Turtle Beach X31 and X41 – What’s the difference?

The two wireless Turtle Beach headsets, the X31 and the X41 both say that they have impressive sound quality and are both wireless headsets, and yet one is almost double the price of the other. What are the differences between them is one really worth almost twice as much as the other? Here I have taken a look and given a brief review of the X31 and pointed out a few of the differences between the two Xbox headsets.

Turtle Beach X31 Wireless Headset

Turtle Beach X31 has some pretty solid specs. Featuring 40mm diameter speakers with neodymium magnets as well as a good frequency response range as well as the usual Turtle Beach features like their headphone amp and their Chat Boost means that, whilst nothing groundbreaking or spectacular, it gets the job done fairly well. The build quality on the headset is good, and the headset overall is relatively lightweight considering that it is wireless and running on batteries. The padding it provides combined with this make it extremely comfortable, and being wireless it is one of the best headsets to just pick up and play with when you don’t want the hassle of having wires everywhere.

As far as sound quality goes, the X31 performs admirably for a wireless stereo headset. The sounds are deep and precise, with good sound across the board as far as frequencies go. The downside that this headset has compared to the X41 however, is that it is only stereo sound. Whilst the comfort levels and convenience of having a wireless headset are very good, the sound quality of this headset is definitely not to the same standard as the Turtle Beach X41. That said however, for a stereo headset it does perform well. The sound is still crisp even though it is a wireless headset and excels as a multimedia headset. The use of the Digital Sound Processing means that you do get a bit more variation and sound quality over a standard stereo headset, which is explained in the next part.

As far as features go, the Turtle Beach X31 comes with all of the standard features that you would expect from a gaming headset plus the functionality of being wireless as well as a few other convenient additions. Extremely easy to set up, the X31 will have you up and gaming in no time. The 2.4GHz wireless transmitter means that you do not need direct line of sight between the headset and the transmitter box, meaning you don’t have to worry about blocking any signals by moving around. While this is generally very good, you can ocassionally pick up static or interference from other wireless sources you may have in the house but this problem also affects the X41 and is inherent to using this wireless technology. Whilst there is no Dolby Surround, the Digital Sound Processing allows for the stereo signal to be expanded for a sound that goes beyond the standard two-channel soundscape. This can give you stereo widening with the stereo expander or also let you toggle the Bass Boost, which gives the sound a lot more weight as you would expect. This is massively different to the X41 however, which uses Dolby Surround technology and larger speaker drivers to create a simulated 7.1 sound, although for most purposes the X31 does well and the casual player may not be able to notice a massive difference when just using it without taking advantage of positional sound. The “battery booster” technology also works well, keeping the sound quality up right until the batteries die. Overall, the X31 is solid headset with good features. Whilst not the best performing one and definitely not in the same league as the Turtle Beach X41or the Tritton AX Pro (the AX Pro is a true surround headset), for the price it is hard to beat and for the casual user it is possibly even the best choice for an Xbox Headset.

Sound : 7/10 – Good all-round stereo headset but is limited to just being that. Great for multimedia and general use and is about as good as you can expect without Dolby Digital and surround

Comfort/Build Quality: 9/10 – Extremely comfortable and lightweight. The headset is well built and the flexible boom mic means it is always in position

Features: 7/10 – There are actually quite a lot of little features that round this headset off very well, such as the auto powering down, the bass boost and so on. These however are all fairly minor, and minus it being wireless it is a fairly standard headset. Very solid performing, but not too many bells and whistles.

Despite not standing out in any particular category minus comfort and convenience, the X31 is actually probably one of the best headsets you can buy with pricing taken into consideration. A solid performer across the board and at just over half the price of the X41, it may not please audiophiles or serious hardcore gamers but it is definitely good enough for multimedia and casual gaming.