I can answer this one. Turtle beach have mostly been a cheap but decent enough quality for people to consider them. Infrequent gamers may buy these but its the younger audience that make these float. Back in high school, turtle beach was the defacto "good enough, still cheap enough to persuade parents to buy" headset. Theyd do 2-3 years, 4 if you were lucky and sounded good enough for user and voice chat friend. They creaked, the aux cable would become faulty but they worked. When consoles started putting the audio through aux only on controllers instead of a usb/aux combo or wireless, turtle beach will have become easily universal. Same quality, same price, universal. People buy the cheap one if they cant afford the more expensive one, cant wait or dont care. They buy the more expensive one for any other reason you can think of. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk
Exactly, I had a few pairs back in High School and early college around the 1-200 range. They were much better than the default mic and comfortable enough and a decent enough sound quality to really immerse myself into the "this guy can hear footsteps must have Turtle Beach's" COD experience. My biggest complaint with them is that both pairs I owned and the pair my brother got all started to break the cheap plastic headband just above the ear cuff after about 1 - 1.5 years making them impossible to wear. My brother even duct taped his until it broke in the same place on the opposite ear. lol
They're trash these days. The break within a year for me. I've not owned a pair of turtle beach headphones no matter the price (up to $200 USD) last more than 10 months. I use JBL quantum these days and they last years. Dropped from over 8 feet, lightly rained on, and more over 2 years and they still work. I only bought a second pair because the battery life wasn't an ENTIRE day anymore (18+ hours of continuous use) and my nephew wanted a pair. I can play audio from my phone via Bluetooth AND audio from my PC via the dongle simultaneously which I love.
Samson SR850 is *BY FAR THE BEST* sounding and most comfortable headphones under $50 bucks (objectively better than most competing $100 sets too) and often on-sale for just $25-$35. Just use any cheapo $20 USB external mic along with it and you've beat out Turtle Beach by miles! 😁🎧😎
@@handlemonium You completely missed the point of his comment. He's saying that younger teens buy these for console or pc gaming because its a simple $30 pair of pretty good sounding headphones that can last years. Most kids won't be out there buying external mics and "audiophile" headphones. These are far easier to convince less informed parents to buy than anything more expensive. Its a good middle of the road headset. These carried me years ago throughout high school. As I got older I switched to external mics and headphones but these were great at the time. Still are for the price and practicality.
I’m a manager at a major retailer in the UK, we CONSTANTLY have these returned due to them just simply dying, either on the left side or the mic not working. If someone asks to buy these, I actively try to steer them towards something better for their money
As someone who games alot, turtle beach seems to be the most common to have echo and static issues in voice chat, i will never suggest turtle beach to anyone
I agree with Linus about the hyperX cloud headsets. I haven't used the cloudX, but the cloud 2 is a tried and true reliable headset, especially for the price.
That's crazy because I have used pretty much only recon 50x headphones for like 10+ years now and only had to replace them like 5 times, I'm starting to think there are like 2 different turtle beach companies or something 😂
The problem with cheap electronics, is there is always a Much better option for $10-20 more. Which obviously spirals out of control, but there is usually a nice sweet spot where "better" parts are an actual jump in price.
The issue with this for a lot of people is you make that $20 leap...but then if you do $15 you get a better one...but the newer version of that one is just $10 more. Now you've spent way more than intended lol.
No it's more like there are minimum spending to get actually worthy stuff and high quality is never a given for any price point. So first you look for a quality product, and if it's too expensive, search one a bit cheaper, and a bit cheaper, etc. But you never start with a 25$ anything electronics related. Also : IEMs (in-ear "monitor") are probably what you should be looking at for sub 40$ earphones
Essentially they sell well because kids ask for headphones to chat with friends and parents go to Target and Best Buy and see these things prominently displayed and buy them. Honestly I think it’s as simple as that.
Might still hold true today but my then-friend group during middle school/Xbox 360 era cared most about headsets cus most new games especially shooters started to introduce online play and voice chat as a quick way of comms, mic quality mattered cause most affordable headsets had horrible quality, Turtle Beaches filled that void of being affordable enough to be brought by your parents and like Linus said, a somewhat solid mic. The driver quality is trash but that didn't matter to kids or frugal people.
Yeah. Turtle beach is a marketing company, not an audio company. Its thier prominent and aggressive marketing that sells their products, not the quality.
Geetings from night shift, deliver me from boredom Edit: alright back to work. This roo racer from down under thanks you for your service. Telling me about something ill never buy
Hi all, So I'm a 37-year-old dad in the UK. I bought some Recon 50's for my daughter aged 10. I bought them because from where I was looking, the headsets went from "children's headsets" priced around £10 - £15 to stepping up wirelessly to about £50- £80. The Recon 50's was an "in the middle" price point around £30 but also still wired. For me, this meant that she could have better headphones and if she looked after them I would be more inclined to buy her the more expensive headsets. She loves PC gaming, listens to RUclips, and loves to sing, so Ideally needs a set for all these uses. Would I buy these for myself? No, absolutely not. But I also don't think the intended audience is any older than about 13 or 14. After 13 or 14, kids want airpods or Bluetooth headsets for their phones, as well as gaming and films, etc.
As it was shown in the video, children or not, many people simply don't have that high of a standard for what's "good enough" Even i personally don't hold as much value in audio quality (so long as it doesn't distort the audio too much) After owning M50Xs for quite a while, as well as KSC75s, i've come to realize that comfort is a much bigger priority as far as headphones go for me. I would want to recommend the KSC75s, but the cable on them is so fragile that i don't think they'd last for a kid much. Unless you like a few minutes of soldering, in which case you could certainly get a proper wire on them.
Hello. 15 year old here. I agree with all of this, except the last statement. It’s not quite as simple as you made it out to be. I don’t think anyone I know would ever consider using AirPods or Bluetooth headphones for anything other than music and watching stuff on their phone. It has too much latency, poor sound quality and poor microphone quality. In short: Bluetooth is for phones, and nothing else.
@@johnb2127 I use Sony's 1000xm5 earbuds for when I want to hear the game on my PS5 and put on headphones for watching movies/RUclips on my PC. The latency on non-Apple products is almost negligible, especially when you find something with AptX HD or LL, so honestly if someone has Bose/Sony/JBL/etc wireless earbuds already, it's honestly not a bad option to buy a USB Bluetooth transmitter and to use those already pricey earbuds.
Understandable, but for about the same price you can get the Samson SR 850 (closer to recon 70s from a local seller) which sounds great and are very comfortable.
i used to burn through cheap headphones, 30 to 50 bucks, they just dont last long at all. If she is a intensive user, get her a pair int her 70 - 100 range. The audio quality is so much better (especially if you stick with wired) and they will outlast the cheap pairs easy. that way you have a way better experiance and save money on the long run.
I have 13 year old sennheiser HD598. I've ripped them off the desk countless times. They only thing thats broke is the aux cable, which is replacable, and the ear foam within the last year.
any good headphone with replacement audio cable is a great investment I had skullcandy hesh2 (not the best, but I was a teen at that time) and they lasted me 10 years
My main listening headphones are beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro from 2012. Apart from having to replace the cushions, they're still just fine. Haven't even had to replace the cable.
I mean really, why wouldn't it be? The dude's literally known for being silly and doing dumb/fun stuff on camera. If anything I'd be more surprised if he just stopped dressing up and doing that stuff.
@@erik100mark Ikr. I used the ROCCAT Nyth before and now I am on the ROCCAT Kone AIMO. Great mouse with very reliable sensor, without being too expensive.
I switched to their Mice from Logitech due to Logitech reliability, and am so disappointed they got acquired. As someone who uses them in a professional environment, asking to install Turtle Beach is just so demoralizing. The Kone XP Air has the perfect design for CAD.
My pair of Turtle Beach Ear Force Kilos lasted me about a month short of 10 years, and I will miss them. First the mic went after I dropped them from head height, then a couple months later one of ear channels started cutting off and also disappeared. What I absolutely loved about them is that they were recognised by windows as 2 separate devices and had 2 separate volume dials - one for regular media, and another one for your voicechat software! Bumping the game down and raid leader up(or vice versa) have never been so instantaneous and non-distracting. Cool CoD Black Ops 2 font and orange highlights helped, too. I even have a sealed backup pair of regular, non-CoD version of those, but right now I'm running a 15$ pair of Meters Audio Level-up. They're pretty meh, but they have real working VU meters into each earcup! I'm trying to catch a JT1 on sale now to get my first steps into audio snobbery.
What happened to the witty text under the logo splash screen 1:22 ? I haven't seen it on the last few I've watched and always enjoyed it before. It was one of those small touches that's silently appreciated.
If you want good Gaming headsets or monitors, NEVER buy something labelled 'Gaming' rather choose -Studio-. Even cheap studio monitors & headsets sound TREMENDOSLY better than expensive Gaming stuff.
Except for headphones, you don't want to search fo studio stuff. Searchword should be "Hifi" instead. "Studio" will get you stuff like the Audiotechica m50x or beyers which everyone thinks is good, but in the end doesn't sound ideal for gaming, movies or even listening to music
You want to filter the results by the soundstage/imaging statistics. This prevents you from making the mistake of buying an ATH M50, which is very highly recommended but has a terrible soundstage people don't mention. Instead, it will place something like the ATH AD700X on top as it has an excellent soundstage. Soundstage/imaging is what makes something like footsteps sound like they are coming from around a corner to the right and behind you, instead of sounding like they come from a speaker right next to your ear.
