The Tech Specs:

Sound

• Speaker Diameter: 40mm
• Magnet Type: Neodymium
• Frequency Response: 25Hz–22kHz
• THD: -97dB
• SNR: 106 dB/V

Connection

• Cable Length: 14ft
• Xbox Live Port: Yes
• USB Powered
• Audio Input Type: Optical

Compatible with both Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Reviewed using Xbox 360

Thanks to MadCatz for supplying this headset for review.

Two weeks back a large box arrived on my doorstep from MadCatz. Within this large cardboard prison was the new MadCatz officially licensed Ghost Recon gear they had sent in for review: a pretty looking controller and, more importantly, a 7.1 surround sound headset from Tritton that promised a fantastic audio experience for Ghost Recon: Future Solder and  for every other game as well. Needless to say, I was excited to test this beast and compare it to my own favorite headset that sits proudly on my shelf: the Turtle Beach PX5. So have Tritton delivered a great headset? Uh, yeah!

And before we get startied, it’s fair to warn you that comparisons between this headset and the PX5 by Turtle Beach will be made during this review, because at a selling price anywhere between £120 to £160 for Tritton’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier offering, that puts it in the same price range as Turtle Beach’s headset. And as you probably already know, I really love my own set of PX5s. I  admit that the review I wrote for them was gushing and incredibly enthusiastic, but that’s simply because I fell in love with them from pretty much the first minute, even if they do run through batteries pretty damn quickly now. I’ve tried many, many headsets over the years, but they’re the only ones that I use every night for gaming, music and films. And of course the other reason for comparison is that  the Turtle Beach’s are right there on my shelf, making it easy to swap between the two headsets to try to determine which offers the better audio.

Make the mistake of opening the box containing Tritton’s new pride and joy the wrong way and a steady cascade of packets will greet you, each of them containing various wires and other things of unknowable origins. My first thoughts were that this headset was going to be a royal pain in the ass to set up, probably resulting in me having a headache the size of Mount Olympus by the end of the day and even more damn wires to trip over, because this new Ghost Recon headset is completely wired. Yup, more health hazards around the house. Damn. Ah well, one less reason to come in drunk at 3am, I suppose.

Happily, though, Tritton’s Ghost Recon headset is a breeze to set up thanks to clear instructions and cables that can only fit one way. It’s simply a case of connecting the Dolby Decoder box, henceforth known as the magic box, to the Xbox via USB and an optical cable. In case you hadn’t already guessed, then, this headset is powered via the witchcraft of USB, or in other words it draws power directly from the Xbox so that you don’t have to plug it into a wall socket. Once that’s done you simply need to plug the headset into the magic box and you’re done! At this point I recommend a cup of tea and a hearty snack. Got to keep up that strength, after all.

But before we get into the performance of this beast, lets look over the build quality and looks of the thing. Like the other member of the family, the Ghost Recon controller, this is one fine-looking piece of tech, sporting the Ghost Recon skull design on its side plates in a nice blue color and a chunky, if not very graceful, shape that gives it a heavyweight style. Even the braided cords, which are incredibly resilient, and magic box are decked out to match the headset, with a mix of black and blue adorning them. While I’m usually against shiny plastic, as I feel that it often looks cheap and tacky, it really works on this headset, helping to bring out that dark blue Ghost Recon: Future Soldier logo that adorns the top of the headband. Backing up the chunky look that the design of the headset has is its weight and feel: this is one sturdy headset. Despite the heavy-weight look it’s surprisingly light, though, and thus manages to remain comfortable to wear, even for long periods of time. The earcups are square in shape, something that I often find to be a problem because they can be a little uncomfy, but on the Tritton they’re nice and large to accommodate even the biggest ears. The pleather earcups and padding  on the headband can also be swapped out for a velour material that comes in the box as well, should you fancy a change or simply need a replacement. A nice little touch that I wholeheartedly approve of. The whole package just comes off feeling chunky and robust, like its been designed to survive a bomb, or something. I wouldn’t actually recommend blowing it up, mind. That’d be silly.

The side-pieces on the Ghost Recon also share a feature with the controller: they light up. Again, like the controller, this is a bit irritating if you play in a dark room, something which I do quite a lot, because obviously they light up the room somewhat, but because the lights are on the side it’s not too distracting and after a while I barely even noticed. Mind you, since you’re not going to see them, I do have to sort of question why there is lights on the thing at all. Ah well, at least whoever walks in the door will get a good laugh at you lit up like a fireworks display.

As you would expect the headset also comes with a microphone, which in this case is detachable. The mic itself shares the headsets heavy-duty feel, but I do have a major gripe with it: it doesn’t fold away. If you want to use the mic you’ve got to physically plug it into the headset using the jack on one end of the mic, and at times the damn thing just wouldn’t go in very well without a good shove. And no, that wasn’t a sexual innuendo. Hehe, innuendo. Anyway, it’s seems a strange design choice to have the microphone this way, and just feels clumsy compared to a simple fold away, or even the slide in/out mic that the Steelseries headsets sport. Regardless, the microphone performs well. Needless to say that in the best tradition of headset reviewing, I endlessly spammed everybody on my friends list with voice messages asking them how the quality was. Everyone agreed that it came through crystal clear, both in messages and in-game, before telling me that if I kept bothering them with messages they’d hunt me down and do terrible things to me. Honestly, people are so mean these days. However, it should be noted that the headset did suffer from the same problem that many others do: interference when charging the controller it’s plugged in to, creating an annoying background buzz audible to both yourself and anyone else in-game or in party.

