Turtle Beach Ear Force XP SEVEN MLG Pro Circuit Programmable Surround Sound Console Headset

Overall: The sound and build quality of this headset are amazing, and the ACU is feature rich with incredible custimization. Initial Impressions: The packaging that the headphones come in is pretty impressive, though not quite Astro level packaging-it does come in a magnetic box the the headset and input box cradled in a plastic shell, and the ACU and cables within their own respective boxes for storage. The headset themselves however have a definite wow factor when you see them. Sound: I can't praise the sound of these headsets enough, my previous headset before these were TB PX21s that I used in conjunction with an Astro Mixamp, and the difference in sound quality is amazing. I have also compared the XP Sevens to my friends Astro A40 2013s, and Sennheiser PS360s, and the XP Sevens sounds better then the A40s, and on par with the PC360s. The sound on these is very rich and has an excellent balance of lows/mids/highs, every single sound can be made out in detail and clarity. These headsets are able to separate sound cues very precisely, and I have already noticed that I am able to differentiate exactly which direction gunshots, footsteps and explosions are coming from. Also, if you have these hooked up to your PC for listening to music, they are just as amazing, I prefer these over even my Klipsch headphones for music now. Mic: The mic and adjustable voice monitoring settings of this headset are very high quality. My friends all say that my voice is crystal clear and it sounds a lot better then any other mic I have used. Though as a side note, they also said that my voice sounds almost modulated (digital sound) to it as well, which my old ones didn't sound like. This isn't a bad thing, it's just different apparently, and after I played around with the mic settings in the Advanced Sound Editor, I was able to reduce it. Features: The most feature packed part of this headset is the ACU, with 8 sub presets for game audio, and 8 for chat, along with customization for the surround sound speaker angles, you can't really compare this to any other unit on the market right now (except the Creative Recon3D sound processor). Also, if you have the ACU's USB hooked into your pc, you can literally change sound preset settings on the fly (while your playing!) instantly via the Advanced Sound Editor tool for the headset. I give props to Turtle Beach on this control unit, it is superb! Oh, and another great part in my opinion-this headset can be used with any console, and you can have your computer hooked up to it, and your phone/tablet as well. Comfort: The comfort of these headphones is very nice with the memory foam ear cups, though I wish that the material that covers the driver housing was a bit thicker, as I find after prolonged wear, the memory foam pushes down to the point where my ear is pushing against the thin material and causes a bit of discomfort. Tip for those who buy this: When you first start using this headset, you may noticed that quiet sounds will cause audio to drop out and not play every now and then until a louder sound is played. Fret not, this is because the sound threshold setting in the Advanced Sound Editor is set alittle too high. All you have to do is hook the ACU up to your computer, click on the game preset tab for the current preset selected, and turn the threshold setting down, and voila! No more sound cutting out. Overall I think this is an incredible headset and it is fully worth the $280. Turtle Beach did a great job on these and it lives up its "tournament level" status, as well as the audiophile status the company was known for in their PC sound card days. Keep up the good work TB!

