What gaming headphones to buy? - Page 102

You wouldnt need a 3.5 adapt
If you just wanted it to be a mute for your mic. The mixamp controller output which is for the mic to the controller are both 2.5mm. You would still have to use the astro 4pole 3.5mm splitter in order to feed the mic and headset into the mixamp.
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If you have the mixamp, you'd know more then i would. I'm still a little fuzzy about how everything hooks up to the thing.

Foe-hammer,

Sent you a PM on the dhp1000's. Do you still have them? Interested. Thanks.

I ordered the JVC RX900's while they were on sale, I'll let everyone know what I think, seem to get decent reviews for the pretty small price tag.

I have been having some problems with an unreliable connection between the MixAmp and headphones where only the left speaker works 99.9% of the time unless you mess with the wiring a little. The 2 wk trial period has expired, but Astro is not charging me for a replacement connection. Just thought that I would share that with you -especially if you've read my concerns.

Edit: The new QD cable arrived and everything is working great. Now to figure out how this usb thingy works with the ps3 ...

I just ordered the Astro MixAmp. I'll let you know how it compares to my two other Dolby Headphone units.

What are your other two DH units?

I have an SU-DH1 and am looking to swap it for the MixAmp so it will be interested to hear your thoughts if you are able to compare both of these units.

It will be nice to hear foe-hammers review of the mixamp.

+1

I have the JVC, and it does the job... but I wouldn't mind having mic support with DH.

Bring it on Foe!

Ok so i'm a newb to headphones, and best set I had came with my ipod lol, nonetheless i followed this thread and decided I wanted to get into the "game" I checked out KBI's post, and I know there are better cans out there but I didn't want to spend the money until I knew this was a road I wanted to travel on.

Based on his post I got the JVC RX900's for 60 shipped of buy.com, my first impressions were damn these are huge, covered my whole ear, and probably knock out about 20db of ambient sound around you as soon as you put them on, they are comfy on sides and top and after watching an hour long show I'm not itching to get them off...my first impression when I heard the sound was GOW:2, I litteraly looked like a kid on xmas day with the smile I had on, who knew that headphones could sound like this, everything was crisp and percise and the bass response was surprisingly great compared to what my misconceptions of headphones would be. Next up I flipped on my HD box and tuned to Kanye West : Storytellers on VH1 HD, and all I got was echo, I was like wtf..flipped through my receiver manual and saw I have two options Dolby Headphone; DH mode, or DH Mode bypass...I flipped to bypass...pure bliss, clean sound, and its the wierdest sensation when I flip to a movie with Dolby digital, its like the room is large that im listening in but they are right next to my ears, lol the movie Shutter was on, I think I hit my head against the back wall of my couch twice with stuff that jolted on screen. I'm impressed.

I know these are by no means the best headphones out there but I really just wanted to say thanks to everyone for introducing me to something new, and also for anyone on the fence about if headphones are right for them. Not to bad to get in there for 60 bucks..now I can see a few paychecks going towards nicer sets the addiction begins.

My other two DH units are the Pioneer SE DIR-800C and the Pioneer SE DIR-1000's. I bought the MixAmp solely for the chat and music mixing. I'm curious to see if it can power the DT880's or the K601's sufficiently. And how the mixamps internal amp compares to the two other DH units. Plus if there is any difference between them in DH quality.

just want to say i LOVE my astro a40s, i got the headset and the mixamp and its great for xbox and even movies if i need things to be quiet

Sweet.

Thats what its all about.. try it.. like it.. and eventually upgrade after you get addicted lol

Added another blog. DAC/AMP combo's.. I listed 28, plus level, price, & web address. Enjoy.

MixAmp first impressions...

The game volume / voice chat volume adjustment is not what i was expecting, and disappointing. All it does is adjust the game volume, and keeps the voice chat at a constant volume. So if you cannot hear your mates do to the game volume being too loud, you can turn the dial further to the right (clockwise) to reduce the game volume, so that you can hear the voice volume better. There is no adjustment of voice volume. I would much rather had a master volume and just a voice chat volume adjuster, so that i could increase the voice chat without adjusting the master game volume. There is no voice chat amplification. I hate when things are equalized - i want complete independent control over everything. The MixAmp game/chat control is no different when games give you the option to adjust the game's volume (sound effects, etc.) independent of the master volume (I just wish more games had this option), but being able to adjust the game volume on the fly, is a lot more convenient then if you had to go into the game setting to reduce the game volume.

This voice chat function was the entire reason i purchased the MixAmp. I'll mess around with it some more, but as of right now i'll probably return it.

What would be ideal, is for MS to add volume adjustment for voice chat when going through speakers. And to add a lot more amplification to voice through speakers then the current output.

Also i would like to use a wallwart (wall power adapter) for the MixAmp. What would be the correct power out for the wallwart?

The turtle beach adapter that i posted at the top of the page not only does it have a mute switch, but it also has a dial that will adjust game chat since that is all transmitted through the controller. It goes between the controller output on the mixamp to the controller. Thus you wouldbe able to leave the master volume alone and just adjust the chat.

