FPSLabs : Turtle Beach Ear Force AK-R8 Review

Lock and…reload? We take a look at the latest in directional audio from an industry veteran to determine if a USB sound card combo can really boost your in-game situational awareness.

Category: Headset
Manufacturer: Turtle Beach
Product: Ear Force AK-R8
Gallery: Click Here
Price: $149.95

Introduction

Last time
we visited the headphone arena with Voyetra Turtle Beach, we felt like
we got hosed. To sum it up, we felt the directional audio was very
lacking to say the least. This time around we gave it another shot -
the catch is that the headphones being reviewed here come equipped with
a USB sound card. In normal situations one would just scoff at the idea
of a USB sound card and pass it off as a cheap trick. However, as you
read on you’ll be surprised and sometimes shocked at what a difference
a ‘closed’ system can make. We emphasize with peripheral reviews that
personal preference plays a large role in determining the final score.
As mentioned by a fellow writer here before - qualitative and
quantitative assessments will be made that help reach that score. That
being said, the goal of this review is to supply you with as much
information as possible about the personal experience that comes from
using the headset in gaming, musical, and movie applications, as well
as synthetic and real world benchmarking of the USB sound card itself.

Specifications

Test Setup

Hardware Configuration

Case: Antec Solo
Power Supply: Antec TruePower Trio 650
Motherboard: Universal abit Fatal1ty AN9 32X
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+
Hard Drive: Western Digital 100GB IDE HDD
Hard Drive: Seagate 300GB SATA HDD
Hard Drive: Maxtor 250GB SATA HDD
Video: eVGA GeForce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express
Memory: Mushkin EM6400 Dual-Channel PC2 6400 2048MB
Optical: Lite-On 8x DVD+/-RW
Audio: abit Realtek AudioMAX 7.1 HD Riser Card
Audio: SteelSeries 5H v2 Headphones
Audio: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
Cooling: Zalman CNPS9500 AM2 CPU Cooler
Display: Samsung Syncmaster 710N 17″ LCD

Software Configuration

Motherboard BIOS: v1.2 Beta 1 (03/29/2007)
Chipset: nForce 590 SLI AMD Windows XP 32-Bit v9.35 WHQL Certified
Operating System: Windows XP Media Center Edition with Service Pack 2
Video Driver: NVIDIA ForceWare Version 158.27 WHQL 32-bit WHQL Certified (May 15th release)
Audio Driver: Realtek HD R1.70 (6/28/2007)
Audio Driver: SteelSeries SteelSound v2.0
Audio Driver: Creative SB Audigy 2 Series 02.09.0016 (10/09/2006)
Audio Driver: Audio Advantage SRM (5/9/2007)
Test Software: RightMark Audio Analyzer 6.0.5
Test Software: RightMark 3DSound CPU Utilization Test 2.3
Test Software: foobar2000 v0.9.4.3
Test Software: VLC Media Player v0.8.6c
Test Game: Valve Software - Half-Life 2: Episode One
Test Game: Valve Software - Counter-Strike: Source
Test Game: Valve Software - Counter-Strike 1.6
Test Game: Digital Illusions CE - Battlefield 2142
Test Game: Bethesda Softworks - The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Test Game: Monolith Productions, Inc. - F.E.A.R.
Test Game: Infinity Ward - Call of Duty 2
Test Game: GSC Game World - S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
Test Game: Human Head Studios - Prey
Test Game: Codemasters - Colin McRae: DiRT
Test Game: Electronic Arts Games - Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
Test Game: EA Black Box - Need for Speed: Carbon

{mospagebreak title=First Impressions & Comfort}

Tortuga Beach sounds better than Turtle Beach, but nothing sounds
better than true directional sound. Before I start mouthing off as to
why these headphones are near perfect I’d like to build up my reasons
as to why this didn’t quite get our coveted Editor’s Pick. Starting
with the retail packaging you get the impression that these headphones
are the best thing since apple pie. Except your stupid apple pie
doesn’t do 5.1 surround sound or offer more speakers then you’ve
probably got in your entire house. Fine, but the fact of the matter is
that the packaging says that “late night gaming won’t disturb others”,
and that is just plain wrong. These headphones leak, and they leak like
a water main just burst into your face. You’d have to turn down the
volume way too low for these to not wake up your dorm mate. The actual
headset comes with a detachable microphone and the Audio Advantage SRM
(AASRM) USB sound card. The AASRM is the key ingredient here, and is
the biggest reason why these headphones blow away the previously
reviewed cans which are practically identical to the ones being
reviewed here. If you’d like to see more pictures check out the gallery and the previous review for a deeper look.

