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I have owned and operated Astro’s A40 gaming headset going on about two months now, and figure I have logged a sufficient number of hours on them to be able two produce an accurate review. I also would like to add, before I begin, that I am a former user of the Turtle Beach P21’s, which I played with for several months on World at War before returning CoD 4, and then used on Modern Warfare 2 during the first few weeks after its release. I say this because I would like readers to keep in mind when I make comparisons between the two headsets that I have indeed had first hand experience with the P21’s. Lets get started with the review!

Form/Structure:
What I immediately noticed about the Astros upon first inspection was the superior build quality of the cans when compared to the P21’s. I am exaggerating in no way when I say that the Astro headset makes the Turtle Beach look and feel like a chinsy, cheap piece of low-grade plastics that you could pick up at a Toys R Us store. The Turtle Beach never structurally felt like a solid piece of equipment during my months of use with it, but being able to compare the two side by side confirmed that fact outright.

Another awesome feature with the Astros is the flexibility and convenience of the design. It is easy to tell that a lot went into engineering these cans. My favorite structural features include the following: It has a detachable/replaceable boom microphone that can be switched to either side of the headset or removed altogether, the ports for which can be covered up by the three different “speaker tags” which are included in the package. Speaker tags are pieces of plastic that are used to block out ambient noise as well as to cover the microphone port(s) that are not in use. There is also an application on Astro’s website that allows for a customer to design his/her own speaker tags for $30. The padding on the ear cups can also be removed/replaced if it gets worn out. The swivel mechanism for the ear cups (for when the user wants to take them off and wear them around the neck) is also about 1000x smoother than on the P21’s – for those of you who own the P21, you know what I mean – and much more comfortable to wear around the neck, too. The ear cups on the Astro’s also completely engulf the ear as opposed to sitting on the surface, and allow for a much more snug, yet breathable, fit than do the P21’s.

The next feature is extremely simple in terms of engineering is concerned, but is so awesome in my opinion that it deserved its own paragraph. The cable that is actually connected to the headset is only around 8 inches long, at the end of which is a connector that is easily attached or removed to the audio cable that plugs into the mixamp (I will get to the mixamp later). What this allows you to do is to easily walk away from the game system without the need to take off the headset. Despite the fact that it seems very insignificant, it small things like this which I have really come to appreciate in the Astro headset.

The entire system is also entirely USB powered, which was a driving factor in convincing me to spend the extra cash on the Astros instead of the Trittons, which require two AC adapters to power it on top of the USB cable for mic audio. All Astro audio systems produced after November 2009 also come with out of the box compatibility with both PS3 and XBOX 360, which is another great feature.

Functionality:
I will now discuss the actual sound quality of the headset, which is again nothing less than amazing. I can say with confidence that using Astros will make any newcomer to the series seem like a veteran, and a veteran of the series into an unstoppable force to be reckoned with. When using these, it is possible to tell exactly where footsteps are coming from, to a point where it is possible to start shooting before a person even comes through a doorway. Left, right, front, back - even what floor of a building someone is on – is all easily distinguishable with these. When combined with ninja pro, they are as good or better than having a permanent UAV (unless your opponents are also using the perk), and make it a near impossibility to lose a free-for-all match. When I used to use the Turtle Beaches, I would become frequently frustrated with the ambiguity of the direction of footstep noise. Because the P21’s are only stereo, it was very hard to distinguish whether someone was behind or in front of me, and much of the time I would end up turning the wrong way in search of my mysterious enemy. That problem is non-existent with the Astros.

I would also like to briefly talk about the mixamp, which can be bought separately from the headset itself, but in all honesty, there is no point in buying the headset without the mixamp. The mixamp, besides providing connections for coaxial, toslink, and regular analog audio, converts the incoming audio simulated Dolby 5.1 surround, which is then mixed with the voice (voice and power are both provided through the USB cable) and sent out to the headset. Don’t be confused by the word “simulated” – it is impossible to tell that there aren’t really 5 separate drivers in the headset. The mixamp also has a master volume control and a balance dial to adjust between game volume and voice volume. The last great feature of the mixamp is the ability to plug an MP3 player to the auxiliary audio input and listen to audio while having a casual gaming session. There is also a convenient “daisy chain” attachment that allows for physical connection of a series of mixamps to provide for closed chat for, say, a LAN party. To sum it up, the mixamp allows for the user to listen simultaneously to 5.1 game audio, voice chat, and MP3.

Price:
The $250 price tag for the Astro audio sysem - which includes headset, mixamp, and every necessary cable (except toslink) to get it set up - may sound like a hefty price tag, but in all honesty it is worth every penny. For those of you who have not yet invested in a headset, but are in the market, do yourself a favor and manage your impulsivity and think hard before rushing out to buy the P21’s. Do your best to wait and save up for a pair of these babies, and you will thank yourself in the long run.

Hope this helped