Electron Hut: Kyle Bedell’s Blog

I’ve gone through a number of headsets over the years, both the good and the bad. All have failed to withstand the test of time in one way or another (broken microphones, generally), so when I heard that Astro Studios (who designed the XBOX 360) was making a high-end gaming headset and amplifier, I had to take a look.

The A40 headset and the MixAmp came packaged seperately in some extremely nice boxes.

Together, the two boxes have just about every cable you’d ever need to hook the headset into a PC, XBOX 360, or PlayStation3.

The A40 headset has a number of nifty features. The boom microphone is detachable and can be mounted on either side of the headset. If you remove the plastic covers on the side, you’ll discover four small neodymium magnets hold the “speaker tags” on:

They block out some external sound and serve to protect the sides of the headset. Astro says that they’re working on a way for folks to order customized tags in the near future as well!

But what about the most important part of a headset? What about the audio and microphone quality? Well, in short, they are both incredible. The microphone is (hands down) the best I have ever used, and the audio quality is phenomenal (in line with Sennheiser HD-555s). With Dolby Headphone processing enabled, the headset sounds even better. Just remember to have your computer or console set to output Dolby Digital 5.1 to use it to maximum effect. As far as comfort goes, the A40s are a bit heavy, but they rest comfortably on your head. I’ve worn them for 4-5 hours straight before and experienced no discomfort.

The MixAmp is feature-packed as well. In addition to boasting a slew of input jacks (including TOSLINK optical, coaxial optical, and more standard red/white and stereo jacks)…

…it also allows mixing voice and game audio channels on XBOX 360 consoles. Perhaps the coolest feature is that the MixAmp supports Dolby Digital 5.1 decoding and will output said audio signal in Dolby Headphone for any connected headset. This works surprisingly well; even though the A40s are a standard two-speaker headset, their audio positioning is on par with true 5.1 headsets like the Medusa SpeedLink. You can also daisy-chain MixAmps together and establish a lag-free voice channel for all connected headsets. While this has limited practicality for a single user, I can see serious potential for this feature at LAN parties and tournaments where communication is vital to success. For energy, you can either power the MixAmp with a USB connection, 4 AA batteries, or an optional rechargable battery pack (available from Astro).

While they’re expensive at $249.99 for the kit (or $199 for the headset alone and $129 for the MixAmp alone), I think the Astro A40s are a solid buy. You definately get a premium product for the premium price! Highly recommended.