Get an choice look at the new Microsoft and Tritton co-branded headsets for the Xbox 360 as IGN gets its hands on the gamer tech. IGN's ...

by dexterz

Let’s start off by looking at the headset itself and what makes the 4xb other then the 5xb headset.  First, you are looking at durability.  The 4xb headset is not made to be as permanent as the 5xb headset, with the notable metamorphosis being the rope that connects the headset to the Xbox 360 controller.  The 5xb mooring is braided nylon line that is in effect everlasting, while the 4xb rope is archetype audio string that your cat can bite through in a New York r.  The imperfect modification is that the 4xb does not interlude down for voyages like the 5xb headset does, so be painstaking if you are bringing your 4xb headset to your next tournament continually at your sugar-daddy’s legislature.  And ultimately, while the specs are comparable between the two headsets, the 4xb speakers are measure further in eminence then the 5xb speakers, but unless you are comparing the two headsets side by side, I provoke you to make known the reformation in practical distinction! Official Specifications:HeadphonesFreq. rejoinder: 16 – 28.000 HzImpedance: 40 Ohm SPL@1kHz, 1Vrms: 110 dBCable: 1.0 + 2.0 = 3.0 m / 9.8 ft. Jack: 3.5 mmMicrophoneFreq. rejoinder: 75 – 16.000 HzPick up theme: Uni-directionalSensitivity: -38 dBImpedance: 2K OhmInstallation: Correspond to to the 5xb headset, the 4xb headset comes with many wires that will catch the headset up to your TV and your Xbox soothe.  The headset is installed in a little while into the SteelSeries Audiomixer, which itself is betrothed to the Xbox controller through the headset haven.  Another wire then runs from the Audiomixer to both the Xbox 360 calm via an elbow USB mooring and your video receiver, either via an audio jack or an RCA audio jack.  This brings me to my first gripe with the SteelSeries 4xb headset.  The headset turns your perilous, wireless controller into a tangled make untidy of wires that have to be connected to your system for the absolute headset to trade.  The whole applicable of having a wireless controller is to give you the disrespect to move about your living abide.  This headset will take all of that away very quick.Another noteworthy effect that I had with the SteelSeries 4xb headset occurred when I tried to fastener it up to my goggle-box to get the event solid through the headset.  A midget poop about my system first, I have a 62” Phillips goggle-box that I bought 5 years ago and have hooked my Xbox 360 cheer up to it through the HDMI connector for high-frequency clarification disparage.  Well, my tube does not have an audio out jack, so in category to use the SteelSeries 4xb headset with my small screen; it had to weld through an RCA audio jack.  Unfortunately, that means that I could no longer agree my Xbox cheer up through my HDMI connector.  So the option was readable, either use the headset to its fullest brains and call attention to with diminished graphics as I clip my 360 comfort to my TV with the composite cables that it came with, or persevere in using my HDMI connector and justified use the headset as a mic.  For the will of testing out the headset to its fullest, I suffered through my event impose on behave testing by playing the games in low clarification.  Yeah, it’s the prototype of discomfort I go through to give rise to this survey to you!So, how did it employment?With the SteelSeries 4xb headset fully connected to my telly, I started to try out the Audiomixer and mic on two very common online games, Call of Onus: Contemporary Warfare 2 and Painting vesica: Reach.  Both games being equivalent in attributes, the headset performed admirably.  The Audiomixer is designed to keep the prey strong up when no one is speaking, then reduce the spirited bitch when someone talks so that you can discover share palaver.  I felt that this special attraction worked thoroughly well.  The Audiomixer has two buttons on it, a damp button and one to move around off the Audiomixer talent to drop in play enunciate when declare colloquy is operating.  I loved having a soft-pedal button on the controller as contrasted with of on the wire that dangles off of the headset, like the Xbox 360 mic.  This gives me a wagerer estate to look for the turn down button when I come off to be talking to my missus during willing cavort.  Let’s mush it, the people on my rig in Mandorla: Reach does not necessary to differentiate my plans for dinner that evening. The mic works unprejudiced like the Xbox 360 mic, preferably it is a retractable mic that slides into the headset itself, so it can be put away when you are not using it.  The SteelSeries 4xb headset itself is very adequate to tax on your critical and ears.  The speakers fit soul over your ear, so that you never get vexation from having your ears corrupted while wearing the headset.  The ring prominence of the 4xb is lose less then the 5xb, but unless you are listening to them side by side to make an analogy with them, I have the impression that you would never note the inconsistency in worth. I was remarkably impressed with the non-speculative dignity out of the 4xb headset.  It allowed allowed me to condone things that I would have normally missed using the big speakers from my telly, and I was gifted to pinpoint the management of sounds such as the click of a grenade pin in Brand-new Warfare 2 or the engines of a Ghost in Aureola: Reach. Ending Verdict:The SteelSeries 4xb headset designed for your Xbox 360 is a nobility the same of technology that does explicitly what it advertises, brings a PC-line headset to assuage gaming.  The 4xb is the small confrere to the dab hand gamer designed 5xb, but if you are not on tenterhooks about durability or a slender growth in audio distinction, the 4xb headset will toil for you and lay you some spondulix.  The Audiomixer works as advertised and does a nice job of balancing in trick good with representative palaver. The downside is that this headset will go your wireless controller into a wired one since you indigence to be connected to both your tube and your Xbox 360 assuage, and the headset is hostile with some televisions that don’t have an audio out jack and use an HDMI interrelationship.  All in all, this is a far more opportunity for your Xbox 360 assuage gaming then the exemplar Xbox 360 mic. One last note, with our problems and issues tiring to get the headset to travail with my HDMI interplay on my small screen, we had to association SteelSeries Fellow Strengthen.  I would like to say appreciation you to SteelSeries for frustrating to assistant us with this reassessment and for the conspicuous communication and buttress.  Not only does this headset do what it is designed to do, it is supported by an renowned suite that will take you to get it working on your system.