Track Scan has sent us the Vibras Five.One surround sound headphones, licensed to work with the Xbox 360 live, delivering Dolby digital sound to your ears The headphones are pretty simple to set up, run the power line and the optical wire from the Xbox or LCD to the decoder box. The Decoder box has a display showing you the volume settings and below that are 5 buttons in the middle: 1 reset, 1 mute, 1 volume (overall), 1 center adjust, and 1 sub adjust. The headset, which is very lightweight, has a total of 10 speakers, five speakers in each cup and has a mic. that plugs directly into the left cup and the Xbox controller (2.5mm connection). The inline amp for the Mic. has a volume control and a mute switch. Your also are able to use it for VOIP applications thru your Xbox.
What's in the box:
- 5.1 Surround sound headphones
- 5.1 Digital decoder box
- Microphone with in-line amplifier box 4ft
- Optical fiber cable 9.8 ft
- Power supply 9.8 ft
- Headphone ear pads one set L/R
VS. Tritton: I recently reviewed another 5.1 surround sound headphones, called the Tritton AX 720 and decided to compare the two to see what would be the best bang for your buck. They both give you great sound, with the Five.One slightly above the Tritton. The key points of contrast are appearance, weight, price, and comfort. First, on appearance, The Tritton AX720 gives you a heavy duty look, yes it is bulky, but it gives you that DJ feel. The Five.One has a small plastic frame that honestly doesn't look appealing. Second, the weight, the Tritton weighs a lot; it will weight your head down quiet a bit. The Five.One is a bit lighter even with the AAA batteries inside. Third, the price difference is major, Tritton ask for at most $180.00 while the Five.One asks for $249.00. Last, the comfort, even though the Trittons are heavy they are well padded with a nice layer of foam all over. The Five.One is much lighter and has a stock thin layer of foam on the ear pads. IMO I have to go with the Tritton, the foam doesn't itch my ears and I don't have to pay the price of a whole new Xbox to get them.
The Bang:
The sound quality was pretty good for watching movies. Once you set the Xbox audio settings, the gaming sound quality is even better. The flex in the mic was easily adjustable and easy to remove, when not needed. It was very easy to setup and plug all together.
The Slack:
The actual headphone wires were very short. I had to put the decoder box on the coffee table and sit close to play. Also I feel that there are just too many wires floating around. The 9.8 ft Optical cable and the power supply wires were annoying plus the extra mic line to the controller drove me nuts. In order to power the inline mic/amp I needed 2 AAA batteries which was ok at first but then started to weigh my head down as I continued to game play. The headphones also look like something you would buy at the 99 cent store. Track Scan makes pretty good Racing headphones, for pit crews. I definitely think they should continue with that. The racing headphones are wireless…uh why didn't you go wireless with the gaming one? I felt like a telephone pole with all the lines running around me. The foam pads are terrible; past 20 min. my ears started itching.
The Vibras Five.One Headphones have good 5.1 surround sound. The draw backs are many: the amount of wires, the price, the look, comfort and the 2 AAA batteries did deter me. In the end, if I were to rate this on sound quality alone I'd give it a 3.75 but ,overall the Vibras Five.One gets a TOV 2 out of 5 just making me feel hardwired with a wireless controller!!!