Unofficial XBox 360 Headsets

Dead Turle Beach X11

My son chewed the cord on my $65 Turtle Beach X11 headset, ruining it. As a result, I went on the hunt for a replacement. Even though the Turtle Beach was a great headset I didn't want to invest in that again, especially if my kid was going to chew on it. As an alternative I tried the official $20 headset, a 2.5mm cell phone headset, and a 2.5mm headset for a cordless landline phone. This has encouraged me to try a few other headsets and here are my experiences so far.

2.5mm Mobile Phone Headset

First, I purchased a 2.5mm cell phone headset (the Body Glove Sport). It worked, sort of, but I wasn't happy with it. I didn't pay a lot of attention to exactly what was wrong, I just noticed it wasn't working well. I figured there was something special about official headsets, so I took it back to try again.

Going Official

Next I found the official XBox 360 headset for just a few dollars more. Slam dunk, I thought, so I picked it up. When I got home I found that the official headset didn't pick up my voice unless I spoke really loud, basically a yell. I went into my settings, hoping to find a volume control, only to find that my voice volume was already all the way up. At the time, I didn't think to try the volume “lower”. Maybe it would reduce the pickup sensativity if the volume was lower? I doubt it, but it's something I should have tried but didn't. So, the official headset had to go back, but what other options did I have?

Phillips SHU3000 Cordless Phone Headset

My next purchase was a Phillips headset (SHU3000) designed for landline cordless phones. It had a 2.5mm plug and looked like a little better quality than the official XBox headset. I had a gift card at the box store from my previous purchase, so I thought I'd give it a try. This headset performs at least as well as the official one and probably a little bit better. I still have to talk a little louder to have the speaker icon appear next to my name but other players seemed to hear me okay. I'll continue trying this one for a few more days. I may even try lowering the volume to see if it improves or gets worse. But, at the very least this headset is a couple bucks cheaper and at least as good as the official headset.

The Philips SHU300 Works on the XBox 360

Generic on Amazon

I've also recently picked up some generic headsets on Amazon and I've been as happy with them as anything else I've tried. Each of these links to an inexpensive set on Amazon.

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unofficial_headsets.txt · Last modified: 2020/06/01 22:53 (external edit)