Hip Gear Live Headset

Added May 3rd, 2005 by Caspel

Currently there aren’t too many Xbox Live headsets available on the Xbox. You have the official headsets that come with the Xbox Live starter kits; the official Halo 2 Plantronics headset; and a few headset/controller combos. The limited amount of headsets available means the market for the best headset is still open for competitors to enter the fray. Well, Hip Gear has decided to test the waters with their own headset, so let’s see how it fares against the competition.

The Hip Gear Live Headset is similar in looks to your standard Xbox Live headset that comes with the Starter kit, but it has some new elements added in to separate it from the competition. The headset is an all-in-one headset. The microphone, the adapter, and the volume control are all built together and aren’t separable. This right away may be a problem for those who break their headsets easily due to frustration or accidents. It might even be easier to break this headset due to its flimsy design. Be forewarned, you will want to be very careful with this headset.

The volume control is built right into the cord rather than the adapter or headset. It seems like it would be easy to find, but sometimes is a little more aggravating than the standard headsets in terms of volume control. The cord from the adapter to the headset is six feet long so that is a plus for those who need length in order to keep it untangled. The funny thing though is that many will find that with the excess cord that it actually may be easier to tangle up than usual. I personally prefer shorter cords for my headsets so there isn’t any confusion as to which cord goes where when untangling them all.

The sound and audio is superb with the headset, but oftentimes picks up too much. I often found players asking me to move the microphone away from my head so they didn’t hear me breathe. As you can see (or hear), the microphone’s biggest strength may be its biggest weakness with too much background noises being picked up. The echoing from the television to the headset will result in comments about turning your television down and that isn’t something many are going to be willing to do. So while the sound is great, it still picks up the pin drops that shouldn’t be heard for the sake of other players.

Now, it’s time for the testing. I wanted to make sure that it would be a viable choice for several games. So, the past week I have tested the Hip Gear Live Headset on Phantom Dust, Halo 2, Dead or Alive Ultimate, Project Gotham Racing 2, and ESPN NFL 2k5. Would the headset continue to impress me or does it fall below average? Check out my impressions and experiences with the headset.

Phantom Dust:
I started off with Phantom Dust. With first impressions always being the lasting memory for many, the Hip Gear Live Headset did its job with clarity and the ability to hear the other players. No problems found or encountered.

Halo 2:
With Halo 2, I have had a few problems in the past with my other headsets that occur once every so often. The problem some may know of as ‘echoing’ but I am sure many have encountered this in the past before. When players have voices coming through their television, this is when echoing usually occurs. Most all headsets pick up the voices and sound effects right through the television and play it back through to other players. For the Hip Gear Live Headset though, it’s doubled over as it picks up too much for its own good. I had to turn down my television and was unable to have the full Halo 2 experience due to the echoing. If you have no problems with players getting mad with echoing, then there really isn’t any problem you’ll encounter while playing Halo 2.

Dead or Alive Ultimate:
After playing through Halo 2 multiplayer online, I thought to myself, what game could really test the limits of this headset? Well, it was a no-brainer as many have come to the conclusion that DOAU is one of the hardest games on Xbox Live to play due to lag and many issues that haven’t been addressed. With the headset, it didn’t improve the voice communication between my opponents. It would break up every 3-4 minutes and I would have to take out the headset and reinsert it back into the controller.

Project Gotham Racing 2:
With Project Gotham Racing 2 being such a popular game online, I had to try it out with the headset. Just like when I played Phantom Dust, it had smooth communication all the way through. Glad to see it provides good communication with such a fast game.

ESPN NFL 2K5:
This was my last choice to test it on and the reason behind picking it was that this game has stellar online play. My overall reaction to using it while playing ESPN is that it still captured the game experience. No hiccups with voice communication on my end or the opponents were noticed.

The Hip Gear Live Headset does its job with providing a nice alternative if you have came across problems with other headsets. At $24.99 USD, it’s not a real killer on the pocketbook. Sadly though, this headset will be broken in no time for the careless ones. Again, I recommend you be careful with this headset. If you are in the market for a new headset, pick this one up and give it a go.