My son wanted a nice headset for Christmas and so I went out and tried to find something for him. I came back with a Tritton Pro+ 5.1 headset, a Sennheiser PC-350 SE and a mic for his AKG K550 headphones. Yesterday we played around with the different solutions and so far, none of them seems to hit the nail on the head. He plays on XBox One and has a surround receiver hooked up to it. If I am correct though, the headset "normally" has to be connected to the controller, right? I don't like that really, and I'm rather sure it leads to further problems with battery consumption and power output for some headsets. What I liked was the decoder box that came with the Tritton though. Has anyone tried the solution sold by Creative that's also supposed to work on consoles? http://en.europe.creative.com/p/sound-blaster/sound-blasterx-g5 I'm searching for a nice solution where he can use a headset / headphone with boom mic (mod mic perhaps) as easily as possible, while still delivering a nice & clear sound and good positional audio. Maybe someone can shed some light on this, I'd really appreciate it! A short rundown on my candidates so far: Tritton Pro+: + decoder box to run the headset independently of the controller - very dull sound with way too much bass - earpads are very hard and have a weird shape - headband supposedly breaks easily Sennheiser PC-350 SE: + closed type, very detailled sound + good highs and mids, bass a little weak in comparison + comfortable to wear, nice mic + huge earcups are good for "airy feeling" - earpads feel really cheap and weird - huge earcups lack fit on smaller heads (even mine was too small) - very low volume on battery-powered devices AKG K-550: + closed type, very detailled sound + very neutral + comfortable to wear + huge earcups that are very soft and comfortable to wear, airy feeling - no mic We also tested my Ultrasone HFI-780 and they're somewhere in between the AKG/Senn and the Tritton when it comes to bass. More "fun" signature, but with tight earcups and no "airy" feeling around them. They're dead silent when wearing them, as there's little air around the ear, opposed to the huge cups of the AKG and the Senn. What I'm trying to find now is a closed set of cans, preferably a full headset, that can be easily driven by the console (gamepad?) itself or through an additional device (that can be used easily for every game), with comfortable earpads (preferably soft leather) and a good mic. As I'm no friend of wireless sound stuff, I'd like it to be wired too. I'd really appreciate any help.
I went through similar problems trying to find a quality audio solution for my PS4, in the end I settled on a pair of Audio Technica ATH-AG1's and an Astro Mixamp Pro. The Mixamp Pro has a decent amount of output, is nicely detailed, has 4 preset EQ modes and a dial tune the audio between the game audio and chat.
I'm thinking of doing this as well, as I'm a bit disappointed in the sound quality of the astro a40 headset. I take it the sound quality is much better with those AG1's? Do you play with the dolby button on or off on the mixamp?
I never had the A40 headset so can't really compare the AG1's against them. The AG1's do have a very natural sound to them, not too over bearing on the bass, just very balanced overall with a nice spacious soundstage that's perfect for gaming. I don't use the Dolby button, makes the vocals sound a bit unnatural for my tastes. Overall very happy with the headset/Mixamp combo, mic quality on the AG1's is great.
Thanks for the recommendation! I ordered one and it should be here soon. It's quite sad to see that bothe Asus' and Creative's offerings both don't seem to offer Dolby decoding.
Just a quick update: As my order for the MixAmp Pro hasn't shipped yet, I ordered a Turtle Beach ESS 2.0 so I can possibly A/B the two solutions in the end. It cost a mere quarter of the Astro amp so I'll be much more relaxed about the missing DTS decoding.