My first headset had to be returned because the audio in one ear was not coming through. The replacement has so far (3 weeks) been working fine. The headset just looks awesome and is super comfy with the leather ear cups. My head is on the smaller side so this headset fits me perfectly. The leather band on top also is very comfy for long gaming sessions. Microphone is nice and clear. It is adjustable and able to move up and down, left and right. The headset cord is awesome and it wrapped in a nice material that shields the cord and prevents it from getting tangled. On to the the turtle beach mixer ACU. The turtle beach ACU is a good match for the headset. You have 7 presets to chose from and can tweak voice chat and game volume to your liking. For a comparison I put the turtle beach headset into an Astro mixamp. The mixamp was able to drive the headset better. It was like a completely different headset because sounds were louder and fuller. Pros: 1)Excellent quality headset. 2)Complete package 3)ability to tweak chat volume and game volume( other brand mixamp you can only tweak the game volume or chat) 4)Clear chat audio( again my other brand mixamp was just nowhere as clear for chat audio as turtle beach) 5)ability to plug from into ACU and talk to friend on turtle beach headset(very cool). 6) Great customer service( you shoot them an email over their website and they get back to you pretty quick) Cons 1) like a lot of reviewers my left ear cup went out and had no audio( was replaced under warranty) 2) touch buttons are not my favorite I have updated my review as of 8/22/13 As I looked at the price today 199.99 I believe this is the sweet spot price for buying this headset and ACU combo. If you are thinking of picking up a headset ACU combo. I can recommend this headset hands down. I use this headset for playing hardcore search and destroy on black ops 2. I'm able to clearly hear footsteps. Update: 8/22/13 So my left ear cup went out again like a lot of reviewers on here. I sent customer service and email and they set me up with an RMA number. Turtle Beach had me ship out all the contents of my package not just the headset. I was pleased to have a brand me headset and ACU in 3 days. Wicked fast customer service. I have owned another headset brand that was previously backed by MLG and their customer service was horrendous. update 12/9/13 I have tested this headset out with the ps4 and xbox one and am happy to say they work well with some quirks. PS4-- Ok so with the ps4 these sounds awesome! I have them hooked up with an optical cable going in the back of the ps4 and usb plugged in the front of the ps4. Chat works through the usb. Which is great because I don't have to have a cable attached to my controller like on the 360. Bad news is chat sounds very low from other people.. I understand this is a playstation network issue and will be fixed in a future update :) Xbox one-- I have these hooked up to the xbox one with the optical and usb cables plugged into the console. Unfortunately they don't sound as good on the xbox one. The reason being microsoft is not supporting dolby 5.1 through optical at launch. Hopefully they will patch it soon. So I can only hear audio on these and can't chat :( because microsoft has the proprietary port on their controller and not releasing an adapter until 2014 :(

First I would like to say I have had a lot of headsets. This set really shines in a few areas and then one feature just destroys its ability to function. When I first got it I was very happy and really enjoyed the feel and sound. Pros: * The headset is very sturdy. I'd say quality manufacturing. (again 8 of 10) * Sound quality is 8 out of 10 much better than your average pair of head phones. * This type of headset can get heavy on the neck exp. With it being tugged on by a beefy cable. That said the weight is in Check. The cable is very thick and heavy but that's good as far as getting the quality up to the speakers. CONS: (I'll save the worst con for the Last point) * So many parts and cables it will need its own storage box. * Small detail, as the set is good quality the mic is detachable with a 2.5mm jack. But they didn't just leave it a 2.5mm. They put a tiny plastic runner down the 2.5mm Molding Boot so it can only plug in if the Plastic guide is lined up to slide into the groove. (Take care here. As the Plastic guide is very thin and if slightly pressed to insert incorrectly it just smashes the Guide). They really didn't need to do it as the mic its self is very evident what side should face your lips. * Turtle Beach tried to make this set so it could connect to everything under the sun. Instead of it working well with one or two things it really will not work with a Computer. With two USB A Male plugs that must be on their own Dedicated USB Hub. This sucks as you may have 4 usb ports on your computer MB or say 4 on the front of your computer. See it's typical that these 4 USB Ports are actually just 1 Real USB. Yes that's right its far cheaper to run one USB then use a Tiny HUB you don't even know about to split it into 4 jacks for you to use. So back to the