Customer Reviews

Ear Force HPA2

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I also own a pair of Medusa 5.1 surround headphones, and as luck will have it, they both share the same 9 pin DIN connector, and both share the same wiring, thus interchangeable, which really makes for a great comparison.

Comfort: Medusa 5.1. I have never had a pair of headphones that were so comfortable as the Medusa 5.1. Now, the Turtle Beach aren't that bad, but they do have a noticeable snug factor over the Medusa, so after a few hours just a minor shift on the Turtle Beach and it's fine. The Ear cup size on Turtle Beach is smaller than that of the Medusa, so larger ear folks might want to lean towards Medusa.

Sound: Turtle Beach. Bass is far better, fidelity is better. Best way to explain it, is that the Medusa's are a bit more 'muted' than the Turtle Beach. Having great bass again is well worth these.

Microphone: Tie: Both microphones have done well. The detachable microphone for Turtle Beach is more of a novelty for me, I never plan on taking it off. Neither, however, have a Mute button on the microphone. A small button on the boom so you can Mute your voice would be great, especially when you just need those few moments of silence to yourself.

Design: Tie. The Medusa requires a large clunkly amplifier to rest on your desk, the Turtle Beach uses a slim in-line amp. I personally like the design of the Medusa Better, but at night, who cares....

Final thoughts:
To me it's a tie. If I want the heavy bass on clear sound, I connect my Turtle Beach. If I plan for a marathon of gaming, I grab the Medusas. Both are excellent, and since they share the same DIN connectors and wiring, interchangeable, except for the Mic. Medusa kept the microphone a seperate connector, Turtle Beach integrated it into the 9 pin connector. Not a big deal, just leave an extra connector to the microphone when swapping out headsets.

1 month after purchasing this headset, the clip that holds the ear speaker onto the headpiece broke with ordinary use. I had to send it in for repair under warranty. Now it's 4 months later, and the microphone no longer works. I take care of equipment, and there was no reason for 2 things to break.
Otherwise, the sound was good, though not mindblowing by any means. The headphones are stiff and uncomfortable.
Overall, this product has been a lousy experience.

The Good:
The bass is fantastic (a real nice rumble).
Build quality top notch.
Comfort needs work (although breaking them in by putting them on a vase all night works wonders)


The Bad:
In line amp is very noisy (and there is no real way around this)
The 3D sound positioning is all but non existent. (deal breaker)
Some of the channels were faint and not well matched; requiring a lot of fine tuning to make all the volumes level.
You really have to crank the inline amp high to hear any detail in game. (Bad for your ears)

Conclusion:
While I thought these headphones would be unique by having all of the speakers for multiple channels, I have come to the conclusion that the basic principle is just not viable. Because of the proximity of the surround speakers in the headphones, there is no way for the ear to accurately interpret the direction of the sound.

We only have two ears, and the brain interprets the direction of sound by the different pitch and timing of when the sounds hit the ear. What it really comes down to is that >>>anyone would be much better off just buying a good set of stereo headphones<<< (like a pair of Sennheiser HD 485's) and hooking them up to a X-Fi sound card that has CMSS-3D to replicate surround sounds on headphones. What is the point of surround headphones that don't sound surroundish...

I've now had the chance to play and finish Half-Life2 on these bad boys and let me tell you, if you ain't gaming in surround sound, you're missing out. I have a 5.1 surround sound set up to game, but my plasma is near the computer and so if my girlfriend wants to watch a movie or something, I would usually ruin her touching moments with mass carnage and sick headshot booms.

The Installation
Fairly easy to install, BUT, you do need a card that supports surround sound, if you don't have it, I don't see it giving you the full benefit of the technology (obviously). The plugs are very straight forward and the fact that it comes with splitters so you can leave both your headset and speakers plugged in is awesome.

The Sound
They sound remarkable. You may need to tweak the sound itself for stuff other than gaming (music playing). The rear, center, front, and subwoofer channels all have their own dedicated volume controls for the headset, meaning you can tweak the surround sound effect to your liking. It also has a seperate Master Volume Knob which doubles as the Power On/Off (turn the volume down til it clicks to turn the unit off). I can clearly hear things behind me while I game, sounds are crisp. Be careful with heavy bass sound effects, they will literally rattle your head lol. It scared the crap out of me when a grenade blew behind me...turned the subwoofer down after that one LOL.

