Turtle Beach has been known to produce the best audio equipment on the market for those who take their gaming seriously. There’s nothing like playing a first-person shooter and being able to react based on hearing footsteps approaching. Sound is an advantage in competitive gaming that is often overlooked, and that’s the appeal of owning one of Turtle Beach’s elite headsets.
Now with the blooming eSports market prevalent, Turtle Beach is taking things a step further by producing a line of equipment geared towards a tournament environment.
Turtle Beach: Elite Pro Tournament Edition Headset
The Elite Pro Tournament Headset is an extremely high-end piece of kit with some fantastic features. What I loved the most about this headset was the comfort of the AeroFit ear cushions. Since these headsets were designed with tournaments in mind, they are built to be worn for lengthy periods of time. I put this to the test by having a two hour long session on Overwatch, and never once were my ears irritated. I also found myself not having to adjust the headset at all throughout that period and with previous headsets I found they would slip up and down my head. The Elite Pro stayed firm even if I moved my head sharply to the side.
The base audio of this headset is crisp and clear enough to be able to make out the most subtle noises in game. It’s fitted with new 50mm drivers to deliver top notch sound quality. The detachable Pro Gaming Microphone adds crystal clear communication.
For connectivity, the Elite Pro has a breakaway cable by which a 3.5mm plugin is supplied to attach onto the female ended connector that dangles from the left ear cup. This 3.5mm plugin will fit directly into your PC as well as your PS4 and Xbox One controller. Attached to the plugin are easy access mute and volume controls.
As a base headset, the Elite Pro Tournament Headset is the best you’ll find for $199 / £170. But if you’re truly serious about gaming then you’ll need the Tactical Audio Controller (TAC) to enhance the experience even further.
Turtle Beach: Tactical Audio Controller
For another $199 / £150 you can get the Tactical Audio Controller which will connect to your systems via USB. You can then plug your Tournament Edition Headset into the TAC using its 3.5mm jack to truly master the audio being sent through your Elite Pro speakers. The TAC has four adjustable sliders; these include, the Game & Chat mixer, Background Noise Limiter, Outbound Mic Boost and Mic Monitor level.
The Background Noise Limiter is so powerful that it can even block out chunks of your own voice if you’re not speaking into the mic loud enough, so I had to keep it at around mid-level. It’s important to note however, that I was testing these settings out in a small space as opposed to an arena. In a huge eSports environment these are all incredibly useful features that will keep both your in-game audio and microphone communication crystal clear at all times. The TAC also provides a mute button and a large volume control wheel conveniently within your reach.
The TAC also grants access to Surround Mode, which has four different levels, each with their own presets. The TAC also has every kind of port that you’ll ever need. Along with its three 3.5mm jacks and USB inputs, it has two Ethernet ports for chaining multiple TACs together at LAN events, an Auxiliary port for hooking up to your phone so that you can take calls or play music while playing, and also a digital-in and digital-out port for use with PlayStation 4.
Turtle Beach: Noise Cancelling Microphone
Another nice accessory for hardcore tournament gamers to take advantage of is the optional Tournament Noise Cancelling Microphone, which will run you $30 / £30. This microphone snaps on at the same place as the one included in the Tournament Edition Headset box. So what’s the difference with this microphone? For one, it’s more heavy duty, but that’s because its head houses dual microphones and noise cancellation technology.
The cable included for the microphone has two separate connectors linked to it, one for audio and one for microphone communication. The noise cancelling features of the this microphone are sensational, but you’ll only get the best use out of it if you’re actually in a crowded environment with lots of background noise. If you’re just at home then the default Tournament Edition Headset microphone is perfectly fine.
Conclusion
With the tournament edition of the Elite Pro, Turtle Beach once again shows why they’re number one in gaming audio. Turtle Beach continues to understand the needs of gamers. With competitive eSports gaming becoming the biggest trend in the industry, Turtle Beach are once more pioneers at producing industry standard audio hardware.
On its own, the Elite Pro Tournament Edition Headset is great for the household gamer who wants to get serious with competitive gaming and streaming. Having the option to take things a step further with the optional Tactical Audio Controller and the Noise Cancelling Microphone is genius for those who have greater audio needs.
If these Turtle Beach Tournament Edition line of products are in your budget, then you don’t need to look any further for high-end audio equipment for gaming.
The Turtle Beach Tournament Edition can be ordered online at the Turtle Beach Shop. You can even buy bundles which include the headset and the TAC and Noise Cancelling Microphone.
