Hardware Review: Turtle Beach Elite 800 Headset(PS4)

GamesRelated kicks off Turtle Beach week with a review of the Elite 800 for Playstation 4!

Turtle Beach has long been known as the pinnacle of gaming audio. With their vast amount of headsets it’s sometimes difficult to discern the good ones from the great ones, but I am here to tell you that the Elite 800 headset is far and away the best headset I have ever put to my ears.

I found the Elite 800 impressive right from the start. As soon as I opened the box it became obvious that this was going to be something special. The Elite 800 headset includes an audio receiver that doubles as a charging stand. In addition it includes an optical audio cable which takes the best advantage of the 7.1 DTS surrond sound built in to this behemoth. Like most headsets it connects via USB in order to take advantage of the audio settings in the console and to boot the device is packed with a second micro USB cable for upgrading the firmware. finally, an audio male-to-male cable is included just in case gamers want to use the Elite 800 in their home stereo or mobile device. Don’t want to plug in to mobile via audio cables? No problem, the Elite 800 includes bluetooth for the wireless afficiandos.

Some of the features I found immediately impressive were the preset modes which make swapping audio modes a snap if I were watching a movie or listening to music instead of gaming. The headset also features separate game audio and chat volumes which make it super easy to clear up any issues I might have had with hearing my friends during multiplayer matches.

Staying on the topic of game chat, the Elite 800 features built-in dual mics which gives the headset a sleek look and didn’t push breathing or popping sounds across the chat environment.  

Noise cancellation; most headsets have them, but the Elite 800 takes things to the next level. I find a bit of noise with most headsets since I have a ton of ambient noise in the background even with noise cancellation activated, however once I enabled noise cancellation on the Elite 800 the environment became absolutely silent. I could not believe how crystal clear the game audio is.

Onto the meat and potatoes of the Elite 800, the in-game performance. I played a few games while using the headset including Bloodborne, Far Cry 4 and Battlefield 4 (don’t hate me for the last one, but I really like that game). Every one of these titles gave me the same result. The high-end was nicely balanced by the low end bass during explosions. Add to that the surround sound which fades perfectly as I moved left to right across the environment. I’ve used a few different headsets while playing shooters, and using the Elite 800 during Battlefield 4 gave me a whole new experience. I could almost feel where shots were coming from or where enemies were moving to across the map. It was finally the experience I was looking for in a shooter. I also tried out the indie title Ollie Ollie 2 which sounded awesome as compared to the standard audio that emits from my television. 

On a more cosmetic detail, the Elite 800 features swappable plates that allow gamers to customize their headset with their favorite series such as Marvel, Star Wars and even Nintendo!

I found almost no downside to the Elite 800. The only thing I can even think of is that it felt a little heavy after extended gameplay periods.

While some gamers might find the Elite 800 price tag a little steep at $299.99, I find it to be worth every penny. Gamers will find an experience unlike any other and will absolutely exceed the expectations of any gamer. Go buy it, save up for it, do whatever you need to, just get your hands on it.

10/10