Turtle Beach Elite Pro 2 is a followup to one of my favorite headsets

Up until recently, the headset I used the most often while playing games was the Turtle Beach Elite Pro. I liked the PC Edition, which plugged directly into the PC with a USB cable. But I had to stop using mine because I damaged the microphone jack, which created some loud static when I would try to record something or talk to people on Discord. So I was looking forward to the inevitable Elite Pro 2, which Turtle Beach has just announced.

The Turtle Beach Elite Pro 2 is launching with the company’s SuperAmp Pro system for $250, and it will have models for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 (both of which should work fine on PC). The package debuts September 16 in North America and October 8 in other territories.

The Elite Pro 2 looks similar to the original, so it should have a comfortable fit with 50mm audio drivers and some decent materials. The SuperAmp is an external control port where you can adjust your volume. This dongle uses the built-in support for Windows Sonic for Headphones on Xbox One and DTS Headphone:X 7.1 on PS4. Turtle Beach also has its Audio Hub mobile app that can connect to the SuperAmp and provide extra controls and features.

But I’m worried that this is not the headset I’m looking for because of the microphone. In its press release, Turtle Beach promises to include a “removable high-sensitivity mic with TruSpeak.” That’s probably great for communications, but the reason I used the Elite Pro so much was because of its optional noise-cancelling hypercardioid microphone that it sold separately for $20.

That microphone took the the Elite Pro from a headset with a decent microphone to one that I used to record podcasts and videos for YouTube. It was so nice because I could just put on the headset without having to set up my microphone and headphones.

Here’s my playlist of microphone tests, and only the dedicated Blue Yeti and similar devices compare to the Turtle Beach Elite Pro headset with its Noise-Cancelling Microphone.

But Turtle Beach does does not have a noise-cancelling microphone for the Elite Pro 2, and it doesn’t plan to make one either. I’m sure that it fell victim to appealing to an audience of just me, but I wonder if Turtle Beach is missing an opportunity here by appealing directly to the growing market of aspirational content creators. Of course, that could draw resources away from esports, which is the audience that butters Turtle Beach’s bread.

Still, I’ll try the Elite Pro 2 and SuperAmp at some point. Maybe the included mic is good enough. If it’s not, I’ll go out and get another Elite Pro PC Edition or maybe the Sennheiser PC373D.