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List Price: $279.99
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After three weeks the headphone speaker on the left side quit working. Its very frustrating to pay over 250 bucks for something to just quit working.
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***UPDATE***
Hello, my name is D-Day1944, and today I will be covering the Turtle Beach Sierra. With that said, let us get started.
Introduction:
Turtle Beach has a very interesting, but rough history in terms of their headsets. While sound wise being somewhat on par with the Astro Gaming brand, their versatility and longevity have been the talk of dislike, prompting many consumers to buy either Tritton or Astro products. However, Turtle Beach has done some good these past two years, offering more audio customization than either Tritton or Astro. The biggest surprise, however, is Turtle Beach became the official headset of Major League Gaming, or MLG for short. Now, armed with this new partnership, Turtle Beach decided to improve their quality of audio by making their new "Seven Series." While not out yet, the Call of Duty: Black Ops II Sierra is essentially the XP Seven, but built for Black Ops II. However, Tritton and Astro have already made their moves as well, the former having upgraded their successful headset to the 720+, and the latter upgrading their former MLG headset to the A40 2013. Other competitors, such as the Beyerdynamic MMX 300, Sennheiser PC 360, and Plantronics Commander, have also made this new chapter of the MLG Pro-Gaming headset's life difficult. Now, the question is, what innovations does the Sierra carry and has Turtle Beach finally have gotten the durability "monkey off its back?" These questions and more will be answered, so stay tuned.
Out of the Box/Looks:
We kickoff this review with what it looks like out of the box. To start off, we are greeted by a Turtle Beach Sierra Photo on the box, and on the sides and back are various descriptions of what the Sierra offers. When you open it, the headphone is wrapped in plastic and is within a cardboard molding. Within the contents, here are the components you will receive:
The Sierra Headset
A 2.5mm Male to 2.5mm Male cable for Xbox Live chat.
A detachable microphone.
A breakaway cable for the Sierra Headset.
A Control Unit.
A Control Interface.
A Turtle Beach Sticker.
A TOSlink cable.
A Instruction Manual.
A Congratulations paper upon purchasing the Sierra and other details.
These pieces are all for what need to hookup to either the Xbox 360, PS3, or PC.
For the looks of the headset, there is the Black Ops II color scheme on this headphone. When you remove the magnetic speaker plates from the sides of the headphone, you are greeted with a Black Ops II emblem. The Control Unit looks like a futuristic tool that would been worn on a soldier's wrist with its various numbers and symbols. On the very tip of the microphone, there is a Call of Duty engraving on the metal.
Overall though, I would have to say I am a bit disappointed with everything that turned out. For $280 dollars, the packaging is a bit of a letdown, considering this is supposed to be of what is to come of the XP Seven, Turtle Beach's MLG official headset. Aside from that though, everything else was fine, but I do stand by what I said.
Now, with that subject done, let us discuss the build quality.
Build Quality:
For the build quality, Turtle Beach may have finally solved its once plagued problem. The headphone is very solid and flexible, so it will not get broken easily. The microphone itself is a goose neck, which means you can bend it to any position you want. The headphone cables are braided, which alleviates you from tangling. The control unit's cords along with the others also were good. My only complaint is that the TOSlink Cable is flimsy and thin.
Overall though, the build quality was very good. No problems did occur during my two weeks of testing. The optical cable is not all that great, but it does do the job. Anyway though, back to the review. Our next topic, features.
Features:
The Sierra's features are quite massive audio wise, and it begins with the Control Unit itself. There are various options you have on this control unit, such as changing and customizing your surround sound angles, turning Dolby Digital on or off, to name a few. The most interesting, however, is the fact that you can change and customize the presets on the control unit. There are nine in total(8 if you do not account for the Main setting.) There is also a MP3 input should you have a ipod or MP3 player. You can also use a system called PGM to change your voice. None of this would matter if the signal to noise ratio was not good. Thankfully, in the Sierra's case, it was great, as there was little to no static or distortion.
In addition, there are some unique qualities that further empower focus on audio, such as Turtle Beach's trademark Sonic Lens, Ear Guard, Sonic Silencers and Dynamic Chat Boost. Last, but not least, you can customize your presets via a sound editor, in which you can tweak the headsets towards your liking, as well as the surround sound angles and voice. The control interface coordinates with the control unit for delivering such commands. Not only that, you could hook up speakers that use a 3.5mm male connection. In addition, the Control unit's main controls themselves are captive touch, meaning the graze of your finger will change any input command. Lastly, there is a 3.5mm output in middle of the Control unit, meaning any 3.5mm headphone or PC Gaming Headset (via adapter) will work. As for the headphone, due to the 3.5mm male input, you can you this with any device that supports this connectivity (or 1/4 adapter if you have it).
