reviews Tes Ted. Reviewed. veRdic Tized
MAXIMUMPC july 2007
A
great headset must not only deliver
great-sounding music, dialogue, and
sound effects, but also be capable of
capturing the human voice with a mic that
can distinguish between a subtle whisper and
undesirable breathing noise while also reject-
ing extraneous environmental sounds and
remain comfortable over long stretches of
time. Few headsets do all these tasks well.
—Michael BrownTheBooM QuieT
We generally don’t like headphones that
use active-noise cancellation because these
devices mask external noise by producing
noise of their own. But we decided to make
an exception for theBoom Quiet because of
the lofty promises the company makes for its
noise-canceling mic.
The headphones do a superb job of
screening out fan noise, but that telltale noise-
canceling hiss is there when you aren’t listen-
ing to any other audio. Worse, theBoom Quietis dull as dishwater,
musically speaking:
These headphones
exhibit very limited
dynamic range.
The mic, on the
other hand, is eas-
ily the best of the three we tested. It made
the best recording of our voice, and it did an
extraordinary job of rejecting extraneous noise
from nearby case fans and our own boisterous
keyboard taps. This headset is extremely light,
in spite of its rugged construction, and proved
to be very comfortable during several hours of
gaming. But for this kind of money, you should
be able to get it all.TriTTon audio XTreMe 360
Tritton’s headset delivers true surround
sound, just like the Turtle Beach Ear Force
HPA2 we recommended in June. It also offers
a feature that the HPA2 doesn’t: a powered
Dolby Digital decoder module with optical
and coaxial digital inputs, plus a port for
plugging in a second set of Tritton head-
phones. Cool!
This feature renders the AX360 useful
for watching movies on a DVD player or
gaming on a console system, but it doesn’t
do much for PC use. Tritton provides an
analog adapter cable, so you can plug
the headset directly into your soundcard,
but the AX360’s mic isn’t as good as the
HPA2’s, and it’s leagues behind theBoom
Quiet in terms of rejecting background
noise. The Tritton also can’t match the
HPA2 in terms of audio fidelity in music,
movies, and games, but it sounds far better
than the BQ and the utter waste of plastic
that is the Genius.
Surround-sound support is a welcome
feature, but the Turtle Beach product bundles
it in a better package.Genius hs-04u
The Genius HS-04U plugs into your PC’s
USB port, instead of your soundcard’s
analog speaker output and mic input, so it
bypasses any EAX or OpenAL audio effects
that game developers might have painstak-
ingly programmed into the software. What you
get instead—after installing a driver—is what
Genius calls “Virtual Dolby.”
We’re assuming Genius meant to say
“Dolby Headphone” because the packaging
bears Dolby’s trademark Double-D-and-head-
phone symbol (accompanied by the phrase
“Dolby headphone certificate,” no less). To ourknowledge, there is no such thing as Virtual
Dolby, but it doesn’t matter because this head-
set sounds like crap. As for Genius’s claim that
its noise-canceling mic is “military grade,” well,
our voice did sound as though we were serv-
ing a tour of duty onboard a submarine.Headset Hullabaloo
Three headsets enter the ring, one barely crawls out
The Tritton aX360’s machined-aluminum earcups are attractive, but
the earmuffs on the other side have an annoying tendency to fall off.TheBoom Quiet has a handy volume con-
trol and inline mute button on its cable.The Genius hs-04u is made of plastic,
but it sounds like tin.$275, http://www.boomquiet.comtheboom quietBooMin’ Bass
Fantastic noise-rejecting
mic, extremely comfortable,
solid construction.
BooMin’ BaGhdad^6
Limited range, especially at the
high end; overly expensive for the
musicality it provides.$50, http://www.geniusnet.comgenius hs-04uGenius
In-line volume control and a
mute button.iMBecile^4
Lousy sound, even for cheap
headphones; the mic is worse.$120, http://www.trittontechnologies.comtritton ax360 headsetThin lizzy
Comes with a Dolby Digital
decoder that supports two
sets of headphones.
lizzy Borden^7
So-so sound, sloppy
construction.