I have the datel dongle that does the same thing. But the max volume is not loud enough, and the mixamp doesn't amplify the chat volume.

Foe-Hammer,


But you can power it/charge it from the x360.

Hey Foe what games were you playing? I totally agree with you the ability to independently adjust chat and game volume. However I never had a problem with the chat volume being drowned out by game sound and I play a lot of shooter games.

I sometimes have to adjust it for guys with low Mic's but not drowned out. I usually have my chat just to the left of 12 O'clock and my game volume at around 12:30ish/1:00.

Is it like that throughout the game or does the chat volume drown out just during the loud bassier parts?

Thanks for the link and i'm aware that you can use usb to charge it (that is what i'm currently doing for power), i just heard that using a wall charger gives better results with the mixamp.

And about that charger... you can use any cell phone mini usb charger? Doesn't the voltage output have to be the same? Cell phones use lithium batteries, while the mixamp uses AA. I would think that the voltage output requirements are different.


I'm liking the mixamp more, but i'm still not completely sold on it. The ability to lower the game volume independently of voice chat is nice (but not nearly as nice if they had independent voice amplification volume adjustment). I tested it out with Halo 3 and CoD:WaW (CoD4 has horrible audio quality; too compressed). CoD:WaW is the best i've heard for a console FPS.

The physical locations you have each dial knob set to, varies. What i mean is, no matter where you set the small knob for game volume decrease, the large master volume knob will be increased the same percentage difference to compensate. For example, if i set the small knob all the way left the larger master volume knob will be only turned up to about 11 o'clock. If you turn the small knob to center (12 o'clock) the master volume will have to increase to compensate for the reduced game volume to keep the game volume the same, and be increased up to 3 o'clock. These time locations will be different depending of how hard your headphones are to drive, but the the percentage differences should be the same.

I also noticed that i can hear better when i set the chat to both speaker and headset. When i have it just set to headset (as astro recommends), the sound quality is much worse, and harder to hear.

Another thing i noticed about the mixamp, is that it accentuates the mids more then my other DH units. This is good. But it feels like the soundstage has been dropped just a tad in the process.

I just noticed that the further you rotate the small chat knob to the right, the more of your voice feedback you get in your headphones.

EDIT:

For some reason the mixamp runs my DT880's fine now. There is no more distortion at loud volumes. Weird. I have to turn the volume to max, with the small know turned down to 9 or 10 O'Clock to get a sufficient sound lvl. Plus the buzzing has went away.

I believe that the mixamp was only designed to run maybe 80ohms on down. It only pushes 70mW at 32 ohms where as a lot of the headphone amps start at 75 to 100mW at 32 ohms. The more expensive headphone amps can do 250mW per 32 ohms. 250 ohm cans are a lot for most of the entry level headphone amps to handle, that is if you want nice sound.

My MixAmp has developed noise recently. The more i turn the small knob to the left, a buzzing noise starts to develop and increase the further i turn it left. When i turn the small knob right, a static noise begins and increases the further i turn it right. But both noises are not present at the same time. And when i listen to one of my voice messages, there is a noticeable humming interference. When i first starting using the mixamp, these problems were not there. I tried powering the MixAmp through a wall charger and batteries, but the results were the same.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Somewhere I read that some one was getting static when turning the knobs shortly after recieving theirs and it went away a couple of hours or a couple of days. Sorry the details are a little vague to remember. Ill so if I can figure out where I saw that at.

Here is the mention I remembered, Its not much but maybe it is a commen problem.
http://www.astrogaming.com/news/revi...Xbox-Magazine/

I was just wondering because many audiophiles say that the Astro's and the A700 are not as bassy. Perhaps that is what makes them good for gaming since they're bass isn't as prominent and possibly less likely to drown out the chat and other subtle game ques.

The other thing I heard from Clan mates was about the humming. Anyway to cut a long story short, some none who had the rechargeable batteries had the humming but some who didn't did have the humming sound. Those who reported the humming then put in batteries and it apparently went away. Others then tested it out and found that the humming went away even if you used regular batteries. The batteries could even be dead and it still appeared to stop the humming.

I don't know first hand because I just took their advice and put in 4 dead batteries once I got the Mixamp.

There was a thread about it in my Clan's website SealTeamSix.net I think it is on a public thread and might be viewable to you if you want to check it out.

If it's in a private thread let me know and I could just cut paste a few post for you.

This is from Astro's FAQ

Q: I hear a very slight popping from my MixAmp every few seconds if my game is quiet -- is there any way to fix this?
A: Yes -- this quiet popping can be easily fixed if it bothers you. If you can hear it, simply put some AA batteries in the tray of the MixAmp and this will go away instantly. The batteries don't need to power the A40 MixAmp, however, and you can still use USB power. The USB power will override the batteries in the tray as long as the cable is connected (and receiving power).

This clicking is a voltage detection of the rechargeable battery feature. If a battery is present, the circuit stops functioning.

I thought I remembered reading something about this when researching the mixamp. Not exactly the sound you are hearing but gives some insight on what might be happening.

Finally interested in picking up the A40 combo again.. glad to see you guys still talking good about it.

Can you guys give me the steps for proper "Burn in"