Turtle Beach Battle Buds In-Ear Gaming Headset – Mobile & PC with 3.5mm, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, PlayStation – Lightweight, In-Line Controls, Black by Turtle Beach

I got tired of bringing out my full-sized over-the-ear headset and this seems to be a good alternative. After a week of using it, it has some flaws, but for $20, it’s actually quite good.

First, the cord is quite short. It may be fine for mobile use, but inadequate for PC use. It also has the TRRS plug that is popular on mobile but requires an adapter for the PC (which is NOT included!) Fortunately I have one of those adapters onhand (for my older headset) but it was STILL short. An additional 18-24 inch extension plus a PC Y-adapter should really be included, but were not.

Second, the volume control is a TINY slider. And it was noticeably heavier as it’s on one side. It should be down at the Y-juncture so the weight is distributed evenly, but then I guess it would not be a good place to act as a secondary microphone.

Third, the detachable boom microphone is both a blessing and a curse. While it’s nice that such an option is offered, it’s on the SAME SIDE as the controls, and that weighs down that side EVEN MORE! The whole thing’s just unbalanced, and the boom mic only made it worse.

The only retention mechanisms are the inner ear “wings” and the silicon earbud that you push into the ear canal. Given the weight on the left side with the boom mic and the control bud, my left side bud keeps falling out of my ear. NOT kidding. They really need some sort of a hook, a clip, or a magnet attachment or something to let us clip it to my shirt so it doesn’t “drag down” and threaten to make my earbud fall out of my ear every 15-30 minutes. A tougher “wing” for inside the ear may help, but it wasn’t offered. And yes, I used the largest wing available. Doesn’t help much.

With that said, noise isolation isn’t bad, and using it without the boom mic helps a little with the retention. And the sound is decent. I’m not an audiophile so I can’t tell you about the mids, lows and highs. I’ll just say they work fine while they stayed in my ears.

I would probably use a foam tip on the left side (the side with boom and controls) to help with the retention. It’s pretty good for its size and simplicity.

EDIT: I end up using foam tips on these (you can buy like 10 pairs on Amazon for like $7.00) and that helps with retention too. I no longer use the larger headset for the PC.

For a long time, I had been using a head-band style headset for video and conference calls. I prefer a single ear cup so I can hear my own voice with the other ear. Also, I prefer analog (3.5mm plug) rather than USB or wireless as it minimizes audio delay. I was getting tired of how the headband felt on long calls, and the way the headset looked bulky on video. I searched on Amazon and the Turtle Beach Battle Buds looked like a good solution, in fact the only good solution I could find. They come with many different sized ear tips and ear fins, but the default ones were immediately comfortable to me. By the way, you don’t need to use the ear fins at all if you don’t like them. The first thing I tested were the microphones. The pinhole mic built into the volume control was acceptable but not crisp. Then, I plugged in the boom mic, which is the main feature of these ear buds. It is fantastic! I couldn’t ask for anything better for the voice quality: crisp, detailed, natural. The ear bud audio quality for listening to voice is unremarkable in a good way… not boomy, not harsh… just right. I tested on music (which is not how I’ll be using these) and it is pleasing with good bass. Conference call audio from Teams, Zoom and others is monoaural by default, so I simply put in the left ear bud and leave the right one out: I get the one-ear config that I like so I can hear my own voice. I’ve been sitting here with the left ear bud and boom mic for about an hour now and I’m feeling no fatigue. Don’t let the gaming branding scare you off for using these for business purposes. The design is classy and subdued, the mic is great, the ear tips are comfortable, and I won’t look like Lobot from the Empire Strikes Back on my calls anymore. Thanks Turtle Beach!

Si lo tuyo no son los cascos de diadema clásicos gamer, esta es la alternativa perfecta. Ligeros, más cómodos de lo que pueden aparentar en un principio, con muy buen sonido y un micro de buena calidad, mejor que el de otros cascos gamer que he probado.

Deze klinken prima, maar ook vooral de mic is verrassend goed! In vergelijking, dit klinkt net zo goed als met de standaard chat headset van de Xbox One/Series.

Over the ear does not do it for me. It is too hot. The band across the top of my head is real. I literally have a valley now. Earbuds are the logical solution, but noting really did it for me thus far. Microphone quality suffered. Not anymore.

The mic quality here is excellent. It isn’t studio quality, but I get good compliments in DayZ or Rust. I use the mic in conjunction with Nvidia Broadcast for noise cancelation. These have decent isolation, but I ham in a noisy environment and no raw mic can drowned out everything around me. The mic is amazing.

The sound quality is good. You get decent directional audio, but not what you would get in a good over the ear set up. It is more than I need and I can tell where enemies are coming from along with gun shots. The bass is good, the highs are good, the mids are decent.

It all comes down to fit here. If you don’t get a good fit, you won’t get good sound. I use the largest tips with the smallest wings. I do not need to push the buds in far. They seal outside of my canal. Sound was fairly terrible with no passive cancellation when using the smaller tips and pushing them in the canal. I get absolutely no fatigue and the buds stay in place until I want to remove them. I can do 10 hour sessions no problem. I can’t say that everyone will have the same fit as we all have different ears.

I highly recommend. Nothing comes close to these at 20-30$. These have spent a lot of time at 19.99 and 29.99.