point. If you plug the two USB plugs for the headset into 2 of the 4 jacks, You can't use the 2 open usb ports for anything else even if they are just sitting there empty. (I assume this is because TB is a manufacturer and not really Software experts). * This next expands upon the USB problem. I had to work for hours to get the Headset fully working. It installs a Audio Channel for normal sound, another Audio Channel for Chat and then one for the Mic. Ok that would be fine if only it worked. Like most hardware once you get it all configured your good and the nightmare can be over. No not with these. Every time you start your computer all the settings are gone and have to be reconfigured every time. * The control box has a I/O toggle. Well turn it off (you have to more than you think. Changing applications or switching between TeamSpeak, Pandora or Ventrilo and to get the audio going you have to turn it off or unplug the USB's. Then you must reconfigure it again. What a joke to configure it every time the computer starts then to Start a game like League of Legends and the audio works in the pre-game client then the game loads and you find yourself with no audio trying to get it all set up and configured by the time the round starts. * I found the TB software and thought it would help. It is very difficult to use and very limited instructions. Did not help at all with other problems. Software is only for configuring preset audio filters. * Ok so after weeks of getting used to setting everything up 5-6 times a day I thought I could handle it..... * Then the worst deal breaker of all time. The hand held control has a ton of features and buttons Great for all kinds of modes. But of the 22 buttons and a turn dial 17 of them are static touch. This box is connected between the headset and the computer with feet of cable between them both. Well the box has a clip. Clipping it somewhere may help but I didn't have anything to clip it on so I keep it resting on the desk. Any time you may need to move, slide, nudge, lift, bump, throw or pickup the box to move it out of the way its virtually impossible. One of the static buttons will pick up a signal and mess all the settings up. I tried to have it on the floor, even worse.... What about dangling in mid air? Nope hits the side of the chair, floor, grab it to adjust the volume and inevitably presets start changing. To the Headset's credit the buttons work very well. To well. It can't be picked up without one side getting bumped by a finger or your palm. It must be palmed flat handed from the bottom. Like it is resting on a desk to successfully move it. * You may think well that's not so bad if setting 4 is hit it's easy to just push the one you were on and all is well. But when you go back to the setting you were on its back to re-configuring the audio channels... Overall: I wish I could just use the headset without the TB software, USB's or the control unit. But it's not possible. I ended up returning the Headset and got one that was $50 more. Worth every extra $$$

After trying two other gaming headsets, the Ear Force PX3 programmable Wireless gaming headset, and the Sharkoon XP true 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound gaming headset, I got the Turtle beach Ear Force XP SEVEN. I play games on PC as well as listen to music and movies. The presets are great and there is an exterior mic that you can switch on to hear what is going on around being this is a closed ear headset. These headphones passed the "Skrillex challenge" and the EXision Bass Cannon if you know what I mean. The detachable mic is handy but is has to go in a certain way so the name is out when you have it in. All the cords are nylon laced so no tangles and easy to spot amist all the other cables. There is a cord that goes to you iPhone or Samsung with its own volume control which I find very handy. If you have the 300 dollars to spend on these I think you will be very happy. I have drop tested 2 time off the dest 2 times with no damage. Turtle beach says they will be coming out with new covers on the headphones. The part on the ears that say XPSEVEN are removeable. Looking forward to moding these out. Update May 23, 2013 The wire that goes into the headset shorted out and now no sound coming from Left ear. I didn't drop these or anything at the time this happen. When I wiggle the wire where it goes in the sound comes back to the left ear. Now its passed the return policy for full refund and will have to pay shipping and may just get a partial refund. I'm planning to buy these headphones again and will see what will come of that. I will be updating with my findings. See Picture Update June 5, 2013 Item Refund: $279.99 Item Tax Refund: $23.03 Restocking Fee Refund Deduction: ($60.61) Shipping fee: 21.96 The original price with tax and shipping was 308.41 On the up side they reduced the price by 30.11 making the the grand total to return and then reorder the same headphones, (that I hope will not be short out) to 52.46 I wonder what headphones I could have got for 50 bucks that would have been just as good sound quality with out all the gizmos?

