The Design & Setup of the X-31
The X-31 is a very comfortable headset by design. It features a plush leather strap along the top, i.e., the part that goes over your head. The ear cups are oversized and very comfortable for extended sessions. I also like that they are covered in a soft fabric instead of leather which would get hot and annoying after a while. The right ear cup holds the 2 AAA batteries required (included) to operate the headset. You should get about twenty-five hours of gameplay with 2 AAA batteries, which isn’t too bad. The battery compartment is hidden by a piece of plastic that is easily removed and replaced on the right ear cup.
On the left side, you’ll find the adjustable microphone. The mic is made to be very customizable as far as how it wraps around the side of your head and to your mouth. When not in use, it slides up parallel to the left side of the headset, out of the way. The left cup includes several control functions too like the Power button. Next to it is the jack that the provided ‘chat adapter’ cable plugs into. The other end of this cord goes into the Xbox 360 controller to provide chat functions. The other two controls are the Effects button and Volume dial. The Effects button is used to toggle the Bass Boost and Stereo Expander Effects; and audible beep will sound to indicate what mode you currently have enabled.
From the headset, one cable comes out of the left ear cup and into the Xbox 360 controller. About a foot down from the headset is where you will find the Chat controls. These controls include a sliding On or Mute switch for the mic, as well as a volume dial to adjust the volume of the chat. Note that like the P21s, the chat and game volumes are separate and can be adjusted independently. The other end of this cable plugs into your 360 controller.
On the 360 side of the equation, a small RF transceiver needs to be setup. This all black box is a two inch square (maybe a half inch in height) with a permanently attached USB cord coming out of it. The cord is about three to four feet long, and will need to plug into one of the USB ports on the 360. The RF transceiver has a mini-jack plug for the included audio cable, too. Like other headphone products, the X-31 needs to tap into the system’s stereo audio outputs to be able to capture the sound. If you are using the Xbox 360 component cable for connecting to your TV, this is no problem, but with HDMI users, you’ll have to get just a little more creative.
The design of the inputs on the back of the Xbox 360 has changed over the years, so you may or may not need some kind of adapter cable to be able to use the X-31 with your HDMI connected 360. Fortunately, I happened to have a Microsoft brand Xbox 360 audio conversion cable, which was thin enough to allow me to connect to the 360 while still being able to plug in my HDMI cable. I couldn’t actually use the my original component cable with my 360 because the plug was too big to be able to connect while also having the HDMI cable connected to it directly below. Again, your mileage may vary — check out Turtle Beach’s FAQ on the matter to find out more.
At this point I had the headset plugged into the Xbox 360 controller and the RF Transceiver plugged into a USB port on the 360 and I had the RCA stereo audio being pumped into the transceiver. After ensuring the volume dial on the transceiver was set to full (per the instructions), I fired up my console. Out of the box, your headset and transceiver should pair right up, but should they not, you’ll need to press the RST/Pairing button on the side of the transceiver. While the red light is flashing on the front of the transceiver, you need to turn on the headset and watch its red light (which is in the left earcup). I thought Turtle Beach did a good thing by making the transceiver red light rather dim so that it isn’t yet another bright red light in my entertainment cabinet. Additionally, putting the red light of the headset actually inside the headset was a great move. You only need to see this red light when you are syncing up the headphones, which isn’t something you should have to do more than once, if that.
Everything was setup now, except for getting the chat audio to play through the headphones instead of the TV speakers. To adjust this, you just have to edit that setting in the Xbox Dashboard control panel. Once you’ve got that set, it’s game on.
Using the X-31
The X-31 uses wireless RF technology, so as long as your within about twenty feet of the console, you should be connected to the transceiver. Obviously metallic objects, walls, and other things will create interference and multi-path reflections which will distort your experience, but for most of us, the RF is going to work extremely well.
In usage over a variety of games over several days, the X-31s have performed very well. It’s worth noting that not every experience is automatically improved by using the Effects button; in many cases, leaving the Effects off sounds as good if not better. That said, the stereo sound always performed great in the X-31s. During silence, you may hear a constant low hiss, but this is normal and really isn’t a problem.
The X-31 performance maintained whether I got up and walked around, sat down, or took my normal gaming position of laying. I will say that I inadvertently cranked up my headset volume on accident a few times while reaching for the Effects button, but that’s as much my fault as anything.
The X-31s have been a treat to use to this point; let’s get to the summary.