@@ZenTunE- I find M50x a little objectionable but overall they're not at all bad. M40x are actually smoother and nicer sounding. Beyerdynamic is going to be a "no" from me maybe except 1350 but these are also not right for the purpose. There's also a humongous number of horrible HiFi headphones. Headphone choice is highly personal though, so you just have to listen to things and decide what you find least objectionable. Gaming headsets can actually be perfectly fine. Like those HyperX Cloud stem from Takstar HiFi headphones, they're OK. Steelseries Siberia V2 were OK, haven't heard any of their newer ones. All TBS are horrible though, not much good to say about Logitech either, Razer mostly made garbage too, though Razer Adaro (v1) was pretty good, but then that's based on Yoga CD-68 and were basically fashion city headphones rather than gaming headset. Even third rate brands like Sharkoon sometimes deliver gaming headsets that sound fine.
I love the irony of having a $2500 sponsored product attached to a review contemplating if it’s worth saving $15 by buying a $25 pair of headphones instead of $40 headphones
I love your grqphs & the little moving dot to follow along plus you're interacting with the graphs a lot more. Easier to follow along & i think it's a nice touch.
Hey Linus, console gamer here, the reason why they sale so well is because they're convenient, a lot of console gamers are children so when they ask for some headphones from their parents, parents usually go for something plentiful, cheap, looks decent and has a mic it also explains why the cable is so short because most console gamers have their controller close to their head, they sell well because turtle beach is a well known brand and there is a lot more console gamers than PC gamers (Also I'm the 6.9k like)
Nice.... Also yeah that was my thought. A mixture of social media "Influencers" who probably have a deal with Turtle beach and a really fucked economy/kids being the main demographic, they're going to sell WAY EASIER because of that incredibly low price tag. I know a guy who mostly plays PC now but refuses to give up his weird 10 year old TurtleBeach headset (From when we played on Xbox) and make the move like the rest of us did to a condenser USB mic and a really good pair of headphones, My man sounds like he's living in 2011 with that trash mic, but I guess if you're just so used to something and shown how "amazing it is" (headsets were rarer back then and being able to clearly hear audio compared to TV speakers is a massive step up, but it'd also be a massive step up to buy an incredibly pair of headphones like the Tygr 300's where you can literally pinpoint sound locations from how wide of a soundstage they are.
It's because the average person doesn't use their brain when they shop. They grab what's cheap and available. This is especially true when it comes to parents buying for their children.
@@LRon-Hoyabembe Yeah I'd even argue that people with expensive setups are more often than not, not using their brains. Source? Myself with my SONOS setup. lol
@ I was saying they needed a hard light (like how sunlight looks), not referring to purchasing the actual super hot ball of hydrogen and helium burning at thousands of degrees in space
Had my Turtle Beach Recon 70 for five years now, bought them for only 20€. Only thing I needed to switch were the pads due to the "leather" disintegrating. Love mine due to the amazingly accurate sound localisation, useful in most PvP games.
I had 3 cheap Turtle Beaches back in the PS3 days and they all broke within a year, the ear cups would just snap off at the hinge or the speaker would stop working. However the microphone on them was so good that I ended up just snapping and bending the headband so it would fold on itself and sit on my desk pointed at me. I used the mic for 8+ years.
I bought an Audio Interface for 49€, a XLR Mic for 79€ and "Studio" Headphones for 39€. All of my friends that visit me or hear me on Discord say that I have the best sound of them all. Even my Headphones with 150Ohms sound better than their 200€ Headsets, I just dont get how people are still buying that crappy stuff. I tried a turtle beach headset once, it was around 50€, I sent it back the same day because it was just awful. Never again. What I use now is: Headphones: Superlux HD-660 Pro 39€ USB Audio Interface: Behringer U-Phoria UM2 49€ T-Bone SC-450 XLR: 79€
Super detailed video, as always! The comparison felt like a journey through sounds and creaky plastics. Turtle Beach should take notes from your feedback for their next headset! Great job!
I had a pair of PX21s that lasted me from 13 years old to 23, with nearly daily use on both PS3 and then a gaming laptop at university. They were still operational when I upgraded to a new headset when I bought a desktop PC. The new headset had a terrible mic, so I snapped the right earpiece off of my PX21's, sat it on the left earpiece and tilted the mic up to use as a makeshift desk mic. Worked until I got signed to PWR and got free peripherals and eventually threw them out 12 years after they were bought. Sound quality was not great but they were cheap and essentially indestructible. I'll never have a bad word to say about TurtleBeach.
I recently went through buying a gaming headset and was honestly surprised by how terrible a lot of them are. Granted, I was coming off of using my podcast mic with an interface and studio headphones, but I genuinely didn't think it'd be that hard to get a decent headset for around a hundred bucks. Ended up grabbing a pair of ATH-M50 headphones from my shelf (a Christmas gift from a boss several years ago) and replacing the earmuffs with softer ones, then bought a V-MODA Boom Mic to plug into it. The audio quality isn't great and I do run voicemeter on my PC to EQ it a bit/add a much needed noise gate due to audio bleed, but that only cost me like $40 in new parts. I guess what I'm trying to say is that sometimes the best budget headset is the one you can make at home lol. At the very least, it beats having to constantly plug and unplug my interface whenever I wanna game with friends vs get some work done on my work computer.
I still remember back in the day playing CoD with kids from high school. You couldn't hear anything compared to what the guys using Turtle Beach headsets could. It was mind blowing the first time I put a set of them on and played a match. I ended up buying a pair of my own, and they lasted about 10 years before I let my cousin borrow them, and he broke them
@@owlic227 We were fucking 15 in high school. What part of that did you not understand? Hell, kids had them in middle school too. Sorry I'm older than you?
@@SL1PSTAR We were fucking 15 in high school. What part of that did you not understand? Hell, kids had them in middle school too. Sorry I'm older than you?
9:23 Not to mention their excelent customer support. I once snapped my jack on the Hyper X Clouds and they just straight up sent me another unit, no questions asked just had to sent them a photo to show that it was actually physically broken. Fixed the broken unit afterwards and had 2 Clouds to use!
Before I pivoted jobs I was a manager in retail for a number of years. The company I worked for sold hundreds of thousands of these a year. Why? Because parents buy the cheapest shit for their kids, yes there are cheaper, but these aren't that expensive and make them feel like they got a "good one" (also they don't understand the difference between cheap tack like this and one that's £100-£200. Plus it's kids. They break shit.
I bought Dareu EH722s back in the 2020 for the same price, and still rocking it till today. The Build quality is Wayy solid than Recon, it has thick cable, a big ahh cussion and rigid body.
I believe they are using AI so that Linus doesn't have to do a retake after the video is done and is being edited, I there were a few clear examples in a recent video
@@AnberyeThis sounds more like a cut audio clip, they wanted only a certain part from an audio clip, but cutting mid sentence can be difficult and result in stuff like this
I would agree that it could be post-production correction which should be documented in their workflow. No big deal to me, and I didn't notice it that much listening on an iphone.
My recommendation is to buy an open-back headphone. They may lack some bass, but with a decent amplifier, they sound fantastic. I recommend the Sennheiser 560s; they can be quite affordable when they're on sale. Just make sure your motherboard has enough power to drive them. If it doesn't, consider getting a good quality, inexpensive DAC. Peace! Edit - I did not know the budget was so tight 560s cost 150ish on sale Then I recommend samson sr 850 which will cost 30-40 dollars They are excellent too
@@dirrologyI use them. I have the M50x, DT 770, and the 560s. The 560s are awesome for gaming. No closed-back headphone can match the open-back soundstage. Take my word; you won't be disappointed.
@9:20 -- I still have my Cloud II headset, because (at the time) everyone agreed that they had reasonably good audio and I wanted a headset mic. So far, included USB DAC died after 5 years, mic after 6 - but aside from a $3 AUX cable replacement 2 years ago, headphones themselves still work just fine.
I had both the TB PX21 and PX22, which were actually incredibly good value (ok sound & comfort, excellent mic (better than on the Recon P50), passable build quality, and most of all extensive controls on the cable thanks to an integrated sound card (USB + audio jack), which let you separate the tracks for mic, chat sound (through USB) and game sound, which means separate volume controls on the fly, bass/treble adjustment and mute
as a not so proud owner of the recon 70’s, watching this video on the headphones brought back some suppressed memories. like for starters, I remember the volume on them always being way to quiet and the volume nob not even working. on top of that, my pair only had what felt like a millimeter of foam on them, they were so bad in fact that at times I resorted to calling the people I played with on my phone rather than use the uncomfortable things.
This headset is made for children to use on the phone and is cheap so parents can afford them and thats why they sell so much of them and there arent many alternatives on the market.
You were spitting facts until the very last part. Cheap headphones, whether targeted at children or not, are in no short supply and variety. It's just as far as amazon listings, there's always that one stand out product that snowballed into being a best seller despite not having anything special about it.
@@Verchiel_ There are lots of cheap headphones yes but there arent many that have a mic and use only one 3.5mm combo so you use it on your phone/tablet. recently i had to buy exactly that type of headset for my nephew i was looking at a lot of options and most of them use either usb or two separate 3.5mm. so i know why ppl buy these they just see lots of reviews and can be used by their kids and they are cheap so its a no-brainer.
