Date: October 13th, 2005
Article by: Jeff Caldwell (Hardware Reviewer)
Edited by: Nathan Glentworth (Owner / Head Editor)
Product was submitted by: Turtle Beach
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PRODUCT COMPOSITION & WALKTHROUGH
The packaging was very nice and secure during shipping, though it was made out of that damn impossible to open plastic blister packaging that you have to slice open with a knife. Just be careful that the knife doesn't slip and carve a nice gouge in your new purchase.
Right out of the box, you get to your headphones first. The design looks nice and sturdy with a faux metallic finish. Definitely something to look nicely beside your tricked out case.
The speaker wire lengths for the Earforce HPA are aproximately 2 feet for the wire that is running from the headphones directly and the extension is approximately 4 feet. Though they should be read together as the headset uses a special connector for the extension not a standard connector. This makes it impossible to use the headphones without also using the extension. Attached to the extension is this beautiful volume controller. It has separate volume switches for front, rear, center, subwoofer and a master volume. There is also a blue LED that lights up when the master volume is powered on.
Attached to the headphones are the four labeled connections needed for front, rear, and center sound signals and your microphone connection. Also included is something you rarely see when setting up a headset. The top black connection in this photo is for the headphone's power supply connection. More on that in the photo below.
Included in the kit was a very simple, but handy connection splitter. These can be purchased at your local Radio Shack for very little but was a nice touch to be added to the kit as it allows you to have both
your computers speakers, and your headset plugged in at the same time. Not really anything fancy but was a nice touch from Turtle Beach.
This power adapter is required to make use of the headset's incorporated subwoofers, without it you will not receive the full power of the speakers you just paid upwards of a hundred dollars for. I realize these are necessary, I just wish there was a better way, who wants to have ANOTHER power adapter around your rig?