I have owned the XP Seven headphones for approximately a year. Overall the sound quality is excellent, and the headset is made well of quality materials. This is what saves the unit from a one star review.... but to be frank you can get this from pretty much any other major manufacturer of quality headsets. If you are buying for a PC and don't care to read the review, save yourself money. This "professional Circuit" offering from Turtle Beach is NOT worth the cost, headache or problems. I have had to have them RMA'd once... which is a problem in itself but about as painless as an RMA could be made. Nevertheless, I have had multiple other problems... both with the original unit and the replacement. The most irritating and problematic issue with this product (for me) is that it is a MASSIVE resource hog (at least on a PC). Let me warn you... this is not on a junker PC. On my computer (a good quality gaming rig purchased last year), to have any functionality the unit must be placed on its own USB Hub. It causes massive USB interface problems with other peripherals. Occasionally, even when placed on its own hub, when I restart the computer the unit simply fails to initiate... until I unplug it and plug it back in. Moreover, it may drop sound with the use of other peripherals. As stated by their own CS agent, "If it is active on a USB hub with other devices, then it may not get enough for (its own) use. When you activate another program to use them, it cannot handle both at once and sound drops on one channel." This is chalked up by Turtle Beach to the unit being "professional grade"... (As if sound drop outs and resource hogging would be acceptable to a standard user, let alone a professional.) The second most irritating issue is the incredible complexity of the interface. In its effort to provide as many options as possible, Turtle Beach has made modifying sound via its control panel as intuitive as taking off in a helicopter. Don't expect to use it... at all. Instead, you will have an impressive, yet functionless, headset (until you decide to go back to school and obtain your doctorate in Turtle Beach). Finally, it is bulky. And by bulky, I mean it is a shameful mess of wires and controllers and more wires. I'm looking at my computer right now, and it looks like it was swallowed by a black octopus. I'm not saying avoid Turtle Beach... some of their products are excellent. But I am recommending you avoid this product.

Pros: Good sound Good Mic Nice functionality Good versatility Cons: Terrible smushing headband, irritated ears if it gets to smushed(unless you have a small head and ears), and lock jaw type feeling if it keeps smushing. Terrible Headband has a sharp rib that can bug and hurt the top of your head Usb resource problem(maybe fixable at a later date via firmware(using the ASE editor(That they tell no one about)) Unlockable side buttons by volume control make for a lot of accidental button pressing. Expect to restart programs if you use the on/off switch on the Control unit. Back story: I've been using the speed link Medusa 5.1 for about 10 years I believe. The ear cushions on it were going so I looked around for some new ones. I looked at the Astro's but I heard about the XP Sevens coming out... Of course they delayed them to sell there call of duty black op 2 headphones. Review: I've been using the XP Seven for more than a week. Sadly I think they goofed on this one I had high expectations for it but it has some serious flaws and I'll tell you what they are. But first I'll give you the good points. The good: The sound is good. You can hear stuff clearly you can bump the bass and treble up which is what I currently have the setting to. You can boost the bass even more but I don't like to get drowned in it. While the sound is clear you'll still end up with a tin canish sound that's because the sound is isolated. It's not open ended. It takes some getting used to but I kinda like it for myself because of my loud computer. The headset itself feels very solid could probably drop it with no problems although its mostly made from plastic so I wouldn't advise trying. While the ear cups swivel inward and can be lain flat I wouldn't plan on wearing them on your neck due to the headband being so tight it feels like your strangling yourself. The Control unit is nice got some weight to it. I like the list of options and functionality. Also the ability to hook up to the console interface which allows you to hook up to everything. One of the first things I did was download the ASE(Advanced Sound Editor) and updated the firmware for it. The manual doesn't mention this and it took me a bit to find the download for it on there site. From the ASE you can download other presets which you can set to your control unit to use or customize what ever you want. It's a nice unnamed feature that I probably wont play with to much. I think there idea was to have presets for just about every game made. Which the community can add. The mic sounds clear and there's a few preset options which can also be adjusted in the ASE. For the most part I just leave it on voice amplifier or focus. But there's 2 voice changers to play with. It's detachable and completely flexible to put it where you want. They also separated the chat and with the speaker system with 2 different voice controls. The ear cushions are a nice memory foam and it feels nice around the ear. Unfortunately this is where things go from good to bad. The bad: While the ear