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- Date:
- Wednesday, August 18, 2010
- Author:
- Earl Keim
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Share:
Astro A40 Gaming Headset and MixAmp Review
Astro Studios is famous among console gamers even if you don't know why. It designed the XBOX 360, but can a bunch of design gurus put together a team to build a gaming headset that is worth $250? We have learned that looking cool and sounding great are two different things in our past reviews. Can Astro pull it off?
Introduction
Astro Studios is a San Francisco based firm that specializes in stylized product branding and design. The company's clients include Brim Coffee, Kodak, Nike, HP, and notably, Microsoft. Astro Studios is responsible for the Xbox 360's design and styling that gamers worldwide know so well. The company spun off a separate entity, Astro Gaming, to concentrate on the creation of personalized gaming headsets and amplifiers that could be used across the three major video game platforms, the Playstation 3, the Xbox 360, and the PC, with nearly identical results. Uses other than gaming are possible for the device and we will discuss those later.
HardOCP contacted Astro Gaming to obtain a product sample and Astro sent us its flagship product: The Astro A40 Gaming Headset and MixAmp. We saw the product advertised on our own pages at HardOCP through Google and that piqued our interests.
PC users have always used headphones and microphones on a multitude of existing ports on their machines so we are very curious to see what Astro's product has to offer and how it may be unique or better than what we currently use to satisfy our gaming audio needs while playing at home or online with friends.
The Product, Pricing, & Packaging
Astro Gaming chose the configuration of the product it sent to us, Kyle simply chose the color: black. The majority of Astro's products are available only through the company's website although you can also find the headset at Dell. The headset and MixAmp combo price begins at $249.00 and buyers have the option to chose headset frame color (white or black), optional speaker tags, rechargeable battery pack, and TOSlink optical cable and length. Potential buyers should consider rechargeable batteries as four battery refills will cost on average the same amount as one rechargeable battery pack purchased from Astro Gaming. We were sent the standard package, TOSlink cable, and rechargeable battery pack. The total cost with standard shipping to Texas was $296.70. Replacement MixAmp units and headset upgrades can be purchased separately on the Astro Gaming product website.
All product purchased directly from Astro Gaming comes with an automatic 1-year warranty on defective parts or faulty workmanship. No registration is required.
There had better be something very special in this box to justify the cost of an entire Xbox 360 basic package. Upon opening the package, we were very surprised to see how many accessories were inside. We thought we would be receiving a set of headphones, an attachable mic, and a small rectangular amplifier as we did with the $299.00 Psyko 5.1 headset. We were wrong.
AstroGaming also includes the following cables free of charge:
- Y-Adapter: connect any standard PC headset to the Mixamp
- 1.5 Meter XBox game controller cable for integrated XBox Live chat
- 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable-connect external audio device to the Mixamp
- 4 Meter USB to USB Mini cable-power your Mixamp from any USB 2.0 port
- 4 Meter RCA Piggyback cable-connect directly to your home audio system