The critical problem with last cans was the fact that adjusting audio was an imprecise chore.
You had multiple annoying knobs to twist and every single time you
launched a different program, be it a music player or a game, you’d
have to manually re-adjust it. This time though, the AASRM corrects
this by offering a perfect sound system that lets you control
everything via the included software. This was what I was begging for
throughout my previous testing, and after having this ‘closed’ system
up and running, well, I’m excited to say that the results are
fantastic! Before we tear up the testing charts take note of the actual
device, as there are some annoying aspects that I wish Turtle Beach
would finally get rid of. First off, the proprietary audio connector is
a pain. If you inserted it wrong you’ll be dealing with bent pins and a
sore wallet if you’re unable to fix them. Clearly there is no good
reason not to use a standard style connector other than to offer
extension cords to fatten up the bottom line. You might say “well at
least they offer normal audio connection!” Yes, this is true, but these
headphones are so damn good I felt angry that I couldn’t take them with
me on the train or use them for any other portable means simply because
of the proprietary connector.

Either way, Turtle Beach offers a nice picture of how the whole
system hooks up and actually did a nice job of including nice extra
features like SPDIF connections and additional Line IN/OUT connectors
on the actual AASRM device. I will say this, it is unbelievably better
to have to deal with a USB sound card than the mess of cables that the
last cans came with. Sure they are different devices marketed at
different people, but I’m going to say something I thought I’d never
say - I prefer the sound and compact setup of the Turtle Beach AK-R8 to
that of my Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS and Sennheiser PC150
headphone combo. Yes, I know it doesn’t make any sense but the aural
experience you get out of these headphones with movies, music and
especially games makes me want to simply ignore the benchmarks we’ll
analyze in a bit and just rock out. Here’s the thing, at the end of the
day, Turtle Beach has a nice USB solution but you’ve still gotta
install the drivers! It’s a predicament where on the one hand you’ve
got a nice portable solution, but on the other you’re still anchored by
the software that is extremely necessary for the device to function. If
Turtle Beach can devise a solution with onboard memory or a built-in
LCD screen that you can configure without drivers then they’ve got
themselves a potential industry shaker.

One thing that I want to clarify is the comfort level while wearing
these headphones. In my previous review I went off on Turtle Beach for
making one of the least comfortable headphones ever. However from
speaking with Turtle Beach representatives afterwards they expressed to
me that they had done a poor job of letting users know that the
headphones could be stretched way out of their stiff state for a more
comfortable fit. So with the Turtle Beach AK-R8 I immediately stretched
out the headphones and put them on. They felt so light and so
comfortable I was amazed. One of the nice things is that there is no
dangling audio controller that drags on the cans and makes them heavy.
The AASRM is meant to sit on your desk and do its job without getting
in the way. I would have liked a longer cord but for now we deal with
what we’ve got, and what we’ve got is a nice compact setup that truly
unlocks the power these headphones have been itching to blast out.

{mospagebreak title=Technology & Software}

If you don’t quite understand how these cans work or how they
engineered 8 speakers total into this headset than please read along.
If you remember the key concepts from the previous review, I suggest
you skip to the software section. The Turtle Beach AK-R8 mysteriously
doesn’t have any specifications charts on the box or on the website,
and we’d prefer if it did, but for now understanding how the 4 speakers
recreate great directional sound is enough to chew on. From my previous
review I cried about how competitive gamers want as much of a edge as
possible. Unfortunately the ‘audio aimbot era’ wasn’t present then, but
now it’s inching much closer than before. One thing is for certain, no
headphones/set on this planet can give you the true 5.1 surround sound
effect real life speakers will give you. It’s impossible.

