The Turtle Beach Recon 200 Gen 2 should also meet higher sound demands at a lower price. For this, the manufacturer has installed an integrated amplifier, which should not only ensure high volume, but also a crisp bass. The problem: The Spark is cheaper and sounds the same.
Design and workmanship
The second generation of the Recon 200 presents itself as is to be expected with a headset at an RRP of 60 euros: Plain, simple and with plastic as the predominant material.
Visually, the Recon 200 Gen 2 is based on the Recon Spark (test), published two years ago, which was available for 50 euros at the time and whose street price has now reached around 42 euros. While Recon also took an interesting approach with regard to the choice of colors (white and lilac), the manufacturer is much more conservative with its new headset: In addition to the tested black version, the new Recon 200 is also available in white with gray accents and midnight blue.
With its 3.5 mm jack plug, it can be operated on any source device with a corresponding connection. Since it is a purely analog headset, there are no other connection options.
Comfortable but rickety seat
In general, the workmanship should fall under the rating “okay”, but the headset still seems a bit rattling, which also underlines the noise development when it is shaken slightly. It is immediately noticeable that the individual segments of the headset have a lot of play. The metal-reinforced bracket allows the Recon to sit comfortably on your head at first, but could be made a little tighter – even slight sudden movements are enough to make it slip.
Turtle Beach Recon 200 Gen 2 in the test
The padding of the temple is covered with synthetic leather and, as with the Recon Spark, is small – both in terms of length and thickness. Also noticeable this time are the cables protruding in the transition between the upholstery and the plastic cladding, which are also made very thin and can therefore be easily damaged.
The headband is not very padded, and the cables are exposed at the transitions
The headset can be easily adapted to the respective head shape via the easy-to-use size adjustment. The adjustment to the ears of the respective user takes place again via the around 100 ° rotatable and also vertically slightly swiveling ear cups. Like the rest of the headset, the suspensions themselves are made of plastic and are therefore less stable than their metal counterparts, which can already be found in these price regions. In contrast to the Recon Spark, the replaceable padding is not covered with synthetic leather, but with fabric, which makes your ears less warm. However, these could have been a bit thicker.
The fabric upholstery covers prevent sweating ears
Again firmly connected cable
Since the second generation of the Recon 200 is a purely analog headset, the technical equipment is low, so that all the necessary controls can easily be accommodated on the device itself: The volume control can be found on the left auricle next to the fold-down microphone, the setting for microphone monitoring, the power button for the built-in amplifier (which will be discussed in more detail later) and a USB-C port for charging. Less pleasing is the fact that Turtle Beach equips the headset with a permanently attached cable including a 3.5 mm jack plug, as with the Recon Spark, which makes it much more difficult to replace in the event of a defect and which is quite short at 120 cm – if the headset to be connected to a computer under the desk, an extension is mandatory.
The cables are firmly connected to the headset
But the manufacturer is not only stingy when it comes to the length of the cable, the rest of the accessories are almost empty: In addition to the obligatory brief instructions, only a short USB-C charging cable adorns the contents of the package. The buyer has to do without an adapter cable to operate the headset on a sound card with separate headphone and microphone connections, or even an extension. The former is still in the packaging of the aforementioned Recon Spark – despite the lower price.
The Recon 200 Gen 2 offers all the necessary controls directly on the headset
sound
The Recon 200 Gen 2 has 40 mm drivers with neodymium magnets, which, according to the manufacturer, should offer a familiar frequency range of 20 Hz to 20 kHz. In addition, Turtle Beach has given the headset an active amplifier, which is supposed to provide a better bass foundation. The headset with “PS” and “Xbox” offers two different operating modes for the PlayStation and for the Microsoft console, which can also be used for the PC and which should also support the surround sound function of the respective console. It will, however not It is recommended to switch to one of the two modes if the headset is already being used without amplification at at least medium volume – the level difference is more than clear and sometimes painful.
Very high-altitude
In the neutral state, the Recon 200 Gen 2 displays content in a very exaggerated manner in the heights, so that this output can already be uncomfortable for some users. A bass foundation, on the other hand, can hardly be heard. This is surprising, because the Recon Spark also has the sharp height display, but offers a much stronger bass reproduction. If the “Xbox” amplification is switched on on the Recon 200 Gen 2, the level and the reproduction of the lower frequencies increase. With “PS” this increases audibly and clearly. However, it gets more obscure when the Recon Spark is used for comparison: Here the output is basically identical, both in the bass and in the treble range – and completely without an amplifier unit. Basically, the Recon Spark achieves what the new Recon 200 can only achieve with an amplifier and, measured against the street price, 15 euros cheaper. Only the volume is a lot higher with the new headset from Turtle Beach, but this clearly exceeds a reasonable limit and is therefore likely to be less good for the hearing.
The dominant treble reproduction can provide a small advantage, especially in quiet stealth games, when steps and the loading of firearms can be heard better. In PS mode with amplification, the bass foundation is also sufficient for a good atmosphere with opulent titles – but it should not be less.
The USB connection is only used to charge the battery for the amplifier
It looks a little different with music and films: Here, the highest amplifier level should generally be selected so that the low frequencies are also shown to their best advantage. Although the output could be adjusted using a corresponding equalizer, the Recon 200 Gen 2 quickly begins to “pump”. However, some listeners are likely to lower the high frequencies a bit, as the dominance of the sibilants can be very annoying.
On the next page: microphone and conclusion
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