true 5.1?

[PaiN]

i'm interested in getting a pair of these. but, i'm wondering if these are truly a 5.1. do they have the separate speakers in each ear piece or is it 1 speaker on each side? how do these compare to the triton headsets?

[Izzy]

similair to triton but i think they r much better

[ASTRO Warblade]

Hey PaiN,

The Astro A40 Audio System (A40 Headset and MixAmp) use a technology from Dolby called Dolby Headphone. It's a processing of sorts that takes the 5.1 game audio via Dolby Digital and creates a simulated sound scape using stereo headphones. The A40 headphones contain just two drivers, one 40mm driver per cup.

Tritton's AX 720 is similar in respects to the A40 Audio System, with a few exceptions, most notably they require for their "mixing unit" to be plugged in via DC power (no rechargable battery, nor ability to run off of USB power), their included cables (optical and usb for the PS3) are only 3 feet long, though they're game and chat volume controls are on their on-wire to the headset (a 12.5 foot cable), and their microphone is always set to the left-side (not removable).

Both use the Dolby Headphone technology

Their AX Pro has 4 speakers per cup (so 8 speakers total), and while they do use some technology to use a slight delay to to center and rear speakers, I find any headphones using more than one driver per ear to be hard to differentiate where it's coming from, but that's just my take.

I'd suggest to try out your options, see which one sounds best to you. I hear they carry Tritton stuff at BestBuy (haven't seen them yet though). Astro's may be a little harder to try out, unless you head out to an Expo or MLG competition where we're present.

[PaiN]

Thanks warblade. this information is very useful. i think i'm going to go ahead and purchase a pair of these.

are these ready to go right out of the box? or will i need more cable in order to connect directly to my xbox360 and ps3?

again, thank you very much for your help.

[Izzy]

out-of-the-box ready!!!!!! they are truly amazing boxes, not gonna lie.

[siR mR dinGy]

Thanks warblade. this information is very useful. i think i'm going to go ahead and purchase a pair of these.

are these ready to go right out of the box? or will i need more cable in order to connect directly to my xbox360 and ps3?

again, thank you very much for your help.

you can connect it with the cables they give you but the optical cable doesnt come with it..you should get it here or on ebay for a cheaper price..sorry astro hehe

[PaiN]

you read my mind lol. guess i'll have to pick up an optic cable as well.

[ASTRO Warblade]

Psst. Monoprice.com has great prices, but they recently had some weird website issues where people may have had their credit card info stolen. So just a word of warning (I typically buy from then frequently though).

And yes, to receive the Dolby Digital sound, you'll need to be using an optical cable, or a Coaxil cable (which consoles don't use, but PCs or A/V receivers sometimes do).

[Astropin]

IMHO Dolby Headphone used trough headphones with two drivers (one per side) works better than anything trying to use multiple drivers.

I also think that as long as high quality drivers are used.....then the bigger the drivers the better the effect, especially for directional awareness.

[shawneb0y]

I dont know.. I found it very troublesome when I was trying to find out where they noises were coming from using the single drivers per headset.. before i got the astros i was using tritton ax360.. and they of course had the 4 drivers per ear.. and i could tell exactly where the footsteps were coming from.. how far away they were.. if they were above or below me.. so im still trying to get used to the one driver set up with astro..

edit** well heres what im trying to get at.. with the 4 drivers per ear.. the sound would resonate in accordance to where that noise is coming from.. say that theres someone on the other side of a wall.. the noise goes the driver that most resembles that location and slowly travels to the different drivers as the noise shifts.. so IMO i had better depth as well as sense of location with more drivers in my ear.. with the astros since theres no definite difference with the direction with a single driver.. at first all i could tell was.. someone is coming from my right.. or someone is coming from left.. but it was a little hard to tell how far away they were.. so its not as easy to follow the sound of the footsteps..

[MoldyRock]

I dont know.. I found it very troublesome when I was trying to find out where they noises were coming from using the single drivers per headset.. before i got the astros i was using tritton ax360.. and they of course had the 4 drivers per ear.. and i could tell exactly where the footsteps were coming from.. how far away they were.. if they were above or below me.. so im still trying to get used to the one driver set up with astro..

edit** well heres what im trying to get at.. with the 4 drivers per ear.. the sound would resonate in accordance to where that noise is coming from.. say that theres someone on the other side of a wall.. the noise goes the driver that most resembles that location and slowly travels to the different drivers as the noise shifts.. so IMO i had better depth as well as sense of location with more drivers in my ear.. with the astros since theres no definite difference with the direction with a single driver.. at first all i could tell was.. someone is coming from my right.. or someone is coming from left.. but it was a little hard to tell how far away they were.. so its not as easy to follow the sound of the footsteps..

haha i swear those AX360s give people with no muscle neck, muscles by the end of 2 sessions if not one those headsets are heavy!

[Steggy]

Hey PaiN,

The Astro A40 Audio System (A40 Headset and MixAmp) use a technology from Dolby called Dolby Headphone. It's a processing of sorts that takes the 5.1 game audio via Dolby Digital and creates a simulated sound scape using stereo headphones. The A40 headphones contain just two drivers, one 40mm driver per cup.

Tritton's AX 720 is similar in respects to the A40 Audio System, with a few exceptions, most notably they require for their "mixing unit" to be plugged in via DC power (no rechargable battery, nor ability to run off of USB power), their included cables (optical and usb for the PS3) are only 3 feet long, though they're game and chat volume controls are on their on-wire to the headset (a 12.5 foot cable), and their microphone is always set to the left-side (not removable).

Both use the Dolby Headphone technology

Their AX Pro has 4 speakers per cup (so 8 speakers total), and while they do use some technology to use a slight delay to to center and rear speakers, I find any headphones using more than one driver per ear to be hard to differentiate where it's coming from, but that's just my take.

I'd suggest to try out your options, see which one sounds best to you. I hear they carry Tritton stuff at BestBuy (haven't seen them yet though). Astro's may be a little harder to try out, unless you head out to an Expo or MLG competition where we're present.
To be fair, while the optical cable is only 3 ft long, it is an included accessory with the system rather than an add on. And the cord length of the headphone sort of makes up for it because you can go so far away from the decoder box with it. However the actual controls of tritton's decoder box are a bit iffy. It takes a while to control volume on the decoder box because of the buttons. and just 1 dial for game/chat balance with the mixamp is easier to change while playing than having to look down to change 2 dials. The DC power does suck though, and the daisy chaining ability is limited to 2 headsets.

As for discrete 5.1 headsets, the biggest problem are headsets with too small drivers in the earcups. Smaller drivers= muddier sound. And sound quality comes into play because you want to be able to separate sound so noises like footsteps or weapons spawns stand out more. 2 headsets that seem promising for 5.1 are the Turtle Beach HPX(they use 2 40mm drivers in each earcup, then 2 smaller ones, the 40mm ones have quite nice quality) and the Psyko 5.1(completely innovative design, and allows the ability for larger drivers to be in the headset.)

other than that, 5.1's....meh. Dolby Headphone gives you the pro's of clarity from high fidelity stereo headphones and the sound positioning from 5.1