It doesn't add background noise canceling to your speech, so if you're calling out orders in a game, background noise will persist until you stop talking. (If you hate the idea of automatic muting and want your friends to hear every noise in your home at all times, you can disable this feature via the Xbox Accessories app within Xbox consoles and Windows 10 PCs.) Advertisement Building this monitoring into a headset's firmware, as opposed to voice-chat apps like Discord flatly watching your decibel level, is a far more effective control for background noise, and anyone who wants such fine-tuned control in their Xbox or Windows 10 voice chat of choice might want to put XWH at the top of their purchase list for that perk alone. The XWH's dual-mic array constantly weighs the difference between background noise and up-close speech activation and does a pretty phenomenal job managing the difference. With a podcast playing from a smartphone's speaker 6 feet away, the behavior worked the same. Whenever I interrupted that silence with random, low-volume speech, it woke instantly without losing nary a syllable. I left it recording during average breathing without it triggering once. The mic has two behaviors: waiting between 3-5 seconds after speaking loudly to mute itself, and waiting between 1-2 seconds if it's awoken by a loud sniff or sigh.
I synced the XWH to my Windows 10 PC and ran a few audio recording apps to verify how this firmware-level default works, while leaving the slightly bendy, 9cm microphone in its default "hovering near my left cheek" position. What's more, in my tests so far, it appears to be very well-engineered. The other unique aspect to these headphones, and one I haven't seen in other Microsoft-branded headphones, is an automatic mic-mute option built in on the firmware level. (The chat-balance dial also apparently doesn't work on Windows 10, which is a shame.) Impressive first-gen mic Additionally, the chat balance wheel doesn't natively let you adjust volume between your Xbox source and your Bluetooth one you'll need to manually adjust Bluetooth volume via its device controls. This is my ideal use case, but if you're trying to keep your mic on with your native Xbox "party" while also calling Domino's via Bluetooth, you've been warned: the pizza (or your Discord posse) will be prioritized over any native Xbox voice-chat option. Podcasts, white noise generators, whatever: route that audio directly to your XWH.Īdditionally, when your Bluetooth device demands microphone control, either via a phone call or a voice-chat app like Discord, it takes priority. XWH opens this use case up widely by letting you turn on any arbitrary app on your Bluetooth device. Xbox consoles natively support third-party multimedia apps for the sake of background audio, which is great when you want to turn on preferred tunes while playing a game. And the XWH handles this nimbly, at least in my initial testing. It's certainly more convenient than having to tap the "Xbox" button, joystick through menus, and adjust headset volume and chat balance that way.īut the best reason for this option is that you can have one Bluetooth device and one Xbox device connected simultaneously. Both dials feel robust to turn on the fly, and the chat dial offers a clicky, nicely engineered "equal balance" position in the center. The left-hand dial controls "chat balance" to either emphasize in-game audio or voice chat. The right-hand dial offers "master" volume control as synced with your Xbox. Once synced this way, XWH users get access to two convenient volume dials, as braced on its outer earcups. Unlike many of those, the XWH adds a nifty hardware option. You'll find the same built-in 2.4GHz option in other Xbox-compatible headsets. Otherwise, you'll sync via Bluetooth, which works identically, and MS does a clever job having its sync button hunt for 2.4GHz signals and Bluetooth ones simultaneously.) (Same goes for Windows 10 PCs, should you own an Xbox Wireless Adapter. If you own any Xbox console dating from 2013's Xbox One to today's Xbox Series X/S, you can sync this headset the same way you sync a wireless controller. The XWH includes built-in compatibility with the 2.4GHz wireless protocol exclusive to Xbox consoles and accessories-arguably a clearer and more stable connection option than Bluetooth, depending on your ideal gaming room. I'll start with the Xbox-specific stuff, because this $99 headset isn't just a matter of repurposing existing headphones with neon-green accents. (Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.)
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