Turtle Beach Ear Force X41

Surround sound is good. I like my surround sound system. My neighbours, on the other hand, aren’t so fond of it! So, to be neighbourly, I’ve been on the lookout for a decent set of wireless surround sound headphones, and at long last I think I’ve found the ideal solution.

Up until now I’ve been using a Creative HQ-2300D Dolby surround processor. It’s a little box of tricks that takes an optical input and enables a normal pair of headphones to simulate a surround sound experience. It works really well, too. The only drawback is that it isn’t wireless – which means I end up with cables stretched across the lounge, and the weight of the box dragging down the headphones. It’s not ideal.

Despite the fact that this technology has been around for a few years now, there are precious few ‘real’ 5.1 surround-sound headphones available. There are plenty of headphones that take a normal two-channel stereo signal and try to make it seem like surround,  and a few gaming headsets, but they tend to be dedicated PC sets which only work with a special soundcard – not a regular toslink cable. A few years ago Philips came out with a set – wireless, too – but they were quite hard to get hold of- despite being around £300…

So it seems that home cinema enthusiasts aren’t a suitable target market for this sort of thing. Gamers, on the other hand, apparently are – and one company, Turtle Beach, is just about to release what seems to be the perfect set of 7.1 wireless surround sound headphones…

The Turtle Beach Ear Force X41 Wireless Headset is due to be released in late 2009. Currently it’s listed at £149.99 at Amazon and Play. It follows on from the Ear Force X4 Wireless 5.1 Dolby Pro Logic 2 Headset, which seems to have had good reviews, so the X41 hopefully won’t suck either. Both sets are actually aimed at Xbox 360 owners, as they also incorporate a microphone for in-game chat. Fortunately the mic can be removed, so you shouldn’t feel like an air traffic controller when watching a movie. And, since they take a regular toslink cable input, they’ll actually work with any player that has an optical out for audio – in my case, they’ll probably end up connected to my PS3 more often than my 360!

I’m looking forward to the Ear Force X41 – and I suspect my neighbours are, too – and as soon as I have a chance to try them out I’ll be posting a follow-up.

For more information, check out the product page on the Turtle Beach website or watch their YouTube video below…