Turtle Beach Elite 800 Wireless Headset Review

Performance

Setting up the Turtle Beach Elite 800 was an absolute breeze. Many times before I’ve seen premium headsets that come with more cables than your average data center, and a first installation procedure to match. Fortunately, Turtle Beach has really put the effort into making this a nice and simple task, simply hook up the USB and TosLink cables, hit the pair button and you’re good to go. The same is true for mobile devices, simply hold the button down to pair Bluetooth, search for the device on your phone and you’re done. If all else fails, you can of course fall back and use the 3.5mm cable to directly connect the headset to your device; great for MP3 players that don’t have Bluetooth.

The Elite 800 is by far one of the most comfortable headsets I’ve ever tested. The padding is nothing short of lush and while the headband is a little tight at first, it does wear into the user after a few hours usage; this is true of most headsets.

Sound quality is pin sharp, with a huge amount of detail being presented across the full range. There are a lot of profiles on the headset to allow you to tailor the sound to your liking, such as enhancing footsteps or gun sounds, but it’s really down to personal preference if you’ll ever actually need them, as I feel they hamper the overall sound quality when enabled. Bass levels are booming, no doubt thanks to the closed back design of the drivers. The surround mode is one of the few on the market that actually works and it’s certainly impressive while watching a Blu-Ray, but I prefer the wider dynamic range I get with the surround mode disabled.

It doesn’t matter if you’re gaming, listening to music or watching movies, the Elite 800 is certainly adept at them all and you would certainly hope so given the hefty price tag. The charging dock is great for when you’ve finished gaming, although you won’t feel too attached to the dock with 15 hours battery life after each full charge.