Overall, this is hands down the Sierra's greatest asset. The near limitless audio customization of the control unit and its versatility of both the unit and the headphone make the Sierra nearly unchallenged, as the Beyerdynamic MMX 300, Astro A40, Tritton 720+, Plantronics Commander, and Sennheiser PC 360 do not have anything that even comes close. My only major complaint of the control unit is that you have to independently control your chat volume, as it is not integrated with the master knob, which is kind of odd considering that the microphone logo is located on it and you press down on the master knob to mute your voice. Not only that, the control unit was supposed to surpass the Astro Mixamp in the regard of game/voice chat balancing, but to do that, you might need to buy the TM1 tournament mixer from Turtle Beach, which costs $230 dollars. Apart from that though, the potential the Sierra has as a whole is above and beyond any of its current competitors.
Now, here comes our next part, Comfort.
Comfort:
The Sierra uses a breathable faux leather padding for increased isolation. The Sierra itself was comfortable for a good 7 hours, which is great. The ear cups also swivel for breaks, but since the padding was surprisingly breathable, I really did not need to rest it much. There is also memory foam padding, which was great for contouring around my ears. Making a headset light never hurts, which adds to the Sierra's already good loquacious feel. Does it do better than velour? No, but the Sierra did much better than most other headsets that have tried to incorporate this material. Adding memory foam does not hurt either, which adds more credit to the Sierra's good usage of faux leather.
Now, the part of the review that you have been waiting for, the audio performance. But before we begin, I must first explain of the way Dolby Digital is achieved.
The Science behind the glorious sound:
In order to recreate Dolby 5.1, Dolby Digital is mixed with Dolby Headphone, which then takes an actual 5.1 speaker setup and then uses various DSP's to simulate 5.1 Channels of audio going through the headset. However, with the Sierra, Dolby Headphone is not incorporated. Instead, you can customize the DSP's towards anything imaginable within the parameters of the headphone. The only limitation is your imagination.
*** SIDE NOTE***
Although not stated, some companies might fool you with the whole "Full Dolby 7.1!" theory. However, this is only marketing, as the optical cable will only output 5.1 on consoles.
Now, with that done, it is time for the audio performance.
Audio Performance:
For the quality of the audio, the Sierra's sounded very good. The low end was thick, the mids were strong, and the highs were mostly clear. I will say this is on par with the A40 2013 Edition, but if you still want arguably the best, the MMX 300 still holds down the throne, but getting this and the 300's will set you back to almost $680 dollars. Moving swiftly along, in stereo, the Sierra's were very fun. Listening to Breaknoise's dub hit "Chicken Zinger," the Sierra handled the heavily expanded loops and intensive bass drops. Other songs, such as "We are the Reasons" by We came as Romans, the Sierra's handled the thematically screeching highs and distorted mids very well, and the low end came clear, although at few times the Sierra did blend too much in the overall audio, but it did not ruin the experience, so I did not worry.
When hooked up to the control unit, my sound has really gotten a boost to its already impressive cues. There are nine audio presets in total, and I will explain how each one performed.
First up, the main setting
Main:
For the main setting, the Sierra performed quite well. Using this setting did make the overall experience more expansive and realistic. In games like Black Ops II and Forza Horizon, the Sierra's did pretty well. Movies such as Avatar, Safe, and Grand Torino had a more spacious feeling to them. The low end was quite good, the mids were crunchy, and the high end turned out well. There really is not much to say on this setting since this was my favorite setting, tied only with the superhuman hearing setting.
With this setting out of the way, next comes the Flat setting.
Flat:
This is essentially Dolby Pro Logic IIx, which makes stereo sound more expansive. While movies did do well and games that really do not render themselves of precise audio performed good, competitive games such as Halo 4 can be hit or miss, since this setting will let you hear either your right or left. However, this was my preferred setting for music since the sound stage was spacious, and music such as Cursh 40's "I am all of me" was more live and expansive.
Now, onto the next setting, Bass Boost.
