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Straight from the start of testing, I noticed just how comfortable the Ear Force Spectre headset was to wear. Prior to using Turtle Beach's unit, I had almost succumbed to the fact that high-end gaming headsets are uncomfortable beasts. By using a solid, but flexible, frame for the headset, Turtle Beach has ensured that the Ear Force Spectre does not clamp tightly against one's ears or head.
Despite its 353g mass (without the 3m-long main cable attached), the Ear Force Spectre is very easy to handle and fits securely, with comfort.
The cloth-covered, foam headband provides an impact-absorbing surface that allows the Ear Force Spectre to rest comfortably on a gamer's head. It is easy to feel that much of the unit's weight has been distributed through the ear cups, but thanks to their large openings, a user's ears can sit comfortably inside the gaps without being crushed by the circa-350g load.
While the ear cups' leather material may improve noise insulation performance, they don't allow one's ears to remain cool as easily as the cloth alternative does. I didn't suffer any major discomforts in regards to warm ears, although I did welcome a short cooling break after a respectable period of time. The ‘cool ear' trait is likely related to the headset's effective weight distribution design that ensures a gamer's ears aren't compressed tightly against their head.
Throughout testing, Turtle Beach's Ear Force Spectre headset impressed me with its gaming performance. The first trait that caught my attention was the powerful bass that punching through the 50mm drivers without distortion. Using heavy machine guns in Battlefield 3 resulted in a thunderous, low-pitch output, the quality of which was as good as any other headset that I have personally used.
Being a stereo headset, the unit's directional output was surprisingly good. Although the unit's ability to accurately reproduce directional sound was not as good as what a virtual surround sound unit could offer, bullets and vehicles did have a direction to their audio source, even if it wasn't completely accurate.
The Ear Force Spectre's ability to portray a difference between audio pitches and sound effects was good. During testing, I found it very easy to differentiate between small arms fire, assault rifles, and heavy weaponry. Battlefield 3's deep bass and high-pitched alarm squeal that is output by a weakened tank came across the Ear Force Spectre in a clear, distortion-free manner.
Grand Theft Auto V's diverse soundtrack presented a good test for the Ear Force Spectre. I had no problems configuring the headset for use with an Xbox 360 HDMI model; the red and white RCA jacks plugged into the 360's break-out audio connector and converted the port to a 3.5mm female jack.
Turtle Beach's headset performed very well with Grand Theft Auto V. The in-line amp provided a quick and easy method for adjusting bass and treble levels. This is especially convenient in games such as Grand Theft Auto where dialogue is rapidly superseded by intense gunfights or car chases.
Music playback didn't present any issues for the Ear Force Spectre headset. Just as the headset had presented during gaming tests, its ability to deliver a variety of tones and pitches, simultaneously, was effective.
If you like to listen to music, or game, in a noisy atmosphere, the Turtle Beach Ear Force Spectre headset can be used to deliver loud playback. I connected the unit to a system running Metro: Last Light without knowing that the volume was set to 100%; needless to say, I rapidly clutched the headset away from my ears to save them from unintentional pain.
Performance remained very good right up until the headset's maximum volume level. As this point approached, the unit's ability to differentiate between a variety of sounds and effects decreased, but this is to be expected, to a certain extent.
Using a solid piece of material (sporting the Turtle Beach logo) to block out ambient noise in a specific direction, the Ear Force Spectre's ultra-flexible microphone did a good job in relaying my voice output while keeping background transmission to a minimum. Those on the other end of communications passed positive comments on the quality of speech transmission.
While the Ear Force Spectre's overall performance is good, its noise insulation is not strong. The leather-covered ear cups did little to dampen background noise. At times, certain frequencies actually seemed to be slightly amplified by the headset's plastic frame. Noise insulation is an area where the Ear Force Spectre could use some improvement.