I'd much rather go my route. Sennheiser 599's and a blue snowball. For $50 more you will have an exceptional experience and a pair of headphones that hit way above their price range.
The big issue is the mic. I want to say that the majority of console gamers play on their couch, only a small number actually play on a desk. Where would they put the mic? Lean it awkwardly somewhere? Plus not many gamers actually know how to position a mic effectively to get any better a sound than a cheap headset mic. That's where most of the complaints about Blue mics come from - people who sit a few feet away from the mic in un-dampened rooms or put their mic next to their loud PC or keyboard, not knowing that condenser mics are very good at picking up background noise. All condenser mics react the same, from $20 to $20k but the people buying _them_ tend to know what they're doing, while the target audience for a Blue tends not to. And, most console gamers would prefer the simplicity of having 1 cable to plug into their controller. Although, to be fair, you could pick up some Samson SR850s or the like, and a cheap Fifine USB mic (with a headphone out port) and still have most of the sound quality as a quality setup at a very similar price and convenience to a headset.
Most people who know about audio aren’t buying $25 headphones. At that price point both of these are completely adequate and functionally serve their purpose. Want better, pay more.
@@ablet85not necessarily. Samson SR850 exists often at $25-35. Now chuck in a $20-$25 cheapo USB mic and Average Gamer Joe has a pretty banger audio setup for $45-$60 *¯\_(ツ)_/¯*
As someone who had a pair of Turtle Beach headphones when I was a kid, I pretty much agree with what the other comments are saying- they're better than your average "casual" headphones while still being cheap enough for parents to justify being able to get them as a Christmas or birthday present for their gamer kids. Even "entry level" audiophile headphones such as Sennheisers can start in the 100s of dollars and more famous brands such as Beats are making you pay for the name, so being able to get a headset that works much better than cheapo brands for only $25-50 is a steal for people on a tight budget.
Hi from the UK, I currently use the turtlebeach stealth 600 gen 3. The sound quality is really good with good bass and are very comfortable. The noise cancellation is really good too, so you can still have a mid game snack (crisps) and the people who I talk to in game can't hear rustling. I really do suggest you review the 600 gen 3 so I can see your opinion on them.
My 20$ in ear monitors are miles better than every single pair of consumer headphones I have ever used. If you are on a tight budget, IEMs are the way to go.
Ye IEMs are amazing for value but i grabbed a pair of openback sennheiers (hd 599sd for 80 bucks during a sale) finally so i could have better headphones for discord and having a better, wider soundstage was amazing for some games. The kind where you turn around because you thought the sound was irl
Alot of people don't have experience with expensive product. So, if a 30 dollar product is even slightly better than their 20 dollar one, they are happy.
That's really sad when the Samson SR850 exists for $50 (objectively better than most competing $100 cans too) and often on-sale for just $25-$35. That paired with any cheapo $20 USB external mic along with it and you've beat out Turtle Beach by miles! 😁🎧😎
Lol i've had a Turtle beach headset for 14 years before i replaced it in 2019. It has a great microphone however over the years the wires broke a few times which i REPAIRED instead of just trashing it away. The board's base system seems to have fried as i can only hear high frequency sound from it now. I've never been wiling to replace them because for ~$110CAD it had a very very good microphone for it's time.
I love the data there lab can produce, but on the headphone response curve we should apply psychoacoustic smoothing to see what our 'ears hear' vs what a measurement microphone can detect. Would give a more true to life representation to what a user can expect to hear. Keep the amazing data coming!
as a ex-owner of the recon 70, it lasted me 3 years of gaming use (small hits around once a week). when it did break it was one of the ear speakers giving out and not any of the plastic breaking. I also got it for just £18 when it was on sale. definitely recommend if you cant afford more!
I bought a couple gaming headsets, not this one, since I'm out of that phase and I need to say, going for studio headphones and buying a mic seperately was the best decision. Granted it still cost quite a bit depending on what you get, but in the long run it will pay off if you use both quite a lot. It also depends if you want or have the time for setting the studio headphones up correctly, maybe it needs an amp to even power, which also costs more as well as maybe needing software to EQ everything to your liking. All in all, I'm way happier with my setup now instead of going with a gaming headset. My setup contains of the Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro (80 Ohm version) headphones, a FiiO E10k DAC & amp for the headphones (otherwise they barely work) and the HyperX Quadcast for a mic, for those who might wanted to know.
My very first gaming headset was a Turtle Beach Stealth. I got it because it was the only one that was comfortable to wear with glasses. After about 7 years of daily use the mic began to cut out sometimes (probably because of the flip to mute) but the headphone part still works almost a decade later.
I had a Turtle Beach X12 headset many years ago, bought them for £1 at a flea market. They were cheap, basic, looked like trash but they outlasted several other headsets over the years, sounded great and were super comfy for long gaming sessions. I haven't tried any other Turtle Beach ones for comparison, but they were amazing, and survived full days of Zoom calls throughout the full covid lockdown period. I've still got them somewhere as a spare set. Currently rocking a Corsair Virtuoso SE at the moment which I love in almost every way - except how sweaty and hot my ears get in them. Super comfy, just very moist 😂
I don't know if anyone has said this but the short cable is because a lot of people plug them into the controller, so a short cable gives less cord to worry about getting tangled in.
I have the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 MAX headsets. I love them, not only are they great for people with glasses, but you can use them for not just an Xbox. They come with a USB stick that acts like the Bluetooth middleman between the headset & the console. There's a switch on the side, one way for Xbox use, the other way for both Nintendo Switch & Laptop use.
For years I've been using their Recon Chat Headset. Only one earcup (a good thing, I don't like headsets with two and don't have game audio in my headset), 3.5mm jack, nondetachable mic, but for 15 bucks it works more than well enough for gaming with the boys. I've actually used it for phone calls more than a few times as well.
Usually, I'm nearly always pleased with the quality of LTT reviews, but on this one, I wished there was more technical comparison with similar headsets. There was recommandations, but I feel this doesn't adequately represents them to the un-initiated (for example the bass dip is very common on cheap headsets and it would've been nice to compare it, to see if, for their price, they are still a better/good option compared to others, cuz most people literally won't budge on price and will most likely get a cheap headset whatsoever). The rest of the video is nice, and it's cool to see headset reviews on the main channel.
I bought something similar to the 70, but it was for both ps4 and Xbox, it has an adjustable mic volume as well. Unfortunately when I came back from school one day, my cat had torn them up pretty good, but I was surprised to find that within the cord there were strings to help with the longevity. I was still so happy with those headphones that I bought a new pair that night. Those ones were bass boosted as well, and I have since bought the logi g435 and have found that I still much prefer my turtle beach headset.
I bought the 50 for my son to replace his Razors when they died. They were slightly more than $25 at the time, though... and they also came with a splitter. He said they sounded awful and immediately requested the 70. Got those and kept the 50 around as an emergency backup, learned a lesson that cheaping out can cost more in the long run.
I couldn't even tell you the model number but 7+ years ago I had a turtle beach with separate volume sliders for voice apps and the regular desktop. It worked *flawlessly* so I could adjust Discord and my game volumes independently with physical wheels. It was great and the fact that no other turtle beach headphones have this feature anymore means I never buy them.
I have been using the same nubwo chinese headset from amazon for $12 on sale with free shipping for like 10 years. For the value it is king, however the pleather is falling apart but still works astoundingly.
my theory about the positive reviews about sound and mic quality is that a lot of people going for these doesn't have any experience with better sounding headsets. if you are coming from some super cheap earbuds they are gonna sound great to your ears, but if you have experienced better sound quality its extremely hard to go back. i feel this is repeated across a lot of different stuff, i.e. if you only ever have played on a 60hz display, it will feel great, but once you have experienced higher refresh rate going back is going to be rough.
I had the 700 Gen 2, lasted me years before the right ear cup was degrading (but still usable), but the real killer was finally the overhead frame on the left side snapped, it's metal, but the housing it sits in on either side is plastic and one side broke. It was a good headset. Now the Gen 3 is out of coming out, thinking of getting it.
A pair of headphones like the Recon 50 should be illegal. We seriously should have bills around the world preventing this manufactured e-waste from existing or leaving the factory's ground. Don't have the money to buy a more expensive pair? Too bad. Safe up until you can buy something that lasts. I've learned this the hard way over and over and over.
I got some PX24s in 2017, they got thrashed for 3 years, then infrequent use (3hrs a day, 4days/wk) for a couple more. Sound was pretty good depending on application, and mic was ok. Comfort-wise they are good for a couple/few hours, then get irritating, but I hate wearing any headsets/earmuffs for more than 10 minutes. I have a particular talent for wrecking stuff. Mine are still almost as good as when I bought them.
I have the Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen2 Max. I like them, though I don’t use them often. Because I use the PS5, I usually just stick with the chat feature through the controller. But sometimes I can’t hear my teammates because the volume on the controller is so low. So that’s when the TBs get pulled out. As for the TBs, I literally have no complaints. They were originally priced at $119.99, but got them on Clearance at Walmart for $49.99.
