Astro A30's (Received!)

Well, rather than continue to hijack the 5xB thread I thought I would go a head and make a separate thread for my soon to be delivered Astro A30 Wireless System. As mentioned in the other thread I ordered them last Friday directly from Astro Gaming. They shipped Friday via Fedex Ground and should be arriving here on Thursday (5/19). I am really excited. This is my first pair of gaming headsets and I can't wait to get my hands on them. I thought I would post up a mini review here once I get my hands on them and let you know my initial thoughts. I did a lot of research and think I really made a good decision based on my own personal needs/wants. Stay tuned for more... Come on Thursday!...

i need to see a video review please

but epic win zak i know you will love them i have gotten to wear and play with some of the a40 and there great but every one love the 30's better

S7 Sticky wrote:i need to see a video review please

but epic win zak i know you will love them i have gotten to wear and play with some of the a40 and there great but every one love the 30's better

Sorry Sticky. Not doing a video review but I might take a few pictures and post them up here.

Well, my A30's arrived just a few minutes ago and here are my initial impressions...

I have been reading about these headsets for so long now that I almost feel like I already own them. Still the feeling of getting to open my very own pair is something else. First off for those who don't know, the Astro products are very well packaged. Much like the Apple products, the boxing and presentation is top notch. If your like me you just spent a good amount of money on these bad boys and it's nice to receive a product that exudes quality. Everything was was perfectly packaged and each item felt like real quality. Everything from the boxing to the headset has a high quality feel it.

I got the completely wireless system so in the box was everything I am going to need to operate multiple devices. In the shipping box was three smaller boxes containing the Headset and wires in one, the Wireless Mixamp w/ accessories in another and the standard Astro Speaker Tags in the last. Everything arrived safe and undamaged. So far so good.

The Headset it's self is quite nice. Lightweight, comfortable and has a high quality feel. The different wires are also nice. There is a standard headphone wire, a special phone/MP3 wire for use with an MP3 player or taking phone calls and a PC headphone/chat cable. All three are wrapped in a nice thick rubber, not the standard flimsy wire stuff. There is also a Detachable boom mic that snaps into place quite securely. The headset, cables and mic all come package in a custom Astro carrying case which is yet another nice touch. If you ever need to travel with these things you are good to go. Really quite nice so far.

The Mixamp packaging has everything you need there. You get the transmitter, receiver, belt clip, 3-AAA batteries, Toslink optical cable, USB cable, xbox chat cable and a y-splitter (for use with other headphones not just Astro headsets) The transmitter and receiver are a little lighter than I expected but still have a high quality feel to them. The plastics and just feel good to the touch with a soft rubberized type backing on the receiver.

Of course the first thing I did was open the Speaker Tags and put them on to complete the look. Next I gave them a brief trial with some tunes from my iPhone but unfortunately that was short lived since I was at work. (They were delivered to my work and there is only so much I can do from here). More to follow. As I really get a chance to put these through their paces I will post more of my findings and impressions. Stay tuned...

Glad you're happy with them - looking forward to hearing how they perform on the 360.

Some quick pics I took with my iPhone...

they look great how much was after every thing?

$250.00 including shipping and everything.

Ok, as promised here are my impressions from my first night of gaming...

Amazing. Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. Now this is my first gaming headset so I am sure I would be properly amazed with most headsets out on the market but the A30's combined with the 5.8 Mixamp are truly amazing. Full, rich sound stage with a really excellent balance of highs, mids, and lows I played Crysis 2, Black Ops and Zombies (from Black Ops) and the sounds were crisp and crystal clear. Directional sound was great and I actually found a few kills based off of sound alone. It got better as the night drew on as well. It was amazing at first but all the sounds almost ran together. Too much for my brain to process. I had to retrain my ears to pick up on the little things I normally didn't hear. Started to recognize the little things like footsteps, clips reloading and grenade throws. It really is awesome how much detail you can here in these games and I am sure it will get better and better as I get used to them. The big things were pretty awesome too. Explosions and gunfire was deep, rich and powerful and the overall experience was very immersive. I find myself wanting to go back and play some of my older games just to see how they sound. Oh and I was a little worried about the mic, based off of reviews I read, but the friends I played with last night said I actually sounded better and clearer then before. Frankly it's just a win, win, win for me. The presentation, built quality and sound quality were all top notch. I have only had these for a day now and I can't imagine being without them. These will be my go to headphones for everything I do. Yes, they were expensive but worth every penny. I would happy recommend them to anyone interested in a gaming headset.

Thank you Astro!

ya likei tell every one you dont really know how much you are miss untill you get a high end gaming headset or hell anything with 5.1

and now when u play jungle you will here several type of animals out in the back ground

and like you said people coming and going so perks like ninja will be your biggest down fall as u wont here them coming!!! but then again 90% of people dont use it

well happy they are working out for ya man they are great headset

UPDATE: Comfort. Didn't really touch on this earlier so I wanted to make a point for those interested. These are on ear headphones, not around ear, so the headset actually sits on your ears. This design can be problematic if you wear them for long periods of time due to the fact that the headset is constantly putting pressure directly on the ears. Fortunately, this was not a problem for me at all. I wore them last night for about 6 hours straight and had Zero discomfort. These are lightweight and very comfortable even for long periods of time.

You will see most gaming headset are "around ear" headphones. They do this because they are a more comfortable design in general. And since most gamers play for hours at a time it makes since to make them as comfortable as possible. The A40's, Turtle Beach x41 etc.. are all designed this way. The only problem with this design is that they are huge and look ridiculous. Not a problem if you stay in your house but if you intend to take them outside is can be a little embarrassing. This is one of the key factors that led me to the A30's. The smaller lightweight design is perfect for multiple functions. They work great at home and are easily usable on the go as well without looking like a freakin weirdo.

sweet! congrats on the win. I wish I had them,I wanted them but they were just to $$ for me, but I bet they are worth it. now your gonna have to run ninja because your own footstep are crazy loud and you can totally due better with ninja + headphones. totally recommend deadspacewith headphones it has wicked sounds, put fear 3 on your gamefly, fear2 had some crazy spooky sounds too

Right on. I really do need to play through the Deadspace stuff now. Never did get to play through them. And I already use Ninja Pro. 1337 players always do.

Over ear? I have some nice On ear Sennheisers, and I was pretty amazed at the comfort as well. It seems like on ear headphones are making a big comeback. Then again, these are nothing like the old "walkman" style on ear phones of the past. And as you mentioned, over ear headphones are normally huge (beats has some nice smaller ones) and plus they have a higher power need that can't be pushed well by most MP3 players without a headphone amp.

I'm glad you like the Astro's. If I wasn't satisfied with my X41's I would be looking at those from your review. Now go play some Hard Core Search- sound will be your ally! But first throw in that Pink Floyd DVD I gave you!!!


~mrmiller

I noticed a review of the mix amp itself on one of my favorite sites, and as noted- it is a solid piece of equipment if you want quality sound and versatility.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/14/astro-mixamp-5-8-review/

~mrmiller

Yeah, I definitely love mine and while I would love to be totally wireless, I also love the versatility I get with this set up. The Astro stuff is really good stuff.