Astro A40 Headset

king awesome

Anyone have these and can comment on using them?

I PC game and I also have a 360/PS3. My gf is moving in and I wanted to get some solution so that if I want to play a game and she wants to chill on the couch and read or do something on her laptop she isn't hearing gunfire and explosions every 3 seconds. Right now I have both systems running into my TV (Sharp Aquos), from there I run the audio to my HTIAB via digital audio cable (the optic one) and from there to the speakers obviously.

Now according to the website the Astros are just what I need and will work perfectly. But I wanted to confirm that with someone who actually uses them and find out how easy/hard it is to integrate them into a setup like mine and what kind of caveats I need to look out for.

Like I said, according to their website, these things sound fucking perfect. Just want to make sure they are

stigweard

This was about the only useful info I could find.

edit:Here is a roundup that includes them. They are snobs over at head-fi, but they are also usually right.

Bruan

I just bought a pair.

The setup is pretty easy, just be sure to buy the mixamp and maybe the optical cable if you don't have one. Otherwise you won't be able to hook it up to your ps3/360.

The quality is pretty good, although when I got mine, the mixamp was broken and I had to send it back in. Their customer support was pretty poor during the Holiday Season, but they are in the process of sending me a mixamp.

I still was able to use the A40s on my pc, and they performed pretty well. You'll get the whole surround system going on, and with the mixamp you'll be able to use it with the mic.

Hope this helps.


(Finally, their tech support kinda sucked, but I don't know if it was because of the holiday season of just general poor service.)

king awesome

stigweard wrote: »

This was about the only useful info I could find.

edit:Here is a roundup that includes them. They are snobs over at head-fi, but they are also usually right.

Thanks for the links, they ripped them up pretty hard in that roundup But it seems like the mixamp device is solid and works as advertised so I may just pick up one of those by itself and experiment with some headsets I already have.

Snowblindvictim

For PC Gaming, does the soundcard need to have surround sound?
I have a gaming laptop and I'm not to sure my onboard sound supports that.

Does the Mixamp take care of that? Or how does it work now...

Bruan

I think the mixamp has surround sound.

(EDIT: from looking at the reviews, it seems like the mixamp has surround sound.)

BioHaz594

The mixamp only spatializes the sound from a surround source to stereo speakers via an Optical connection. So it makes your 2 channel headphones sound like a 5.1 surround.
It does not act as a sound card/device in the system.

Having owned a pair of A40s, I do not reccomend them. As that article linked earlier stated, they do not really sound very good, but the Mixamp itself is not a bad solution to fake a 5.1 sound setup on headphones if you have a sound card with optical out on your PC.
Little known fact is that depending on the flavor of Creative X-Fi card you have (I had to do it on the X-Fi Platnium), you actually have to find the dolby encoder plugin (which costs $5) for the card so it will actually push dolby 5.1 out of the optical port so that the Mixamp can process it to your cans.

Ultimately I was not impressed with the Mixamp enough to keep it and sent the whole kit back for a refund.

wonderpug

I'm really happy with mine. Movies on blu-ray sound fantastic, and of course it's great for video games. Mostly been playing Modern Warfare 2 since I got the A40 System, and the surround effect is good enough to let me consistently pick out what direction footsteps are coming from.

king awesome

BioHaz594 wrote: »

The mixamp only spatializes the sound from a surround source to stereo speakers via an Optical connection. So it makes your 2 channel headphones sound like a 5.1 surround.
It does not act as a sound card/device in the system.

Having owned a pair of A40s, I do not reccomend them. As that article linked earlier stated, they do not really sound very good, but the Mixamp itself is not a bad solution to fake a 5.1 sound setup on headphones if you have a sound card with optical out on your PC.
Little known fact is that depending on the flavor of Creative X-Fi card you have (I had to do it on the X-Fi Platnium), you actually have to find the dolby encoder plugin (which costs $5) for the card so it will actually push dolby 5.1 out of the optical port so that the Mixamp can process it to your cans.

Ultimately I was not impressed with the Mixamp enough to keep it and sent the whole kit back for a refund.

