Turtle Beach Sonic Link Review - Conclusion
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The Sonic Link can take a little bit of work to get it performing at a satisfactory level. That's not the fault of the Sonic Link itself; it's due to various RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) in your home. Unfortunately, no one can really design a way to work around these interferences because they will vary greatly from home to home. However, Turtle Beach has done a good job by offering additional channels the system can utilize. This should increase the probability the Sonic Link will work flawlessly in your home.
Once the Sonic Link is working adequately, it is a great benefit in the home. The remote, which I thought would be the weak point, worked impeccably everywhere in my house (*ahem* apartment). Living in an apartment creates its own difficulties. Because of the sheer number of units in my complex, there can be a lot of interference. It probably took me a little longer to get everything working smoothly, since I was trying to get the static out of the playback; but for the most part it was achievable.
The sound quality of the Sonic Link is pretty good. It's somewhere between FM and CD quality. If I place my head near one of the speakers I can still hear some slight white noise mixed in with the music. I don't think the remaining noise I hear is from interference. I believe the remaining noise is coming from either the transmit and receive units or the cables connecting them. The reason I think this is that, if I limit the volume on the source PC to half or less, it almost completely goes away. However, if I turn the volume above half on the source unit there is a repeating, audible clicking in the speakers. Better results might be achieved if your PC has a Line Out plug instead of using the normal speaker outputs, but you'll lose the ability to control the volume with the remote. Higher quality cables also may help. The bundled cables are probably of the lowest quality I've ever seen.
Highs
- Wireless music anywhere in your house
- Reasonable cost
- Simple to put together
- The remote is amazing
- Can work with multiple receivers ($49.95)
Lows
- Requires tweaking the antennas to reduce static
- The remote receiver occasionally picks up interference, inadvertently launching music at 4 a.m.
- Cheapest RCA interconnects I've ever seen, maybe part of what causes static
- Only supports 2 channel audio
Overall, the Turtle Beach Sonic Link seems like a solid product. I don't understand why Turtle Beach is claiming to have discontinued it and removed any support from their website. Many retailers are still stocking and selling the Sonic Link; some retailers are even claiming to be back ordered with new stock on the way. It is odd that they are getting new stock for a discontinued product. The one upside to Turtle Beach turning their back on the Sonic Link is that its price has plummeted. The Sonic Link can be found for just over half of its original MSRP of $139.99, approximately $80.
Thank you for reading this review of the Turtle Beach Sonic Link. If you have any questions or comment, please feel free to mention them in the comments section at the bottom of this page, or contact me at Memphist0@DevHardware.com. You can also find more computer hardware help on our forums, or visit our front page for more hardware news and information.
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