The Mic
I use the mic w/ventrilo to play other games online CS 1.6/Source, Infantry. The mic is good, sounds good, and is easy to adjust. The fact that it's removable is great, it connects with a little headphone jack.

My Gripe
My only real complaint with the the unit may just be an isolated incident. Literally 15 minutes after removing the unit from the packaging a screw fell out (hence why I gave it 4 instead of 5), I guess it wasnt' tightened properly and a earphone came off. this sucked totally...I couldnt find the screw. But I'm technically inclined and managed to fix it. This did give me the chance to peek inside and I was not dissappointed.

The Construction
The piece that the earphones attach to is METAL, the screw attaches the earphone with a METAL NUT, the housing; plastic but sturdy, so it's built well. The Head band is nice and supports the headset perfectly. If you wear earrings you will need to remove them, the headset is very snug. I find I can easily game with them on for over an hour, probably closer to about 2 and a half hours before I gotta take em off and give my ears some air. The phones aren't leather, its like soft cushion and cotton.

If you're a serious gamer and have a SS vid card, I find it's worth the money. The included splitter is great and should be stock on all gaming headsets. I haven't watched a dvd with them on tho, might do that then add that experience here. Great for the price, would make a great gift for any intermediate to expert gamer in my honest opinion.

Having owned several cheaper headsets, I've worked my way up to these.

All I can say is that Turtlebeach got it right: comfortable over the ear style, great mic, and thumping 5.1 surround sounds that are easy to adjust via the in-line amp.

I've owned these for over 6 months and had zero problems. Also, two other friends I know on-line use these and they report high satisfaction as well.

The only thing missing is a mic mute button; but, that's no biggy in my book. I just make sure all my games and TeamSpeak settings are configured to "push to talk".

Hope this helps others with their purchasing decisions.

I'd tried 5.1 headphones once in the past and wasn't that impressed. I'd been in the market for a new PC headset with a mic on it and decided to give these a try. I was surprised how much I like them, they sound great and feel good. You can really get the subwoofers going if you have some explosions going on. I've had these for about 2 months, no problems so far.

BEWARE! Either Amazon or Turtle Beach is selling factory refurbished headphones as if they are new!

I received these headphones today. Although they are not advertised as being refurbished, that's clearly what I received. They were packaged in a sealed blister pack, but there were stains, scuffs and scratches all over the headphones. Worst of all, one of the two bars that goes over the head and attaches to the left earpiece wasn't attached. I could possibly reattach it, but the screw I would have to unscrew was stripped. It's clear someone else attempted the same repair, failed, and repackaged the headphones anyway.

This is a great headset. One of the best I have used. It was recommended by a friend and I would recommend it to you.

Just recieved these headphones today. I bought them as a replacement for my Kinyo KY-100 headphones (which are no longer made, as far as I can tell). The amp in my Kinyo headphones broke, and since I'm away at college I don't have the equipment with me to try and fix it, so a replacement was in order.

These headphones are very easy to set up, and unlike my former pair the color-coding on the leads matched the standard color-coding for PC soundcards. (I'm just using the onboard 7.1 Realtek sound, although obviously the headphones are only 5.1 .)

They sound great as far as I can tell, although I'm not exactly an audiophile, so YMMV. Tweaking with the switches on the in-line amp so as to give the sub more juice than the rest of the speakers results in very satisfying, spine-tingling bass. They definately sound better than the Kinyos I previously mentioned.

Unfortunately, these are also less comfortable than the Kinyos. Also, the Kinyo amp had two DIN-9 ports, whereas this product only has one.

I don't plan on using the mic, but I did test it and it seems to work fine. For now it's detatched and in a desk drawer.

Overall, pretty solid. Not the most comfortable out there (but not awful, either), but they sound great.

It was disappointing to have them break after only a month of usage. Out of the blue the microphone stopped working. They were pretty low quality for the money. The band that sits on top of the head is very cheap vinyl type plastic. The part where the cables split out of the main cable to plug into the back of the computer is very flimsy. I am disappointed at the shoddy craftsmanship of these headphones and would not recommend this product.