cushions are nice one of the biggest flaws in the product is the head band. This thing is like a clamp, I don't know what they were thinking. Maybe one size fits all? I don't consider my head to be big. So maybe they wanted it to fit on little kids? My guess is this might be best on some teenage kid that doesn't have a big head? When you first put these on you'll notice it clamps to your head and it still feels pretty nice. But after oh 30 mins you'll start to notice your ears are getting "warm". That's because the wonderful ear cushions have deflated and your ears are now touching the wall of the earphones. The wall of the ear phones has a single piece of rough, yes rough cloth between it and the plastic. My last head phones had some foam between the cloth and the plastic. Ok so the plastic that your ear is now touching... It's not flat no they decided to make it a honeycomb shape. This creates sharp pressure points that is only blocked by a single rough cloth. Now I don't have dumbo ears. But maybe you have small ears that can get away with it. But after oh 1 hour those wonderful earphone cushions have deflated completely. So now you have a new problem. Maybe your ears still aren't touching because there super small if your lucky. But now the plastic base the cushions are on are squashed against your head and sure the cushions still there but there now thick and hard. This creates a new problem the pressure from the headband is still smushing your head. Now you'll really start to feel the pressure it might take awhile to feel it but its there. This is a constant pressure against your temple and your jaw. A few hours of using them you'll feel like you have lock jaw and have to take off the head phones for awhile... But hey maybe you have a small head and ears. I hope you get my point the headband springiness is terrible but that's not all while the headband is adjustable to bigger heads? Or maybe its just longer heads. The headband has yet another problem. Instead of making the headband flat they put in a rib that extends right down the middle of it... That might not be so bad if it wasn't facing towards your skull. The top of it feels perfectly smooth but with very little effort you can feel the rib on the bottom. Now there's a very small amount of foam but when you wear it awhile you'll feel this headband because of that rib. Ok so let me give you an example lets say your at your friends doing a lan party and your not paying attention. So one of your friends bops you on the head in this case on the headband thats on top of your head. Sure its cushioned on both sides. But your gana feel that rib dig into your scalp it might just be a sharp pain and you shrug it off but the next day your gana have a bruise on your head or maybe a knot and you wont be able to use the headphones for a bit because of that. Ok so headband = evil right? Well sadly there's more. This is a usb setup on your computer it was easy to setup. Plug in the usb change a few settings... Done. Well as it turns out this is a huge usb resource hog. In windows 8 I get error messages which say my usb hub has ran out of resources. Ok so first off I had it plugged into the back of the mother board but I tried several different usb spots still coming up with that same error. I even have a usb 3.0 outlet although the headset is only usb 2.0. Ok so maybe it's something else I have connected? Maybe. Lets see I have a logitech g9x usb mouse(need that), I have a usb logitech c920 webcam(while i could unconnect this I still use this fairly often), I have a usb APC UPS(battery backup kinda need that), a usb xbox 360 controller(disconnected that), a usb linksys cisco wifi(disconnected that) Well still get the error. Well I think I figured out the problem apparently the chat and speaker have to be separate. What I mean is when windows installs the drivers. You get 3 different things. You get Speakers (Turtle beach Seven speakers), Speakers (Turtle beach seven chat), Microphone (Turtle beach seven chat). An example lets say you use Skype if you use the chat for skype and the mic chat. You'll end up with a problem. But if you use the game speakers + mic no problem. This obviously doesn't work correctly. The way its supposto work is chat + mic chat. So you can use the volume control on the control unit for your game + the chat volume for those your chatting with. Problems in Skype and Ventrilo with this. Maybe they'll fix it in a firmware update at some point who knows I hope they get it worked out. Someone did mention if you use the Digital Dolby this problem goes away. Well to use Digital Dolby you need an optics port and you have to use the console interface plus the optics cable. My sound card doesn't have the optics port but my mother board just happens to. I haven't tried it yet. But ether way it should work correctly just threw usb as it is, it doesn't seem to work correctly also heard that usb chargers are an issue with the headset. Just seems to me it uses to much resources when you use all 3 at once causing windows errors and losing sound. The control unit has a on off I like to turn my stuff off when I don't use it. The problem is if you forget to turn it on before opening a program. Lets say you start a game no sound right so you turn on the unit... Well the unit is working the game will have no sound because it didn't see the usb online when it started... So you have to restart the game or what ever you were doing. This ones more of a annoyance I like the