Turtle Beach Ear Force Z6A Review

Overview

 

Although Turtle Beach have been a large player on the FPS gaming scene for some time, I must admit this is the first time I will be using one of their products. What we have here is the Turtle Beach Ear Force Z6A, a ‘Gaming Headset with Multiple Speaker 5.1 Surround Sound’, that’s 4 individual speakers per ear-cup!. The headset comes in a well packaged retail box with the front showing the headset and in-line control box. The rear of the box provides details of the main features of the headset.

 

 

Inside the box you will find the headset, In-line control box, 5.1 channel cable splitter and documentation pack. The documentation pack contains a Quick Start Guide, a ‘Stop’ product support note and a Turtle Beach sticker.

 

 

The headset can also be used with an XBOX but an additional cable needs to be purchased separately.

At the time of the review the Turtle Beach Ear Force Z6A is retailing for approximately £80.

 

Specifications / Features

courtesy of Tutle Beach

Front Channel Speakers

• 30mm diameter speakers with neodymium magnet
• Angled design for better 3D audio perception
• Speaker Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20kHz, >120dB SPL+3dB/mW
• Cable length: 11.4 ft. (3.47m)

Surround Channel Speakers

• 30mm diameter speakers with neodymium magnet
• Angled design for better 3D audio perception
• Speaker Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20kHz, >120dB SPL+3dB/mW

Center Channel Speakers

• 30mm diameter speakers with neodymium magnet
• Speaker Frequency Response: 80Hz – 16kHz, >110dB SPL+3dB/mW

Subwoofer Channel Speakers

• 40mm diameter with high-impact magneto-resonant vibration coil
• Speaker Frequency Response:20Hz – 500Hz
• Condenser Microphone Frequency Response: 50Hz – 15kHz

Surround Sound Amplifier

• Includes 6 independent amplifiers
• Frequency response Sub Channel: 20Hz – 200Hz
• Frequency response (Front, Surround and Center channels): 20Hz – 20kHz
• Amplifier power (all 8 channels): >100mW rms @ THD <1%
• 3.5mm stereo line input jacks x 3 (Front, Surround, Center/Sub)
• 3.5mm microphone jack
• Maximum analog input level with volume control on maximum setting: 2Vpp (700mV rms)
• 2.5mm XBOX 360 controller input jack
• Quick disconnect for easily removing the headset from the amplifier
• Dimensions: Height 0.8 in (2.0cm), Width 3.9 in (9.8cm), Depth 1.5 in (3.9cm)

Package Dimensions

• 10.25 x 8.875 x 4.1875 (inches)

* Further information can be found here

 

First Impressions

 

The Turtle Beach Ear Force Z6A looks rather large in comparison to my current headset a Speedlink Medusa 5.1 NX, but it’s actually lighter than expected! The headset weights 360 grams compared to the Medusa’s weight of 370 grams. The headband has a thin 1/2cm full foam insert and as this covers the whole of the headband I am unable to ascertain what the headband is made of. But from the weight of the headset and the flexibility of the headband I suspect it’s made of metal (Spring Steel?) rather than plastic. The headset’s ear-cups are attached to the headset by a plastic arm which allows them to rotate both horizontally and vertically thus ensuring a god fit to the wearers head.

 

 

The in-line control box has the standard 5.1 connectors and also includes a USB connector for providing power to the headset. A rotary on-off volume switch is positioned at the end of the in-line control box near the wire leading to the headset. The control box also includes 4 individual wheel controls supporting sound adjustment of the the following speakers.

• Front
• Center
• Surround
• Subwoofer

The in-line control box also features a microphone on/mute switch which changes the indicator LED to either red or green to indicate if the microphone is muted (red). Turtle Beach have also included a Velcro wire clip for keeping the wire tidy.

The headset connects to the control box via the in line connector which looks well manufactured and should provide years of service.

 

 

The headsets microphone is mounted on a plastic boom which is attached to the left ear-cup and from an initial inspection it looks sufficiently long enough to position the microphone to the left side of my mouth.

 

 

Testing Methodology/Setup

 

The Turtle Beach Ear Force Z6A headset will be tested using my rig running windows 7 64bit (service pack 1) with all relevant drivers installed.

The following games / applications will be used to test the headset.

Battlefield 3
Mass Effect 2
Media Player 11 – Music

 

Hardware Installation

 

The in-line control box’s four 3.5mm plugs and single USB plug replaced my existing headset’s connectors on a one for one basis. The headset connected to the in-line control box via the in-line connector and once the control box was switched on sound was heard from my rig.

 

Hardware Performance

 

I have tested this headset over the last 10 days and have to say how happy I have been with its performance. As with everything there are two sides to every story so read on to see what are the highs and lows are…

 

Headset Comfort

The Turtle Beach Ear Force Z6A ear pads are made of foam covered in a black mesh material. At first the foam was fairly stiff with very little give, but over time it has become soft and more comfortable to wear. The foam is just over a centimetre in width which allows heat to escape during long use.

The thin foam band under the headband is perhaps this headsets main weakness. During the first few days of the test I never noticed any issues, but more recently I had my hair cut and for the first couple of days with far less hair (I have my hair cut short!) the headband became more noticeable after about an hours wear. It isn’t a big problem and is getting less of an issue as my hair grows back again, but it is something which could easily be solved by providing a somewhat thicker foam insert.

