Turtle Beach Impact 700 Mechanical Keyboard Review: The Sweet Spot?

[ubercake]

Turtle beach was known for Sound Cards not headsets. Now they are known for headsets, and not very good ones at that.

I pitty the fool that buys this over a Steelseries.

It's been a long while since Turtle Beach has been a real competitor in the sound card market (1990s and early 2000s?). This is why I don't think they're even known for sound cards any longer.

 

[ubercake]

ha.. mine is a headset.. thought I needed to chat while gaming.. the setup is kinda redundant.. with my soundblaster z, both want to power the mike.. thing is the sound is better through my speakers.. than the phones.. a few war type games you do need a headset.. I had found .. your kinda a dork not being able to chat..

Let's face it... We're all dorks if we're chatting through a PC. Nothing wrong with being a dork.

 

[zthomas]

Turtle beach was known for Sound Cards not headsets. Now they are known for headsets, and not very good ones at that.

I pitty the fool that buys this over a Steelseries.

It's been a long while since Turtle Beach has been a real competitor in the sound card market (1990s and early 2000s?). This is why I don't think they're even known for sound cards any longer.

I looked up steelseries.. your saying they are good eh?.. I never knew about turtle beach being a sound card manufacturer Sound blaster were always my favorite .. the z series is made for the enhancement of headsets.. turtle tried to be all in one. I have to admit I had burned out my first blaster card.. and got talked into using a basic card from the folks that had built my custom puter.. I mean basic.. I guess I found out about turtle beach after searching headsets on amazon.. placed the headset in my favorite list.. the set would have been perfect with the basic card.. but of course I had upgrade.. back to a better blaster card.. ahhh

 

[gondo]

Back in the 90's early 2000's Turtle Beach were known for their high end sound cards. The Voyetra. Now the sound card is dead. A lot more people are starting to turn to USB DACs.

I know a lot of people who owned Turtle Beach headsets for their PC or Console. They don't last and are expensive. Personally I'd rather a USB DAC, headphones with replacable cable, and a Samson or Blue Snowball Microphone. Throw the mic into a suspension and mounting arm and you have yourself a little broadcast studio. All for the price of a high end headset and it should last way longer than the headset.

$200 for a basic no frills keyboard is crazy. You can buy other cherry red keyboards for under $90, the Steelseries Apex M500 being the one I had in mind specifically. Better than the Turtle Beach and less than half the price.

 

[jimmysmitty]

Back in the 90's early 2000's Turtle Beach were known for their high end sound cards. The Voyetra. Now the sound card is dead. A lot more people are starting to turn to USB DACs.

I know a lot of people who owned Turtle Beach headsets for their PC or Console. They don't last and are expensive. Personally I'd rather a USB DAC, headphones with replacable cable, and a Samson or Blue Snowball Microphone. Throw the mic into a suspension and mounting arm and you have yourself a little broadcast studio. All for the price of a high end headset and it should last way longer than the headset.

$200 for a basic no frills keyboard is crazy. You can buy other cherry red keyboards for under $90, the Steelseries Apex M500 being the one I had in mind specifically. Better than the Turtle Beach and less than half the price.

I still prefer 3.5mm. I have a SB Z and it sounds fantastic. No need for a USB DAC. Was considering the Asus high end headset that uses the USB for power only and has 3.5mm for sound and mic.

And it is not just that there is better for half the price but in this price bracket there is vastly better. In fact I can't think of any other keyboards at this price that I would even consider buying.

 

[gondo]

Back in the 90's early 2000's Turtle Beach were known for their high end sound cards. The Voyetra. Now the sound card is dead. A lot more people are starting to turn to USB DACs.

I know a lot of people who owned Turtle Beach headsets for their PC or Console. They don't last and are expensive. Personally I'd rather a USB DAC, headphones with replacable cable, and a Samson or Blue Snowball Microphone. Throw the mic into a suspension and mounting arm and you have yourself a little broadcast studio. All for the price of a high end headset and it should last way longer than the headset.

$200 for a basic no frills keyboard is crazy. You can buy other cherry red keyboards for under $90, the Steelseries Apex M500 being the one I had in mind specifically. Better than the Turtle Beach and less than half the price.

I still prefer 3.5mm. I have a SB Z and it sounds fantastic. No need for a USB DAC. Was considering the Asus high end headset that uses the USB for power only and has 3.5mm for sound and mic.

And it is not just that there is better for half the price but in this price bracket there is vastly better. In fact I can't think of any other keyboards at this price that I would even consider buying.

You need to watch it. A 3.5mm mic can sound good. Something like a modmic is great. But you can get hiss. It isn't silent like a USB mic. And as far as preferring 3.5mm over USB for sound...a USB dac is 3.5mm. The USB DAC just gets the digital audio from the computer, then you plug in your 3.5mm headphones, stereo system through RCA, SPDIF. Whatever you desire.

The only advantage to a soundcard is the virtual surround sound for headphones. You can use Razer Surround and get the same effect with a DAC. A $100 DAC will sound better than a $300 soundcard, and it's more convenient. Plug and play, lasts longer, and can be transported to other computers, laptops, tablets, phones, etc... And I have switches on my DAC, I can just hit it to switch from headphones to home theater. Sound cards can't do that.

Headsets have a USB DAC, and headphones all bundled into one piece of plastic. DAC breaks you loose the whole thing. Headphones break, again gotta replace everything. having a DAC allows you to buy studio headphones that last the rest of your life and sound better than any $300 headset you can throw at it.