The thing I think tech enthusiasts probably often forget is that 'normal' people really don't care about audio quality, as long as it isn't painfully bad. They listen to low bitrate music through tinny phone speakers, they've probably never used a really good set of studio headphones and have no frame of reference. They're the same people who will use motion smoothing on a TV and the built-in speakers, because that's good enough We know differently and buy accordingly of course, but they outnumber us massively. Hell even if I was an audiophile, something like this could be a decent buy for a kid even if I wouldn't touch them if my life depended on it, odds are they're just going to break something that costs actual money after all
PSA: as someone who has ONLY used Astro A40's since 2007. and use to shit talk about TB. i now have TB Stealth Pro's. i tested all the "best" headsets out there. and returned them all and kept the TBSP. they do everything. they are the best all rounder and can be tuned perfectly to HK curve etc. new A50x suck. Maxwell dont have simultaneous BT. Acezone are creaky. Razer sound like shit. etc. i highly reccomened TBSP to everyone. and i NEVER thought those words would come out of my mouth. as a hardcore Astro fan since Gen1
I had a PX21 over 10 years ago and it lasted for about 4 years with pretty good audio quality mic and headphone wise. I preferred the usb interface at the time because I didn't have a mic port and the in line controls on that were perfect
Especially the Recon 50s just feel like "your first headset" when you are a kid. They are probably fine for that. Heck, my first gaming headset in 2011 was a Turtle Beach.
My main headset is a higher end Turtle Beach pair, the Stealth 700 Max gen 2, and I'm quite fond of both them and the other set of a different model I had prior. The sound is good, they feel comfortable on my head, the 2.4 ghz wireless is solid in most of my house with a microphone that doesn't sound like crap, plus I can simultaneously have them connected to bluetooth and get input from both sources at once (great for being a voice call on my computer while looking at something with audio on my phone). My only complaint was that my pair (which I bought preowned) was creaky when I got it, but nothing a bit of WD-40 couldn't fix (I used the stuff with silicone in and a very small amount carefully applied)
I have two turtle beach headsets. My first set was a stealth 400. It was my ps4 headset, and when i got a pc, i figured I'd try it out, and it was a great headset on pc. I ended up getting an xbox stealth 500, brand new in box from ebay because after 8 years the 400s were getting some connection issues. I love my 500s. Crystal clear mic according to my friends, and i like the sound profile. I especially like that it has two inputs. I can have my discord going to one, and my game going to the other, and without macros or anything, adjust the sound on the headset for each
Pretty sure I have the Recon70 I recognise the shape but it's been a while since I bought them, owned them for over 5 years now and haven't broke or been damaged since, yeah the fake leather has since pealed off but it doesn't ruin the comfort or its usability, infact with or without the fake leather wouldn't be much of a difference.
I have had my Audio-Technica ATH-M50x since 2018. The only thing that sucks about them is the earmuffs need to be replaced every 2 to 3 years. The pho leather deteriorates and starts flacking off after a few years but they’re easily replaceable. For my microphone, I use a blue yeti.
The turtle beach atlas air has the worst headband adjustment ever designed and if you adjust it too tight the glue will actually separate from the headset entirely leaving you with no tension at all. So it's always loose, you cannot tighten it. The sound quality on the earcups is great, but the microphone is WHISPER QUIET, and the noise gate is so extreme even when turned "off" that it will drop half your words. The volume adjustment knob adjusts 10 at a time, so you can go from quiet to blaring in one notch, and while it CLAIMS to have 3mm support, it absolutely doesnt work for both the headphones and the mic simultaneously, so you're stuck with the wireless, which randomly drops every hour or so for about a minute at a time.
The fact that you mentioned the G435 Headset (which I've been using and loving sm) made me blush like no way from all the headphones Linus chose these.
2 years in using them and was suddenly dissapointed by my TurtleBeach Stealth 700 Gen. 2. The audio quality was decent and I was pleased by the long-lasting battery, however the plastic started cracking and the mic no longer stays up due to internal cracking of the plastic mechanism (I opened them when I replaced the faux-leather ear-pads, which also started to fall apart)
I have a pair of Turtle Beach XO Seven Pro headphones for my Xbox, their pretty good all around. Probably 10yrs old by now. I also have a pair of Logi (Logitech) G533 wireless headphones for my PC Desktop. Both are good, the G533 alows me to customize the EQ per game profile, earcup light color and there is volume control on the headset, auto mute (mic flip) and a gaming button, I used to set to auto away status in TS3. Battery life is decent about 16 hours. Which should be ideal for most people. If not, usb cable will keep you running for days! 😂 I also had a pair of "True" 5.1 with I believe 7.1 virtual sound. Weighed a ton and required a 5.1 or higher sound card to connect all the cables that didn't match the color of their inputs. I can't remember who made the last headset, I think it might of been Creative Labs/Sound Blaster or Logitech.
I've had my AT M40x for a while (so long, I've forgotten exactly when I bought them but easily 4+ years ago) and they still work perfectly, only thing I've noticed is the leather (leatherette? pleather?) of the headband and earcups is starting to show some cracking (more like deep creases on the way to cracks but you get the idea)
Bought a pair of 70s. They snapped at the slide adjustment within 2 weeks. Got a free replacement 3 weeks snapped again.. Got a third free. A month snapped again. Sound good. But they’re so fragile it’s crazy. No more turtle beach. Astro does the job as they have for 15 years. But to each their own. Just wanted to share my horrible experience with build quality with the 70s. And yes I still got all 3 pairs. They’re ducktaped. Work. But not adjustable anymore lol
![Jack Harlow - Hello Miss Johnson [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Q86_nlRoIGw/mqdefault.jpg)
I can answer this one. Turtle beach have mostly been a cheap but decent enough quality for people to consider them. Infrequent gamers may buy these but its the younger audience that make these float. Back in high school, turtle beach was the defacto "good enough, still cheap enough to persuade parents to buy" headset. Theyd do 2-3 years, 4 if you were lucky and sounded good enough for user and voice chat friend. They creaked, the aux cable would become faulty but they worked.
When consoles started putting the audio through aux only on controllers instead of a usb/aux combo or wireless, turtle beach will have become easily universal. Same quality, same price, universal. People buy the cheap one if they cant afford the more expensive one, cant wait or dont care. They buy the more expensive one for any other reason you can think of.
Thanks for coming to my Ted talk
Exactly, I had a few pairs back in High School and early college around the 1-200 range. They were much better than the default mic and comfortable enough and a decent enough sound quality to really immerse myself into the "this guy can hear footsteps must have Turtle Beach's" COD experience. My biggest complaint with them is that both pairs I owned and the pair my brother got all started to break the cheap plastic headband just above the ear cuff after about 1 - 1.5 years making them impossible to wear. My brother even duct taped his until it broke in the same place on the opposite ear. lol
yep, a pair of turtle beaches carried me though middle school back in the 360 era. hundreds of hours of use on those bad boys for under $30.
They're trash these days. The break within a year for me. I've not owned a pair of turtle beach headphones no matter the price (up to $200 USD) last more than 10 months.
I use JBL quantum these days and they last years. Dropped from over 8 feet, lightly rained on, and more over 2 years and they still work.
I only bought a second pair because the battery life wasn't an ENTIRE day anymore (18+ hours of continuous use) and my nephew wanted a pair.
I can play audio from my phone via Bluetooth AND audio from my PC via the dongle simultaneously which I love.
Samson SR850 is *BY FAR THE BEST* sounding and most comfortable headphones under $50 bucks (objectively better than most competing $100 sets too) and often on-sale for just $25-$35.
Just use any cheapo $20 USB external mic along with it and you've beat out Turtle Beach by miles! 😁🎧😎
@@handlemonium You completely missed the point of his comment. He's saying that younger teens buy these for console or pc gaming because its a simple $30 pair of pretty good sounding headphones that can last years. Most kids won't be out there buying external mics and "audiophile" headphones. These are far easier to convince less informed parents to buy than anything more expensive. Its a good middle of the road headset. These carried me years ago throughout high school. As I got older I switched to external mics and headphones but these were great at the time. Still are for the price and practicality.
my wife left me
She says hi.
Nice
Don't worry I just left her to get back at her for you
Yeah so I heard
@@Poylo hi five! Very nice!
I’m a manager at a major retailer in the UK, we CONSTANTLY have these returned due to them just simply dying, either on the left side or the mic not working. If someone asks to buy these, I actively try to steer them towards something better for their money
I had a pair of Corsair headphones like that. Ended up with Corsair offering me £500 on their site after they got RMA'd 3 times within a year.
Its funny you mention that, I owed several pairs of these a decade+ ago, after 3-4 of them broke due to those 2 issues I just stopped buying them.
As someone who games alot, turtle beach seems to be the most common to have echo and static issues in voice chat, i will never suggest turtle beach to anyone
I agree with Linus about the hyperX cloud headsets. I haven't used the cloudX, but the cloud 2 is a tried and true reliable headset, especially for the price.
That's crazy because I have used pretty much only recon 50x headphones for like 10+ years now and only had to replace them like 5 times, I'm starting to think there are like 2 different turtle beach companies or something 😂
The problem with cheap electronics, is there is always a Much better option for $10-20 more. Which obviously spirals out of control, but there is usually a nice sweet spot where "better" parts are an actual jump in price.
The issue with this for a lot of people is you make that $20 leap...but then if you do $15 you get a better one...but the newer version of that one is just $10 more. Now you've spent way more than intended lol.
