Xbox 360 PC headset adapters . . . ever use 'em?

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Aeooioio

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#1 Aeooioio
Member since 2010 • 25 Posts
I've been wanting an affordable headset for a while. But with all the stories about Microsoft headsets dying, I stayed away from them (and anything cheaper than them obviously). But in my search for cheap headset solutions, I came across something interesting . . . PC headset adapters! Turns out I can get an adapter that lets me chat, hear games, and do it all on a regular PC headset! Well s**t, I got a bunch of those already! Anyway, I've been Googling and searching forums for more first-hand info on these adapters . . . but I haven't had that much luck. So I figured I should just ask y'all if you've had any experience with them. These are the ones I've found so far: SteelSeries Xbox 360 Headset Connector Headset Buddy Xbox 360 PC Headset Adapter Kit for Game/Chat Sound Intec Xbox 360 Headset Adapter XJacker 1.0 Xbox 360 Headset Adapter If any of you guys have experience with these things, I'd appreciate hearing about it. Thanks!
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Aeooioio

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#2 Aeooioio
Member since 2010 • 25 Posts
Okay, quick update. I was looking at the customer comments on Amazon and NewEgg, and I found out a couple of interesting details about the Intec Xbox 360 headset adapter (sometimes labeled under the brand Datec). Apparently, it uses 2.5mm jacks so it won't work with a normal PC headset (at least not without an additional 3.5mm to 2.5mm adapter). On top of that, it's for chat only, so I can't actually hear the games through that. Don't know about any one else, but that pretty much kills it for me.
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IzzieWaru

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#3 IzzieWaru
Member since 2010 • 905 Posts

Okay, quick update. I was looking at the customer comments on Amazon and NewEgg, and I found out a couple of interesting details about the Intec Xbox 360 headset adapter (sometimes labeled under the brand Datec). Apparently, it uses 2.5mm jacks so it won't work with a normal PC headset (at least not without an additional 3.5mm to 2.5mm adapter). On top of that, it's for chat only, so I can't actually hear the games through that. Don't know about any one else, but that pretty much kills it for me.Aeooioio

I use this. The Intec adapter has nothing to do with adapting a PC headset to a 360 controller.

Regular Xbox headsets are for chat anyway, so it's not really a selling point. If your television has a headset plug you can buy another splitter for the headset and an extension cord and just plug it into the tv.

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Aeooioio

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#4 Aeooioio
Member since 2010 • 25 Posts
Hi again Izzie!

I use this. The Intec adapter has nothing to do with adapting a PC headset to a 360 controller.

IzzieWaru
Yeah, I'm beginning to see that about the Intec adapter. It came up in a Google search with all the others - and looked to fit the part - so I thought it might work. How's the Headset Buddy working out? Decent quality? Sounds okay?

Regular Xbox headsets are for chat anyway, so it's not really a selling point. If your television has a headset plug you can buy another splitter for the headset and an extension cord and just plug it into the tv.

IzzieWaru
Sure, I understand, but lemme [try to] explain my weird rationale here. I didn't feel comfortable about getting a typical xbox live headset because I've read more than a few posts about how horrid they are in terms of quality and durability, so if I did get an Xbox 360 headset, it'd probably a decent one starting in the $30 range at the very least right? And if I were willing to do that, the Turtle Beach XLC would be a contender, and that does support game sounds/audio through the headset. Then I find out that there are a bunch of adapters that let me do essentially what the Turtle Beach XLC does, but for a lot cheaper since I can leverage the PC headsets I already own. In fact, some of those adapters are so cheap that they cost less than the regular xbox 360 headsets that I was avoiding in the first place. So now I'm basically in a position of finding the most bang for my buck with these adapters. The only thing that really stops me from picking up one of these right now is the fact that I'm not sure about their functionality and quality. Do they really work? How well do they work? Do they tend to break easily? That kind of thing.
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Aeooioio

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#5 Aeooioio
Member since 2010 • 25 Posts

Anyone got any last minute input/suggestions for me? Gonna be making a decision and purchase later on tonight. Thanks!

