so, after a full night of gaming with the x41's, i love them. i hear sounds that you just don't hear unless your system is up pretty loud. you can hear shells dropping in the direction they're dropping (like if someone is to the right of you and firing, you hear them to the right). you can hear footsteps quite clearly, and it's way easier to tell where stuff is coming from or happening. mongoose going on the left side of a map, you hear it on the left side. i don't know if they make me any better, but you definitely feel more immersed in the game. and they're comfortable. once they're in a good position, you don't notice them. sometimes the game would be loud and i felt like i needed to turn the volume down to not wake up my wife.

additionally, there's a mic monitor so anything you say, you can hear in the headphones. helps when stuff is loud, so you don't have to talk any louder than normal. the mic is removable, if you're not playing multiplayer. and the mic mute is reach to see and reach.

things that take getting used to:
the game volume controls. it's on the headphones, so you have to find them by touch. also, game and chat each have their own volume controls, which is nice, but you can't mute everything easily (not something my wife likes) so you have to take them off to hear anything outside the game.

the only real downside to getting them is that now i have to buy my wife another coach purse.