Others by jmke @ 2011-02-28
Too late, too loud, too far away? From now on the Logitech F540 wireless headset is your partner in crime! With a battery life of up to 10 hours the F540 guarantees a delivery of high quality sound to your ears throughout the longest and darkest of nights.
The Logitech F540 comes with a 2.4GHz wireless transmitter, power cable, charging cable, Xbox chat cable, PS3 chat cable and RCA connectors with a pass through. The initial setup will set you back 15 minutes or so, but after that it's power on and play!
Headset, Receiver and power cable on the left, pass-through audio cable on the right
One of the great features is how the receiver allows you to be connected to up to 3 sources at a time. This makes switching between devices super fast and super easy.
At the front of the receiver it shows you what source is active and there's an USB port for charging the headset.
At the back you have the pass-through mini-USB connector for PS3, 2 RCA connections for PS3/XBOX360 and an AUX IN to connect any other audio source to the receiver.
Now, as soon as you put this baby on your head, you'll notice that the outside world fades away. The ear cups that cancel out a lot of any surrounding noise, were designed to fit over your ears rather than pressing down on them, this makes them a true bliss of comfort, especially when worn over an extended period of time. The F540 produces a real good detailed sound, crisp, clear, enough bass to please 95% of the general public and does this within a range of about 10 metres.
The headset can be adjusted to fit your needs as you can see in the photo in the middle, on the right is a close-up of the soft cushion at the top.
In regards to the microphone, other players said it had gotten my voice across loud and clear, no indication of issues with sound. The microphone is bendable and has 2 mute functions that 'beeps' when activated. You can activate the mute function by either tilting the microphone in upright position or pressing down on an easy to reach button on the left ear cup (next to the game and chat volume), something you'll appreciate when in line of fire!
The game audio and voice audio volume can be adjusted independently.
The microphone has a build in noise-cancelling feature which really increases the voice quality tenfold!
With a battery life of up to 10 hours the F540 guarantees a delivery of high quality sound to your ears throughout the longest and darkest of nights. In the unlikely event that you should run out of juice at some point, the F540 allows you to simply recharge it through the use of an usb cable while you carry on with your killing spree. The only drawback in regards to the battery is that it emits warmth that can be felt through the ear cup when being charged or used for an extended period of time.
You get a long(-ish) USB charging cable with the unit, so you can game-on while the headset is charged.
If you're more than 2 meter away from an USB charging plug however you'll find the cable too short.
Overall the F540 is a well built quality product that does come with a €120-140 price tag, but surely is worth every penny. If you are one of those people who benefits from using a wireless headset on a daily basis, the Logitech F540 sure is worth your consideration.
We like to thank Logitech for giving us the opportunity to test their latest products.
On the next page you can find the different connection options outlined in detail.
Logitech had quite a challenge to make sure one product would work on PS3 and XBOX360, wireless. Sure there are plenty of wireless "XBOX 360 only" headsets out there, as there are USB wired headset which can be used plug&play with the PS3. To be able to wireless connect to PS3 and XBOX360 Logitech opted to use a receiver of their own, thereby ignoring the blue-tooth connectivity of the consoles. While this does make for more cable mess it was the only solution if they were to make a product with maximum compatibility.
We tested the Logitech F540 on a PS3 as well as on PC, setup for both was less than 15 minutes once you discovered the FAQ section of their product website. The included manual is not very in-depth and they even refer to the website to get the latest installation information. For future reference we have outlined the connection steps for each platform below, so you can gauge for yourself how much time it would take you.
Despite being marketed as a PS3/XBOX360 headset, the F540 works quite well with your PC too. You can connect your sound card's LINE OUT to the receiver's LINE IN and enjoy wireless audio playback. With this configuration the microphone won't work. To make the microphone work you can go for the second connection option, use the provided mini-USB cable to connect your PC to the receiver, now both audio playback and microphone will work, but you can no longer connect a PS3 for voice. All-in-all for a product not actively marketed as being a PC Wireless Headset, the F540 easily makes for a high-end alternative to other PC-only headsets.
We connected the receiver to our PS3, you can either use the included RCA pass-through cable, or go a different route, if you're using HDMI on your PS3. Find your PS3's standard AV cable and use that to connect to the receiver, than in your PS3's audio output menu enable Audio Multi-Out. (This restricts audio-out over HDMI to 5.1 vs 7.1).
The connection option we used, PS3 AV cable straight to the receiver,
using HDMI for image & audio to the TV/Surround Set, best of both worlds (as long as you're happy with "only" 5.1).
Two other connection options using the RCA pass-through cable with your PS3.
You have two connection possibilities here, both use the RCA pass-through cable, either you take audio straight from the XBOX360's AV adapter, or if you're using HDMI, use the audio-out RCA from your TV to connect to the receiver. Logitech includes a separate audio cable to connect your headset and use the microphone in-game.
Connecting to the Wii is possible, if you're already using the PS3/XBOX360 connections on the receiver you'll have to find a female RCA to male 3.5mm audio adapter and use the RCA pass-through cable. If you're not using one of the XBOX360/PS3 connections, things become easier as illustrated in the image below on the right.
