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.

So I was in the market for a portable, comfortable gaming headset with a boom microphone that didn’t totally suck. After the quality problems that plagued the removable boom mic on the Medusa 5.1 headphones I was using (they have since made the mic non-removable on newer versions of the ‘phones, rather than actually improve the connector quality), I decided to stay away from any of their offerings. After some searching and a lot of review reading, I settled on SteelSeries’ 5H Version 2 headphones, boasting a gaming-tweaked soundstage, awesome retractable boom microphone, and the ability to split into three parts for easy transport.

The obligatory front shot of the 5Hv2 headphones.

The “v2″ isn’t in the name because it looks cool. SteelSeries went and improved on their first design in a number of ways, most noticeably by increasing the size of the headphone’s ear cups. They’re extremely comfortable, and I’ve forgotten I was wearing them on a few occasions since I received them two weeks ago. As far as the sound goes, these are gaming headphones first. Their soundstage makes it much easier to pick out gunfire and footsteps in first-person shooters, but this leaves music sounding a bit metallic. While they’ll work as a “general purpose” piece of audio gear, you don’t want them if you’re not going to use them to play video games.

The collapsible boom microphone is one of the cooler features, and it produces excellent-sounding voice.

When not in use, it rests inside the left earcup.

Braided cloth cords offer superior durability. You can run these puppies over with your chair and they’ll be just fine.

Gold plated connectors! Although this only helps if your ports are gold as well. The standard cord is three feet long, but there’s a six foot extension cable if you need it.

The volume controller is pretty simple, offering microphone sensitivity adjustments in addition to volume level control. It’s light, so it won’t pull your shirt down if you clip it to a pocket.

The earcups click into the headband with some very secure-looking plastic clips. You need to hold a button down to pull the headphones apart, so they won’t just “crumble into a heap” while you’re playing. This also makes them easier to transport and less likely to suffer damage in transit.

All in all, the SteelSeries 5H v2 headphones are a must have for any gamer who wants excellent stereo sound, comfortable earcups, and a mass of useful extra features. The collapsable microphone alone is worth the price.