Previously
what irked me to no end was the poor directional sound that made me try
to figure out whether that grenade was right behind me or on the other
side of the map. Yep, it was that bad. However I’m glad to say that
Turtle Beach has spawned a winner and this is all due to the included
AASRM and software. This time around these headphones really did offer
accurate positional cues that literally made me stop and yell out in
delight as I tested game after game and found the directional sound to
be spot-on. Last time the only aspect I really loved in terms of the
audio was the built-in subwoofer technology that literally shook the
headphones like I had never experienced before. It’s a feeling that I
find myself longing for when I use other headsets. It’s one thing to
tear up BattleField 2142 with a two legged Mech, but it’s a whole
‘nother experience when you hear for yourself the pure sound coming out
of these cans when you’re ripping people apart with your dual-mounted
turrets! There is one thing that bothered me while using the software
though, and that was whenever an audio source would be playing, be it a
game or song, sometimes the headphones would blast out a loud BEEP that
really hurt my ears whenever I accessed the control panel software. I’m
not sure why this happened, but it did happen several times. My efforts
to replicate the anomaly were fruitless so it may have just been a
fluke. Hopefully Turtle Beach knows or has encountered this problem and
can rectify it, since it’s the only real bad experience I had while
using the software.

The software itself is the control center housing the individual
channels and array of configurations available. This is the key reason
why these headphones are great and why the previous ones sucked. This
huge difference allows you to precisely get the exact sound you want
out of these headphones. Too much bass you say? Turn down the knob a
tick and you’re good to go. Unlike the previous set you don’t have to
spend literally minutes trying to balance too much with too little for every single application.
Here in the AASSRM software you’re up and running in no time. There’s
options to change what speakers are used, equalizer settings, sound
effects (who uses these?) and mixer controls. A neat little trick
that’s cool for about ten seconds is the rotating speaker positioning
that you can find on the SteelSeries 5H v2 software as well. There are
two huge issues and one minor one that I will discuss when it comes to
the conclusion page that I’m sorry to say makes me think twice about
recommending these headphones. One of them pertains to the actual
software and it’s a huge pit in my stomach that I debated for days
before giving my final score that I wish hadn’t happened in the first
place. But please, don’t skip straight to the conclusion! To really
understand what I’m taking about continue reading onto the next page.

{mospagebreak title=Testing - Synthetic Software}

Throughout our sound card testing over the years we’ve been extremely
fond of the RightMark Gathering, the developers of RightMark Audio
Analyzer 6.0.5 and 3DSound CPU Utilization Test 2.3. These tests offer
a glimpse as to how well the AASRM USB sound card compares to
competitors and how well it allows the CPU to combat other tasks by
means of taking up all the work itself. To begin we made sure no other
unnecessary system programs were running in order to get as clear and
accurate picture as possible. After running a series of tests we
present to you the most accurate statement we’ve been able to obtain.
With RightMark Audio Analyzer you conduct tests by inserting a double
male 3.5 mm connector in both the respective IN and OUT ports on each
device. This allows the software to send a signal which is then
recorded and analyzed by the software. We repeated these tests on each
of the four devices until we were able to eliminate as many anomalies
as possible. In the interest of full disclosure I will say that
Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS is a particularly tricky card to test since we
kept receiving problems from the right channel. We also didn’t test the
card to it’s maximum potential which is technically 24 bit at 96KHz but
to keep things even we lowered the settings. Either way, to truly test
the card you would need 2 cards to perform the tests accurately. The
same goes with the SteelSound 5H v2 USB, we were unable to ascertain a
perfect result due to the cross channel interference in the way that
headset’s USB sound card is designed. Nevertheless we deem it muy
importante for you to look at the data and see for yourself where the
Turtle Beach AK-R8 stand.