The Tritton headset also comes packing the best Selective Voice Monitoring (SVM) I’ve ever had the pleasure of using. If you’re not quite sure that means, it essentially means that when you speak into the microphone you can head your on voice coming through the speakers in the headphones, allowing you to monitor the volume of your own speech to ensure that you’re not accidentally screaming down the mic at people, unless you actually want to be, of course. You can turn this feature off, if you want, but it’s quite useful.

On the cord coming from the headset to the magic box is a control device where the cable from the controller plugs in so you can chat to other players. It also has a game volume adjuster, voice-level adjuster and mute button on it, allowing you to quickly change everything on the fly to ensure that the balance of game volume and party chat speech is just right for you. However, I did find the whole thing to be a little on the bulky side. It’s fairly large, and while it doesn’t weigh much, having that size of object dangling off of the headset was a little bit annoying.

The magic box is also a pretty sturdy feeling piece of kit. The design is compact enough that you should have no problem finding somewhere for it to sit. On the front of the box is all the display lights that let you know everything is working correctly, as well as a second volume adjuster. Strangely the adjusters on both the box and the dangling controller are all digital rather than analog .It’s a small complaint, but in this day and age having digital rather than analog controls feels…..strange. Anyway, also on the front of the box is the preset button, allowing you to alter the sound that the headset produces. Sadly there’s just two presets to choose from, one for games and one for films, and there’s no controls for adjusting bass and treble manually, nor any form equalization adjustment. Suffice to say this lack of options didn’t really impress me as the two presets on offer just didn’t quite suit what I wanted. It also felt strange going from having ten presets and a whole piece of PC software for editing the sound in great detail on my PX5s to this limited selection. But at least this means that this is a great headset for those that don’t want to have worry themselves with fiddling around with settings.

The good news, though, is that despite this lack of options the headset still performs fantastically straight out of the box. Obviously since this is a Ghost Recon headset it did get considerable testing using Future Soldier, which is luckily a game with great audio, but it also got put through its paces with F1 2011, Battlefield 3, DiRT 3 and many more. If you’ve never had a good headset before and have been using the standard TV speakers then you’ll likely be in awe at the clear, crisp quality of sound the Trittons deliver, and be even more in awe of the fact that there’s so much going on that you just couldn’t hear before. The Ghost Recon headset delivered great quality of sound throughout testing. I could clearly pinpoint gunfire, hear the gravel hitting the bottom of my rally car and make out the footsteps of some cheeky bugger sneaking around the map in Modern Warfare 3. In short, it’s like having a surround sound system without all the hassle and space being taken up. In terms of bass the headset couldn’t quite deliver the low-end booms, especially for those gunfire and explosion heavy shooters, but it was still adequate enough.

There are some things that mar the experience, though. Due to being wired the headset products a small amount of white-noise in the background. Obviously while you’re blasting away or sliding around corners you won’t notice this, but in those quiet moments it does just irritate the ears slightly. I do mean just slightly, though.

The bigger problem is that the Tritton’s have a cavernous echo to the sound that just wouldn’t stop bugging me the whole time I was using them. It almost sounds like everything is taking place in a very large room with padded walls. Again, this becomes most apparent in those quieter moments, such as conversations and simply walking along a gravel path, but even in gunfights it gives the whole thing a strange feeling. It doesn’t ruin the audio experience by any means, but it’s one of those things that will constantly bother you, conciosuly or not. Swapping between this and my PX5s, I’d also have to say that the PX5’s arguably have a better clarity of sound as well as a richer depth of tone and much more powerful bass, ultimately providing the better overall audio quality experience. But then, it is a very close fought thing and hard to judge, no matter how much I swapped between the two. Much of it comes down the fact that it felt like smaller audio details were getting a little lost in the Trittons due to the cavernous effect.

And finally, the sound occasionally cuts out for a split-second for no discernible reason.  It is rare, and it is just for a split-second, but it was still a bit annoying. However, do keep in mind that this problem could just be limited to my headset specifically.

Ultimately, Tritton’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier headset is  not going to make me abandon my Turtle Beach PX5, and if it comes down the choosing betweem then I’d urge to toward Turtle Beach’s offering simply because the sound produced feels richer and it provides a lot more options to tweak the audio, something which I appreciate a lot, which also makes it more useful for listening to music as well as films and games.

The Good:
+ Looks sexy.
+ Good sound quality.
+ It’s wired, so you don’t have to worry about running out of batteries!

The Bad:
– It’s wired, so you might break your neck!
– What’s with the cavernous sound?
– More presets, please! Or just let me fiddle around with bass and treble.

The Verdict: 8.5
Designed to withstand explosions and still come out looking pretty, this is a headset that feels sturdy, looks good and delivers great audio, but it isn’t without its flaws. If you want a wired headset that comes in at a decent price, lights up at night and is most definately a huge upgrade over your TV speakers, then Tritton’s new Ghost Recon 7.1 Surround Sound headset will serve you well, and at a respectable price

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Additional: Right, now that the review is out of the way it’s time for a bit of shameless advertising for a friend of mine. Sorry! During the testing of this headset it was primarily used for games, as you would expect, but it was also tested using music. In particuilar it was tested considerably using a very close friend of mine’s debut album titled No Regrets. The album is by Geoff Sharp and I highly recommend checking out his website by clicking HERE. You can also listen to some of his songs by clicking on the GSharp button at the top of screen. Please take pity on the poor bugger and buy the CD because he’s just gone back to college so that he can learn sound engineering and chase his dream of being able to support his family with his music. That and it’s about time that we got some proper damn musicians again and not another bloody Justin Beiber. Oh, and it would be a nice kick in the face for people like Simon Cowell.  Shamless advertising over.