Gadgetory

with games so focused on 4k 60 frames a second and even high-dynamic-range I'm no question confident that audio will be the next major focus at least I'm hoping so that's why I want to review these these are the new Astro a40 tournament ready headsets with the tournament ready mix and pro this is the upgrade to the previous model now this is on the upper end meant for a competitive play retelling at two hundred and forty nine dollars at the time this video but being transparent as always Astro did send us over for review my assessment was not altered in any way I'll be going over both pros and cons I'll leave my affiliate links down in that video description down there as well click on those links for the most updated prices in real time you never know when these things might go on sale I'm Jimmy with jims review and I'm here to help you make that purchase decision welcome everyone to another video it's a really quick sidenote right here a lot of questions have been coming in asking me where I get my music from for the audio test and also my background music it's from epidemic sound and it is perfect for youtubers content creators I used to get copyright strikes all the time but for the past year I've been using them it's been great and it's crazy cheap as well use my link down in that video description below it gets you free 30-days again with that link they're not sponsoring this video but again I've been getting a lot of questions about that check them out anyways I'm going over the physical features first on these Astros they make some quality components the aluminum rail up top for adjusting is nice and thick the magnets that holds the backplate and also the ear pads are super nice and strong and for some reason man that clicking Center this gives me so much confidence now the fact that they offer their own mod kit to change out the mic headband ear pads and ear cut back plates are nice there's some more unique back plates on their website here goes one of them right here so check them out it's super easy to do and to replace same thing with the ear pads you just pull them out and slide the next one back in BAM got blue going on right here alright let me swap them back here I'd actually like black better but anyways getting into comfort you have to find that right balance and the ass or a 40s will then work out well quite obvious but I found if you're slightly off such as extending the arms a little too much then there's too much weight right here at the jaw line if it's not extended enough I do notice that there's a pinching feeling right here at the crown of the head and as much as I like the design of the aluminum rails it's quite hard to retract them or basically make them shorter while they're on your head you got to take off the headset shorten them like so and then once you put them on your head then you can't actually extend them once you get into that sweet spot I can wear these for several hours but just to be transparent right here if you're trying to adjust these on the fly while gaming again a little bit cumbersome right there now for an objective number wearing these on my scale they do weigh very similar to most other premium headsets on the market coming in close to three hundred and sixty grams with the fact three accessories so weight wasn't something huge to speak on and if you were to use the mod kit and you leatherhead bam the earpads the denser back plates etc the weight does jump to 400 grams which is now on the upper end now as for heat build up the Astro a40 SR over-ear headsets leaving my ears feeling quite airy and free inside now this also helps with keeping temperatures at a reasonable level leaving these on for two hours straight in a 71 to 72 degree room I never felt my ears warm up or heat up to the point where I noticed now another feature I wanted to speak on these are open back headsets meaning you can hear others in the room but they trade off with open back headsets you might get a better sound stage we'll see in the audio test and the cool thing though with the mod kit the back plates are thicker and seals the back of the drivers giving us a closed back design you can have options here now with the passive noise isolation you can sense the difference and the amount of noise that it blocks out the back plates do work now taking a closer look the headset themselves don't have any buttons at all the mute button is actually on the very nice cord that they provide right here the three-and-a-half millimeter input into the headset is quite sturdy as well and takes a good bit of effort to yank this thing out Lee probably yank off my headset first before the cord actually goes out okay just showing you guys is proof so the microphone here itself is detachable which is awesome and has the ability to swivel up and down as you guys can see to get it out of the way and trying to get it in the right position for your mouth man this thing is like play-doh mold it in any way and it will stay look at this alright take a look at the mix am very straightforward with a huge volume knob on the left voice and gaming audio controlled and be right the middle button up top toggles Dolby audio on and off and the button on the bottom switches your equalizers settings there's four settings in total which you can adjust later in the command center which I'll show you rotating to the rear daisy-chaining mix amps are on either side opting in for optical in for console users micro USB for PC the auxiliary port and last is that stream output with the Astro a40 tournament with the addition the mix F does allow you to output Dolby audio as well to your viewers very cool here but again very good bill quality premium feel all around the only gripe I wish that the grip and the underside of this thing was a bit sticky or sometimes when I just volume it just moves around a little bit on the table a little bit let down by that alright let's get into the good stuff here let's do the microphone test real quick it goes an unedited version get ready alright folks here goes the microphone test completely unedited for you guys this has to