This chart is a culmination of all the data below and is crucial to
understanding which solution performs better than the other. In terms
of key test results we’ll be closely looking at the Noise Level and
Dynamic Range in dBA and the Total Harmonic Distortion in percentage
range. In all cases the lowest number is better so by reading off the
charts and taking a look at the visual ones below you can see that the
Turtle Beach AASRM compared to the C-Media CM108 (SteelSeries 5H v2
USB) and Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS and abit Realtek AudioMAX 7.1 HD Riser
Card lands in itself in second to last place nearly every time. As you
can tell the visual charts may appear a bit misleading but they pretty
much tell the story of how the testing went in terms of the Creative SB
Audigy 2 ZS always outperforming the other competitors. This is pretty
much a no brainer since the Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS is a dedicated
audio solution that easily cost the price the Turtle Beach AK-R8 when
it debuted years ago. You might even argue that the Turtle Beach AASRM
USB sound card itself doesn’t do that bad of a job considering you’re
technically paying $50.00 USD for it. How did I come to this
conclusion? Well if the previously tested Turtle Beach HPA 2 have an
MSRP of $100 and the AK-R8 (which have basically the same cans just a
different, and much better end solution) then you’re paying $50 for the
AASRM. This isn’t what I expected given the price of the Turtle Beach
AK-R8 combo, but synthetic tests can only give you a general estimate
of how a product performs. This isn’t too bad when you consider the
AASRM retails for $80 by itself, but nonetheless is a half empty half
full proposition whichever way you look at it.

As for the CPU utilization test, all default settings are used and
the specific test shown below is the result of the DirectSound 3D
hardware + EAX test. Keep in mind that the only audio solution capable
of EAX 3.0 and 4.0 was the Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS. The rest could only
perform EAX 2.0 as Creative has a virtual stranglehold on EAX
technology. We wish this wasn’t the case, since more competition and
open standards are preferred, but it’s the nature of the situation as
of this current time.

It’s obvious to see that the Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS kills the
competition with the the Turtle Beach AASRM performing the worst out of
the bunch. Extremely important to keep in mind is that fact that all
these results are at the sub 10% CPU level, so in the grand scheme of
things, the performance overall with a powerful modern day processor
isn’t too shabby at all. Before we get on to the real world tests I’d
like to describe the experience while using the Turtle Beach AK-R8 so
you can better grasp the big picture when it comes to directional audio
performance and experience.

{mospagebreak title=Testing - Movies & Music}

For movies, we utilized The Matrix Reloaded, Black Hawk Down, and
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. It’s pretty obvious to
anyone that action-packed films with weaponry and fight sequences offer
some of the best aural testing situations since there is nothing on
Earth like hearing Neo stop hundreds of bullets with the mere flick of
the wrist. I seldom like to gloat or whine about a product that
underperforms or does more than it’s intended purpose more than I
intend to, but when the Merovingian signals his henchmen to blow away
Neo, the moment where the bullets are whizzing by as shown in the
screenshot shown below literally made me yell out “Holy!” as the
bullets magically stopped in front of The One. This along with the
infamous freeway car chase scene in the movie is breathtaking to say
the least. Not only is the sound coming out of the cans really good,
the 5.1 surround sound is present here and throughout the other films.
In Black Hawk Down, the default settings make it difficult to pinpoint
the directional surround sound audio. This is where the software comes
in and saves the day, by simply adjusting the surround channels higher
and the front channels a notch lower we were able to easily hear what
was previously impossible. This is a key example of why the included
software is so critical when it comes to accurately portraying the 5.1
surround sound effect that the previously tested headphones simply
couldn’t do. Those headphones had each channel on the external
amplifier competing for the loudest possible sound. In this case, the
sound is crisp and clear and can be heard without having to crank up
the volume to dangerous levels.

