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Got this headset because I am up at night a lot and don't want to wake up others in the house with my surround sound system. I considered the PX5's and x41's but ultimately went with the PX3's because they're rechargeable (unlike the PX5's) and appeared to be made much better than the x41's.
I've had them for a few days now and so far I'm extremely happy with them. They're super comfortable and sound great. I know they don't have "true" surround sound, but when I'm playing shooters I can locate sounds instantly. It makes me wonder what it would be like with the DSS add-on. Playing COD I noticed that even when I get flashed, I'm still able to quickly turn to the correct direction most times and get a decent chance at taking the guy down, which is something that was difficult even with my surround sound system. Also, the way the RCA cord is designed allows you to run any other sound systems you might have straight through the headphones' red-white audio cord. This was one of the things I was apprehensive about prior to buying as I was not looking forward to switching the cords out all the time, but I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the box to find such a well-designed cord.
The only reason I'm not giving this a five-star rating is because at times the sound can get a little bit digitized (the way that poorly compressed videos sometimes sound), but it's nothing distracting and it's not even present in most games. I've only noticed it in Dragon Age where there's a lot of quiet scenes with talking, and even then it only seems to happen with certain voices.
Overall, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend these to anyone. Useful for FPS players as well as just people like me who don't want to disturb those around them. Even as a bit of an audiophile myself, I'm very happy with these headphones.
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***** THIS IS STRICTLY A PC REVIEW *******I must say, I was very skeptical of wireless heaphones when researching for the pair I wanted. Playing WOW can require calling out events in a timely manner and there are so many bad reviews for just about every make and model, so it makes it hard to ultimately deside to go wireless. I wasn't sure if the small amount of negative reviews for the PX3's were because of the very little overall reviews in general or the quality of the headset, until I got them hooked up. This review is after one week of use:
INSTALLATION:
Installation is extremely painless. Completely plug and play. You will probably need to set the Turtle Beach headphones (Listed as Speakers in your Sound Control Panel) to Default, as well as the microphone. All you really need to do is go to "Sound" in your control panel, enable and set default for both.
SOUND:
Even though they are just a stereo headset when used on your PC, they still sound great. Apparently, you can add a device that will turn this headset into full surround sound, but it costs around $80. These are already expensive enough. You may as well just buy the PX5's at that point. The volume control is on the headset making it very convenient. There is also a volume bar on that appears in the bottom right corner of your display when adjusting volume, lettign you know your level and minimum / maximum levels. I really feel that surround and 5.1 should have been incorporated for the price they are charging, but my gaming does not require it so oh well. My understanding is that you get these capabilities with XBOX and PS3, so no worries for your first person shooters. You also loose the audio presets when using with PC or MAC.
TRANSMISSION:
I keep reading complaints about crackling and popping with wireless headsets. I am lucky enough to have my PC and the transmitter close to the center of my house, but the furthest point is still about 25-30', and I have crystal clear audio in all areas of my home. I even tested outside at about 40-45' through walls and couldn't get an issue. Considering I will never go further than that, I did not want to continue to push it because, knowing my luck, I might never get it working perfectly again.
MICROPHONE:
Surprisingly, everyone I chat with, using Ventrilo, says that I have never been so clear. Some say I sound different, even from my real voice, but much more clear. My biggest complaint is the lack of a programmable talk button. One button to program as any key would have been huge here. It is nice to move around the house without missing the conversation, but it gets frustrating when you can't respond. My way around this is to remove Push-to-Talk and mute my mic when not talking. Since the headset at least has the mic mute on it, this is not a bad way around it, I just hate contantly changing settings, muting, and un-muting.
BATTERY:
Uses a Lithium Ion Battery so I am getting the specified 10 hours, sometimes a bit more, so can't complain. Best part is, you can use while charging, so you do not have to worry about downtime for charging. The charging cable is USB Mini to USB-A and it is about 15' long, so you have plenty of length no matter where your PC is.