<noob>Ok, but what if I have a proper surround sound setup? Like optical coming from my 360 and then use the mixamp to push that to surround headphones? It'll still be true surround sound then right?</noob>

Bruan

Yeah, I'm getting pretty pissed at Astro products. I still haven't gotten my replacement mixamp.

Barrakketh

wonderpug wrote: »

I'm really happy with mine. Movies on blu-ray sound fantastic, and of course it's great for video games.

Out of curiosity, what headphones/headsets were you using before you bought your A40?

Mostly been playing Modern Warfare 2 since I got the A40 System, and the surround effect is good enough to let me consistently pick out what direction footsteps are coming from.

If you have a decent set of cans you can easily locate someone via footsteps using stereo, no surround needed.

wonderpug

Barrakketh wrote: »

wonderpug wrote: »

I'm really happy with mine. Movies on blu-ray sound fantastic, and of course it's great for video games.

Out of curiosity, what headphones/headsets were you using before you bought your A40?

Sennheiser HD-(220? 240?) Discontinued now, and can't remember the exact number. Open ear circumaural wired headphones that cost somewhere around $150-200 circa 2003.

Barrakketh wrote: »

Mostly been playing Modern Warfare 2 since I got the A40 System, and the surround effect is good enough to let me consistently pick out what direction footsteps are coming from.

If you have a decent set of cans you can easily locate someone via footsteps using stereo, no surround needed.

If you consider my Sennheiser headphones decent, footstep location worked great except for front/back differentiation, which I have no problem with using the A40s.

BioHaz594

king awesome wrote: »

BioHaz594 wrote: »

The mixamp only spatializes the sound from a surround source to stereo speakers via an Optical connection. So it makes your 2 channel headphones sound like a 5.1 surround.
It does not act as a sound card/device in the system.

Having owned a pair of A40s, I do not reccomend them. As that article linked earlier stated, they do not really sound very good, but the Mixamp itself is not a bad solution to fake a 5.1 sound setup on headphones if you have a sound card with optical out on your PC.
Little known fact is that depending on the flavor of Creative X-Fi card you have (I had to do it on the X-Fi Platnium), you actually have to find the dolby encoder plugin (which costs $5) for the card so it will actually push dolby 5.1 out of the optical port so that the Mixamp can process it to your cans.

Ultimately I was not impressed with the Mixamp enough to keep it and sent the whole kit back for a refund.

<noob>Ok, but what if I have a proper surround sound setup? Like optical coming from my 360 and then use the mixamp to push that to surround headphones? It'll still be true surround sound then right?</noob>

Yes. That will work, same goes for the PS3 since both of those output in proper dolby for the Mixamp to decode.

king awesome

Hmmmm well I definitely want to get this now. Will be useful with the GF and also just a cool device to have.

Now here is the problem, I'm also in the market for a new receiver. My existing one is the one that came with a HTIAB setup and it just doesn't have the amount of inputs I need and I want to get a new one that has 3-5 HDMI inputs (xbox, 360, PC). According to the manual for the MixAmp I need an optical coming FROM the receiver TO the mixamp for the surround... well looking around I can't really find any mid range receivers that have optical out.

Is this something that no one really has because it doesn't have any real practical uses for the average mid-range-receiver-consumer?

wonderpug

FYI optical switchers aren't all that expensive on monoprice. I've got my TV, Xbox, and PS3 going to the switcher via short cords, then one long optical cord going from the switcher around the walls of my living room to the Mixamp near the couch.

king awesome

I could do that, but I'd like to avoid all the unnecessary optical cables. What I'd ideally like would be:

xbox, ps3, PC (all 3 via HDMI) -> Receiver -> visual via HDMI to TV

And then have 1 optical cable from the receiver out to my mixamp for when I want that.

4 hdmi cables and 1 long optical cable. 5 cables total. No mess, no fuss

Arminas

If you just buy the mixamp, can you plug in any ol' headphones into the mixamp?

BioHaz594

Yes. The Mixamp can output to any normal set of headphones.