Troubleshooting Astro Mixamp/A40

PolloDiablo

So I'm continuing my odyssey of getting a decent headset. It's been a rough ride. I ended up splurging for the Astro combo, since it seems pretty highly regarded. I'm having a bitch and a half getting it to work right on my pc, though. It seems ok on my 360, so it's got to be something with my PC set up. So I'm looking to you guys for a little help. I'm going to divide this into two main problems.

Problem 1: The sound quality was terrible, so I replaced my sound card. It sounds passable now, but the sound frequently gets a buzz or crackle in it that persists until I restart the computer. I normally use speakers and they don't exhibit any problems. The sound and voice are ok with the headset plugged in via the crappy headphones/mic slots on my pc. So it seems like that's working ok. I assume the problem at this point is between the mixamp and the computer.

Problem 2: The sound quality is super annoying, but my main peeve for the moment is the voice quality. When I play with other people, they say the voice quality is abysmal. As far as I'm aware, the mixamp only sends voice over usb, so it isn't a problem with the sound card, right? I normally use a usb headset, and that works fine, so I don't think the problem is with the motherboard.


So I've got two main questions:

1. If you use a Mixamp, what sound card and mobo do you have? Have you noticed any issues with sound quality or voice quality?

2. Can you think of anything that would impact sound or voice quality? I'm willing to test basically anything, because I hate the idea that I wasted $300 on this thing. Can anyone think of software settings or something that might be the problem?

Astro support consists of, "Got your money already, bitch!" so I'm out of luck on that front. I'm going to see if I can scrounge up another set of headphones to try with the mixamp in case that makes any difference. My main hope is to at least figure out what the fuck is wrong. I don't even care if it's fixable or not, I just want to understand why it's so bad. Any help you guys could offer is greatly appreciated. We can beat this thing together.

Aioua

How do you have it hooked up? Via optical or something else? What sound card are you using?

Also which amp? The wired or wireless one?

PolloDiablo

It's the wired amp connected via optical into a soundblaster x-fi titanium.

acidlacedpenguin

On my PC I've been using the wireless mixamp with my turtle beach X11s (my wired mixamp and AD700s are currently connected to the xbox/TV) I plug the headset speakers to the mixamp, but the mic to my keyboard (which in turn plugs directly into my onboard mic port),the mixamp goes to my onboard optical toslink. If you can, try a similar set up to see if it's still having quality issues, that could diagnose whether your mic itself or the a40s are faulty.
When I get home from work I'll try hooking up in the same way as you to see if mine has a similar behavior. I'll also try with my astro earbuds since that should better approximate your set up than my X11s.
if it helps, my mobo is an asus z68 pro.

honestly, I'm not an astro whore or anything, I promise. I just got a retarded coupon once that saved me over $400 on astro stuff (and got me anything under $100 free)

mcdermott

PolloDiablo wrote:

It's the wired amp connected via optical into a soundblaster x-fi titanium.

Same setup as me.

Have you tried recording your voice (just through audacity or even windows sound recorder) to see what it sounds like? Make sure it's the sound out of the mixamp (or headset) and not a software.

Do you sound fine with the headset hooked directly up to the pc? Make sure it's not the mic.

Are you still under warranty? I believe it's a year. Agreed that their support has gone downhill... I get the idea that they grew a bit too quickly. You might check the community support area on their forums, too... There are a couple guys there (or were) that can sometimes elevate or expedite issues. Stanimal and Warblade, IIRC, were good guys to talk to if you weren't getting resolution through the normal support channel.


What you want to try to eliminate as the issue, though:

Mic
Software
USB interface (or driver)


The poor sound quality on pc is surprising, though. You have Dolby Digital Live and everything set up?

I can try to come up with more when i get home tonight.

mcdermott

Huh, looks like they've backed off a bit on helping people out that post in the community support forum. I get the feeling Astro has just grown way to fast for their support channel to handle, ever since they introduced the wireless Mixamps.

Did you just not get any response back off of support? Or just nothing helpful?

