Tritton and Microsoft have teamed up to finally give us a series of officially licenced headsets to shout about. There are four headsets that Microsoft and Tritton have released together – Warhead, Primer, Detonator and Tritton Trigger – Warhead and Primer are wireless whereas Detonator and Trigger are wired. Prices range from £39.99 – £279.99, quite a large price range so there’s something for everybody in the series. The headset which I had the pleasure of using is the Detonator which retails at £59.99. For that price, well, you are really getting your money’s worth. Let me tell you why.
The Packaging
The Detonator comes displayed in quite a large box so that the ear cups can be completely turned to face potential customers. We are treated to a really nice display of the headset design so you know exactly what you are buying. The front of the package is minimalistic but that is no bad thing. The Xbox logo is right at the top so first time buyers of headsets won’t get caught out and accidently buy a PC only headset or similar. All of the technical information and contents are listed on the back of the packaging in plain English (and other languages). A lot of effort has gone into making sure the customer knows exactly what they are buying.
Appearance
The Detonator looks as good as it sounds (but more on that later). The design is sleek, all black aside from the Tritton logos and the orange interior of the ear cups. The tips of the ear cups are glossy black, the rest of the headset is matte black so you don’t have to worry about finger prints (always a plus) or the headset looking too dirty after use. The Xbox logo isn’t shamelessly showing itself off on the headset, it is humbly placed across the top of the headset with no green in sight, blending in nicely with the rest of the design. The inline controller looks simple making it very easy to use. Any button you press becomes backlit with a white light when in use which is incredibly useful if you have a habit of unknowingly pressing buttons (I know I do). The microphone, which you may remove at any time, looks slick too. You can bend it to any position you like and it still feels incredibly sturdy, there is no fear of breaking this great piece of kit. The mic has a silver top at the end which you speak into giving it an almost futuristic/sci-fi look. A really excellent design. I must say though all the wires included piling up across the floor doesn’t look so fresh, but this is unavoidable and can’t be considered too much of a criticism. The wire length is 14 ft long, so if you play your games in a small room then be prepared to have wires all over the place, however, if you play your games in your living room from your couch then you’ll love the wire length.
Set Up
There are loads of cables included in this package. As well as the headset and mic we have the analogue audio adapter, inline controller and headset connector cable. To people who aren’t familiar with types of cable or this sort of technology I imagine set up would be a little difficult. That is, it would be if we weren’t provided with a handy set up instruction booklet. The booklet provided contains really easy to follow instructions, all of the cables are pictured and clearly labelled just as they should be in any good instruction booklet. Overall I think that people who are a little new to setting up headsets on a console will find set up a little daunting, until they open the instruction booklet and give it a read, after that they should have no trouble at all.
Performance
I’ve used this headset a lot over the past week with several games. The sound quality is brilliant, it adds a whole new layer to the experience, it’s very crisp, bringing the sound to life. Even the background noise in-game sounds smooth. The main game I tested the Detonator on was Left 4 Dead 2, a pretty hectic game at times with lots of odd noises and music going on in the levles. I could easiely pin point the locations of a certain enemy by following the sound. There is a level in which a large downpour of rain begins – this sounded absolutely brilliant, just like been inside on a rainy day (except with more zombies). The sound quality is good when listening to general music too, as the Detonator can be plugged into laptops, MP3 players and some phones and used as just headphones. The cable is a little short though so you’ll need to be close to your laptop or have you mp3 player in your top pocket. As for the mic, L4D2 was also a great game to test the mic quality since it requires a decent amount of communication and teamwork. I play online a lot with my friends and they have constantly complained about the quality of my old headset, they are used to poor quality chats. They –love- the Detonator, perhaps more than I do. They could hear me clearly, even with the mix 10 cm from my face they could hear me (I’ve had headsets in the past where the mic had to be almost touching my face, I’m sure we’ve all been there at some point). As for how well I could hear them, as well as you can expect from a headset of this calibre. The inline controls feature two separate volume controls, one for voice and on for in-game audio which is a really useful feature, it makes it so easy to get the volume levels just perfect. Outside of volume and mic quality I must mention how comfy the Detonator is. It is very well padded around both the headset band and the ear cups. These are circumaural headphones meaning the ear cup actually –do- cup around your ears so nothing is constantly pressed against your ears. This helps stopping the Detonator from getting too uncomfortable and hot around the ears, as well as helping block out any outside noise. I have used the headset a good few hours at a time and everything has felt perfectly fine.
Specs
The main specs listed on the Tritton website are:
- Speaker Diameter: 50mm
- Magnet Type: Neodymium
- Frequency Response: 25Hz-20kHz
- Ear Coupling: Circumaural
I have already covered how the circumaural ear coupling improved the quality of the headset, so I’ll more straight onto the other specs. The Detonator is equipped with neodymium magnets which are lightweight and powerful. Most high-quality speakers use neodymium magnets, this guarantees that the Detonator is certainly above your average headset. The Detonator is also boasting 50mm speakers to complement those magnets, working together to give you some fine high notes, solid bass and overall great in-game audio.
The Round Up
Overall, the Detonator is a really good quality headset. Great sound, great microphone quality and the Detonator doubles as a regular set of headphones. It would be a struggle to find another Xbox 360 headset of the same calibre at such a reasonable price. It is certainly a great investment for any Xbox 360 gamer.
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
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