Bass Boost:
For this setting, I was very concerned to the amount of high and mid frequencies are lowered to increase the low end, but to my surprise the Sierra easily took on this setting well. The bass was more thick but did not drown out the mids and highs too much. Games such as Forza and Midnight Club gave a huge sense of immersion due to the roar of the engine. Others such as Fall of Cybertron had huge explosions and great rumble. Would I recommend it for music and movies? For movies, that is a yes, but for music, make sure to choose dubstep or 8-bit/genesis remakes, as while the Sierra did do well in the mids and highs, genres such as Metal, Alternative, Punk and Classical did not go out to well.
Moving swiftly along, it is time to go onto the next setting, Treble Boost.
Treble Boost:
While I was worried about the Bass Boost setting, the Treble Boost setting I did not worry about at all. As stated above, the Sierra does very well in handling low range frequencies, the mids are good, and the highs are mostly clear, but with the Treble Boost engaged, the high end was cystal clear and the low end to mid range frequencies did not suffer. Games such as Black Ops II turned out great with the Sierra, as gunshots were acute, footsteps were easier to listen, and the music turned out well. Other games such as Madden 12 had a more stadium feel to it since much of the games audio is primarily focused on the high end.
With this segment done, it is time for the Treble Boost + Bass Boost setting.
Treble Boost + Bass Boost:
As this setting implies, the low and high end are increased for better audio clarity. While this setting did help on the Sierra, the fact is that the mid range is cut down a bit. I am not going to say it was drowned out, because it was not, but dialogue was a bit more difficult to hear in games such as Mass Effect and Rachet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time. Movies did handle this surprisingly well, but still, dialogue was a bit harder to hear or it just was not apparent in certain scenes of movies like Transformers: Dark of the Moon or Toy Story 3. For music, I would say no, as the vocals do blend a bit too much in the overall audio mix.
Now, it is time for the next setting which is the speech amplifier setting.
Speech Amplifier:
For this setting, the mid range does get raised to have a higher input on dialogue. For me, this is really the oddball of the nine presets. While for movies this setting is great, music and gaming is a hit or miss. Mass Effect 3 did very well with this setting, but others such as Halo did not pan out so well. While the vocals on certain songs, such as "Reach for the Sky" by Social Distortion came out beautifully, other songs such as "We are the Reasons" by We Came as Romans, the sound can be blended in a bit too much or just sometimes overpowering. For the Sierra itself, it performed well upon usage, but in practice the importance on the mid range does account for a microcosm of excellent idea's but mediocre execution.
With this done, it is time for the next setting, balanced.
Balanced Setting:
This setting equalizes all three sound stages to make each sound more balanced. Initially, I was excited to see this. In practice, it preformed very well, but not as well as I hoped. Games like Black Ops II made balanced performed adequate, which is not bad, but not good either. Other games such as Prototype and Uncharted, this setting and the Sierra performed magnificently well, as these games may have a bigger focus on audio related to set piece moments, but are more inclined to the overall experience. Music usage is second only to the treble boost setting, as each sound stage performed great in many genre's of music. Listen to "The Imperial March" from the Star Wars' series, you have a blast. As for movies, balanced performed good as well. Since each of the audio spectrum's are balanced, with the Sierra, movies did become more lively as if I was on the set itself.
Clint Eastwood would be proud of this next setting, Action Enhancer.
Action Enhancer:
This setting focuses on the low end and high end, but does give the mid range breathing room. Essentially, specific audio cues are amplified, such as explosives, gunshots, car engines, etc. For movies, this was my preferred setting, as every climatic moment received that boost to make that scene more memorable, such as in Flags of our Fathers, Titanic, Transporter, and Star Wars. For music, avoid this at all costs. While the Sierra alone is phenomenal, this setting for music is abysmal. Even songs like Excision's "Existence" did not do well at all with this setting, as the loops usually got heavily distorted. For gaming, I greatly recommend only using this for single player experiences, such as Uncharted 2 or Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time. For multiplayer experiences, again, do not use this setting, as this setting does not help you accurately gauge the distance and/or direction of your enemies at all.
Now, it is time for our final setting, Superhuman Hearing.
Superhuman Hearing:
This setting encompasses highly on distinctive low frequencies, such as footsteps in gaming. On paper and in practice, the Superhuman Hearing setting did very well. Games such as Halo 4 did a great job of audio separation and and gauging distances became more easier. Other games did not do so well, since this setting is primarily focused on intricate, precise audio cues. As for movies and music, I would not recommend it since the main focus is primarily on specific audio cues, not various audio mixes.
