Astro Gaming A40 Quick Disconnect Connector Circumaural Wired Headset + MixAmp Pro - Black

Pros: Coupled with a motherboard or sound card that allows Dolby Digital Live (DDL) makes this headset the best one I have ever owned. The sound for movies and games are top notch as i could hear every little step or pebble drop from both. It really is amazing what the little mixamp can do by pushing 5.1 surround to 7.1 surround(with DDL enabled only. I have also used this on my xbox 360 which work perfectly. Even the case it came in made me smile and I am also in the process of buying some custom plated for the earpieces as well. Top notch astro gaming

Cons: For audiophiles this head set does make music sound good but as far as headphones for music goes there are better out there. My preference is for analog music and if you are setting up the headset for gaming it will suffer slightly in the music department but not so much that I would not buy these thing for everything else: Movies, games, streaming are straight up the best i have ever had.

Other Thoughts: 6 eggs

Pros: Excellent sound coupled with a good sound card. Plugged mic into soundcard via splitter headset to mixer pure gaming goodness. Worth every penny!

Cons: Needs a good card to shine (DDL) , Pricey for the average Joe.

Pros: Quality, I can't stress that enough. Astro provides a top notch product.

Cons: You get what you pay for and you pay a lot. This is the the biggest drawback to the A40 system. While you are getting a quality product, they could stand to be a little cheaper. Minus one egg.

Other Thoughts: The issues previously mentioned about the microphone in other reviews have been fixed through firmware updates. (was an issue with the usb on the mixamp apparently)

Pros: Comfort, Sound is pretty good

Cons: Mic has huge issues which are stated in other reviews. The voice output is muffled and when contacting support they try to tell you something is wrong with your computer. It is a mixamp problem, since when plugged directly into the computer the sound is fine.

Pros: Clarity. You need to hear footsteps in FPS's. This does the trick.

Durability.

Cons: None.

Other Thoughts: You need an outside amp to fully push the speakers.

Pros: Comfort
Surround Sound Capabilities
Sound Quality
Comfort
Easily the best looking headphone on the market
Top Quality

Cons: Sometimes the chat cable goes bad but usually it's chat cable port on your controller.If it is the chat cable then don't buy the astro replacement because shipping is out of this world. Just order a Steren 2.5 to 2.5 cable. works and is cheap.
Sometimes the microphone after a year will develop a gouge at the base of the microphone were it clips into the headphone. Not Astro's fault as any headphone with a clip in mic develops this from the user moving the mic up and down throughout the year. It's not bad having to buy a new mic for $20 though to me. Doesn't mean it's gonna happen though

Other Thoughts: First off i would like to say that everywhere you look at a40 reviews you will see people that say there are better. They say this because they all go to a headphone website called head-fi and there is a thread on there ran by a kid that has a very low iq. As soon as you look on there and ask questions they tell you to buy a mixamp and then a different headphone to match with it. That's the first problem. To buy the mixamp you have to spend $180 and then they tell you there are better headphones for $100 to $500 to mix with it. You can just spend the extra $80 and get the actual headphone with it.
The kid who runs the forum has a problem .. he compares gaming headphones to highend . He has heard high end headphones but from the beginning he couldn't explain what he was hearing properly and to someone like myself and others, lets say we got a lot of laughs. Over the years he has picked up a little but he is so confused and tries so hard that he can't just accept a headphone. He now looks for a perfect headphone and thinks that the original a40 sucks because he compared the first version to a $1000 MUSIC headphone that was amazing. He can't think outside the box.
In my opinion as someone who has heard and owned a lot of high end audio from headphones and speakers i can tell you that the astro a40 is a very pleasing headphone. If you sit there an analyze the headphone for hours and compare it to highend headphones you find some things to be different and to someone who wants and ultra flat response and ultra detail then the astro might be missing a little. But if you just play with them you will immediately be immersed into the sound. The drivers are held back far away from your ears and that's because it gives you a more natural out of head experience. Like you're actually in the game. The sound are rounded off a little so that it doesn't pierce you ears after a long listening session. Those two things right there make the headphone sound different from highend headphones but that's because they're meant for gaming. To me, a genius engineered these headphones.
Did i mention they're comfy. . . like super ridiculously comfortable.
And anyone who has never listened to any high end headphones and only gaming headphones will immediately be able to tell that the astro's are leagues above any other gaming headphone.
BTW the sennheisers really aren't that great. Instead of rounding off the sounds, to make low quality sound full and more natural they decided to go a different approach which is less detailed and and they bloom in the sound. It's not a natural way of delivering music. It's like the sound starts to come in but in a low volume and then escalates and this keep the initial harshness of low quality from hurting your ears as much. I prefer the astro way. Also, the sennheisers do not give me the feeling that i'm in the game. They make me feel like i'm wearing a headphone.

