I've had my Astro's for a good month now; and I have to say I LOVE them! For those who don't know about them, Astro makes a high end gaming headset that has the ability to produce 7.1 digital surround sound in headset form. Sounds awesome right? Well they are! But here's the kicker... they're $279.99. A price point that will turn away many who are in the market for a fancy gaming headset. With three other companies making simmular products and promising simular performance for a cheaper price point(Turtlebeach, and Triton). The cause mainly of the steep price point is that they are the official headphones of the MLG (Major League Gaming).
In doing my research I found a lot of promise in the other companies products but without having the ability to try them out in the circumstances I would be using them in, It boiled down to what I've read and my gut instinct. I watched a lot of unboxing and video reviews of all the products and in my opinion Astro's were the way to go.
The design is very slick and very comfortable. The foam ear padding sits comfortably around the ears, I wore them for a long run-through on insane mode in Left 4 Dead and I never once felt like the headphones were squeezing on my head. Nor did I have a headache afterwards like some over ear headphones do with prolonged use. Only a few disappointments to the design one being is that they are big and bulky, the case they come with takes up half the space in my backpack; making them not the best fit as a travel companion. Another flaw is the the capability to turn the actual ear pieces so they sit flush with a table top or around your neck, the A40's allow you to do so but when you turn them it feels too loose and have a tendency to snap into that postion when taking the headphones on or off. The movement could be a little tighter on that end.
Set up for the Astro A40's wasn't complicated at all but I could see where it could with a complicated setup in a home theater surround sound. Luckily I bought the Wireless setup, which has 2 Optical ports on the back of the wireless receiver, one an input, the other an output. From what I've gathered from the wired setup, there is only a single optical input, and no output. Which could be problematic and a pain for those who have complicated setup in their home theater. But it makes it very simple and great for using at a desk or a LAN party.
Now to the part thats most important. The sound quality. I was blown away when I first tried them out on my Xbox 360, there were times that I swear the sound wasn't coming from the headphones. I kept finding myself pulling one side off my ear just to make sure sound wasn't coming from my surround sound speakers. Nope, I was getting true surround sound from my headphones. Things that were happening behind me sounded like they were actually behind me.
The clarity from the mixture of bass and treble blend so well. I was worried that all the sound would get jumbled and just sound like a mess. But every thing is clear, and sounds crisp. I've played Dead Space 1 and 2, and found myself being overwhelmed by the surround sound, which just added to the experience and ambiance of the game. I've tried several times to distort the sound purposefully to find the limits of the headphones, which was turning the volume dial of the voice for the attachable headset all the way down, and turned the volume dial to about 90 percent up till I got the sound distortion and pops.
Movies worked really well on them as well, I've watched both Tron Legacy and Paranormal Activity 2 on Blu-Ray with my A40s. Tron Legacy being the only movie I own that puts out 7.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound, It was amazing to listen to. Wearing the A40s while watching Paranormal Activity 2 was a horror movie dream. It sounded like it did when I went and saw it in the IMAX theater. I was completely taken back by the quality of sound. Music works really well with them also, plugging them into my iPhone sounded like a dream, I havent messed around much with the AUX input so I can use the mix-amp with my music, but I imagine it would make it sound that much better.
Overall with the steep price you are getting a superb piece of equipment. I thoroughly enjoy using them, and at times I prefer using them instead of my home theater set-up. I highly recommend getting them if you can afford them, but the price will more then likely turn people away from this brand. If you can't afford the A40, there is an alternative cheaper version, which I haven't had the opportunity to check out, but looking for a cheaper good quality gaming headset I recommend going with Turtle Beach.
I made this video a while back, and unfortunately I didn't have the time to edit this video together and post it with this last semester coming to an end. Below is my video of unboxing and showing off what all comes in the box.
*All pictures used from astrogaming.com Video was made by myself and on my youtube channel here.
