E-sport and competitive gaming industry has been growing massively through the years, with some of the big names like the Major League Gaming, the European Gaming League and of course your favorite At7addak.com. Peripheral makers have been hard working on new ways to breach into this clientele, and Astro Gaming proved to be making the best job.
Astro Gaming is a sister company of Astro Studios, one of the best known technology design firms in the world. Hell, you can tell they mean business, as they were outsourced to re-design this year’s new sweet looks of the Xbox 360.
The Astro Gaming headset A40 is the flagship of the company. Available by itself as a headset, or with a Dolby Surround wired or wireless Mixamp package, we have picked the wired one to test the might of these babies.
And what a great choice! Opening the package was as exciting as turning on a brand new Ferrari. The headphones have a minimalist feel to them, simple, robust, and with a sleek glossy finishing. Holding them, just proves that they mean business. Although they’re not made with fancy carbon-fiber, the plastic used is heavy enough, without feeling like you’re wearing dumbbells on your head (less than 350 grams). The way they were built was obviously to keep you well rested through long sessions of fragging; efficient, performant and comfortable.
Now let’s jump to what’s important: the sound. The A40 pack a 15 - 28,000 Hz frequency response; if you’re not an audiophile, that means it holds a crisp audio balance, perfect to spot an opponent coming at you with a knife from behind, or to hear where that sniper shot your allies. Although the headset are powerful enough by themselves, they are only complete with the mix amp hooked to it.
The mixamp is small but powerful, easy to carry for your LAN battles, and the only way to hook up your audio system to all of your consoles. The amp are powered by batteries, but do opt for the USB power option, as the batteries won’t even last 8 hours. It’s very simplistic at a first sight, with two control nodes, one for the master volume, and one to balance your microphone and game audio levels. Since we are talking about microphones, let me point that, this is maybe the first ever noise free boom-mic I have ever used.
The A40 Wired Audio System also come with a hefty list of connection cables: A 2 meters 3.55mm Cable; a PC Splitter/Adapter and Y-Adapter, a 3 meters Optical TOSLink (for your expensive home cinema set), a 3 meters USB-USB Mini (for powering the mixamp or to use the PSN chat option), 1.5 meters Xbox Live Chat Cable, a 2 meters 3.5mm Audio Cable, and finally a Daisy-Chain connector. That’s one long list, but you have every single connection possibility for all your gaming preferences and choices. The only inconvenience to me, was the Xbox Live Chat Cable, as it needs to be hooked from your gamepad to the Mixamp, a hassle if the latter is far away from where you sit.
Finally, the A40 is not for everyone. Astro Gaming’s headset is one that caters to the hardcore gamers, it is after all the official headset of the MLG, but with a price tag of $250 for the wired audio system, or $280 for the wireless solution, your casual gamer will think twice before getting these.
Pros:
Slick minimalist design
Pure eargasm of sound for gaming and music, noise free chatting capabilities
Multi-compatible with all game
consoles, handhelds and TV systems
Cons:
The A40 is not affordable to the casual player
The Xbox Live connector is too short for your typical living room settings
The Mixamp batteries don’t last more than 8-10 hours
The Astrogaming A40 standard wired edition is available online. Other special models such as the Saints Row: the Third and MLG limited (tested for this article) are available too.
Ozimandus has been reviewing games and gadgets since 2003. He's not afraid of speaking his mind, and loves to share his love of everything geeky.