PolloDiablo

acidlacedpenguin wrote:

On my PC I've been using the wireless mixamp with my turtle beach X11s (my wired mixamp and AD700s are currently connected to the xbox/TV) I plug the headset speakers to the mixamp, but the mic to my keyboard (which in turn plugs directly into my onboard mic port),the mixamp goes to my onboard optical toslink. If you can, try a similar set up to see if it's still having quality issues, that could diagnose whether your mic itself or the a40s are faulty.
When I get home from work I'll try hooking up in the same way as you to see if mine has a similar behavior. I'll also try with my astro earbuds since that should better approximate your set up than my X11s.
if it helps, my mobo is an asus z68 pro.

honestly, I'm not an astro whore or anything, I promise. I just got a retarded coupon once that saved me over $400 on astro stuff (and got me anything under $100 free)

I'll have to find another headset to try it with the mic into the pc and the sound into the mixamp, since the a40 only has one cord. I'll give it a shot once I scrounge one up.

mcdermott wrote:

What you want to try to eliminate as the issue, though:

Mic
Software
USB interface (or driver)


The poor sound quality on pc is surprising, though. You have Dolby Digital Live and everything set up?

I can try to come up with more when i get home tonight.

I've tried recording my voice, and it's real choppy. It starts super loud, then autocorrects real low or cuts out. I've messed with all the software settings I could find, but it didn't seem to help.

For their support, I might be under warranty still. The only thing they said was I could send it back for testing, but since it seems ok with a console I don't really want to do that and wind up with some refurbished one. Other than that they don't offer any help for pc issues. Which is funny because I went with them primarily because they seemed like a more pc-focused company.

Is there specific software for the mixamp or did you mean in general? I've got all the most recent drivers that I can find, but if you can point me to whatever beta drivers there might be, or something along those lines, I'll give it a shot.

Is the primary way to get voice from the mixamp that usb cord? If I try to use usb as the connection for sound, it sounds completely awful. Is that the same for you too? Maybe the usb thing is busted?

mcdermott

I use mine over USB, and it works fine. It's the primary way, though I believe it also has a 3.5mm mic out on the rear that you can try. I've never used it.

By software, I just meant whatever you're playing, or vent, or whatever. I've never installed anything from Astro, I don't think, I'm just using the standard HID drivers that come with Windows for the USB.


So does the mic work fine when hooked up through your motherboard's mic input? Also, does it work through the Mixamp on Xbox Live?

It really does sound like you just got a bum Mixamp, it happens. But I definitely understand wanting to be sure before you swap out.

PolloDiablo

It works fine plugged into the mic input, although it is super sensitive, and picks up whatever the headphones are playing. But it works. And as far as I can tell people say it sounds fine through the mixamp on the 360.

I guess I'll see about sending it back, then.

mcdermott

Yeah, sounds like a problem with your USB interface. The only thing I might suggest, if at all possible, is testing it out on another PC. But aside from that, I'd say go ahead and send it back for service.

I'm assuming you're no longer within your 14-day return window, or you could even (for the cost of shipping, which admittedly isn't cheap) just return and order a new one...since getting a refurb back seemed to be of some concern to you.

PolloDiablo

I wonder if it counts that I was in touch with their support within 14 days, but presumably not since I've spent a while since then trying to get it to work. I'll try it on another pc if I can find one with an optical out.

mcdermott

You don't need an optical out to test the USB, just hook it up to a pc with USB and test it. Nor do you need a pc/console to test the optical input (anything with optical, like a dvd player, will do).

Various aspects of the device can be treated as discrete systems for troubleshooting.

I mean, it's possible to have some weird failure based on the interaction between, say, the optical and USB. But it's not at all likely.

acidlacedpenguin

so I finally got around to using the chat cable to hook my mixamp to my PC through USB. Apparently I have a bum USB interface or something. I've been informed that my mic sounds like I'm broadcasting AM radio from just out of range. When I tried using the USB interface, it's much cleaner, but there's apparently a high pitch feedback.
I think my issue is just general noise in my onboard sound and on my USB ports. ASUS, I am disappoint.