Plantronics Gamecom X95 Headset Review
July 2011 – After the E3 show in June, we decided to do a usability review of gaming headphones for a number of platforms. One of the headsets was the Plantronics X95, Advanced Stereo Gaming Wireless Headset for the Xbox360. These headsets were tested in both single player mode and multi-player mode using XboxLive chat.
Review Summary:
Pro – comfortable to use for long game play, clear talk on the microphone, stayed connected to the controller.
Con – requires std video rather than HDMI connection to use, wireless dropout was annoying, did not fit ears right on some players with glasses.
Overall – Solid product for the price point. Easy installation, good sound, good microphone. Great selection if you don’t have a lot of other wireless in the room, and if the std video is acceptable.
Review Details:
The headset comes in a complete kit – headset with built in microphone, cable to connect to the Xbox360 controller, AAA batteries, and wireless connection with cables to plug in to the Xbox360 base unit. The headset has easy to use on-off, microphone mute and volume adjust controls. Of the multiple testers, one had some issues getting the earpiece back on after installing or changing batteries as the “click” is somewhat damped out from the foam of the earpiece. The other people did not have any problems.
Plantronics Gamecom x95 Wireless Headset
The first thing we found was that we needed to disconnect the HDMI connection and use the Xbox360 supplied video connector with the composite video output. This was needed, as the headset has pass through RCA jacks for the audio connections and does not utilize the digital sound output with the optical port. The headset connector (with the wireless control) also uses a USB socket. The cable lengths are set so it conveniently fits in the back USB plugs, but will not reach around to the front ones if needed. In this configuration, the room sound is from the speakers in the television, rather than the stereo.
Syncing up the headset and connecting to the controller were easy, reliable and did not have to be repeated in the course of the testing, even when handing off to other people. The wireless “background” in the room consists of several Wifi iPods, cell phones and the gaming console connected through an 802.11n/g/b wireless router.
The headset operates simultaneously with the speakers in the TV, so to have headset only sound, you have to mute the TV. The wireless connection worked well within the 20′ range of the testing room. With the other WiFi running, and even with the console connected via a wire and the wireless turned off, the headset still had periods of dropout and a audible “pop” when restarting. These dropouts were consistent with all testers, and over the full duration of the game testing. If you had multiple wireless devices in the room, and a wireless display, it seems this would get worse.
Plantronics Gamecom x95 headset controls
The headsets had precise game sound, all dialog and background sounds were clear understandable. On Arkam Asylum, the quiet side conversations in the game can be heard, and the soundtrack does not distort when it pops in and has explosions and other large sounds. Similarly, on the multi-player games that use Xbox360 Live chat, the volume mix of the microphone worked well to allow for game play and conversation.
Some of the testers noted, that the microphone position was a bit far from their mouth, and they had to speak up to be heard through the headset. The sound isolation with the headsets was very good. The comfort of the headsets was also ranked very high, and worked well for the 2 hour use periods of the testing. Some of the testers who were wearing glasses, noted that the headsets slipped a bit, and also let in quite a bit of ambient noise due to the foam ear pads not sealing against their head with arm of the glasses in the way. This is a big problem as people move to 3D TVs and consoles, where using glasses is required, and some people will have two stacked pairs on.
Overall, the headset was the preferred unit, by those without glasses. The visual difference between the HDMI graphics and the composite that was needed for the headsets, was evident on some games such as Arkam Asylum. It did not impact the game play or immersive quality of play for either Call of Duty or Halo.
Testing Environment:
The base hardware was provided by Microsoft and was a new Xbox360 S console with the Kinect. The unit was tested with the network connection both as the default 802.11g wireless and with a wired internet connection. The games used to test the headsets were Batman: Arkam Asylum, Halo 3: ODST, and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Call of Duty: World at War. The tester were multiple people, who range from intermediate to advanced gamers, using the product for typical 2 hour game play sessions. The reference sound from the gaming system, is that from the Xbox360 connected via HDMI to a 5.1 surround sound Sony receiver driving Klipsch KL-7502-THX in-ceiling speakers and a Klipsch SW-450 10″ subwoofer. The games were viewed and played back on a Panasonic Viera TH-58PZ800U THX Certified Plasma TV with HDMI v1.3 inputs.
