Ever since we were blessed with the gift of Xbox Live last November, certain less-than-thrilling situations have come up, such as when a friend is over to experience the goodness of Live, but they can’t listen or talk via a headset. Sure, they can log on as a guest and play the game, but what the hell fun is kicking someone’s ass and not being able to tell them about it? Up till now the only available option was to have your friend purchase their own Live Starter Kit and get a separate account. That is fine if they have broadband at home and can also enjoy Live there, but for a casual Live gamer it isn’t very practical.
Well, now a small little company, by the name of XLiveChat, has a number of products that will certainly make Live gaming easier and more cost effective. Below is a quick overview of a few products offered by XLiveChat:
Dual Headset – packaged with a headset and a splitter that plugs into the current Xbox Communicator module, this kit allows two gamers to communicate via Live with virtually no degradation in the audio.
Speakerphone System – this is sort of a hybrid of the dual headset package in that it also uses a splitter along with a desktop boom microphone and a set of Labtec PC speakers to allow multiple people in a room to communicate via Xbox Live.
Boom Microphone – basically a higher quality mic than what is packaged with the dual headset kit. This mic is closer to headset that comes packaged with the Live Starter kit. If you lose your official headset, this is a good alternative.
I did get a chance to test out the Dual Headset package and basically, it does everything that it claims to. The XLiveChat splitter is the key to all the packages. The splitter is specially designed to convert the input sound and allow sound to be transmitted and received at the same time. Simply plug the splitter into your current Xbox Communicator, plug in the official Live headset into one jack and the packaged XLiveChat headset into the other and you and a friend are all set to talk smack with only one Live account. There is an obvious difference in the overall quality between the official Live headset and the XLiveChat headset. The official headset is built better, has a more solid feel and the audio appears to be slightly louder. That being said, the XLiveChat headset works perfectly once you get used to the smaller design. The gamers that I spoke with on Live said they noticed a slight upgrade in my voice via the official headset, but it was negligible. Another bonus is that the XLiveChat headset is actually a cellular phone mobile headset. So, if you don’t happen to have one for your cell, this works on many phones on the market. Oh, and yes, the Live communicator headset also works on cell phones, but you’ll kinda look like a tool, so leave that at home with your Xbox, ok? The dual headset package retails for $19.99 which includes one headset and one splitter.
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