be the best so far on the channel that tested so far beating out this steel series art this Pro that are reviewed several months back those were really good as well but listen to this this makes my voice sound the least amazingly as well go ahead and make some noise make some noise in the background I got my little girl back there doing some I don't trying to unbox one of my stuff right now but let's see if it picks up anything in the background just got the sink running just now and that's really about it oh wait back to the review here we go alright folks and now for in-game audio before you start download the Astro command center so you can have fine tuning capabilities and additional features as well do not and I repeat do not download the command center from Astros website for some reason it doesn't work I didn't find those directions on their website into much later it just seemed common sense to go to their websites but if you open up the Microsoft Store and download it from there that was not an issue that's the key they're trying to update the firmware for some reason it didn't take out the first two times after restarting my computer twice twice that is without changing anything the app did find the Asch nor a 40's then and then i was able to update everything from there so just keep an eye out for that now there's four presets available as I mentioned earlier that you can fine tune and then save to the mix amp everything's very streamlined very easy to do are they mix amp itself you can toggle through those four in real time while playing to hear what suits your needs the fine tuning is expensive and answer does provide an advanced option as well I left it at it's four stock settings to be honest with you guys for the time being since I thought they were already great how great well put on your headphones and earphones folks if you're new to the channel I do use professional binaural microphones they are about two thousand dollars and that's not to brag but hopefully to give you authentically on what I use to give you the best 3d audio experience possible and you get as close to the experience of these headsets as possible as well here it goes folks here's the demo how's it go or something you sir me how's it going that's cute yes sir even after the fiasco in Brazil no one questions your leadership of the organization yes sir they're ready for anything Jona Dominguez is not just the leader of the cell I think he's the leader of Trinity all right folks audio recorded through my microphones and then play through your devices or not the best depiction of audio quality but hence my review here it's gotta give you guys that disclaimer but wow this is where the a40 really shines toggling the Dolby button on the mix amp generates such an airy and open soundstage I get this immersive super immersive ambiance through my surroundings and that's what I try to demonstrate in the Tomb Raider audio demo the sounds of the atmosphere around you but beyond that it's also the clarity the fidelity the resolution in the amount of detail that you can hear this was the biggest highlight for me now it's one of the most balanced headsets as well that I've tested on the channel to area that I do need to critique though regarding soundstage in detail once in a while depending on the area I hear this tinny very hollow metallic sound you can hear a little bit of that again in that game Tomb Raider while I was inside that cave now I hear it more in person and I was hoping the microphones would have picked it up a little bit better but that's why I paused for a minute to listen I'm sure that's what the Dolby processing or the Dolby Atmos that I have running it on Windows 10 but it's something that I didn't notice now jumping into the audio characteristics the a 40's are very balanced headphones in my personal opinion if you want balance we got a flat slate go is steel series the artist Pro models and such that reviewed a while ago those are very flat but then you have tons of EQ options then for these they're not neutral and even leaving it on the neutral profile provides a nice punchy bass the thumps bangs explosions are adequate from my taste and can always be bumped slightly up here through that command center app the vocals and most of the mid-range where the human ear interprets most audio it's super clear high resolution again I think I said this already but overall crisp clean just forward enough to be present yet not bright and not recessed either I loved it and as for the highs I get this on some of the lower end headsets when they try to over blow mids and highs making gunshot sound louder but the Aster a 40s again super clean and zero listening fatigue as for directional sounds spatial recognition in slower and very quiet games essentially most battle royale games today I'm talking about a pub G blackout apex you can hear those footsteps quite well and get a general sense on where your enemies are and where they're moving to they are good and up there with some of the best if you really want to get the upper hand go into the command center and bump up those mids and you can hear them much better the only gret though I honestly had even though I had Dolby Atmos enabled and played a Dobby headphone enabled game again such as Tomb Raider I was hoping to hear more height in my playthrough you can hear some of it but I was hoping that there would be a bit more though so at the end of the day the audio quality on these are really darn good in my opinion one of the most balanced yet not flat audio signatures it's clean detailed zero listening fatigue head shots I mean head she's headsets I'm hoping for Dolby Atmos and 3d audio to further expand in both PC and eventually with the next generation it consoles but in the meantime the astro a40 tournament ready headsets are highly recommended if anything their future proofing you guys is well don't think that's not Future prefers maybe that micro USB connection or port that is but folks leave some fire mode just down below subscribe if you haven't already and find me on Instagram I'll talk to you guys later see ya