No it's more like there are minimum spending to get actually worthy stuff and high quality is never a given for any price point.
So first you look for a quality product, and if it's too expensive, search one a bit cheaper, and a bit cheaper, etc.
But you never start with a 25$ anything electronics related.
Also : IEMs (in-ear "monitor") are probably what you should be looking at for sub 40$ earphones
@@bablela26 to that i say technics az60m2
Or you just do a little research and buy some from china for cheap and good quality
Nah, don‘t buy something that is so cheap it will fall apart. That is ultimately a great waste of money and resources.
Essentially they sell well because kids ask for headphones to chat with friends and parents go to Target and Best Buy and see these things prominently displayed and buy them. Honestly I think it’s as simple as that.
Might still hold true today but my then-friend group during middle school/Xbox 360 era cared most about headsets cus most new games especially shooters started to introduce online play and voice chat as a quick way of comms, mic quality mattered cause most affordable headsets had horrible quality, Turtle Beaches filled that void of being affordable enough to be brought by your parents and like Linus said, a somewhat solid mic. The driver quality is trash but that didn't matter to kids or frugal people.
Yeah. Turtle beach is a marketing company, not an audio company. Its thier prominent and aggressive marketing that sells their products, not the quality.
Yep pretty much what happened with me.
0:44 I totally expected him to say "so let's not think about that. Instead, let's think about our sponsor!"
same!
Same!
Same!
dont give him ideas bro
we have been conditioned...probably Colton's fault
Geetings from night shift, deliver me from boredom
Edit: alright back to work. This roo racer from down under thanks you for your service. Telling me about something ill never buy
U win
This was the first comment
night shifts are tha bomb. Keeps ya awake, when when not at work :D
where do you work?
algorithm deliver this man from boredom
Hi all, So I'm a 37-year-old dad in the UK. I bought some Recon 50's for my daughter aged 10. I bought them because from where I was looking, the headsets went from "children's headsets" priced around £10 - £15 to stepping up wirelessly to about £50- £80. The Recon 50's was an "in the middle" price point around £30 but also still wired. For me, this meant that she could have better headphones and if she looked after them I would be more inclined to buy her the more expensive headsets. She loves PC gaming, listens to RUclips, and loves to sing, so Ideally needs a set for all these uses. Would I buy these for myself? No, absolutely not. But I also don't think the intended audience is any older than about 13 or 14. After 13 or 14, kids want airpods or Bluetooth headsets for their phones, as well as gaming and films, etc.
As it was shown in the video, children or not, many people simply don't have that high of a standard for what's "good enough"
Even i personally don't hold as much value in audio quality (so long as it doesn't distort the audio too much)
After owning M50Xs for quite a while, as well as KSC75s, i've come to realize that comfort is a much bigger priority as far as headphones go for me.
I would want to recommend the KSC75s, but the cable on them is so fragile that i don't think they'd last for a kid much. Unless you like a few minutes of soldering, in which case you could certainly get a proper wire on them.
Hello. 15 year old here. I agree with all of this, except the last statement. It’s not quite as simple as you made it out to be. I don’t think anyone I know would ever consider using AirPods or Bluetooth headphones for anything other than music and watching stuff on their phone. It has too much latency, poor sound quality and poor microphone quality. In short: Bluetooth is for phones, and nothing else.
@@johnb2127 I use Sony's 1000xm5 earbuds for when I want to hear the game on my PS5 and put on headphones for watching movies/RUclips on my PC. The latency on non-Apple products is almost negligible, especially when you find something with AptX HD or LL, so honestly if someone has Bose/Sony/JBL/etc wireless earbuds already, it's honestly not a bad option to buy a USB Bluetooth transmitter and to use those already pricey earbuds.
Understandable, but for about the same price you can get the Samson SR 850 (closer to recon 70s from a local seller) which sounds great and are very comfortable.
i used to burn through cheap headphones, 30 to 50 bucks, they just dont last long at all. If she is a intensive user, get her a pair int her 70 - 100 range. The audio quality is so much better (especially if you stick with wired) and they will outlast the cheap pairs easy. that way you have a way better experiance and save money on the long run.
0:21 is that NCIX-Linus?
As someone that has Logitech's G435 I can confirm that they indeed work and can hear the sponsor at 9:48
Missed opportunity, but.. it'd be tacky at most haha
I have 13 year old sennheiser HD598. I've ripped them off the desk countless times. They only thing thats broke is the aux cable, which is replacable, and the ear foam within the last year.
any good headphone with replacement audio cable is a great investment
I had skullcandy hesh2 (not the best, but I was a teen at that time) and they lasted me 10 years
My main listening headphones are beyerdynamic DT 990 Pro from 2012. Apart from having to replace the cushions, they're still just fine. Haven't even had to replace the cable.
mdr 7506 baby
@@Nderak Nice, MDR-CD900ST here
I still use my HD598s even with more premium models in my collection. Only thing I replaced was the pads, which was easy.
Linus in turtle cosplay was not on my 2024 bingo card
He could hang out with that Whale from LTX
Bingus
@@MozartTheGOAT it reminded me of that one Gintama episode
I mean really, why wouldn't it be? The dude's literally known for being silly and doing dumb/fun stuff on camera. If anything I'd be more surprised if he just stopped dressing up and doing that stuff.
You guys need to write crazier bingo cards
What a horrible decision transitioning Roccat to Turtle Beach
I agree, my mouse is ROCCAT and I miss them as a brand.
@@xnutzii I agree. I I have an orginal ROCCAT Kova. I looked at a turtle beach mice at Mircocenter. It doesn't even feel the same.
@@erik100mark Ikr. I used the ROCCAT Nyth before and now I am on the ROCCAT Kone AIMO. Great mouse with very reliable sensor, without being too expensive.
I switched to their Mice from Logitech due to Logitech reliability, and am so disappointed they got acquired. As someone who uses them in a professional environment, asking to install Turtle Beach is just so demoralizing. The Kone XP Air has the perfect design for CAD.
Didn't even know this renaming happened...I love my mouse.
My pair of Turtle Beach Ear Force Kilos lasted me about a month short of 10 years, and I will miss them. First the mic went after I dropped them from head height, then a couple months later one of ear channels started cutting off and also disappeared. What I absolutely loved about them is that they were recognised by windows as 2 separate devices and had 2 separate volume dials - one for regular media, and another one for your voicechat software! Bumping the game down and raid leader up(or vice versa) have never been so instantaneous and non-distracting. Cool CoD Black Ops 2 font and orange highlights helped, too. I even have a sealed backup pair of regular, non-CoD version of those, but right now I'm running a 15$ pair of Meters Audio Level-up. They're pretty meh, but they have real working VU meters into each earcup! I'm trying to catch a JT1 on sale now to get my first steps into audio snobbery.
1:49 The subtle shade is crazy.
What happened to the witty text under the logo splash screen 1:22 ? I haven't seen it on the last few I've watched and always enjoyed it before. It was one of those small touches that's silently appreciated.
Seems to be rng if they do one or not lately but theyve still done em recently
It's like when you hover an an xkcd
*was silently
The sponsor segment is slowly becoming a test to see who can properly pronounce "Fresnel"
Freh-NELL for those wondering
first thing that caught my ear
It looks and starts like the city of Fresno.
i mostly watch on desktop , when i hear word segway i just click twice right arrow key and continue video lol.
came to the comments to see if anyone else's ears burned when he said "freznel"
If you want good Gaming headsets or monitors, NEVER buy something labelled 'Gaming' rather choose -Studio-. Even cheap studio monitors & headsets sound TREMENDOSLY better than expensive Gaming stuff.
Except for headphones, you don't want to search fo studio stuff. Searchword should be "Hifi" instead. "Studio" will get you stuff like the Audiotechica m50x or beyers which everyone thinks is good, but in the end doesn't sound ideal for gaming, movies or even listening to music
@@ZenTunE- just look at the frequency response curve. studio headsets are flat NOT LIKE BEATS
@@ZenTunE- "hifi" will get you stuff that's even more full of bullshit than "gaming".
You want to filter the results by the soundstage/imaging statistics. This prevents you from making the mistake of buying an ATH M50, which is very highly recommended but has a terrible soundstage people don't mention. Instead, it will place something like the ATH AD700X on top as it has an excellent soundstage. Soundstage/imaging is what makes something like footsteps sound like they are coming from around a corner to the right and behind you, instead of sounding like they come from a speaker right next to your ear.
@@ZenTunE- I find M50x a little objectionable but overall they're not at all bad. M40x are actually smoother and nicer sounding. Beyerdynamic is going to be a "no" from me maybe except 1350 but these are also not right for the purpose.
There's also a humongous number of horrible HiFi headphones.
Headphone choice is highly personal though, so you just have to listen to things and decide what you find least objectionable.
Gaming headsets can actually be perfectly fine. Like those HyperX Cloud stem from Takstar HiFi headphones, they're OK. Steelseries Siberia V2 were OK, haven't heard any of their newer ones. All TBS are horrible though, not much good to say about Logitech either, Razer mostly made garbage too, though Razer Adaro (v1) was pretty good, but then that's based on Yoga CD-68 and were basically fashion city headphones rather than gaming headset. Even third rate brands like Sharkoon sometimes deliver gaming headsets that sound fine.