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World has some of the best
audio I’ve ever heard in a film. The layers upon layers for sound
effects and the work that went into the sound mixing and editing was so
notable the year it debuted that it won an Academy Award. With these
headphones I was entranced by sequences where cannonballs would tear
ships apart as a million splinters would fly everywhere as crewmen
audibly scattered above and below deck with clarity and precision
filled bass. It kept me astonished because testing this solution versus
the previous one from Turtle Beach was like night and day. For music I
listened not only to our standard 320Kbps recording of Beethoven’s 9th
symphony - specifically taking extra care to analyze the 8-minute
instrumental part of the Ode to Joy melody, but a variety of other
musical genres as well. Before getting to the other genres I would
first like to say that the classical music sounded stunning. The highs
and lows presented some of the best sounding audio I’ve heard from a
pair of headphones. The power and clarity literally gave me chills I
wasn’t expecting.

Testing the quality of the headphones in this aspect is a very
qualitative thing, but I can’t help but highly recommend these
headphones for the musical prowess they showed me. Straight off the
Billboard 500 chart and iTunes Top Song list are songs like T-Pain
featuring Yung Joc - Buy U a Drank and T.I. - Big S**T Poppin.
Everything sounded find as the rhythmic beats from both artists and
Timbaland, Paul van Dyk, Celldweller, Gwen Stefani, Granddaddy DJ,
Rammstein, Armin van Buuren and countless others was only accentuated
by the heavy rumbling that the subwoofers provided. I can’t state
enough how enjoyable the experience is with the subwoofer rattling at
your brain as you fall into the zone while listening to your favorite
track. I’ll be the first to say I’m not particularly fond of all the
genres I listened to, but you have to admit when something just sounds
real damn good.

{mospagebreak title=Testing - Games}

For games the bottom line is this, the sound was friggin’ fantastic.
Not only did everything sound incredible, but the directional audio in
most games was stupendous. The sound coming out of these headphones in
Counter-Strike: Source plays actually makes a difference. The grenades,
guns dropping, footsteps, shots fired are all very directional and
don’t sound distorted or faint. The appropriate distance between the
source of each sound and the player is exhibited in these headphones
compared to the previously tested incarnation from Turtle Beach. There
were instances when it was extremely precise like when I was in bomb
site B in dust 2 and I could hear a terrorist walking up the outer hill
only from my left and rear left channels. It varied depending on the
angle my back was towards the rear rock opening in the bomb site. It’s
that type of precision that you come to expect from these headphones.
Call of Duty 2 is the same, the distinctive firefights and grenade
explosions are easily traced by the excellent directional sound. Facing
away from explosions from different angles gets the appropriate
response you’d expect. While traveling on horseback in Oblivion and
walking through towns the aural experience of people walking past you
and other noises heard throughout Cyrodiil have a great distinct feel
to them.

BattleField 2142 can be said in one word - astonishing. Really, it’s
amazing how much better these headphones sound this time around. not
only is the directional audio spot on like the other games tested, but
the actual sound of turrets firing, flying by enemy tanks, shooting
your sniper rifle, is all amazingly crisp and filled with deep shocking
bass that I came to love. Even in death when your heartbeat pulses you
can feel it in your temples via the subwoofer as you wait to re-spawn
and fight again. Really breathtaking audio here. If I was an avid
BattleField 2142 player I would without a doubt take a hard look at
these headphones even if I had an existing audio card. Yes, it’s that
good. DiRT and Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars dirt didn’t have as
much directional audio to offer, but you could single out rocks being
tossed about behind you as you revved through dirt rally courses once
in a while. The beautiful sound from both games was really great to
hear as you’d get into multi unit combat with dozens of missiles and
lasers from mammoth tanks and juggernauts sounding great through and
through. Need for Speed: Carbon also didn’t benefit from the surround
sound experience but as usual, still sounded great. The experience
while playing Prey offered crisp clean sounds and also served as an
excellent example of the directional audio done right with these
headphones. I’m still at an awe of how well the headphones perform. Let
me make one thing clear again, headphones will not and cannot replicate
the 5.1 surround sound effect speakers emit, they just can’t. However,
these headphones do a solid job at pairing up great directional sound
(that makes it really seem like stuff is behind you this time around)
that leaves you saying “wow I never heard that before!” Now, let’s see
what the AASRM can do when it comes to real world game testing.
Obviously as most of you can assume out of four tested audio solutions
the Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS was the best performer, and this is to be
expected. But the results shown from the rest of the group are a bit
interesting to say the least.

