Turtle Beach Recon 70 Gaming Headset Measurements and Review

Discussion in 'Headphone Measurements' started by purr1n, May 22, 2021.

  1. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    In a big stash of gaming headphones, these were pointed out to me as the ones which were the worst. So I figured I'd start with these. In the coming weeks, I plan on covering a bunch of gaming headsets with microphones to add to this initial review. Some aren't too shabby.

    Turtle Beach Recon 70 Frequency Response
    EARS miniDSP
    upload_2021-5-22_15-47-55.png

    These headphones were very difficult for me to get consistent results with. I was able to get a better seal a few days ago, but it seems that I could not replicate the result today no matter how hard I tried. I spent maybe 20 minutes readjusting, fluffling the pads, but I could not get better bass extension than this.

    Here is a photo of of the earcup, swivel mechanism, and part of the headband. The construction is cheap but serviceable. I have no idea of the robustness of the design, only time will tell. For $40, that's what we are gonna get through. I was able to get my ears just into the cups. My ears touch a bit so it's slightly uncomfortable, but not overbearingly so. Those with larger ears should definitely skip this model. It looks look like Turtle Beach has won the race to the bottom. I thought they were supposed to be a high-end brand, but that was 25 years ago.

    DSC00258(1) (Medium).JPG
     
    Last edited: May 22, 2021
  2. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Turtle Beach Recon 70 Frequency Response
    Flat Plate Coupler
    upload_2021-5-22_16-35-19.png

    Turtle Beach Recon 70 CSDs
    FPC TB L CSD.jpg
    FPC TB R CSD.jpg

    LOL, does that CSD remind you (sort of) of another headphone? Hint: dip at 4kHz starting from mids with a sudden rise at around 6kHz
     
    Last edited: May 22, 2021
  3. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Turtle Beach Recon 70 Distortion
    upload_2021-5-22_17-20-42.png
    Note: D3 200Hz spike looks like it's a measurement artifact.

    Distortion in the lows doesn't look too bad, not as bad as I expected. This could be because the it's a closed headphone which is sealed close to the ear. The driver doesn't have to work as hard as open headphones with respect to excursion. Then again, this headphone does roll off in the lows rather early starting as far up as the lower mids. It is noteworthy that that third harmonic rises slightly more with volume than the second harmonic. There are some distortion spikes in the upper mids.
     
  4. Lyander

    Lyander Official SBAF Equitable Empathizer

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    Wouldn't happen to be the original, unmodded HD800? Just with less of a prominence and (looking up the original's measurements) more persistent ringing in a narrow band? Kinda looks like Focal razors to me with how high-Q they are— might sizzle a bit, 5kHz aaaargh.

    Not much experience with gaming headsets overall but it does seem to me that most of them do put a token amount of effort into bass quality at least, which I can see justification for based on demographic. How much does the bass timbre remind you of the MDR-Z1R? :p If this is the worst of them then I can definitely see some of the stash being none too shabby, haha.
     
  5. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Yes, it's HD800 like in the mids to highs. That hardness and glarey is familiar. The good thing is that the characteristics aren't as extreme as that of the HD800, hence this makes the Recon 70 more listenable - or maybe I've set very low expectations for a $40 product.

    The bass is thick and indistinct, not horribad. I think it's because there isn't much bass to hear because of the rolloff. In this way, it does remind me of the MDR-Z1. However, the Recon 70's bass isn't anymore as slammin' and dynamic. It's not just lower amplitude, but the Recon 70 sounds reticent.

    All in all, $40 ain't bad if you have small ears and are looking for something functional. The frequency response isn't perfect, but it's livable for Minecraft. The Recon 70 doesn't scale at all on better gear, but it was never meant to be run from $5k tube amps. The headstage is decent, but technicalities aren't good enough for use a headphone for immersive gameplay.

    I'll skip the burst attack and decay envelope measurements for these gaming sets. However, I will provide an experimental microphone response plot:

    Turtle Beach Recon 70
    Microphone Response (experimental)
    upload_2021-6-4_21-53-45.png

    More gaming headsets on the way...
     
    Last edited: Jun 4, 2021
  6. Lyander

    Lyander Official SBAF Equitable Empathizer

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    Haha, the less skilled lovechild of an HD800's highs and a Z1R's bass? Sign me up! Sounds about fine for $40 IMO but the $115 I'm seeing it for locally makes me just about dislocated my jaw. Might have to warn friends off this....

    This mic FR makes perfect sense with how painfully shrill I hear many people on co-op games. Yikes.
     
  7. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Yikes, $115 is too much for these. They are $39.95 at Amazon. They are even Amazon's Choice LOL! I guess some stuff is way expensive where you are. Well, I'll hit about six more headsets soon! Maybe one will be at good price locally.

    Final obligatory photo showing microphone:
    DSC00514 (Medium).JPG
     
    Last edited: May 23, 2021
  8. Cspirou

    Cspirou They call me Sparky

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    Thanks. This is an excellent service.

    Are the Sennheiser PC38X in the queue?
     
  9. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Yes. The PC38X is on order. There is an Epos/Senn and also an older PC37X, among many others.
     
  10. zerodeefex

    zerodeefex SBAF's Imelda Marcos

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    Only gaming headphone for me is the SR1A now.
     
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  11. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    Do you attach an antlion modmic to the Raal somehow?
     
  12. zerodeefex

    zerodeefex SBAF's Imelda Marcos

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    What kind of animal do you think I am? I use a Yeti on a boom arm with a pop filter and shock mount.
     
  13. Riotvan

    Riotvan Snoofer in the Woofer

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    What a gamer!
     
  14. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    What, no Shure MV7?
     
  15. zerodeefex

    zerodeefex SBAF's Imelda Marcos

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    Had the yeti for years. It was $70 on sale many moons ago.
     
  16. Emojiless

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    How does it best the HD800?
     
  17. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    My son will be doing a set of short videos for each of these gaming headsets where he will rank them on several subjective attributes:

     

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