Heya!
I'm thinking about getting me a new controller as my two old 360 controllers are rather worn out at this point.
The Xbone Elite controller looks really neat, but do Xbone controllers work wirelessly with the old 360 wireless receiver or would I need the new one? Not sure if I really want to buy/use an additional adapter.
Searching around the web I couldn't find anything about the compatibility of these devices, so I'm hoping somebody here might have already tried getting that combination to work together? Thanks for any answers in advance and have a happy new year! =)

Someone else might have to back me up on this, but I'm pretty sure you'll need the new one. As far as I'm aware, the new controllers use a different type of wireless communication which the old receiver does not support.

I don't know about the elite, but I guess the new controllers also use Bluetooth and can just connect if you have an up to date version of Windows 10.

The Xbox360 and Xbox1 use different protocols to connect to their respective systems. It's why you've gotta buy a separate thing to use your 360 RockBand controllers on Xbox1 whereas the PS3 and PS4 just use bluetooth.

To use an original Xbox1 controller or Elite Xbox1 controller on PC you can either keep them plugged in via USB all all times or buy the wireless adapter ($25 USD). The revised Xbox1 controller (non elite) that came out with the Xbox1s also has bluetooth so you can buy one of those and connect up via bluetooth without having to buy the wireless adapter.

For whatever insane reason, MS has yet to release an updated elite controller that also has bluetooth. I don't understand why, but they must have their reasons.

I've used both the wireless adapter and bluetooth to connect Xbox1 controllers to my PC. I haven't noticed a difference in input lag between the two, but your results may vary.

@skullpanda1: Thank you for that detailed answer! Do you happen to know if the new adapter is at least compatible with the old 360 controllers? Wouldn't really want to use two adapters just so I can use all my Xbox controllers, that'd be an really awkward solution.

@nethlem: unfortunately the Xbox1 wireless adapter for PC does not include support for Xbox360 controllers.

@nethlem: I don't think they do, but not 100% sure. The new Xbox One S controllers have bluetooth though.

@nethlem: The Xbox 360 adapter only works for Xbox 360 controllers and the Xbox One adapter only works for Xbox One controllers. Newer Xbox One controllers also support Bluetooth connections, although only for one controller per PC and with impulse trigger support disabled.

I would recommend buying any Xbox One controller and an adapter. Keep in mind that the current Elite controllers don't support Bluetooth, which is something MS might upgrade in the near future.

Too bad the new adapter doesn't work with the old controllers, does that also mean the Xbone can't use 360 controllers? Sometimes I really wonder how stuff like that ends up happening, not a single person at MS thought "Hey wouldn't it be cool if people could still use their old controllers!"? Can't imagine that being very expensive to make work.

I guess I should already be grateful that MS decided to give Win7 users wireless function for the Xbone controllers, instead of keeping it Win10 exclusive.
Not too keen on Bluetooth tho, my mainboard has build in Bluetooth but for some reason it has very poor connectivity, so it would still come down to buying either an Bluetooth adapter or the Xbone adapter, not much of a difference in the end.

I guess I'm gonna get an Elite and use it wired for the time being, maybe I get an adapter once I get another Xbone controller so I can replace the 360 ones.
Thanks again guys and have a nice weekend!