I love the irony of having a $2500 sponsored product attached to a review contemplating if it’s worth saving $15 by buying a $25 pair of headphones instead of $40 headphones
I love your grqphs & the little moving dot to follow along plus you're interacting with the graphs a lot more. Easier to follow along & i think it's a nice touch.
Hey Linus, console gamer here, the reason why they sale so well is because they're convenient, a lot of console gamers are children so when they ask for some headphones from their parents, parents usually go for something plentiful, cheap, looks decent and has a mic it also explains why the cable is so short because most console gamers have their controller close to their head, they sell well because turtle beach is a well known brand and there is a lot more console gamers than PC gamers
(Also I'm the 6.9k like)
Nice....
Also yeah that was my thought. A mixture of social media "Influencers" who probably have a deal with Turtle beach and a really fucked economy/kids being the main demographic, they're going to sell WAY EASIER because of that incredibly low price tag.
I know a guy who mostly plays PC now but refuses to give up his weird 10 year old TurtleBeach headset (From when we played on Xbox) and make the move like the rest of us did to a condenser USB mic and a really good pair of headphones, My man sounds like he's living in 2011 with that trash mic, but I guess if you're just so used to something and shown how "amazing it is" (headsets were rarer back then and being able to clearly hear audio compared to TV speakers is a massive step up, but it'd also be a massive step up to buy an incredibly pair of headphones like the Tygr 300's where you can literally pinpoint sound locations from how wide of a soundstage they are.
It's because the average person doesn't use their brain when they shop. They grab what's cheap and available. This is especially true when it comes to parents buying for their children.
@@danmac6185
The thing is, there are "cheap and available" headsets that sound a lot better.
@@LRon-Hoyabembe Yeah I'd even argue that people with expensive setups are more often than not, not using their brains. Source? Myself with my SONOS setup. lol
Sell*
loved the mic comparison segment
That beach intro needs a hard bright light (like the sun) instead of a soft light
I don't think they sell the sun on amazon. Maybe linus's connections know someone who can provide it
@ I was saying they needed a hard light (like how sunlight looks), not referring to purchasing the actual super hot ball of hydrogen and helium burning at thousands of degrees in space
His new TV could do the job
I think a simple grade, lightwrap + sky replacement would do the trick
@ imma be honest, I’ve got zero clue what that is.
Had my Turtle Beach Recon 70 for five years now, bought them for only 20€. Only thing I needed to switch were the pads due to the "leather" disintegrating. Love mine due to the amazingly accurate sound localisation, useful in most PvP games.
I had 3 cheap Turtle Beaches back in the PS3 days and they all broke within a year, the ear cups would just snap off at the hinge or the speaker would stop working. However the microphone on them was so good that I ended up just snapping and bending the headband so it would fold on itself and sit on my desk pointed at me. I used the mic for 8+ years.
2:05 My brain thought Recon 50 has a detachable cups along with its colors just like the Nintendo Switch. 😅😅
I bought an Audio Interface for 49€, a XLR Mic for 79€ and "Studio" Headphones for 39€. All of my friends that visit me or hear me on Discord say that I have the best sound of them all. Even my Headphones with 150Ohms sound better than their 200€ Headsets, I just dont get how people are still buying that crappy stuff. I tried a turtle beach headset once, it was around 50€, I sent it back the same day because it was just awful. Never again.
What I use now is:
Headphones: Superlux HD-660 Pro 39€
USB Audio Interface: Behringer U-Phoria UM2 49€
T-Bone SC-450 XLR: 79€
This.
I had a UR22 with an NT1-A, all used.
Eventually upgraded to a Audient ID24 and DT990 Pro headphones.
Great sound all round.
You can even skip the audio interface and buy a usb mic
Samson q2u and a pair of Sennheiser BRNC with the cable.
For the Yankees: 49€ ~ $53| 79€ ~ $85| 39€ ~ $42
For the Canucks: 49€ ~ $74| 79€ ~ $119| 39€ ~ $59
I got a FIFINE 670 paired with 7hz Zero in-ears and work great for me.
3:18 Marble Blast Gold!? Definitely not a game I ever expected to see on this channel...
I had to find someone else who noticed! One of my all time favorites!
Definitely a favourite!
Chad move
Super detailed video, as always! The comparison felt like a journey through sounds and creaky plastics. Turtle Beach should take notes from your feedback for their next headset! Great job!
I had a pair of PX21s that lasted me from 13 years old to 23, with nearly daily use on both PS3 and then a gaming laptop at university. They were still operational when I upgraded to a new headset when I bought a desktop PC. The new headset had a terrible mic, so I snapped the right earpiece off of my PX21's, sat it on the left earpiece and tilted the mic up to use as a makeshift desk mic. Worked until I got signed to PWR and got free peripherals and eventually threw them out 12 years after they were bought. Sound quality was not great but they were cheap and essentially indestructible. I'll never have a bad word to say about TurtleBeach.
I recently went through buying a gaming headset and was honestly surprised by how terrible a lot of them are. Granted, I was coming off of using my podcast mic with an interface and studio headphones, but I genuinely didn't think it'd be that hard to get a decent headset for around a hundred bucks.
Ended up grabbing a pair of ATH-M50 headphones from my shelf (a Christmas gift from a boss several years ago) and replacing the earmuffs with softer ones, then bought a V-MODA Boom Mic to plug into it. The audio quality isn't great and I do run voicemeter on my PC to EQ it a bit/add a much needed noise gate due to audio bleed, but that only cost me like $40 in new parts. I guess what I'm trying to say is that sometimes the best budget headset is the one you can make at home lol. At the very least, it beats having to constantly plug and unplug my interface whenever I wanna game with friends vs get some work done on my work computer.
Linus doing a turtle voice wasn't something I thought I needed to hear until I did
I still remember back in the day playing CoD with kids from high school. You couldn't hear anything compared to what the guys using Turtle Beach headsets could. It was mind blowing the first time I put a set of them on and played a match. I ended up buying a pair of my own, and they lasted about 10 years before I let my cousin borrow them, and he broke them
mustve been your first time using any kind of headset ever
@@owlic227 They have to be trolling.
@@owlic227 We were fucking 15 in high school. What part of that did you not understand? Hell, kids had them in middle school too. Sorry I'm older than you?
@@SL1PSTAR We were fucking 15 in high school. What part of that did you not understand? Hell, kids had them in middle school too. Sorry I'm older than you?
I am guessing they had much better quality then?
3:18 seeing Marble Blast Gold in the wild is crazy. W Linus
Yeah I wonder who coded that
9:23 Not to mention their excelent customer support. I once snapped my jack on the Hyper X Clouds and they just straight up sent me another unit, no questions asked just had to sent them a photo to show that it was actually physically broken. Fixed the broken unit afterwards and had 2 Clouds to use!
@@xadek821 i’m abt to do this to get a new pair LOL
Before I pivoted jobs I was a manager in retail for a number of years. The company I worked for sold hundreds of thousands of these a year. Why? Because parents buy the cheapest shit for their kids, yes there are cheaper, but these aren't that expensive and make them feel like they got a "good one" (also they don't understand the difference between cheap tack like this and one that's £100-£200. Plus it's kids. They break shit.
0:27 i do NOT like the way that turtle is looking at me 🐢 👁️ 😱 ❌
Boutta start sticking plastic straws in the ocean again
It knows what you did
This is why I like Linus. Writer: "Hey Linus, we are going to put you in a sea turtle costume for the next shoot." Linus - "okay, sounds good."
That is possible, or being a goofy dad, he might have suggested it.
He probably came up with it
@@seancoyote either way, it's good.
Love the intro, Linus. I've been running out of foreplay ideas with the missus.
I bought Dareu EH722s back in the 2020 for the same price, and still rocking it till today. The Build quality is Wayy solid than Recon, it has thick cable, a big ahh cussion and rigid body.
HOLY SHIT AN AUDIO GRAPH I CAN UNDERSTAND
9:22 wtf is with that audio
I believe they are using AI so that Linus doesn't have to do a retake after the video is done and is being edited, I there were a few clear examples in a recent video
@@AnberyeThis sounds more like a cut audio clip, they wanted only a certain part from an audio clip, but cutting mid sentence can be difficult and result in stuff like this
I would agree that it could be post-production correction which should be documented in their workflow. No big deal to me, and I didn't notice it that much listening on an iphone.
My recommendation is to buy an open-back headphone. They may lack some bass, but with a decent amplifier, they sound fantastic. I recommend the Sennheiser 560s; they can be quite affordable when they're on sale. Just make sure your motherboard has enough power to drive them. If it doesn't, consider getting a good quality, inexpensive DAC. Peace!
Edit - I did not know the budget was so tight 560s cost 150ish on sale
Then I recommend samson sr 850 which will cost 30-40 dollars
They are excellent too
They lack a mic though
I use my phone as a wireless mic
For a gaming headset? Hmm
@@Ghost-pb4ts Weird lol
“If you’re not happy with Walmart gaming headsets, I recommend a $180 pair of headphones with a $40 DAC 👍”
@@dirrologyI use them. I have the M50x, DT 770, and the 560s. The 560s are awesome for gaming. No closed-back headphone can match the open-back soundstage. Take my word; you won't be disappointed.
