There’s something very attractive about Tritton headsets that’s rather hard to place. While I’ve been a long-term user of the Turtle Beach X11s as an all-purpose headset, a set of Trittons definitely seems to ooze ‘made for gaming’ in every part of its being. Perhaps it’s the aesthetic of Tritton’s range that does the trick, with a general theme of not looking unlike a flight headset from an Apache helicopter, and the Detonator doesn’t break this trend – for the self-conscious gamer, it’s hard to do better if style is a deciding factor.
The Detonator is also fairly comfortable, and while its adjusting measures aren’t the best, it definitely slips onto the head pleasantly. In fact, as far as the exterior goes, I enjoyed the Detonator more than every headset I’ve tried, from its untangly wires to its slick backlit volume controls.
However, it’s still true these should be peripheral to the sound quality that the headset can deliver, and the Detonator has its share of pros and cons. If you’re mainly going for a headset so as to not keep the loved ones awake at night when you’re getting your evening dose of Xbox 360, it’s a pretty great deal. Higher pitches sound great, and I found voice chat to be much clearer than with my Turtle Beaches, so I had a great time playing something with a lot of soundtrack and dialogue such as, for example, Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption.
On the other hand, I’m also a keen FPS player, and indeed this is where a great deal of Xbox 360s headsets’ market lies. In this respect, I’m cautious to rate the Detonator as above ‘okay’. Explosions and gunfire sound pretty good, though lacking a lot of bass ‘thump’ to them. I also found that detecting enemy footsteps and distant gunfire to be a not an easy task in comparison to my ‘Beaches’. Tritton have clearly worked on the stereo sound a great deal, and sounds certainly seem to be coming from a huge range of directions, but it’s very hard to pinpoint which from where.
But all in all, the Tritton is still a headset that’s sturdily above average. It’s robust enough to not break underfoot (the bane of all gaming headsets), it does most audio ranges pretty distinctly, and chatting with friends is pretty flawless through it.
For roughly £60, you’re getting a headset that won’t be letting you down on the field any time soon.
For more info visit www.trittonusa.com