Turtle Beach Ear Force x4

I've never been one to stretch for a piece of good audio gear. Between my first computer, where I cheeped out and bought the lowest end sound blaster on the market to when I got my Xbox 360 and promptly connected it to the entry level desktop computer speakers I had I've always gone cheep on sound. Lately though I've found myself wanting to play games later at night at volume levels that would risk waking my children. Also having played Bioshock, I really want to hear what that games sounds like in 5.1. Never mind the litany of good games this fall such as left 4 dead and gears of war 2 that will include audio I do NOT want my 3 year old daughter repeating.

So I've gone and done it, bought my first piece of good audio gear, a Turtle Beach Ear Force x4 headset.

The x4's are $200, which is a butt load to pay for headphones to me. Still they're cheaper than the Astro A40's and are wireless for the surround source unlike the Trition ax360's.

From a fit standpoint they are very light on the head and soft around the ears. My only complaint is that my ear lobe does touch the inner cushion. I'm still playing with the adjustments to get them just right, but I can definitely see wearing them for extended periods. Now if only I could get an extended period to play a game...

The sound itself is great. I've not had the pleasure of hearing the Xbox 360 on a good surround sound system as yet, so hearing Halo through the x4's for the first time was a real eye opening experience. The sounds feel richer and more complete playing with the headset on instead of the crappy little desktop speakers.

All told, they are a bit expensive for my tastes but I can definitely see the x4's being worth the cash, especially if you don't have surround now and need to keep things quiet at night when the family is asleep.