Page 3 - Features Cont'd
Features - Continued
Turtle Beach designed the HPA2 Surround Sound headphones for gamers. The HPA2's do work as an all around set of 'phones, but they really are geared for gaming, if not late-night gaming specifically. And since most games support voice chat, or at least even casual gamers are using voice chat while they play, Turtle Beach included a mic as a bonus. The last gaming headphones we got were Everglides s500's, which you had to find a way to clip the microphone on. After the clip exploded, I went with the ole standby - duct tape. I ain't going back to a clip-on mic.
But just in case you needed extra clips, Turtle Beach includes one...
The secret sauce of the HPA2 is the amplifier. The trade-off with this version of the HPA2 (there is a USB version) is that you can use your own sound card, but it costs in terms of a lot of wires. What Turtle Beach has done is make the connection from computer to the amplifier have all the wires for surround sound and power. This frees up the headphones to have a single cable to the amplifier.
The amplifier itself has volume controls galore. I notice that the usual frequence response specification is missing from the tech specs, which kind of makes sense considering all the knobs. Theres the main volume/on/off switch on the side, and youll be advised it makes a very loud pop when its turned on, and then there are the volume pots for the individual channels themselves. This is a lot of volume to play with. I just left it on all the time, and adjusted as needed.
I could definitely see people trying desperately to figure out which pot is set to zero. However, the upside to all the adjustments is precisely that, all the adjustments. The very large problem is that no two ears are alike. This is the problem that EAX and Sensaura (and a host of others, like A3D) tried to solve, but it is an extraordinarily tough problem. You can fool some ears, but not all the ears into believing surround sound when it isn't. And if youre like my brother whos only got one ear (guns are bad, mkay?), then really no two ears are alike. So, in combination with a soundcard that supports HRTF's, then its easier to dial in a perfectly balanced mix of front, center, surround, and subwoofer.
I will also be conscientious and say that the HPA2s can play extremely loud, and will cause permanent ear damage if used loud enough for long enough.
And, of course, there is the obligatory blue LED for a power light. At least its not blindingly bright, and it's the only LED. I was hoping that the Turtle Beach labels on the sides of the HPA2 lit up too, but they don't. It's much classier without. But I do wish the amplifier had some sort of lighting around the individual volume knobs, because it's hard to figure out which volume is which in the dark.
This is well thought out attention to detail that I like to see in a product which makes it stand above other products. There are a few details that could be improved, like gold plated connectors for instance, and the amplifier just shouldnt pop, but overall the HPA2s have got good engineers behind it.
Taking a look at what's inside the earcups, we find a whole lot of wires for the whole lot of drivers.
The whole lot of wires can be avoided with the USB version of the HPA2's, the Ear Force AK-R8's. But then you essentially don't get to use the sound card of your choice.
We like to see solid-state capacitors these days (the silver/black things in the middle), and that volume control is quite beefy for just an on/off/volume control. However, one feature that isn't so noticable is that the amp actually delays sound to the rear channels, just like a surround-sound receiver will do. I'll cover this in the listening section, however.