Overall, I am extremely pleased with this headset and very happy to no longer be tethered to my PC. I gave four stars for the lack of a programmable talk button, the loss of audio presets when used with PC, and the loss of surround sound with PC. The cost may be up there, but after the pile of poor wireless headset reviews I have read, I decided to spend the extra cash to make sure I got it right the first time, and with this headset, I really feel that I did.
** As a side note, this headset can be used as wired to your PC, but does not come with the data transmission cable to do so. this means, you will need to purchase a separate USB Mini to USB-A 5-Pin cable. The included cable are only 3-Pin for power. So be sure to double check the specifications to ensure that the cable is 5-pin to support power, along with transmit and receive data transmission. You can always maintain the wireless connection while keeping the power cord plugge in. Eventually though, the battery will no longer hold a charge so you will need a data cable. Hopefully this will not be an issue for quite a long time being a Lithium Ion battery.
*** UPDATE ***
So far, the headphones still work great. I have noticed an issue when my PC is idle for long periods of time. I never put my PC to sleep or log off, but I do lock when away. When I come back, I typically need to disconnect and reconnect the USB in order to get the mic working again. Kind of a pain, but nothing too horrible. One thing that is supposed to resolve this, although for some reason it does not for me, is turning the USB Sleep mode off in your Advanced Power Settings. I have also pulled all nighters which run the battery down. After the 10-11 hours, if I let the battery get too low, it will not function while charging. I am trying to find a 5-pin USB cable to then make this a wired headset, but so far, I am not finding anything that allows my computer to recognize the headset at all. Will update if I do.
Buy Ear Force PX3 Programmable Wireless Gaming Headset Now
When I first got this head, I was thinking to myself, alright! A really good headset that I can use for xbox and pc. Well, I was partially right. You can use this headset on xbox perfectly, VERY good volume, but the pc is a different story. For PC users, the volume is VERY good as well, but the microphone doesn't work for a lot of things. It shows up, but it can only be used for skype, ventrillo, team chat. For users that record videos for youtube and use programs to do voice over, it will not work. For myself, the mic didn't work for Fraps or Sony vegas. Thanks guys, this is my first review and I felt people just had to know...Read Best Reviews of Ear Force PX3 Programmable Wireless Gaming Headset Here
[edit 3]65 days after I got them, the left side broke all the way at the hinge. Can't fix them with tape, I might be able to fix them with some epoxy. Right now they are unusable. 140 bucks for 65 days of use is more than 2 dollars a day..
[edit 2]
After about a month of use, the left side broke, and the left headphone was hanging out, supported only by the wires. I used some tape and now they work fine, but at 140 bucks this is outrageous. I had headphones that were twice as cheap and broke after a year. Giving them 1 star again.
[edit]
The original review was for using them with Windows XP 32b, and I gave them a star for that. Since then, I tried them on Windows 7 64b and added two stars, because some of the problems got fixed due to the USB drivers and audio stack being improved in Windows 7 64.
The following problems were fixed:
1. When the headset loses connection, the sound will resume after the connection is reestablished, and the program playing the audio doesn't have to be restarted. Because of this, there is no need to put them in PS3 mode.
2. The volume wheel changes the volume only a bit at once, rather than going from no audio to full volume in a few clicks. The wheel is still loose though, and you can accidentally change the volume when putting them on or taking them off, but the effect is not as bad as before. Games also don't crash anymore.
Nevertheless, the poor range and nagging power saving shut off and beeps are still there, and I can't give them more than 3 stars.
------------original Windows XP review-------------------
Before I begin, I want to say that I had two other wireless headsets, a Travelite HS-1000W USB Wireless Headset and a Logitech ClearChat Wireless USB Headset.
Both broke after about a year, and I thought that if I pay more I will have a higher quality product.
The item reviewed here works on PCs, PS3 and Xbox 360. I only used them on a PC (WinXP), so this review will only reflect the use with a PC, but some of the problems will be the same on all the supported platforms.