Pros: The headsets are comfy long term and last with great sound and I mean great sound, better than what others are recommending. You can order a new mic and muffs from the company for around $15 for both of them.
I usually go through a headset every 6-9 months and these are going strong for over a year. Music in these is beautiful.

Cons: 1st off the Mixamp does not work as good as claim and when I tried to get assistance even though it was under warranty they would send email that since I haven't replied they would end it. the mic will not work as astro in the system so you have to run it as a U.S.B. mic. It will eat batteries even though it's plugged in through U.S.B. and lastly the volume must be up or it will cut out the left ear ( some get right ear cut out). Rheostat issue I am guessing They should have replaced the mixamp but as you read around, don't

Other Thoughts: I gave it a 4 and not lower because of the headset, it's durability and sound so people would know. If you want extreme comfort wireless that last 8-10 hours per charge look at Vengeance headset as I have a set for my daughter and I just love them for lightweight even more comfy than these and pretty good gaming sounds. ( not as good gaming as these but close and just a dream to wear.

Pros: Comfort. Looks.

Cons: Over priced, okay sounds, terrible mic issues

I have done updates for the mic. Have the time I am fighting to get the headphones to even work. The other half I am fighting to get the mic to work properly. No one can ever seem to hear me or I get a terrible feedback of my own voice. When I finally get them working and I need to restart my computer they stop when it turns back on.

Other Thoughts: Buy some Razer headphones instead. My roommate has those with zero issues.

Pros: Easy option for anyone who wants good sound and does not want to spend the money on a sound card. I had a sound card and a decent head set and the sound quality of the Astros beat it. I returned the sound card and head phones to the store. I tested several headsets and I prefered the sound from the Astros. The only head set that I would like to see is the Seinnheiser PC360.

Cons: Price, and sound quality, it has very good sound in games and as far as music it is good. I wish that the sound in music was better. But it was better than my creative sound card and steelseries v2 and a couple of seinnheiser head sets that I tested.

Other Thoughts: There are better options out there but they all cost more than 300 dollars. The best option would have been the seinnheiser pc360 and the Astro mix amp. If you want great sound it's going to cost more than thre hundred dollars on the bottom end, and upwards of 500 dollars.

Pros: *Decent sound quality
*Comfortable
*Easy to use

Cons: *Overpriced
*Issues with microphone (Read below)

Other Thoughts: Ok, listen up. "Astro" is just like Fatality, another 'Game' branded piece of overpriced hardware. You see it everywhere, and the people who say it's "Amazing sound quality" probably ruptured their ear drums a long time ago.

Do yourself a favor and look online, you'll find the best setup for sound is going to be a pair of nice headphones (Audio Technica, Sony, Bose, etc..) with a nice sound card and Zalman clip-on mic.

I bought a pair of these just to see what the hype was before I decided to actually buy a pair of nice headphones. I'll admit, yes this are okay... are they 239.99$ okay? Hell no.

Onto one major issue I had with these, the microphone. Look at their forums, it's loaded with complaints. There is an issue with the mix-amp that causes HORRIBLE microphone noise, so much to the point people cannot even hear you. This is a known problem and they have not done ANYTHING to fix it. I returned 3 pairs all with the same issue.

Do yourself a favor, buy a Sound Blaster 7.1 X-Fi card, some HDJ-2000 headphones and a Blu Yeti microphone. It's night and day when comparing them to these 'Gaming headphones' which are overpriced, sub-quality headsets marketed to people who think they are for gaming, when in reality.. they are just #&#^@% headphones.