- 1,086
- St-Hyacinthe, QC
- GTP_pilmat
- pilmat
The Astro family gets a good bit of love here on GTPlanet, so I'll open the discussion on them.
After the many good reviews, I went and tried them for physical fit and was very pleased with the A40 headphones. I tried the A30s, and quite liked their light weight, but I'm not a fan of on-ear headphones and they were a bit flimsy in my opinion. The A40s are over ear and felt light and well seated.
So I picked up the A40s. I didn't try the A50s as I'm not a wireless fan (had a set of wireless go dead mid race once, I was through...) so I'm not sure about their fit.
The big feature of the Astro family seems to be their MixAmp, and the A30, A40 and A50 all come with the MixAmp Pro. It is the source of the sound imaging that will get you thinking that the headphones are actually a surround sound system connected to your ears.
The MixAmp plugs in to the PS3 via optical AND USB (it's Xbox 360, Xbox 1 and PS4 compatible too). I initially thought the USB was only for power, but it seems it is the voice channel too (makes sense now that I think about it...). I have mine plugged into a powered USB hub on my PS3 and everything works great. Then change your PS3 audio and device settings per the instructions and the sound comes pouring through!
Now about the sound:
My last set-up was the old square PS3 headphones (I prefer them over the newer, split-headband ones), which I always thought was quite good for the simple system it was. Note that I always had it plugged into power after the mid-race off...
The Astro A40 are quite impressive from new. The detail and location of the sound is very apparent. In GT6 the engine sounds as if it is behind you in a MR, the wind noise varies a lot with speed and the kerbs and tires sound truly fore or aft, depending on which tyre is on the kerb or sliding. The bass is a bit low at the moment, but I think that will open up as the drivers break in (my PSB M4U1 were like this, after a couple of hours of heavy bass music they opened up beautifully).
The Dolby button adds a LOT of space to the sounds, allowing the surround to be much more apparent, but cutting overall volume a bit.
The 4 mixer settings are quite different. I am finding setting 2, the Core Mode, provides the most satisfying GT6 experience, where the car and atmosphere sounds balance well. Setting 1, Pro Mode, has the best car sounds. Setting 3, Media Mode, has the most atmosphere sounds (wind noise is quite high here). I didn't like the Sport Mode, setting 4, as it felt that everything was too damped.
The big volume knob is very practical. I mounted it on the keyboard mount of my Human Racing GT Chassis, and it is just below my left hand for and easy tweak mid race. The mic/sound mix knob is just below it and is also quite accessible, and being a substantially different size, it is difficult to mix up the two knobs.
I haven't tried the mic yet, but I'll get into some rooms later and see what it's like. I'll get feedback from the others in the room as to their impression of what I sound like.
As for comfort, there is no sore point after a good 40 minute session. Normally I pick up on pressure points very quickly, so I'm thinking these are going to be great. The second gen PS3 headphones, the ones with the split-headband, give me a headache after 10 minutes...
So far so good
I'm interested to hear how others are setting up their audio to get the most out of these headphones and mixer.
After the many good reviews, I went and tried them for physical fit and was very pleased with the A40 headphones. I tried the A30s, and quite liked their light weight, but I'm not a fan of on-ear headphones and they were a bit flimsy in my opinion. The A40s are over ear and felt light and well seated.
So I picked up the A40s. I didn't try the A50s as I'm not a wireless fan (had a set of wireless go dead mid race once, I was through...) so I'm not sure about their fit.
The big feature of the Astro family seems to be their MixAmp, and the A30, A40 and A50 all come with the MixAmp Pro. It is the source of the sound imaging that will get you thinking that the headphones are actually a surround sound system connected to your ears.
The MixAmp plugs in to the PS3 via optical AND USB (it's Xbox 360, Xbox 1 and PS4 compatible too). I initially thought the USB was only for power, but it seems it is the voice channel too (makes sense now that I think about it...). I have mine plugged into a powered USB hub on my PS3 and everything works great. Then change your PS3 audio and device settings per the instructions and the sound comes pouring through!
Now about the sound:
My last set-up was the old square PS3 headphones (I prefer them over the newer, split-headband ones), which I always thought was quite good for the simple system it was. Note that I always had it plugged into power after the mid-race off...
The Astro A40 are quite impressive from new. The detail and location of the sound is very apparent. In GT6 the engine sounds as if it is behind you in a MR, the wind noise varies a lot with speed and the kerbs and tires sound truly fore or aft, depending on which tyre is on the kerb or sliding. The bass is a bit low at the moment, but I think that will open up as the drivers break in (my PSB M4U1 were like this, after a couple of hours of heavy bass music they opened up beautifully).
The Dolby button adds a LOT of space to the sounds, allowing the surround to be much more apparent, but cutting overall volume a bit.
The 4 mixer settings are quite different. I am finding setting 2, the Core Mode, provides the most satisfying GT6 experience, where the car and atmosphere sounds balance well. Setting 1, Pro Mode, has the best car sounds. Setting 3, Media Mode, has the most atmosphere sounds (wind noise is quite high here). I didn't like the Sport Mode, setting 4, as it felt that everything was too damped.
The big volume knob is very practical. I mounted it on the keyboard mount of my Human Racing GT Chassis, and it is just below my left hand for and easy tweak mid race. The mic/sound mix knob is just below it and is also quite accessible, and being a substantially different size, it is difficult to mix up the two knobs.
I haven't tried the mic yet, but I'll get into some rooms later and see what it's like. I'll get feedback from the others in the room as to their impression of what I sound like.
As for comfort, there is no sore point after a good 40 minute session. Normally I pick up on pressure points very quickly, so I'm thinking these are going to be great. The second gen PS3 headphones, the ones with the split-headband, give me a headache after 10 minutes...
So far so good
I'm interested to hear how others are setting up their audio to get the most out of these headphones and mixer.