7.1 surround sound. Two drivers. One
marketing masterpiece
The cliche “Don’t worry, it’s not rocket
science!” is due an update. Rocket science is no longer the ultimate mental
endeavour; this is obvious the moment you visit Turtle Beach’s headset webpage
and try to make any sense of the sprawling selection and meaningless model
names.
High-performance wireless 7.1 channel
Dolby Surround Sound audio with the Ear Force Z300
Don’t mock. We’re no strangers to
incoherently vast product ranges – just take Intel’s mobile CPU line-up – but
Turtle Beach raises things to a different league. So, here’s the Ear Force
Z300, which looks identical to the Ear Force PX4, apart from its red trim. God
help you if you’re colour-blind.
Having decided that red is where it’s at,
Turtle Beach could be on to a winner with the Z300; it seems like a match for
the far pricier SteelSeries H Wireless. Dual-band Wi-Fi gives you almost as
much range before sound quality suffers, and it’s supplemented by an effective
Bluetooth pairing system that lets you stream calls or music from a mobile
device while you game. The Z300’s power source is much more mundane than
SteelSeries’ offering, and only comes with a single built-in battery. It’s good
for up to 15 hours, after which you’ll need to resort to a good old USB cable
to bring it back to life.
A rechargeable battery
provides up to 15 hours of play from a single charge
Surround me
Then there’s the Dolby 7.1 surround sound.
This may give the marketing men a warm and fuzzy feeling, but not us. Make no
mistake, the Dolby boffins are to audio what Bieber is to inspiring universal
loathing in the over-12s, but even they can’t make 1+1=7.1. See, as with the
SteelSeries H Wireless, the Z300 are single-driver headphones and the surround
sound is very much of the virtual variety. In contrast, the Razer Tiamat 7.1 is
a true multi-channel headset. We admit that the Z300 gives a more expansive
soundscape than stereo and helps roughly differentiate between front or rear
noises, but it can’t match the Razer headset experience.
That sets the tone for audio in general:
underwhelming. There aren’t any particularly offensive flaws – everything from
catastrophic explosions to subtle narration sound fine – but you may as well
use the Ear Force Z22 and pocket the $165 difference. Music only highlights the
headset’s shortcomings. There’s not much to complain about at lower volumes,
but ask more of the Z300 and you’re met with a disappointing lack of bass, and
higher frequencies like female vocals or snares sound coarse. Granted, this is
a gaming headset rather than audiophile headgear, but for the money we’d expect
more versatility.
the Z300 goes wherever you go when paired
with your Bluetooth-compatible
mobile devices or when wired with the included mobile device cable
Fortunately America comes and saves the
mothercluckin’ day, yeah. The Z300 lacks a fancy transmitter-cum-control
centre, so it uses on-board buttons for Bluetooth pairing, chat levels and tone
presets. And in case you’re wondering whether a button has done its thing, a
perky stateside female voice tells you so. If it weren’t so amusing it’d be the
only painful part of the otherwise very comfortable design.
Ultimately though, even the comedy
voiceover isn’t enough to justify the price. The Z300 doesn’t do anything
wrong, but crucially it doesn’t excel in any respect either.
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Specifications:
·
Charging Cable: Headset Charging Cable (USB
Mini)
·
Guide: Quick Start Guide
·
Sticker: Turtle Beach Sticker
·
Headset: Z300 Headset with Removable
Microphone
·
Transmitter: Z300 USB Transmitter
·
Mobile Device Cable: 2.5mm-3.5mm 4 Pole
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