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Review: Plantronics GameCom x95 - Xbox 360 wireless headset

by Steven Williamson on 5 May 2011, 12:00 3.0

Tags: Plantronics (NYSE:PLT)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qa5sq

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Conclusion

The GameCom x95 isn’t going to blow you away in terms or performance and it may not catch your eye on the shelf due to its simplistic design and rather flimsy-looking build. Nonetheless, it’s very comfortable to wear, offers good battery life, decent sound performance and has a very strong feature in the ability to adjust game and chat volume independently. As the first wireless console headset from Plantronics there’s some good stuff to build on in the future for further entries in this particular area for the company. Priced at an affordable £50, it’s just about worth the money if you haven’t got the cash to fork out one of the higher-priced gaming headsets - and it certainly beats the hell out of the official wireless headset.




HEXUS Forums :: 1 Comment

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Your review is incorrect when it comes to using this unit with HDMI. There is no reason someone needs to use the Component cable in order to do this… especially if their Xbox 360 didn't ship with that cable, as most shipped with a Composite RCA L&R Audio + Video cable. Microsoft deliberately when out of their way to design the casings around those to be so extra large & bulk that they block the HDMI port… so that customers might then shell out the then $50 for an additional RCA & Toslink adapter to run w/ HDMI. But this is simply not necessary. Take a straight bladed screw driver, pry open along the seams of the Microsoft RCA composite cable and remove the bulky case. Cover the exposed metal if you like w/ electrical tape on the shielding but it's not necessary, and plug it into the Xbox 360 next to the HDMI cable.
You can then get game sound wirelessly from the headset.

Other options to use these with your PC / Laptop are as simple as using a 3.5mm male to 3.5mm male cable for sound & a 2.5mm female to 3.5mm male cable for the microphone.

Additionally, many receivers or modern TVS have RCA L&R audio outputs so you could skip the Xbox 360 controller tiny modification if you prefer and get the audio from the TV output. Or if it has a 3.5mm output w/ separate volume controllers that's even better.

Anyway for less than $5 in cables you can run this on every device, and IF you want to use them w/ the PS3 you need only buy a CHEAP USB sound device to allow you to input the microphone audio, which you would have to run a cord all the way to the headset. Makes this a VERY versatile device w/ small additional purchases.