AngelicSpirit says:
Turtle Beach is well known in gaming circles as providing top notch audio equipment, having started out life some 30 odd years ago as a supplier of high quality sound cards to the PC market. Since then they've moved on to producing a wider range of audio equipment including headsets for gamers. The Ear Force P21's are the only headset they produce for the PS3 but this hasn't stopped them from pulling out the stops to provide a very good set of 'cans' - to coin a DJ'ing phrase.

The P21's will take a couple of minutes to setup depending on how you have your TV connected to your PS3. If using the standard PS3 video connector, simply plug the colour coded RCA connectors in line with the TV, connect the USB lead to the front of the PS3 and away you go. For HDMI you'll have to find your original PS3 video lead, connect the cable to that and tell the PS3 to switch the Audio output from the HDMI lead to the RCA lead. From there it's the same as the regular configuration. All of this is well documented in the supplied manual and takes no more than 5 minutes to do.

The P21's are powered via the USB port on the from of the PS3 and there is ample cable supplied in the box so, for those lucky enough to own large screen TV's, there's no more hunching up on the front of the sofa trying not to pull the cable out from the PS3. There's also a USB extender cable supplied so you can sit even further away from the TV if required.

They're packed full of features, some of which seem a bit like overkill whilst others really help when playing games with large amounts of multi directional sound such as FPS games. Quoting Turtle Beach themselves you have the following features:

• Rotating Ear Cups - Twist the ear cups to rest the P21 flat on your shoulders when taking a break from the game.
• Stereo Expander - The Stereo Expander spreads the game audio to provide a 'wider' effect than normal stereo, almost as if it originates from outside of the headphones.
• Chat Boost – Dynamic Talkback Expander. As the game audio gets louder the chat volume is automatically increased which lets you continue to hear what everyone is saying. When the game volume quiets down the chat level will gradually return to the normal volume setting.
• Microphone Monitoring - If you're wearing a headset it's difficult to hear yourself speak so you'll tend to talk louder. You can hear some of your voice along with the online chatting and game audio and this lets you easily sense what you're saying but not so much that it's distracting. Mic monitoring not only helps you stop talking so loud, it also eliminates that annoying 'clogged ears' feeling when talking while headphones are covering your ears.
• Bass Boost - The P21 headset incorporates an adjustable Bass Boost feature that produces deep, rich bass tones by increasing the volume of low frequency sounds just like turning up the sub woofer on a home theater system.
• Independent Chat/Game Volumes - There are independent volume controls for the game audio and incoming chat levels so you can easily balance them and never have to worry about missing a cue from your teammates.
• USB Powered - A single USB port on the PS3 powers the in-line amplifier so there is no need to fuss with batteries or a separate AC power adapter.

In terms of build quality and comfort they are very good. The headband is fully adjustable and the volume controls clip easily to your clothing. However, given the length of the cable supplied and the size of the headset, they're not something you can simply hide away in a drawer somewhere and because of the cabling requirements (needing to access the back of the PS3). I suspect a lot of people will simply plug them in and leave them there. This makes them a bit untidy and cumbersome but in no way detracts from their usefulness.

Sound quality is excellent but where the P21's really shine is the directional sound provided by the "Stereo Expander" and the auto adjusting chat volume from the "Chat Boost". During some particularly frenetic MW2 sessions I found these two features allowed me to be far more aware of the direction enemies were coming from whilst still being able to clearly hear the chat from my teammates.

I have to say that for most games this headset is probably overkill. Playing Peggle I wasn't exactly overwhelmed with my immersive sound experience and a standard set of stereo headphones would have worked just as well. Equally, if you have your sound from the PS3 already coming from a surround sound system, then these headphones provide a similar experience (albeit slightly better due to the Stereo Expander feature). However for FPS's or games where you need to know what is around you as you play, these headphones are exceptional.

If all you want is a set of headphones to use with the PS3 or a chat headset for gaming then there are much cheaper alternative out there. However if you're after a high quality set of headphones that will provide exceptional directional sound, without compromising chat quality, these are definitely ones to consider.

Score 9/10