Control unit but lets say your playing a game and want to turn it down some so you goto grab the volume control. But while your turning down the sound you end up pressing some of the side buttons. When you press a button you'll hear a beep in the headphones. So you know you pressed something you didn't want to but now you have to take your head away from the game to figure it out. It'd be nice if you could lock those buttons around the volume control but you can't and at some point your gana press them. A bad thing if you accidentally press the mic button and don't realize its off. Another small small annoyance is the braided wires... Sure they look fancy and nice. But if you move your head you'll hear a scratching type sound it's not shorts in the wire... It's the braid rubbing against your cloths only really noticeable when you move your head a lot. Conclusion: For 280 bucks I expected a great headset. What I got was a good sounding one that can do a lot and feels terrible. I'll be returning these. Frankly Turtle Beach should recall all of them and redo the headband. Maybe people don't think I tested these long enough. You know maybe they'll stretch out and form better over time. Frankly by the time the headband got stretched out the ear cushions would have worn out and the top of my head goes to a point so i'd still feel the sharp rib they put in there. The only thing I can think of is to take like some books put it between the headphones and take a hair drier to it to heat it into a better position still giving it enough spring to keep alil pressure... But to do that I'd have to take off the head band cover which could be done... I'm alil to afraid to heat it up with the cover on cuz maybe it'd melt. Then of course grind down the sharp rib while I'm at it. But I shouldn't have to do that anyways Turtle Beach fix your stuff. If it wasn't for the headband I'd probably keep them. I won't be the last person to have this issue with them. So I hope you revise your headphones. In the mean time I'll be back looking for good headphones. Also for some reason Amazon has this headset marked as a video game on the rate section...

I've had the most amazing experience with these headphones and Turtle Beach customer support. Read on! I was in the market for a new headset to use with both Xbox and my PC. A couple of co-workers raved about Turtle Beach products so I started shopping around. I chose the top of the line from their products, partially because it was my birthday and I wanted to treat myself. I was crazy excited the day they arrived. I raced home after work to test them out. At first they clamped down on my head like a vice, but that tension eased up over time. The sound quality was awesome and I was constantly amazed at the little things I never realized before in games. After about a month of use I ran into an issue. The sound in the left ear cup was cutting out when I turned my head to look at my second montitor. It got worse every day. I was devastated, this was a really expensive headset. I contacted TB support, explained my issue one night, and asked them what to do. I woke up the next morning to an e-mail apologizing for the issues I was having, and an RMA to return them for repair. This included a pre-paid shipping label!!!!! I shipped these off the next day. 2 days later I got an e-mail saying they had arrived safe and sound for repair. The day after that they had already shipped me my repaired headphones. A couple of days later when they arrived, to my delight they had actually just shipped me a completely new headset. I never write reviews for this stuff, but I just wanted to post and chime in that not only are these headphones amazing, but the company that makes them is even more amazing. They have just secured a customer for life in me with their top notch customer support.

I have owned the Turtle Beach DX11, and X11, Triton AX720, and Razer Chimaera. This headset beast almost all of them. I upgraded becuase the DX11 that I had, was full of hissing and background noise due to it being a low quality set of headphones, and just wasn't cutting it anymore. I took off one star simply because other Turtle Beach headsets that I have tried are more comfortable than this one. It does squeeze your head, the headband on top sticks out a little, and does not have enough padding on it. After an hour or so, it is noticable, and I have to shift the headset to a different spot on my head to avoid the discomfort. Pros: - Audio Control Unit is top notch - Audio from the headset is amazing, full surround sound and plenty of presets for game and chat audio - Detachable microphone is a plus - Quick release cable about 6 inches from left ear cup is also nice in case you want to move around without taking the headset off - Ability to play music from phone/mp3 player while also hearing game audio and chat audio is a huge plus, along with the ability to control these three volumes individually - Mic monitor, so you can hear how loud you are actually talking Cons: - Mild discomfort when in use (the sound is just too good, so I tend to overlook this, may be a big issue if you have a larger sized head) - Mute button for mic is on ACU, and is touch, it would be nice to have this on the cable or somewhere closer than the ACU - Price is a little high, but the quality is great on these Overall a great set of gaming headphones for the 360. I recommend them, but I would like to see some design changes for comfort in the next iteration.