll last you through the next 15 iterations of Modern Warfare, look no further than the PX5s.

The PX5 sounds incredible. Depending on what preset you use (bass + treble boost was our favorite), gunshots pierce your ear drums, footsteps become very distinguishable (Search and Destroy, anyone?) and you can actually hear where your enemies are in addition to being able to see them. The presets can be accessed by pressing the designed button found on the left earcup, and there's a main button to quickly jump back to the default setting. It's sort of difficult to put into words how well these things sound, but we'll say this: if you have the cash and are in need of a series set of gaming cans, the PX5s should be near or at the top of your want list.

Hi I've had these for a day now and I'm falling in love with them. I've owned the X41's and Astro A40's and now these and I choose these over both of them.

To get into specifics these head phones are of course way lighter than the A40's and according to turtle beach's website they are 1.5 oz lighter than the X41's although I think they are about even because the x41's use aaa batteries and these use aa bats. The batteries them self will seem they will last for the 15 hours Turtle beach say they will, and I don't get why people want a built in rechargeable battery, what are you going to do when that dies in the middle of game or just in general. You'd have to put it on the charger for a couple hours then buy a replacement battery when the first starts getting week and then you'll have to worry about getting it nested on the charger and the charger itself working. Just go buy some rechargeable ones at wal-mart and you'll be just fine.

The Px5's are way more comfortable because they have oval ear holes (unlike the X41's) and more cushioning in the ear cushions and the head band, and they won't try and fall off your head or give you neck pain like the A40's.

Sound wise I've always liked the turtle beach head phones over the A40's because they have a lot clearer sound and between the two turtle beach's, there really isn't much difference other than the X41's maybe have a slightly deeper bass but overall a rounded sounded as to where the px5's have a crisp sound with a little more definition.

The bluetooth is a very nice touch I have it connected to my iphone and I can listen to music with ease and hear when I get a text. Then on top of it I can if you have a PS3 you can sync to your PSN comms or when they finally release it, a dongle for the xbox 360 controller.

As far as editing right now you can only change you presets, edit some volume and noise gate, and morph your voice and change how much of your voice you can here in your headset. Until they release the advanced editor you can mess with the bass, mid, and treble settings.

I've seen people's reviews on here and other sites talk about the distortion you get when alot of sounds happen at once (like a car blowing and you firing your and getting shot at the same time, etc.) and yes I experienced the same thing playing black ops, especially when napalm strike and even more so with the rolling thunder and it was very annoying but I got rid of the problem. The simplest fix is to go into the games audio settings and lower the sounds. Mine were maxed on everything so I lowered master volume down to about 75% and all others to about 80%. This alone would probably fix the distortion but I also went into the headphones software and lowered its game and master volume just a little and turned the noise gate all the way off. So now there's no more distortion even with all the explosions and I'm a very pleased customer.

All in all these certainly look great, the sound is very good and customizable (when they release the editing software) and are very comfy. If your on the ropes about these or another I can say from my use these are definitely better than astros especially seeing as the astros are more expensive and they aren't wireless and don't have the bluetooth. As far as the difference between these and the X41's you really have to look at price and features. Decide if you would use the bluetooth and use the editing software really. The Px5's on amazon currently are $212 which is currently $38 off on it. The X41's are $150 on amazon I think and you can get them new and used for less than a hundred on ebay. I'm sticking with these. Thi headset will definitely set the bar for all future gaming headsets.