The Turtle Beach Elite 800x are the newest offering from Turtle Beach after the X04s, X07s and Stealth 500x which came out last year. The Elite 800x are the first true wireless solution for all your Xbox One gaming needs. There is no chat dongle or cable running from your controller to your headset, completely wireless chat and DTS surround sound.
Design and Form
The Elite 800x are a solid build and design with very comfortable ear cups that surround your ears and have a very soft memory foam, leather like padding on the headband and ear cushions. The headphones are very light and the ear cups fold in so you can wear them around your neck when they are not on your ears. The controls are all on the ear pieces and offer a 4 way directional click and controls many of the features and connection of the Elite 800x.
For aesthetics the headphone support clean matte black design with a nice green accent along with showing your Xbox pride. One thing you might notice is that there is no boom microphone. That is because it is recessed in the ear cups. The microphone is built into the headset which is a convenient place especially if you plan to use this headset for other devices. However the microphones placement might cause a bit more challenge to other people hearing you in chat (more on that later). Also the Elite800x have changeable ear piece covers to support your favorite themes. With your Elite 800x you get Elite Premium subscription which can get 2 free ear cup plates and other special bonuses.
Features
The features on the Elite 800x are extensive. First there are a number of preset settings ranging from game (shooters, racing, footsteps and super human hearing) to movies (action, horror, drama). However even more presents are being created and are downloadable from the Android, Mac or Windows Earforce apps.
Concerning the Ear force app you can adjust all your setting and sound via the app either connecting by micro USB or Bluetooth. On yes these headsets have Bluetooth which allows you to listen to music, answer calls etc., while you are still playing your games (as long as you are the range of the docking station). However utilizing the bluetooth connections these headsets function as a pair of Bluetooth headsets with another device table, phone, computer that support Bluetooth.
On top of that the Elite 800x have active noise cancelling, which is very limited in wireless Bluetooth headphones. The only other headphones that do this are the Samsung Level Over ($300 US) and the new Beats Studios ($300 US), but those are not gaming headsets, nor DTS. So I say you are getting 2 premium functionalities in one headset with the Elite 800x. The active noise cancelling works very well eliminating sound such as the refrigerator, air condition low hum and some external noise. The noise cancelling is not as effective in Call of Duty, but Alien Isolation or the Witcher 3, hearing the ambient sounds really stand out when the room environment is not interfering.
The Elite 800x also come with active microphone monitoring with allow you to hear your voice while speaking so you’re not yelling. The headphone pick up the sound pretty well and there are also setting for changing the sensitivity. The microphone works pretty well for it being recessed. I heard myself in Skype calls, cells phone calls and game chat with everyone hearing me fine. I do think there is still a bit of echo to your voice in party chat for what some other chat member said, which has been fixed somewhat through a new firmware update (end of May). There is another one upcoming from Turtle beach that should fix it completely. NOTE: To update your headphone you need to plug BOTH the dock and the headphone into 2 separate USB ports at the same time (which limits you using the Surface Pro 3 to update them)
The final feature is that they completely wireless. Once you set up the headphone and connect the base to the Xbox One those are the last wires you will see. The dock sits with a green Turtle Beach logo when the headset are connected with a magnet base. The headsets magnetically sit in the base and charge.. pretty slick. Also the headphone can be charged by a micro USB if you are away from your dock.
What amazed me was the wireless chat which connects on the Xbox One as notification pops up saying headphone connected and you are all set with the surround sound and chat. All the sound emits from the Xbox one through the connected base which is pretty amazing after using the Astro A50 and other headphone with the chat adaptor. Which brings us to sound.
Sound
The sound that emits from the headphone is booming. Explosions, fire cracking, rain coming down, gun shots are clean and effective. The perception of behind you, in front at a distance and close up are great. The best feature is when the game becomes loud your chat volume increase so you can still hear your friends. With the Astro A50 I was constantly riding the volume to hear chat and the game. A majority of the time I lowered the game to bare minimum to hear what my friends were saying. Not on the Elite 800x, you can hear everything with very minimal volume adjustments. Using the “signature sound” setting ( as I mention you can also download specific sound profiles for specific games too) the sound was clean and the base was heavy. Some might think the base might be a bit over powering, but that can be adjusted and the sound is clean with your trebles and mids as well. I like it!
I also used these as traditional Bluetooth headphone with Google and Xbox music and they sounded great. However if you use the active noise cancelling and move around there might be some distortion, so I would not recommend working out or running with these, at least with noise cancelling on. That being said running with noise cancelling on might be dangerous.
Overall
Comparing to the Astro A50, which are also a great headphone, the Turtle beach give a better overall sound, with heavy base. The sound processing on the Astro A50 give a type of echo (virtual) sound type with the mid and high range whereas the Elite 800x sound more consistent. Also, given the microphone monitoring, noise canceling, bluetooth and being completely wireless, the Elite 800x are a better sounding and feature rich gaming headset, which can be used as bluetooth headphones with or without your Xbox One.
I would say that the first offering with the XO4 and 7 rolled out last year they were limited to the Xbox dependence and relied on the chat adaptor for stereo sound. Since then Turtle Beach flexed their muscles and brought us the Stealth 500x (wireless, but without magnetic dock, active noise cancelling and Bluetooth) and the Premium Elite 800x. I was with the Astro A50 last year with the strong sound and great overall performance. But with the Elite 800x I feel these are the headphone we have been waiting for. At $300 US they are not cheap but they do function and a great Bluetooth headphones with active noise canceling and there are not many of those. I would defiantly recommend these headphones!