Had my recon 50s for 4 years and still going strong. However, I use an external mic and cable length is a shame.
@9:20 -- I still have my Cloud II headset, because (at the time) everyone agreed that they had reasonably good audio and I wanted a headset mic. So far, included USB DAC died after 5 years, mic after 6 - but aside from a $3 AUX cable replacement 2 years ago, headphones themselves still work just fine.
"Save those $15 on our sponsor"
Sponsor is a $2500 projector
"Check if the extra money ($15) on a small upgrade or maybe on our sponsor"
sponsor: $2500 bundle
yeah....
so disapointed that the intro didnt have a quote
Yeah, where's the subtitle? Seems a pretty odd thing to bring the intro back, but not the fun little subtitles.
I had both the TB PX21 and PX22, which were actually incredibly good value (ok sound & comfort, excellent mic (better than on the Recon P50), passable build quality, and most of all extensive controls on the cable thanks to an integrated sound card (USB + audio jack), which let you separate the tracks for mic, chat sound (through USB) and game sound, which means separate volume controls on the fly, bass/treble adjustment and mute
as a not so proud owner of the recon 70’s, watching this video on the headphones brought back some suppressed memories. like for starters, I remember the volume on them always being way to quiet and the volume nob not even working. on top of that, my pair only had what felt like a millimeter of foam on them, they were so bad in fact that at times I resorted to calling the people I played with on my phone rather than use the uncomfortable things.
This headset is made for children to use on the phone and is cheap so parents can afford them and thats why they sell so much of them and there arent many alternatives on the market.
You were spitting facts until the very last part.
Cheap headphones, whether targeted at children or not, are in no short supply and variety.
It's just as far as amazon listings, there's always that one stand out product that snowballed into being a best seller despite not having anything special about it.
these are for the rich kids though, turtle beach is very expensive for child headphones
Am I out of touch or is 25 dollars for headphones for children really not expensive?
@@Verchiel_ There are lots of cheap headphones yes but there arent many that have a mic and use only one 3.5mm combo so you use it on your phone/tablet. recently i had to buy exactly that type of headset for my nephew i was looking at a lot of options and most of them use either usb or two separate 3.5mm. so i know why ppl buy these they just see lots of reviews and can be used by their kids and they are cheap so its a no-brainer.
@sanitygone-l9y i mean maybe its because im from a very poor area
But yeah kids usually get the like dollarstore onee
Creaky and squeaky just like me 2:35
I'd much rather go my route. Sennheiser 599's and a blue snowball. For $50 more you will have an exceptional experience and a pair of headphones that hit way above their price range.
The big issue is the mic. I want to say that the majority of console gamers play on their couch, only a small number actually play on a desk. Where would they put the mic? Lean it awkwardly somewhere?
Plus not many gamers actually know how to position a mic effectively to get any better a sound than a cheap headset mic. That's where most of the complaints about Blue mics come from - people who sit a few feet away from the mic in un-dampened rooms or put their mic next to their loud PC or keyboard, not knowing that condenser mics are very good at picking up background noise. All condenser mics react the same, from $20 to $20k but the people buying _them_ tend to know what they're doing, while the target audience for a Blue tends not to. And, most console gamers would prefer the simplicity of having 1 cable to plug into their controller.
Although, to be fair, you could pick up some Samson SR850s or the like, and a cheap Fifine USB mic (with a headphone out port) and still have most of the sound quality as a quality setup at a very similar price and convenience to a headset.
Did I see Marble Blast Gold in this video??? Insane nostalgia right there.
My cloud x are 5 yrs old and beat to shit but work like new including the mic. Also have a USB adapter that can be used with other headsets
Because most people don't know crap about audio stuff. Saved y'all 10 minutes.
Most people who know about audio aren’t buying $25 headphones. At that price point both of these are completely adequate and functionally serve their purpose.
Want better, pay more.
@@ablet85not necessarily. Samson SR850 exists often at $25-35. Now chuck in a $20-$25 cheapo USB mic and Average Gamer Joe has a pretty banger audio setup for $45-$60 *¯\_(ツ)_/¯*
@@ablet85 Buy the moondrop chu's for 30 dollars and you have a audio setup better than 99% of gaming headphones.
The cheaper headset has a much better mic, therefore better.
@@Dead_Goat The cheaper headset has worse sound quality, therefore worse.
Did they already have that turtle costume lying around, or especially procure it for this video filming?
On FP, Adam says they got it from Spirit Halloween
2:58 tactical reload
As someone who had a pair of Turtle Beach headphones when I was a kid, I pretty much agree with what the other comments are saying- they're better than your average "casual" headphones while still being cheap enough for parents to justify being able to get them as a Christmas or birthday present for their gamer kids. Even "entry level" audiophile headphones such as Sennheisers can start in the 100s of dollars and more famous brands such as Beats are making you pay for the name, so being able to get a headset that works much better than cheapo brands for only $25-50 is a steal for people on a tight budget.
Hi from the UK, I currently use the turtlebeach stealth 600 gen 3. The sound quality is really good with good bass and are very comfortable. The noise cancellation is really good too, so you can still have a mid game snack (crisps) and the people who I talk to in game can't hear rustling. I really do suggest you review the 600 gen 3 so I can see your opinion on them.
I never feel comfortable spending under $80 on a gaming headset
I don't feel comfortable buying anything with the word "gaming" written on it.
$35 headset? Check. Get the SR850.
$25 good USB mic? Check. Something like a FIFINE.
@@Alias_Anybody well, "gaming" meaning it works with game consoles and supports stereo positional audio.
My 20$ in ear monitors are miles better than every single pair of consumer headphones I have ever used. If you are on a tight budget, IEMs are the way to go.
Good budget headphones do exist. Example: Superlux HD681
So true
Ye IEMs are amazing for value but i grabbed a pair of openback sennheiers (hd 599sd for 80 bucks during a sale) finally so i could have better headphones for discord and having a better, wider soundstage was amazing for some games. The kind where you turn around because you thought the sound was irl
my head also isnt being clamped by a cheap headset. Cheap iems are the way
@Jzwiz nice! I got AKG K702's open-box discount for 79$ and they're absolutely incredible.
Alot of people don't have experience with expensive product. So, if a 30 dollar product is even slightly better than their 20 dollar one, they are happy.
That's really sad when the Samson SR850 exists for $50 (objectively better than most competing $100 cans too) and often on-sale for just $25-$35.
That paired with any cheapo $20 USB external mic along with it and you've beat out Turtle Beach by miles! 😁🎧😎
This is why I don’t game with the poor.
8:52 teams and discord have this setting 'Automatically adjust mic sensitivity'
which does it for you
Lol i've had a Turtle beach headset for 14 years before i replaced it in 2019. It has a great microphone however over the years the wires broke a few times which i REPAIRED instead of just trashing it away. The board's base system seems to have fried as i can only hear high frequency sound from it now.
I've never been wiling to replace them because for ~$110CAD it had a very very good microphone for it's time.
I love the data there lab can produce, but on the headphone response curve we should apply psychoacoustic smoothing to see what our 'ears hear' vs what a measurement microphone can detect. Would give a more true to life representation to what a user can expect to hear.
Keep the amazing data coming!
as a ex-owner of the recon 70, it lasted me 3 years of gaming use (small hits around once a week). when it did break it was one of the ear speakers giving out and not any of the plastic breaking. I also got it for just £18 when it was on sale. definitely recommend if you cant afford more!
I bought a couple gaming headsets, not this one, since I'm out of that phase and I need to say, going for studio headphones and buying a mic seperately was the best decision. Granted it still cost quite a bit depending on what you get, but in the long run it will pay off if you use both quite a lot. It also depends if you want or have the time for setting the studio headphones up correctly, maybe it needs an amp to even power, which also costs more as well as maybe needing software to EQ everything to your liking.
All in all, I'm way happier with my setup now instead of going with a gaming headset.
My setup contains of the Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro (80 Ohm version) headphones, a FiiO E10k DAC & amp for the headphones (otherwise they barely work) and the HyperX Quadcast for a mic, for those who might wanted to know.
My very first gaming headset was a Turtle Beach Stealth. I got it because it was the only one that was comfortable to wear with glasses. After about 7 years of daily use the mic began to cut out sometimes (probably because of the flip to mute) but the headphone part still works almost a decade later.
I had a Turtle Beach X12 headset many years ago, bought them for £1 at a flea market. They were cheap, basic, looked like trash but they outlasted several other headsets over the years, sounded great and were super comfy for long gaming sessions. I haven't tried any other Turtle Beach ones for comparison, but they were amazing, and survived full days of Zoom calls throughout the full covid lockdown period. I've still got them somewhere as a spare set.
Currently rocking a Corsair Virtuoso SE at the moment which I love in almost every way - except how sweaty and hot my ears get in them. Super comfy, just very moist 😂
I don't know if anyone has said this but the short cable is because a lot of people plug them into the controller, so a short cable gives less cord to worry about getting tangled in.
I have the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 MAX headsets. I love them, not only are they great for people with glasses, but you can use them for not just an Xbox. They come with a USB stick that acts like the Bluetooth middleman between the headset & the console. There's a switch on the side, one way for Xbox use, the other way for both Nintendo Switch & Laptop use.