{mospagebreak title=Testing Games - Continued}

Half-Life 2: Episode One is the beginning of the trend, where you
can clearly see both external audio cards being consistently beaten by
the internal audio cards in every single test. We tested a custom
timedemo an average of three times each to come up with the numbers you
see here. Looking at the big picture though, is difference in FPS
really that much? Yes it is because the graphical settings were at
their lowest limits to show the true difference between each solution

In Counter-Strike 1.6 the SteelSeries 5H v2 takes a back seat to the
Turtle Beach AK-R8 AASRM. Regardless of the North American competitive
Counter-Strike 1.6 scene, many people still play this game for pure
pleasure and heck there’s still the rest of the world too! It’s
interesting that there is nearly a 30 FPS difference between the
SteelSeries 5H v2 and Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS. Overall the Turtle Beach
is still in the lower end of the FPS spectrum.

Lastly
is F.E.A.R. where the FPS has skyrocketed to astronomical numbers. All
graphical settings were at the lowest options possible and EAX and
other settings were turned off. This was done to note the most subtle
effects that each audio solution would have on the average FPS and
presents the clearest performance view possible. Unfortunately the
Turtle Beach AASRM still trails the pack here in all categories while
the Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS tears it up. Sure no one is going to notice
the difference at these levels but again it just goes to show you that
if you are considering purchasing any external USB audio solution, you
must be aware that there is a very apparent performance difference
versus internal audio cards tested here, especially those designed for
games in mind. Although I would have liked to have seen the gap be
closer this one of three gripes I had with these cans.

{mospagebreak title=Conclusion}

The Turtle Beach AK-R8 have so far shown the headphones and external
USB sound card combo as a force to be reckoned with. When I laid eyes
on the Turtle Beach AK-R8, I immediately and falsely assumed that the
identical cans would present another sub-par experience. Little did I
know that I was completely and utterly wrong. The 5.1 surround sound
directional audio was a bliss to listen to. I can honestly say that
even though no headphone exists that can ever touch real life 5.1
surround sound speakers, these cans come close, real close. Throughout
my in-game testing I felt like the directional audio did assist me in
ascertaining where my enemies were and what the battle field situation
had in store for me. This was extremely apparent in Insurgency, a
complete Half-Life 2 modification based off the Source Engine. In this
game there is no radar, no mini-map and only the bare minimum of a HUD.
With these headphones I could clearly hear footsteps of insurgents as a
U.S. Marine laying prone behind a corner and ready to open fire. This
is just one of countless instances in which these headphones clearly
helped me out in taking down numerous enemies and alerting me of weapon
discharges at all times.

However, not all was perfect during my testing. Towards the end of a
multi-hour gaming session I proceeded to remove the Turtle Beach AK-R8
and heard something akin to a screw or a pin drop. I looked all over
the floor and didn’t spot a thing. As I went to put my headphones back
on I noticed that the left ear piece was loose. To my astonishment the
screw that held up one end of the ear piece was missing! To make things
worse, what I had heard originally was the screw rattling inside the
ear piece! I had never been witness to something so bizarre in a
product review. Now this may have been a fluke accident and the next
1000 buyers of the Turtle Beach AK-R8 will never experience this freak
occurrence, but it was something that took me aback. The way that the
headphones are designed is that each ear piece is held in by two
extremely tiny screws and as I dissected the broken headphones, a bit
of yellowish adhesive as well. The problem is that these screws are a
joke. It is an inherent design flaw that is just begging to cause the
headphones to break. For these cans to break in such a manner was
extremely surprising. If Turtle Beach had simply used thicker and
longer screws that didn’t compromise the great aesthetics of the
headphones, then I wouldn’t be talking to you about this right now. As
it stands I was saddened that my pair of Turtle Beach AK-R8 were broken
because despite the difference in the synthetic and real-world
benchmarks shown in this review, they were to be my standard headphone
of choice from this point forward. Obviously I can’t do that with one
ear piece hanging off my head, but nonetheless this is how strongly I
feel about these headphones. I did not compare this to the much
acclaimed Creative SB X-Fi line, but for the price of a decent X-Fi you
are getting a great-sounding, entire package that is sure to blow your
ears away.