Let's see the pros:
1. Good construction, quite a bit heavier than my other headphones, but not a problem.
2. Very good sound quality for music and video games (but read the cons too).
3. Long USB power cable, but it can get in the way sometimes.
4. Won't hurt my ears, as the other two headsets did.
5. The customer support people respond fast, although they can't help much.
And now the cons:
1. The headphones will go to sleep after 5 minutes of inactivity. If the microphone is on, they won't go to sleep so long as it picks up loud noises. The sleep behavior can't be changed or disabled.
2. A minute or two before going to sleep, they will make a moderately loud beep every 15 seconds, driving you crazy.
3. The range is worse than the other two, cheaper headsets that I had. The Asus one had the best range.
4. They pick up lots of interference from stuff like microwave ovens. The other two headsets did that too, but not nearly as bad as this pair. The PX3 will pick up my microwave oven from another room, about 15ft away.
5. Sometimes (quite often) if you briefly go out of range while playing music, watching videos, etc. the program that was playing the sound will stop playing sound, until you restart it (which is extremely annoying). The other two headsets did this as well, but not nearly as often.
6. If you switch them to PS3 mode while connected to a PC, you can use your PC sound card, rather than the built in USB one. This is a good thing, and helps with the previous problem, BUT if the sound volume drops under a certain threshold, the headphones will mute the sound briefly. If you turn on the volume controls all the way up, this is usually not a problem with most things EXCEPT for talk shows that have no background music or sounds. When the person makes a slight pause, such as in between words, the sound is cut off completely during that pause, and this gets very, very annoying, although it is hard to describe the effect in words.
7. The volume wheel is very loose, and I accidentally muted the volume or turned it all the way up while taking the headphones off or putting them on.
8. While I had the headphones in PC mode, some games, such as Fallout 3 crashed because of an error in Direct Input, due to the control buttons on the headset. Not sure if this is a problem on my system or it happens to others too, but the solution is to either switch them to PS3 mode or disable the HID devices associated with it in control panel.
And now some real examples where they will work well in PC mode:
1. If you watch a video or play a game, and you won't move away from the computer for the duration of the video or game.
2. If you listen to music or podcasts while working and don't plan to stop the audio for more than 3 minutes, and you don't move away from the computer with the headphones on.
On the other hand, if you like to use them while moving away from the computer, you can run into the situation described above, where they briefly lose the connection and the program playing the sound will stop until restarted. So let's say you are watching a 30 minutes news video, then decide to go get some coffee without taking off your headphones. If your headset loses the connection, you will need to restart the whole browser, then start the video again, and manually go to the place you left off.
If you want to do what I mentioned above without having to restart the browser, you can switch them to PS3 mode and set your default sound card as the one your computer came with. You will need to connect a special cable between the computer sound card to the PX3 transmitter. That cable does not come with it, btw.
This solution works pretty well, except for talk shows that have no background music.
One more thing: If you like to listen to music or podcasts, while doing some work on your computer, then you want to pause whatever you are listening to do concentrate on some other task, after a few minutes the headphones will start beeping in your ears every 15 seconds (unless if the microphone is on and there is quite a bit of noise in the room).
TLDR;
If you buy them for games or music, they should be fine. If you buy them for anything else, read the full review.
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This was my first turtle beach, and it is just wonderful. The other guy says that no presets have been released, he didn't really look that hard. You have to download the turtle beach presets manager ( Create an account at turtle beach first), hook up your transmitter to your computer, and download them to your device (They come in bundles, are free, and there is a ton of them). The PX3s are not fully programmable like the PX5s or the XP500s because all the presets are uneditable, but the PX3s are also cheaper. Also, the sound is great to me, the PX5s are probably better, but I wouldn't know. True, they do not have surround sound, but you can still tell from which direction footsteps are coming or you're getting shot at. But i guess if you've had a set of turtle beaches without surround sound before (I haven't, like I said this is my first set) then you would probably want to buy the PX5s, but if you've never owned turtle beaches, I would highly recommend getting a set of these. Also, if you have the PX3s or any other stereo headset without surround sound, you could always upgrade to surround sound by getting the Ear Force DSS 7.1 Channel Dolby Surround Sound Processor
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