For years I've been using their Recon Chat Headset. Only one earcup (a good thing, I don't like headsets with two and don't have game audio in my headset), 3.5mm jack, nondetachable mic, but for 15 bucks it works more than well enough for gaming with the boys. I've actually used it for phone calls more than a few times as well.
Usually, I'm nearly always pleased with the quality of LTT reviews, but on this one, I wished there was more technical comparison with similar headsets. There was recommandations, but I feel this doesn't adequately represents them to the un-initiated (for example the bass dip is very common on cheap headsets and it would've been nice to compare it, to see if, for their price, they are still a better/good option compared to others, cuz most people literally won't budge on price and will most likely get a cheap headset whatsoever). The rest of the video is nice, and it's cool to see headset reviews on the main channel.
I bought something similar to the 70, but it was for both ps4 and Xbox, it has an adjustable mic volume as well. Unfortunately when I came back from school one day, my cat had torn them up pretty good, but I was surprised to find that within the cord there were strings to help with the longevity. I was still so happy with those headphones that I bought a new pair that night. Those ones were bass boosted as well, and I have since bought the logi g435 and have found that I still much prefer my turtle beach headset.
I bought the 50 for my son to replace his Razors when they died. They were slightly more than $25 at the time, though... and they also came with a splitter. He said they sounded awful and immediately requested the 70. Got those and kept the 50 around as an emergency backup, learned a lesson that cheaping out can cost more in the long run.
I couldn't even tell you the model number but 7+ years ago I had a turtle beach with separate volume sliders for voice apps and the regular desktop.
It worked *flawlessly* so I could adjust Discord and my game volumes independently with physical wheels.
It was great and the fact that no other turtle beach headphones have this feature anymore means I never buy them.
I have been using the same nubwo chinese headset from amazon for $12 on sale with free shipping for like 10 years. For the value it is king, however the pleather is falling apart but still works astoundingly.
my theory about the positive reviews about sound and mic quality is that a lot of people going for these doesn't have any experience with better sounding headsets. if you are coming from some super cheap earbuds they are gonna sound great to your ears, but if you have experienced better sound quality its extremely hard to go back.
i feel this is repeated across a lot of different stuff, i.e. if you only ever have played on a 60hz display, it will feel great, but once you have experienced higher refresh rate going back is going to be rough.
I had the 700 Gen 2, lasted me years before the right ear cup was degrading (but still usable), but the real killer was finally the overhead frame on the left side snapped, it's metal, but the housing it sits in on either side is plastic and one side broke. It was a good headset. Now the Gen 3 is out of coming out, thinking of getting it.
I use a JBL Quantum 100, they're like 20 bucks, a lot similar to the 50s mentioned here.
A pair of headphones like the Recon 50 should be illegal. We seriously should have bills around the world preventing this manufactured e-waste from existing or leaving the factory's ground. Don't have the money to buy a more expensive pair? Too bad. Safe up until you can buy something that lasts. I've learned this the hard way over and over and over.
I got some PX24s in 2017, they got thrashed for 3 years, then infrequent use (3hrs a day, 4days/wk) for a couple more. Sound was pretty good depending on application, and mic was ok. Comfort-wise they are good for a couple/few hours, then get irritating, but I hate wearing any headsets/earmuffs for more than 10 minutes. I have a particular talent for wrecking stuff. Mine are still almost as good as when I bought them.
I have the Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen2 Max. I like them, though I don’t use them often. Because I use the PS5, I usually just stick with the chat feature through the controller. But sometimes I can’t hear my teammates because the volume on the controller is so low. So that’s when the TBs get pulled out. As for the TBs, I literally have no complaints. They were originally priced at $119.99, but got them on Clearance at Walmart for $49.99.
The thing I think tech enthusiasts probably often forget is that 'normal' people really don't care about audio quality, as long as it isn't painfully bad. They listen to low bitrate music through tinny phone speakers, they've probably never used a really good set of studio headphones and have no frame of reference. They're the same people who will use motion smoothing on a TV and the built-in speakers, because that's good enough
We know differently and buy accordingly of course, but they outnumber us massively. Hell even if I was an audiophile, something like this could be a decent buy for a kid even if I wouldn't touch them if my life depended on it, odds are they're just going to break something that costs actual money after all
PSA: as someone who has ONLY used Astro A40's since 2007. and use to shit talk about TB. i now have TB Stealth Pro's. i tested all the "best" headsets out there. and returned them all and kept the TBSP. they do everything. they are the best all rounder and can be tuned perfectly to HK curve etc. new A50x suck. Maxwell dont have simultaneous BT. Acezone are creaky. Razer sound like shit. etc. i highly reccomened TBSP to everyone. and i NEVER thought those words would come out of my mouth. as a hardcore Astro fan since Gen1
OG A40s were legit. I still have mine and still work.
I had a PX21 over 10 years ago and it lasted for about 4 years with pretty good audio quality mic and headphone wise. I preferred the usb interface at the time because I didn't have a mic port and the in line controls on that were perfect
Especially the Recon 50s just feel like "your first headset" when you are a kid. They are probably fine for that. Heck, my first gaming headset in 2011 was a Turtle Beach.
My main headset is a higher end Turtle Beach pair, the Stealth 700 Max gen 2, and I'm quite fond of both them and the other set of a different model I had prior. The sound is good, they feel comfortable on my head, the 2.4 ghz wireless is solid in most of my house with a microphone that doesn't sound like crap, plus I can simultaneously have them connected to bluetooth and get input from both sources at once (great for being a voice call on my computer while looking at something with audio on my phone). My only complaint was that my pair (which I bought preowned) was creaky when I got it, but nothing a bit of WD-40 couldn't fix (I used the stuff with silicone in and a very small amount carefully applied)
I have two turtle beach headsets. My first set was a stealth 400. It was my ps4 headset, and when i got a pc, i figured I'd try it out, and it was a great headset on pc. I ended up getting an xbox stealth 500, brand new in box from ebay because after 8 years the 400s were getting some connection issues. I love my 500s. Crystal clear mic according to my friends, and i like the sound profile. I especially like that it has two inputs. I can have my discord going to one, and my game going to the other, and without macros or anything, adjust the sound on the headset for each
Pretty sure I have the Recon70 I recognise the shape but it's been a while since I bought them, owned them for over 5 years now and haven't broke or been damaged since, yeah the fake leather has since pealed off but it doesn't ruin the comfort or its usability, infact with or without the fake leather wouldn't be much of a difference.
I have had my Audio-Technica ATH-M50x since 2018. The only thing that sucks about them is the earmuffs need to be replaced every 2 to 3 years. The pho leather deteriorates and starts flacking off after a few years but they’re easily replaceable. For my microphone, I use a blue yeti.
The turtle beach atlas air has the worst headband adjustment ever designed and if you adjust it too tight the glue will actually separate from the headset entirely leaving you with no tension at all. So it's always loose, you cannot tighten it. The sound quality on the earcups is great, but the microphone is WHISPER QUIET, and the noise gate is so extreme even when turned "off" that it will drop half your words. The volume adjustment knob adjusts 10 at a time, so you can go from quiet to blaring in one notch, and while it CLAIMS to have 3mm support, it absolutely doesnt work for both the headphones and the mic simultaneously, so you're stuck with the wireless, which randomly drops every hour or so for about a minute at a time.
The fact that you mentioned the G435 Headset (which I've been using and loving sm) made me blush like no way from all the headphones Linus chose these.
2 years in using them and was suddenly dissapointed by my TurtleBeach Stealth 700 Gen. 2. The audio quality was decent and I was pleased by the long-lasting battery, however the plastic started cracking and the mic no longer stays up due to internal cracking of the plastic mechanism (I opened them when I replaced the faux-leather ear-pads, which also started to fall apart)
3:18 I love seeing Marble Blast Gold. That game was my childhood
I have a pair of Turtle Beach XO Seven Pro headphones for my Xbox, their pretty good all around. Probably 10yrs old by now.
I also have a pair of Logi (Logitech) G533 wireless headphones for my PC Desktop. Both are good, the G533 alows me to customize the EQ per game profile, earcup light color and there is volume control on the headset, auto mute (mic flip) and a gaming button, I used to set to auto away status in TS3. Battery life is decent about 16 hours. Which should be ideal for most people. If not, usb cable will keep you running for days! 😂
I also had a pair of "True" 5.1 with I believe 7.1 virtual sound. Weighed a ton and required a 5.1 or higher sound card to connect all the cables that didn't match the color of their inputs.
I can't remember who made the last headset, I think it might of been Creative Labs/Sound Blaster or Logitech.
I've had my AT M40x for a while (so long, I've forgotten exactly when I bought them but easily 4+ years ago) and they still work perfectly, only thing I've noticed is the leather (leatherette? pleather?) of the headband and earcups is starting to show some cracking (more like deep creases on the way to cracks but you get the idea)
Hey Linus, just watched your vid on sunnyv2 and wanted to just say youre doing awesome and if you ever feel overwhelmed, take a break!
Bought a pair of 70s. They snapped at the slide adjustment within 2 weeks. Got a free replacement 3 weeks snapped again.. Got a third free. A month snapped again. Sound good. But they’re so fragile it’s crazy. No more turtle beach. Astro does the job as they have for 15 years. But to each their own. Just wanted to share my horrible experience with build quality with the 70s. And yes I still got all 3 pairs. They’re ducktaped. Work. But not adjustable anymore lol