This brings us to one of the two major problems mentioned with the
Turtle Beach AK-R8. Besides the obvious durability issue is the obvious
lack of performance in our tests. As I mentioned before I am personally
not phased by what was shown here today, but my take on this is not
everyone’s and some individuals with PC’s who are a bit on the weak
side will undoubtedly go for the audio solution that will allow them to
get as much performance out of the rest of their rig as possible. These
are two major concerns that simply cannot allow the Turtle Beach AK-R8
to receive a higher score. As I mentioned at the beginning of this
review I really wished these headphones wouldn’t have broken like they
did, but it happened and it’s important that our readers know of the
potential durability risk with these headphones. The minor issue can be
classified as major depending on who you are. If you are a competitive
gamer that frequents tournaments where BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer)
is not an option, then you can’t use these headphones because for them
to work properly you need the drivers installed - no ifs, ands, or buts
about it. We always try to keep the competitive and casual gamer in
mind, so in this aspect it really boils down how you think you’ll be
playing your favorite game. If you’re used to reading my reviews then
you know that I usually write simple one paragraph statements that
reflect the experience with the headphones. However this time was
special because of how conflicted I felt in the aural performance
versus the numbers and durability factor. In the end I was so
enthralled by the sound of the Turtle Beach AK-R8 that I simply whipped
out the duct tape, wrapped up the ear piece, and continued fragging
away. Yes, despite all the negatives shown here today I still love
these headphones and just wish that I could totally recommend them to
everyone problem free. Unfortunately this isn’t the case, but Turtle
Beach must be commended on a product that has completely reversed our
opinion of it’s 5.1 surround sound directional audio technology.
Clearly the engineers worked their collective selves off and came up
with a closed audio solution that is easy to plug in, install and go. I
challenge you to get a pair of the Turtle Beach AK-R8 for yourself and
experience my joy, you’ll be glad you did.

Pros

+ Very comfortable; can be worn for extended periods of time.
+ 5.1 surround sound directional audio performance is unbelievably fantastic.
+ Actual audio sound is extremely impressive.
+ AASRM USB connector is compact and runs cool to the touch.
+ AASRM allows for a secondary conventional microphone and headphone attachments.
+ Easy to use AASRM audio control panel
+ Microphone sounds great, teammates will hear you crystal clear over Ventrilo.
+ Built-in mini subwoofer provided great force feedback experience. Especially in BattleField 2142.
+ Aesthetically pleasing. (subjective)

Cons

- AASRM sometimes triggers annoying beep when control panel is accessed.
- Build quality/durability poor.
- Proprietary connector.
- Driver installation a must.
- Weak synthetic and real world testing performer compared to competition.
- Prone to audio leaking, unlike packaging claims.

Rating
8.0 out of 10

The Turtle Beach AK-R8 has the 5.1 surround sound directional audio
performance every gamer should strive to get. These headphones have
literally turned me from a cyncial skeptic into a believer due to the
Audio Advantage SRM bundled USB sound card and software that correctly
and precisely unlocks the true potentional of the Turtle Beach AK-R8. I
found the headphones incredibly comfortable to wear for extended
periods of time and a sheer thrill to play the latest and greatest
games with. It’s been a long time since I’ve been as impressed as I was
by the directionally precise and aurally pleasing audio coming out of
these cans. It’s just too bad that the apparent quality issues
concerning the durability of the headphones, combined with poor
synthetic and benchmark performance ,and the concern that LAN gamers
will have (software) will keep it from attaining a much higher score.
As you know with my reviews each item listed above is gauged at a
different value and certainly the aural ectasty helped keep these
headphones as my new favorite cans for the foreseeable future.

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