 

[jimmysmitty]

Back in the 90's early 2000's Turtle Beach were known for their high end sound cards. The Voyetra. Now the sound card is dead. A lot more people are starting to turn to USB DACs.

I know a lot of people who owned Turtle Beach headsets for their PC or Console. They don't last and are expensive. Personally I'd rather a USB DAC, headphones with replacable cable, and a Samson or Blue Snowball Microphone. Throw the mic into a suspension and mounting arm and you have yourself a little broadcast studio. All for the price of a high end headset and it should last way longer than the headset.

$200 for a basic no frills keyboard is crazy. You can buy other cherry red keyboards for under $90, the Steelseries Apex M500 being the one I had in mind specifically. Better than the Turtle Beach and less than half the price.

I still prefer 3.5mm. I have a SB Z and it sounds fantastic. No need for a USB DAC. Was considering the Asus high end headset that uses the USB for power only and has 3.5mm for sound and mic.

And it is not just that there is better for half the price but in this price bracket there is vastly better. In fact I can't think of any other keyboards at this price that I would even consider buying.

You need to watch it. A 3.5mm mic can sound good. Something like a modmic is great. But you can get hiss. It isn't silent like a USB mic. And as far as preferring 3.5mm over USB for sound...a USB dac is 3.5mm. The USB DAC just gets the digital audio from the computer, then you plug in your 3.5mm headphones, stereo system through RCA, SPDIF. Whatever you desire.

The only advantage to a soundcard is the virtual surround sound for headphones. You can use Razer Surround and get the same effect with a DAC. A $100 DAC will sound better than a $300 soundcard, and it's more convenient. Plug and play, lasts longer, and can be transported to other computers, laptops, tablets, phones, etc... And I have switches on my DAC, I can just hit it to switch from headphones to home theater. Sound cards can't do that.

Headsets have a USB DAC, and headphones all bundled into one piece of plastic. DAC breaks you loose the whole thing. Headphones break, again gotta replace everything. having a DAC allows you to buy studio headphones that last the rest of your life and sound better than any $300 headset you can throw at it.

You haven't seen the new SoundBlaster Z have you? I can switch between my headphones and speakers on my desktop in the software, it has a dedicated headphone jack that can push 600Ohm. That is the same thing with a USB DAC.

Again it is a personal preference and is beyond the topic of this article it was just my opinion on that specifically.

 

[gondo]

Many motherboards have a 600ohm headphone amp on it. Not a big deal. One advantage a soundcard has going for it is the dolby digital decoding so you can plug a surround sound speaker set directly in. A dac is only stereo sound unless it has SPDIF passthrough to connect to a home theater receiver. hor headphone use, a DAC will be superior to even the Soundblaster ZxR. And no drivers and software to deal with.

 

[jimmysmitty]

Many motherboards have a 600ohm headphone amp on it. Not a big deal. One advantage a soundcard has going for it is the dolby digital decoding so you can plug a surround sound speaker set directly in. A dac is only stereo sound unless it has SPDIF passthrough to connect to a home theater receiver. hor headphone use, a DAC will be superior to even the Soundblaster ZxR. And no drivers and software to deal with.

You just said a DAC is only stereo sound unless it has a SPDIF so how would it be superior to the ZxR? Do you have any real numbers and facts to back it up or are you using your personal preference?

 

[gondo]

Well it depends on the DAC. Some arn't that great, some have awesome specs. 32bit 320khz audio. Soundcards only go to 24bit 192khz. Just the quality of the DAC chip itself is usually superior. But DACs are designed for stereo sound for headphones for PC use. If you need surround sound like a set of Logitech Z speakers with triple 3.5mm plugs your better off with a soundcard.

 

[zthomas]

Many motherboards have a 600ohm headphone amp on it. Not a big deal. One advantage a soundcard has going for it is the dolby digital decoding so you can plug a surround sound speaker set directly in. A dac is only stereo sound unless it has SPDIF passthrough to connect to a home theater receiver. hor headphone use, a DAC will be superior to even the Soundblaster ZxR. And no drivers and software to deal with.

dang next time my z soundblaster fames out.. I will look into a DAC.. I got powered speakers with a sub hooked in to play pandora from the puter.. these speakers sound better than earphones.. have had many compliments. I searched high and low for the best sounding computer speakers. APERION beat them all hands down..

 

[gondo]

Many motherboards have a 600ohm headphone amp on it. Not a big deal. One advantage a soundcard has going for it is the dolby digital decoding so you can plug a surround sound speaker set directly in. A dac is only stereo sound unless it has SPDIF passthrough to connect to a home theater receiver. hor headphone use, a DAC will be superior to even the Soundblaster ZxR. And no drivers and software to deal with.

dang next time my z soundblaster fames out.. I will look into a DAC.. I got powered speakers with a sub hooked in to play pandora from the puter.. these speakers sound better than earphones.. have had many compliments. I searched high and low for the best sounding computer speakers. APERION beat them all hands down..

Dedicated DACs are nothing new in the hifi audio enthusiat market. But with PCs they are just starting to gain ground. Gamers are starting to become aware of their existance. They are very simple and basically just turning the digital into analog sound....no alteration or coloring or options involved. So they are cheap. All the EQ and effects happen in software which is what makes a soundcard more expensive. It's all in the software. For a DAC just use the EQ in winamp or foobar, and for gaming using a virtual surround sound for headphones such as Razer Surround. No fancy headsets, motherboards, or soundcards required, and it'll sound just as good or better, for cheaper.

Sorry for hijacking the Turtlebeach keyboard is overpriced thread and turning it into a DAC thread. Blame turtle beach for not taking over the sound card market years ago when they had the chance.