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Aeooioio

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#6 Aeooioio
Member since 2010 • 25 Posts

Okay, so here's what I've found out:

Like Izzie said, the Intec Xbox 360 Headset Adapter (also sold under the brand Datel) has nothing to do with adapting PC headsets whatsoever. It doesn't even have the right jack for a PC headset (3.5mm) and only connects small cell/mobile headsets (2.5mm). Plus, even if it had the right connection, it still wouldn't have output game sounds and audio through my PC headset as its for chat/vox only. So that's a big fail on multiple levels - at least for me.

Likewise, the Headset Buddy Xbox 360 PC Headset Adapter Kit for Game/Chat Sound is a fail for me as the damn thing is $30! At that price, I wouldn't have saved any money at all by trying to use my own PC headset. I could've just gotten a Turtle Beach XLC headset for that price. They do make a $10 one that only does chat/vox, but then I wouldn't be able to hear games through my PC headset . . . so again, fail.

The SteelSeries Xbox 360 Headset Connector was very promising as it pretty much does exactly what I wanted. It would've let me chat and hear game audio all through my PC headset, so it was most definitely a contender. The price is $15 which is not great, but not too bad either.

And finally, the Xjacker 1.0 Xbox 360 Headset Adapter was also a contender since it does the same thing that the SteelSeries adapter does. It just does it with standard cables instead of the fancy-looking little box. It only costs $7 though, so that was a big plus as its less than half the price of the SteelSeries one.

I've also learned that I could just get a 3.5mm-to-2.5mm adapter and a 3.5mm-to-3.5mm extension cable from some place like Radio Shack and accomplish the same thing. But as it turns out, the cheapest that Radio Shack sells that adapter and cable for is $12 ($6 each). So from a price standpoint, the Xjacker still wins.

Based on all of that, I went for the Xjacker adapter. It was definitely the cheapest so it won in the "most-bang-for-the-buck" category. Not ashamed to say that I'm on tight budget atm so the price difference was a plus. And it seemed like they're using fairly standard connections so that if I ever stop Xboxing, I can also use them for other miscellaneous purposes. And not that it makes a huge difference, but the Xjacker has a longer warranty, but whatever.

So, thanks for the input Izzie! I'll pop back in here and let y'all know how it works out after it arrives.

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Aeooioio

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#7 Aeooioio
Member since 2010 • 25 Posts

Okay, so the Xjacker kit got here yesterday, but I didn't have time to test it out until this afternoon. I followed the included instruction sheet, got into a ground war game in MW2, and tried it out. Here's the lowdown so far:

It's a simple two-piece kit. The first piece is basically a 3.5mm-to-2.5mm stereo phono adapter so that I can plug my PC headset's mic into the Xbox 360 controller. I'm not sure why its a stereo adapter instead of a mono adapter (since all it does is facilitate the mic input). I suppose I'll just consider it a bonus that I have a stereo adapter so that I can also use it for other purposes. The second piece is a six foot long 3.5mm-to-3.5mm stereo phono cable. This was used to connect my PC headset's headphone plug into my stereo deck's headphone jack. I then redirected the chat to come through the headset as per the instructions, and that was all I needed to do.

Well I'm happy to report that it works just fine (yay for me since I hate returning things online)! I must've bugged a few people on my team with "can anyone hear me?" questions, but everyone said that they could hear me just fine. There was only one adjustment that I had to make - and that was to turn the game's volume down a bit so that it wouldn't drown out the chat. Once I got a good mix between the game volume and chat volume, I turned up the overall volume on my stereo and everything was perfect. The only part that sucked was my KDR as I haven't played MW2 for a couple of weeks, but that's a different story.

