Voyetra Turtle Beach - Noise Canceling Headphones
Turtle
Beach has always had an exceptional reputation for providing consumers
with high quality audio products. Their PC audio card designs have been
regarded as some of the best sounding in the industry. More recently,
Turtle Beach has introduced a new set of headphones that offer noise-canceling
technology. These headphones are designed to remove the background noise
often encountered by individuals in their everyday commute such as airplanes,
buses, trains, etc. The best part is this technology is available for
under $50 retail. Those who travel on noisy rapid transit systems will
certainly benefit from the design and performance of this product. The
product uses built-in amplifiers to provide full bandwidth sound. The
package includes an extra pair of ear bud cushion pads, a convenient carry
bag, an airline plug adapter and one "AAA" battery. The compact
design allows the unit to be stored in easily in a shirt pocket. The headphones
come with an 1/8-inch input jack, which is common on today's portable
devices.
Design
These lightweight, foam covered ear buds fit comfortably and while we
are not big fans of typical ear bud designs, they work well. The design
incorporates a tiny microphone on each side ear piece that receives and
processes the incoming background noise and then subtracts the noise that
would normally enter the ear canal. To accomplish this task, the design
has dedicated electronics that run from a single "AAA" battery.
Rather than have to deal with the cheap airline headsets that everyone
else has been wearing, users can use the included airline adapter that
offers the flexibility of running with the in-flight audio system or their
own personal audio unit.
The
small in-line module holds the single "AAA" battery and also
contains the electronics needed to process the audio signals that cancel
background noise. An on/off switch is provided that instantly defeats
the noise canceling circuit. There's also a separate volume control for
the headphones that works regardless of whether the noise canceling circuit
is on or off.
Performance
We did most of our testing using our portable Neuros MP3 player. This
MP3 player provides great sound quality and has worked well for us with
other portable headphone reviews. Audio quality on the Turtle Beach headphones
was typical for an inexpensive product and had only decent audio quality.
Unfortunately, my ears do not lend themselves well to ear buds in general.
I have a difficult time keeping them in place without them falling out
and these were no different. Keeping this in mind, our review might not
be as good as those who have ears that work well with ear buds. The sound
quality certainly improved when the buds were pushed closer to my ear
canals. The noise canceling feature certainly wasn't night and day and
in many cases it was difficult for me to hear a significant difference
using the on/off switch. Turning the volume up would drown out the noise,
but not provide me with what I might expect from a noise canceling system.
On the upside, it did seem to work better on transient noise compared
to constant background noise. All in all it was a decent pair of headphones,
but for $50 you might be better off putting it towards a higher performance
system.
- Kevin Nakano