Overall though and over several long gaming sessions I can report that I didn’t experience any discomfort, other than the thin headband (noted above), with wearing the Turtle Beach Earforce Z6A headset.

 

Microphone

The Microphones plastic boom was easy to bend and get into the optimum position (for me). In fact I wish all manufacturers would look at how this boom is made. From my initial inspection it looks like the boom is made up of approximately 40 links which can be moved independently. Once positioned the microphone stays in exactly the same position, not like some of these bendy mics that move over time!

 

 

The headset comes with an always on ‘microphone monitor’ which allows you to hear what you are saying. This works effectively and for the majority of the time prevented me from shouting into the microphone during intense fire fights in Battlefield 3. The always on aspect of the microphone monitor is due to the fact that there appears to be no way of disabling it!

The microphone’s mute switch is a definite requirement if like me you have a tendency to move the microphone into the up position when listening to music as the microphone monitor will pick up sounds from other objects! In my example this was fan noise from my gaming rig which is situated at desk hight about 1m from my position.

Reports from fellow team members, via Ventrillo have been complementary in that my voice is clear and consistent.

 

In-Line Amplifier Control Box / Cable Connector

The rotary on-off volume switch allows fine control over the volume of the headset which can be useful when changing between applications that have different sound settings.

After about 10 minutes of messing with the 5.1 channel (Front, Centre, Rear, Sub) levels I had setup the sound to my personal preference both in game and when listening to music. My only real complaint is that there is no calibration marks or numbers on the wheels. What I would like to do is know the positions of the wheels so that if they are accidently changed (or even deliberately) I can put them back to the desired position easily. Where as without the ability to record this I have to go through another volume/sound set-up process again!

The in-line connector is an option that I think other manufactures should look to include with any wired headset. This allows you to disconnect the headset from your gaming rig without having the trouble of unplugging all the cables. It also allows you to keep the cable untangled as you can unplug the headset and let the cable straighten itself before reconnecting, something which has always caused me grief with my current headset after a few weeks of gaming. The reconnecting of the headset to the in-line amplification control box is excellent. Even with music playing there is no distortion. One second there is silence the next music / sound can be heard.

On the back of the control box is a plastic belt clip.

 

 

The belt clip measures 4.5 centimeters in length, 1 centimeter width and is 2 millimeters thick. Although I didn’t test this, from my initial inspection I don’t think it would last very long if you were clipping and un-clipping the control box from a belt on a regular basis!

In reviewing the Turtle Beach Ear Force Z6A the inclusion of the belt clip on the control box looks to be a reasonable idea (assuming the plastic clip doesn’t break after a few uses), but when you take into consideration the position of the cable connector in relation to the control box I have to wonder what thoughts were going through the minds of the designers. Let me explain.

The inline cable connector is positioned 55 centimeters from the headset. The control box is a further 15 centimetres after the connector, making the control box a total of 70 centimeters from the headset (personally I think this is too short).

So what use is the belt clip?

If the cable connector was the other side of the control box then you could leave the box clipped to you belt and detach the headset via the connector etc In this instance if you use the belt clip and un-connect the headset via the cable connector you are still attached to your gaming rig by having the control box attached to your belt!? I must admit to being slightly perplexed by this set-up. I suspect the cable connector has to be positioned between the headset and the control box to allow it to suppress any unwanted noise/distortion when attaching/detaching the headset. In my mind this design makes the belt clip redundant.

 

Sound Quality

The overall sound quality of the headset is excellent. The depth of sound is rich whether listening to music or being shot in mid battle! It is worth noting that you should go through the initial volume/sound set-up process to adjust the sound to your own preference.

The surround sound element of the headset was tested mainly in Battlefield 3 and the Turtle Beach Ear Force Z6A allowed me to accurately determine where vehicles were approaching from and more importantly where I was being shot at from. The sound of jets, helicopters and tanks shells passing over head was crisp and clear.

The headset will clip sound if you have the overall volume too loud, but this is easily corrected by reducing the volume control on the control box. So if you like your headset to be super loud this may not be the headset for you…

 

Final Thoughts

 

I have spent the last few days trying to think of what else I can say about the sound quality of the Turtle Beach Ear Force Z6A headset and have come to the conclusion that the first two sentences in the Sound Quality section of the hardware performance say everything I want to say. The sound quality is excellent and the headset provides a rich deep sound whether in game or listening to music.

Other positives include the microphone boom, this is probably one of the best I have ever used for stability and keeping the microphone where it belongs. I also like the idea of the microphone monitor, this works well until battle becomes really frantic and you still find yourself shouting into the microphone anyway!

The only negative issues I found while reviewing the Turtle Beach Ear Force Z6A are admittedly minor, but worth repeating as they will have a negative, albiet minor effect on the Design/Quality score.

• Thin foam headband
• No calibration marks on the channel volume controls on the control box
• The design flaw of the inclusion of the belt clip (?)

Overall I have been very impressed with the Turtle Beach Ear Force Z6A and suspect they will now replace my trusty Speedlink Medusa 5.1 NX headset.

 

Verdict