Overall, both the cable and the jack seem pretty standard. They seem like something Radio Shack would carry, nothing particularly special. But since the kit was cheaper than Ratshack (even with shipping), I still ended up saving money. Final verdict? Yes, I'd buy it again . . . and yes, I'd recommend it to others. Would I still buy it if I had $60 (or more) to spend on a Turtle Beach X11 (or better)? Maybe not. But having spent only $7 (plus shipping) to bring an old PC headset back to life on the Xbox 360? That's a no-brainer any day of the week.

If y'all got any questions, I'd be happy to answer them if I can.

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killev

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#8 killev
Member since 2010 • 657 Posts

xbox headsets are all cheap and not good. if u want a good badass headset try saving some money bacuse its gonna be costly. the best ones are turtle beach,skullcandy headsets for xbox or tritton (very costly) these headsets are perfect and looks royal lol

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shorteypants

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#9 shorteypants
Member since 2010 • 25 Posts

I currently have the Skullcandy G.I.'sand they came with an adapter to allow hookup to my TV (for in game sound);something quite like this,as well as a small adapter that converted the 3.5mm plug to a 2.5mm plug allowing it to fit into my X-box 360 controller;giving me both chat and in-game sound into the headset. However, what I am missing is volume control for Live chat; since the in-game sound blares over this. I was thinking of using the X-box 360 headset adapter that was claimed not to work with PC Headsets, since the voice chat would only be heard.

My included wiring (mentioned above) converts both, and since I have an 2.5mm adapter plug (just a straight-standard jack) it can fit into the X-box headset adapter but giving me volume control ( since; as you can see on the G.I.'s there is a volume controller along the wiring, but adjusts both chat and in-game, with in-game winning the lead for drowning out chat to a whisper). I didn't know; since you seem to have much more knowledge about this than I, if this would work, but I wanted to simply get your opinion before I spend more money (even if it is a mere $7) on something that will; in the end, become a cat toy (more by being stolen by the animal because lack of use than being bestowed to her).

Either way, if nothing is known as to the result of this I'll give it a try and report back on the outcome.


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Tsuyoi94

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#10 Tsuyoi94
Member since 2010 • 239 Posts

Im thinking about buying the TB EF X41 Dolby for 200$ but .. do i need to plug it in my tv to work ?... [i wanna hear both ingame and chat]

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Aeooioio

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#11 Aeooioio
Member since 2010 • 25 Posts

My included wiring (mentioned above) converts both, and since I have an 2.5mm adapter plug (just a straight-standard jack) it can fit into the X-box headset adapter but giving me volume control ( since; as you can see on the G.I.'s there is a volume controller along the wiring, but adjusts both chat and in-game, with in-game winning the lead for drowning out chat to a whisper). I didn't know; since you seem to have much more knowledge about this than I, if this would work, but I wanted to simply get your opinion before I spend more money (even if it is a mere $7) on something that will; in the end, become a cat toy (more by being stolen by the animal because lack of use than being bestowed to her).

Either way, if nothing is known as to the result of this I'll give it a try and report back on the outcome.shorteypants

Sorry for the delay in replying, but since a free GameSpot account doesn't have email notifications of replies, I had no idea. When I use my Xjacker kit, I adjust the game sounds to be lower in volume than the chat sounds so that I can get a good balance. The only drawback is that some games are kind of quiet as a result. But I know that Xjacker has come out with a new amped kit now. This lets people turn their in-game sound volume down, turn their chat volume up, and then amps the resulting mic so that everything is audible. Hope that helps.

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djg8tr22

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#12 djg8tr22
Member since 2010 • 25 Posts
You said in an earlier post something about Radio Shack having something similar to this? Is this true? I'm looking to get my adapter asap because I ordered a headset not knowing that it was a PC set. It got here today and I was pissed. The site said for Xbox360 and it clearly is not.
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Aeooioio

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#13 Aeooioio
Member since 2010 • 25 Posts

Yup, its true - at least I think it is. If I remember correctly, somewhere on Xjacker's site, they have a comparison page of sorts, and it lists the exact parts you'd need to get from Radio Shack to duplicate their solution. It also mentions that the Radio Shack parts cost more than their kit (which is probably why they listed it - to highlight their price point).