Polk Audio 4-Shot Headphones: Beta Testers Needed

Although cost is no guaranty of quality, when an audio company has floor speakers going for $1,999.95 (each; if you want stereo sound, it’s going to cost you a down payment on a car) and there’s no celebrity endorser (*cough* Beats *cough*), it’s a fairly safe bet that they know their stuff. Since Polk Audio has its high-end floor speakers selling for right at two grand, QED.

I like good audio equipment, and while I’m not going to drop percentage-points of my annual income buying high-end floor speakers, there is something to be said for quality having a cost (except these Panasonic ear buds). So, when it came to Polk Audio’s $160 entry into the gaming headset realm, I was expecting pretty good things, particularly since, unlike Turtle Beach or Astro, they’re mainly an audio company and not a peripheral maker.

What Polk Audio turned out in its partnership with Microsoft for the Xbox One is, for lack of a better word, confusing.

The 4-Shot was due out right after Valentine’s Day (I had pre-ordered with some Christmas-time gift cards, so I was excited). Then there was an unexplained delay that only persistence on Twitter with Polk Audio and with Amazon’s customer service clarified: the adapter for the headset, which is a beefed up version of the one that hooks into the controller for the native Xbox One headset, hadn’t been delivered to Polk Audio from its “partners” at Microsoft. That was frustrating and a little confusing – wasn’t this “partnership” designed to turn out a ‘pro’ level headset with an Xbox One stamp of approval? Four weeks after its original estimated delivery date, I finally got my headset at the office and headed home, excited to try it out.

WARNING: High Volume For Extended Periods Can Be Dangerous

SkullCandy is for kids. Stupid, spoiled kids who don’t know better.

It’s immediately apparent that this closed-back headset was designed by a company that has experience making serious speakers. My earlier review of the TurtleBeach X41’s on Horrible Night noted that they felt like they lacked a little bit of solidity. The 4-Shot felt much more substantial and in line with Big Boy headphones – they’re serious business. They have heft to them. They’re comfortably snug without inducing headaches. The ear-cups are oblong and fit well; although I haven’t tried wearing them in the midst of summer in an un-air conditioned space for a marathon session, the faux-leather padding doesn’t get sticky or clingy, which was a pleasant surprise and a concern when I took them out of the box.

And they sound good. I mean, really, really good. I’ve used them as normal headphones for listening to music and watching movies and they match up to any of the other headsets we have around the house (A couple of pairs of Sennheisers, the aforemnetioned TurtleBeaches, a pair of AudioTechnicas and some in-ear Motorolas) without question. Being closed-back, they have also gotten me in a little bit of trouble with Mrs. Gifford when their audio-isolating ability meant I didn’t hear my name being called, with enthusiasm, from 5 feet away. Assuming you give your co-habitants fair warning that you’re effectively deaf while you’re wearing them, this is a good thing.

This is a near-field microphone. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work very well.

The delay-inducing adapter I mentioned earlier is only a minor modification to the native headset’s; the difference is a big, centrally-mounted mute button and the ability to switch between chat and game volume modification without having to try and remember which volume wheel is which – handy, but not earth-shattering.

Mayday, Houston. Houston? Are you There? Houston?!

Then…then we get to the microphone. The design of the 4-Shot includes a ‘retractable, near-field microphone,’ and if you check it out…it’s pretty badass looking. It pops in and out of the headset like something made in Sweden; clicking it in automatically mutes you and the ‘near-field’ technology means that it only picks up your voice despite not being in front of your face.

In theory.

No one beta-tested Robby the Robot, either, and just look what happened.

In reality, the microphone has been a hot mess for both Polk Audio and Microsoft. It turns out that the mic was not picking up speech, at least not well enough that you could be heard without shouting. The response to the issue seemed simultaneously haphazard and confused: there has been little official communication outside of Polk Audio’s forums, several firmware updates for the Xbox One controllers (controller updates? really?) and as a final bug-fix, Polk Audio sent a boom mic and 3.5mm adapter to address the volume issues to any registered users, free of charge…and free of explanation of the ALL-CAPS, MANGLED-HTML SHIPPING CONFIRMATION EMAIL THAT LOOKED LIKE SPAM.

While the supplemental hardware has fixed the issue (users have been promised a new firmware update that will remove the necessity of the boom mic, although with no date mentioned – again, courtesy of the Polk Audio forums), this is a truly baffling oversight. Polk Audio advertised the 4-Shot as the result of a collaborative partnership with Microsoft…and then released its product weeks late with a variety of issues (there were reports of crackling and popping that were fixed through the first firmware update, although I didn’t experience them). Although I’m sure that there was, this is the kind of thing that makes you ask, “Did no one play-test these things before they got shipped?” The Xbox One is a new platform using WiFi Direct, but wireless headphones and near-field microphones aren’t exactly groundbreaking technology. Seeing the release-and-patch approach applied to a headset going for a quarter the price of the entire console is both surprising and disconcerting.

The Takeaway

Solid-feeling headset with excellent sound, fit and good looks, but with a staggeringly glitchy release and an as-yet unresolved near-non-functioning near-field microphone hacked with a boom mic. The delay and the mic issues mean this thing gets a 3.5; without them, it’s a strong 4, maybe even 4.5, but $160 is a lot of green to plop down for a gaming headset with a MacGuyvered mic.