I’m a sucker for headsets, especially since I do most of my gaming late at night. With a good headset, I can crank the volume to the max without waking up the wife at 2 AM and spare myself a slap up-side the head in the morning. I recently reviewed the X41 Wireless Headset from Turtle Beach and even though my experience with it continues to be a positive one despite its nitpicks, the ASTRO Gaming brand has been teasing me for quite some time.

While the California-based company offers two models, it’s the A30 cross-platform audio system that we’ll review today. Intended for more of an on-the-go use, is this bad boy worth the investment?

The first thing you should know is that ASTRO offers two options for their A30 model: either you buy the standalone headset for 150 dollars or the complete audio system kit for 230 dollars. The full kit includes the slick and comfortable on-ear headset and the ASTRO MixAmp, which allows you to get 5.1 Dolby Surround out of your gaming and the ability to use your headset as an Xbox Live/PSN communicator as well. Our review will focus on the latter.

The biggest upside of the A30 headset is its versatility. Not only you can plug it to your PC to use for gaming or voice chat (I’ve used it recently to record a podcast via Skype) but it can also be used with any device that has a 3.5mm stereo output such as MP3 players, iPhones and your handheld gaming devices among others. It comes with a removable boom mic but there’s also an inline microphone (located on the upper part of the removable quick disconnect cable) for a more discreet method communication. Speaking of “removable”, these headsets are highly customizable. Aside from the aforementioned removable boom mic, the package comes with three swappable cables for mobile, console or PC setups. The mobile cable features a control button to answer or end calls but it also works with iTunes to start, stop, jump forward and jump back. You can buy custom speaker tags (also removable) or even make you own design. In our case, we had the opportunity to review the MGS Peace Walker headset model so the green MGS tags were included. And if you buy now, ASTRO will throw a copy of the game too.

Versatility is great and all, but what about the sound? While the performance of the normal stereo sound isn’t what you REALLY want to know (as that tech has been pretty much perfected by now, right?), you’ll be happy to learn that when paired with the MixAmp, (priced at 130 dollars if you decide to buy it later instead of saving a few bucks when buying the entire audio system out-right) the A30 headsets sound quality is phenomenal. Now, I prefer a circumaural headset over anything else out of sheer comfort. Having to deal with an on-ear set-up rather than the circumaural I prefer did become a small nuisance, but not big enough to actually dislike the ASTRO’s. The 5.1 Dolby Surround effects are amazing but some might not feel the same level of immersion that a full over-ear headset will give. Of course, their other model - the A40 - could solve this problem, but you’ll be sacrificing the on-the-go side of things and the lightweight feel.

On the other hand, since these are wired headsets, you won’t have to deal with the hisses and small interference noises you would get with a wireless headset. One of the things that struck me was how annoying the sound on my X41 can be when I plug the Xbox Live Chat communicator into the headset. With the A30’s, you won’t have to deal with it

Conclusion

To be honest, once I’ve tasted the joys of a 5.1 Dolby Surround wireless headset, it was hard for me to back-peddle to a wired set-up. However, what ASTRO offers here is one of the best audio experiences I have had in the past few years. Now, the price might be a little hefty and there are other premium wired options on the market (of which I have yet to sample) but beware, if you pay less, you might not get the whole package ASTRO is offering. Personally, I think that you’ll be pleased with the investment.


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