Astro A40 & MixAmp M80 review

I currently own 2 other headsets (Turtle Beach Stealth 500X and the MS Stereo Headset), so those are the only other models I'm able to compare the A40s to.

I think the A40 is a really nice looking headset. Obviously, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but the pale blue and light grey colour scheme looks really good IMO. The headset is light and comfortable to wear for extended periods. I wear glasses and
I still found the headset comfortable to wear. This is a stereo headset, so if you're looking for simulated surround sound, this isn't for you.

The headset comes with interchangeable tags on the side. You can purchase various designs of tags from Astro's site, although they're kinda pricey (at least in the UK) as you're paying £20 for a couple of bits of plastic. One nice touch is that one of the
tags has a hole in it so you can plug in the mic, but there is actually a headphone socket on both ear cups, so if you want to swap the mic to the other side you just need to remove the tags and swap them over. The cable that runs from the M80 to the A40 is
quite a bit thicker than the one used by the MS Stereo Headset and it's also shorter, which is a good thing. They include a micro-USB cable in the box if you need to update your controller's firmware.

The MixAmp M80 is Astro's own take on the stereo headset adapter. It has a few improvements over the Microsoft one. There's a lightbar on the front of the adapter with a row of LEDs on it which show you the volume level, the EQ preset you've selected, and
the balance between game and voice/party chat. The volume control is a rotary *** and pushing a button on the bottom of the *** mutes your mic (and the *** lights up a deep red colour to let you know). There's 3 EQ presets you can switch between. One seems
to highlight the high frequencies, which I suppose might help you hear footsteps better in shooters, one is a balanced EQ setting, then there's one that accentuates the bass. My M80 is darker in colour than the one shown in promo photos for the product. In
promo photos it looks like it's silver, while mine is a noticeably darker grey. I don't know if they're all like that, but I'm assuming they are.

The headset sounds really good. It's a definite step up on the MS Stereo Headset, which you would expect given the price difference. IMO, it sounds better than the 500X too, as the 500X sounds kinda "hollow" in comparison, no matter which preset you use.
With the A40s on, I noticed sounds in games I'd not noticed before. I've only been able to test the mic quality by asking online friends how clear/good my voice sounds and the responses ranged from "very good" to "great". There is no mic monitoring option,
but the headset doesn't isolate sound as well as the MS one does so I've not found that to be a problem.

There's only one thing about the design that I consider to be a negative. While you can unplug the headphone cable from the headset (which means you can plug in other devices if you want to use the headset for other things), you can't unplug the cable from
the M80. It's permanently wired in, which means that if you're not using your headset you're going to have to unplug the M80 from the controller. It's not like the MS adapter where you can just unplug the cable and leave the adapter plugged into the controller.
To me, that's quite a big oversight as not only is regularly plugging/unplugging the adapter an inconvenience, it's going to add extra wear to the plug/socket. Ideally, the cable should have unplugged at both ends, which would have been more convenient and
made the cable user replaceable. Also, Astro could have made some money by selling the M80 separately, as there are reasons to buy it over the MS one.

Price-wise, in the UK it runs for around £170 which I think is on the high side.

All in all, I would recommend this headset as I really like the design, the tags are cool (if a little pricey), you can swap the side you have your mic on, the audio and mic quality are great, and the M80 is better than the MS headset adaptor. It's let down
by the cable being hard wired into the M80 and the price being a little on the high side, at least here in the UK.

:)

 

Getting an Echo in Voice Chat when playing with my friend

I'm getting the same thing. Which headset are you using? I'm using an Astro A40 with MixAmp M80.

 

Voice Recording Help

Get the Astro mixamp. It has live stream abilities.

www.astrogaming.com/mixamp-pro-2013-edition

Or get the Astro A40's which includes the mixamp.

www.astrogaming.com/a40-audio-system-astro-edition