Well, everyone, there you have it. Each setting helps the Sierra in one specific way for a specific type of task that you would want to achieve in a headphone. While the Sierra is great overall, other headsets, such as the Beyerdynamic MMX 300, Plantronics Commander, and the Sennheiser PC 360, did do better when hooked up to the control unit via a PC adapter, but those headphones will drive your price up even higher, since the control unit itself is not for sale as a standalone at the moment. As for its most bitter rival in the Astro A40's, to my ears, the Sierra's edge ahead due to the various options it has and the overall spacial feeling it presented
As for the microphone itself, this may be one of the best microphones I have ever used, tied only with the Commander and MMX 300. It does have a windscreen, and easily blocks out ambient noise. My teammates said they could always hear me crystal clear with no problems.
Moving on with the surround sound angles, all of them performed well, but there really was not a major reason to use them. Sure, in games like Halo, Killzone, Transformers: Fall of Cybertron, and Black Ops II, this feature is astounding, but, that is really much it. Unfortunately I also cannot say which is the best to use out of the angles, since much of them are similar. However, I will make a list on which preset was good for which area.
The ratings are as follows:
Competitive Gaming: Balanced, Main, and Superhuman Hearing.
Music: Treble Boost, Balanced, Main, Flat, Bass Boost(Only for dubstep/8-bit remixes)
Movies: Action Enhancer, Balanced, Main, and Speech Amplifier.
Casual Gaming: Bass Boost, Treble Boost, Bass Boost + Treble Boost, Balanced, Main, Action Enhancer, Flat.
There you have it guys, my recommendations should you buy the Sierra and use the presets. Now, with this segment done, here is my verdict.
Yoda: It is time, young one...
Verdict:
The Sierra did not revolutionize the gaming headset industry quite like the A40 did, and its sound quality is slightly less superior than older gaming headsets. However, what the Sierra does is build upon a battle tested method and incorporates new ingenious solutions to make it a very notable standout. While there are some inconveniences here and there, few can trade blows with it in terms of its near infinitesimal audio customization. Also, since durability is no longer a problem, this adds to the Sierra's already impressive sheet. However, $279.99 is a lot to ask for of a gaming headphone, but rest assured. The Sierra can handle almost any type of audio you need, and it is worth the money if you are willing to pay the Benjamen's for it.
Overall, I give the Sierra a 4/5 Stars Rating.
So this has been another review by D-Day1944. Join me next time, where I will be covering the Sharkoon X-Tatic S7. Until next time, this is D-Day1944,
Signing Out.
***UPDATE***
Hello, this is D-Day1944 here with an update. I did an couple of accidental mishaps in this review. While I was right about the presets, those were for speaker, not the headset. The correct ones were as follows:
Speech Amplifier should be 3D Stereo Expander.
Balanced should be Action Enhancer.
Action Enhancer should be Footstep Foucs.
For this, I will correct my thoughts on those two aforementioned presets, 3D and Footstep. First up, the 3D.
3D Stereo Expander:
This widens the Stereo effect for a more natural 3D feel. However, on paper and in practice, this setting is bad. This makes it so that you have to rely on your eyes rather than your ears, as the bass levels are way too overpowered. Avoid this setting on music and movies, period! I repeat, avoid this at all costs! Now, after that we go into footstep foucs.
Footstep Foucs:
This setting turns down the low end to give the mid and high range more breathing room. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, Halo 4, and other shooting games will benefit from this, as footsteps became easier to detect, hence the name. However, moives and music depend solemnly on the type of headphone you are using. I personally would recommend a bass heavy headphone, since the low is cut by a staggering 75%. Using said headphone should cusion the bass reduction. Otherwise, if you are not interested, do not bother with this setting on either movies or music.
I did re-review the Action Enhancer setting since it was already incorperated into the review. Anyway, time for the final verdict update.
***UPDATE OF FINAL VERDICT (Thoughts Included)***
To wrap up this update of my final verdict, I have offically decided to give these a 3 instead of a 4. Why, some of you might ask? I did say back then that Turtle Beach had solved the longevity problem, so why the sudden change? Sadly, again I am late, as this is my 2nd and final pair of these. The one I reviewed went defective after its 3rd week of ownership, and the 2nd one I received was defective out of the box. Oddly enough, both had the left earcup defective, which is strange in this regard. For my next review, I am actually kinda of contemplating on whether or not I should pick up the XP Sevens or the Beyerdynamic Custom One Pro's. For the XP Seven's, I am very afraid to obtain these, as my experiences could haunt me as they did with the Sierra's, but so far, from other people are saying, that is not the case. Still, I will find that answer out myself. As for the Custom One Pro's, they are getting good reviews, but again, my ears will decide whether or not that is the case.
