Locked and loaded! You enter the battlefield with your M16 assault rifle, M9 pistol ready for battle, but wait…what was that noise; a grenade perhaps? The engine roars in front of you while you race the 2014 BMW M4 and you suddenly hear a loud crash behind you. You’re in a maze, its dark with a lit door on the other side of the room. All around you, you begin to hear the walls slowly approach you, closing the box, so it may be time to start running for the door.
These three examples are situations that gamers face throughout popular game titles. Battlefield 4, Need for Speed, or The Stanley Parable are all perfect examples of games that require you to listen to sounds in the surrounding environment.
Some users prefer a full desk surround sound system when they play games. Although I am one of those users, I cannot deny that gaming with a headset is ultimately a better experience. With a headset on and the microphone listening to my voice, you receive a better experience of your game in that noises are cleaner and you gain a better feel for the action.
Humans have the outstanding ability to imagine an unreal situation; we can put ourselves directly into the atmosphere of the game by providing our eyes with realistic graphics complemented by our ears listening in on the audio.
Look online for a “gaming headset” and you’ll find an assortment of shapes, styles, advertisements, etc., so finding one can become quite difficult for any user. One important measure is to stick with a company that has a good reputation in the gaming industry. Cue Turtle Beach, a company that understands audio equipment and has been in the industry for over 35 years.
Welcome to my Turtle Beach EarForce Z60 PC Gaming Headset review. Throughout this review, I will be discussing the unboxing, design of the unit, sound quality, and my final thoughts. I would like to thank Turtle Beach for providing me with the Z60.
The Unboxing
Check out the image above and you’ll find that the Z60 is shipped in a vibrant gaming red themed box followed by an overwhelming amount of product information. Strangely enough, the product box contains more information about the actual unit than the online product page of the Z60.
The outer sleeve contains some eye candy with high resolution photos, key features of the Z60, descriptions of how the product works, and information about what you have purchased.
Slip off the outer sleeve to find a solid red box containing all of the accessories. On top, you will be greeted with the detachable microphone and a literature box containing standard documentation such as a repair process, setup guide, and a Turtle Beach sticker. Underneath all of that is the headset unit itself, followed by a USB surround sound control unit.
The interior box contains some well-built plastic molds that will certainly protect your unit while in shipping. You may not realize it while unboxing, but the Z60 is a well packaged unit and does contain all the essentials needed for the average gamer.
The Design
On the packaging of the Z60 is a label stating “The Official Audio Partner of Twitch” and what I understand from that statement is that if a Twitch streamer can wear this headset for hours on end, it will be just as comfortable for you. In practice, however, I found that although the Z60s fit is comfortable for long sessions, it could certainly be improved. A large real estate of head band is taken up by a well-padded foam pad that prevents a strain on the top of your head. The comfortable padding continues with the ear cups having an adequate amount of padding that allows your ears to breathe well. My dislikes are raised by the material used in the foam covers. Instead of a leather or pleather (fake leather) material, the Z60 uses a felt cover where padding is applied. This felt can be a hit or miss on whether you will like it, but personally I found it to be uncomfortable and it would be nice to see secondary ear cup covers included in a new Z60 edition.
Returning to the head band for a moment, we find that the Z60 has a well-built, adjustable head band that provides a satisfying click for each increment. Unlike low cost gaming headphones, the Z60 never slowly tightened itself and held the set position over the testing period.
The ear cups are quite stylish with their red pin stripe accent followed by the dual EarForce Z60 logo. On the left ear cup you’ll find the non-detachable audio cable and a microphone plugin port. Next, the ear cups have the ability to lie flat against your chest when not in use, which is a great feature if you’re taking a quick gaming break. Furthermore, we have the shape of the ear cups which are the preferred oval shape to provide your ears with adequate room.
The entire housing of the Z60 is built out of a high grade plastic that holds up well to drops, scratches, and bumps. The plastic housing gives a feather-like weight to the Z60 and whilst on your head, you almost don’t even notice that they’re there.
Moving on, we have the detachable microphone. The review model sent to me came with a different microphone than the one which was released to the public. On the new edition microphone, Turtle Beach appears to have included a spit guard. However, I prefer the unit without one. The microphone is crafted using a bendable rubberized material that provides a perfect fit and stays still whilst in use. There are infinite positions thanks to the bendable design and it even holds the last set position.
Finally, there is the included DTS USB 7.1 surround sound control unit. Since a normal audio jack can only support 5.1 audio, the surround sound controller gets around this by using a USB port to get true 7.1 surround sound. On the controller itself, you will find a headset volume and microphone volume adjustment wheel, a microphone mute button, and a multimedia adjustment button that toggles through gaming, movies, and music. The control unit is built out of the same high grade plastic as the headset and has two connections, an output to USB 2.0 and an input for the 3.5mm audio cable leading off the Z60. Lastly, the mute and multimedia adjustment selections provide a bright red and blue LED to indicate what mode you have selected.
The Sound Quality
Being advertised as a “gaming headset”, you certainly get that impression with the red accents, electrified style packaging, and the gaming name of Z60.Though the Z60 is more like a double-edged sword that attempts to offer more than a gaming experience by attempting to be a general multimedia headset, whilst failing to impress with its music playback.
Inside the ear cups, are two colossal 60mm drivers that have a “bone-rattling” sound to them. At higher volumes, games have loud booms, but you also hear very small details that would not have been heard otherwise. The drivers are powered by the DTS Headphone:X software that brings a 3D, 360 degree sound at a 7.1 surround sound effect. Achieved with the surround sound controller unit I mentioned above, the Z60 can really rock your world and hits the high levels well.
Speaking about the control unit, I mentioned how it had a multimedia button to adjust the sound. Operated by a Plug & Play design interface to the PC, the control unit claims to have the ability to change the dynamic sound capability of the speakers. However, throughout my testing, I found that this button was more of a “show” than reality. Listen to a song and switch between the modes and you either hear no difference whatsoever or only a very slight adjustment, although I always selected the correct mode corresponding to what I was doing.
The music playback of the Z60 isn’t outstanding and it’s nothing to boast about. At low volumes, sounds can become bass heavy from those 60mm drivers and it’s hard to enjoy the song, whereas at high volumes the sound becomes muffled. There is a sweet spot between low and high volume that provides an acceptable listening experience, but this is not the level where I would listen to them full time on music.
Movie playback is progressively better, with mids and highs being nearly spot on. Lows are still off and could be adjusted for movie playback, but the Z60 does perform well in this category. YouTube videos had a similar effect to the music results where voices could become muffled.
The Z60s really begin to shine when they enter their main environment of the gaming universe. Levels become spot on at all volume levels and loud explosions or gunshots ripping across the battlefield can be heard as if they were happening around you. Matched with the 7.1 surround sound, you truly are stepping into the game you’re playing.
Finally, we have the quality of the microphone. As people on the other end did not mention anything different about my voice, the microphone performed in a way any user would expect. One feature I enjoyed about the microphone was that the control unit allows for separate game and chat volume adjustments, so you can alter your voice if people claim you’re too loud. Also your voice is played back through the headset which allows you to hear yourself without delay.
My Final Thoughts
All in all, the Z60 is a well-built, wired gaming PC headset. It provides a great experience while gaming and a satisfying experience for movies, while music playback could use some improvement. At a sale price of $119, I find them to be a little expensive, but the Z60s are certainly a revolutionary unit with the control unit and offered 7.1 surround sound, to the point where I would recommend them for a gamer looking for a new headset.
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