Again, this is D-Day1944. Thank you for reading my update. Hmmm..., I think I forgot something....., oh yeah!
**Bum-ba-da-dam!!!***
Sorry, but for those of you who read my Sharkoon S7 review, I stated that I would be doing the Skullcandy PLYR 2 review. Sadly, this will not be the case, as time has officially run out, and I need to move on with my gaming headphone reviews. One good thing, though, I will be doing regular headphone reviews soon. I cannot say as to when, but be on the lookout of my next update after my final desicion between the XP Seven's and the Custom One Pro's. The update will be added to this review, so do not worry. Anyway...back to what I was saying. Thank you all for reading, and join me in my next update. There will be big news, and it may interest you.
Once again, this has been D-Day1944:
Signing Out.
Buy Turtle Beach Call of Duty Black Ops II Sierra Headset Now
Build: Pretty decent build, I like how long the chords are from the headset to the xbox. The fact that it's not wireless means you're not going to get interference from your router. It has a sturdy build and the ear cups do a good job of blocking out sound. I had a mild issue with the mic, but the RMA service by TB was fast and I was up and running again in less then a week.
Comfort: The cups are tight at first but loosen with use. After they loosen up, they feel natural to wear. Make sure you take a break from that game once in a while anyways :p
Electronics: The effects are awesome to play with, but even cooler to use to mess with yours friends! I had come from Astro A40s and they were pretty great. So I was skeptical of a headset that said it could separate the footsteps from the rest of the game. Well, the Sierra headset did that perfectly. I'm impressed. Some effects aren't all that great, but for the most part they're pretty awesome and useful.
I don't know if I missed anything, but it's a pretty great headset. The biggest difference between the A-40 and the Sierra headsets was the company behind them. Astro took over a month to "fix" issues I had with their headset, if they even responded (a whole different story altogether, but for $250+ you need to treat your customer better). Turtle Beach fixed everything right away and I couldn't be happier.
Read Best Reviews of Turtle Beach Call of Duty Black Ops II Sierra Headset Here
Having been a longtime user of the X11s, I decided it was finally time to treat myself to a higher-quality headset. Because my X11s had been so good for so long, of course I wanted to stick with Turtle Beach, and the Sierras seemed the best option I don't like wireless headsets, but I want all the fancy bells and whistles that you seem to only be able to get with wireless products these days.
First impression upon putting them on was that the external sound dampening was fantastic I had them on and even without playing any game, couldn't hear a vacuum being run right outside my closed bedroom door. However, the headset is waaaay too tight on the head and doesn't seem to loosen up at all after an hour or two, I was fighting headaches.
The sound quality is mediocre the max levels are set way too low. Even with the volume at full, there were parts of the game I could barely hear. Trying out different presets gave me everything from a whisper of sound to blown-out distortion. It became less finding what best enhanced the game sound (MW3 and Black Ops, primarily) and instead became a chore in finding a preset that annoyed me the least.
When it came to voice chat, everything was awful. Friends sounded like robots, chat was either consistently too low or too high no matter where I had my volume set, and even with the mic right against my mouth, friends said I sounded like I was on a bad wireless connection words kept getting dropped, even whole sentences if I didn't practically shout.
On top of all that, I wanted to hold out until the preset community was opened up, thinking that with the mixing software, I'd be able to correct all these defects until I had the amazing sound I was going for. That was when, upon returning home from the midnight release of Black Ops II, I discovered that a wire had broken in my headset that rendered my left earcup completely dead unless I held my head at a certain, very uncomfortable angle. Less than two weeks after the purchase of the headset, I might add and I treat my headsets like GOLD.
That was the last straw, and after a brief and very unhelpful exchange with TB's tech support, I elected to return my headset and went back to my X11s, where I get good game and chat sound without all the hassle. Next headset will probably be Astros.
Want Turtle Beach Call of Duty Black Ops II Sierra Headset Discount?
After 4 weeks the right side of the headset quit working. The problem must have been in the wiring because when my son shook the wire it intermittently cam back.
