Gadgetory

with its factory tuning in data center DNA and Intel 730 series SSD is an amazing choice for gamers and performance enthusiasts welcome to my review of the audio technica ath AG ones so let's start with a physical overview yeah they absolutely nailed the looks of these things in my opinion matte black with gold accents that look sharp and hint at the high performance nature of the product without turning into the over-the-top gamer bling very very nice the ear cuffs themselves have a soft fabric on the inside to cushion your earlobes against the angled drivers inside the ear cups and feature a padded pleather outer cushion that is very soft against the skin while not necessarily being the most realistic feeling faux leather that I've ever encountered the 3d wing headband design boasts convenient no adjustments necessary compatibility with any head and like anything designed to be one size fits all doesn't fit perfectly on everyone personally I found it made me acutely aware of the two spots on my head where the weight of the headphones were hanging but at least due to the lightweight design of the AG ones it didn't cause me any discomfort even after a couple hours of continuous use the other issue for me with these is that they just plain don't stay on for me the left side of the headset is slightly heavier than the right side due to the cable and the microphone so I found that that side sags more than the other side and because the materials on the top pads in the ear cups while soft and cushiony and nice are also a little bit slippery they don't really do anything to help them stay on there is an easy fix however a band-aid solution if you will just put an elastic band between the wings like so you'll have to experiment with the right size elastic and I found that once I found the perfect elastic it addressed all the issues that I had with them and they were both comfortable and stayed on just fine one way Audio Technica could fix this for me would be to include some tasteful black or gold elastics that come with the headphones I can try it whichever one fits perfectly for me so I don't need to use some jenkki solution but on a future product I just much rather have a full headband for comfort and convenience I mean lots of gamers that I know hang their headsets around their necks or pull one ear off to hear the things around them and I found that around the neck puts the plastic support bars directly against your neck oops and taking off one ear cup makes them basically fall right off for me another oops the good news is that the elastic that I needed to make them stay on my head in the first place also helps with these issues while I'm picking on the ergonomics of the product though I wish that the mic had a wider range of motion it's a hundred degrees as it is so that it's not always kind of hanging in my peripheral vision when I'm not using it I mean this last complaint in particular looks like it could be very easily addressed simply by removing a little plastic stopper here so that it folds up a little bit higher it comes with a one meter cable pre-attached that terminates in a 4-pole connector for compatibility with mobile devices or the included USB sound card and it is not detachable but it is very robust feeling so I doubt it will ever need to be replaced and I'd rather have a solid pre-attached cable than a proprietary or fragile removable one if I had any complaints about the cable would be that perhaps it's a little bit too stiff and another 8 to 12 inches of length would help me get it not only to the front audio connector but also kind of you know routed a little bit further down so it's not anywhere near my arms especially if my tower is next to me Audio Technica does include a 2 meter extension that splits into 2 3 poles to work with your analog sound card and to help you reach around to the back of your computer but it doesn't address folks who might want to use the surprisingly decent USB sound card that can easily drive these headphones past comfortable audio levels without Distortion but have it in the back of their system where they can't see it because these don't go in here so a 4-pole extension with a small pigtail adapter would have been a more versatile solution allowing front analog rear analog front USB and rear USB operation all without a trip to the store for an extra adapter back to the mic for a moment it is a very premium feeling the flexible boom is outstanding it can be easily positioned exactly where you need it this is a big complaint I have about a lot of microphones and not this one it also features a nearby a mute button that's nice and easy to reach but is unfortunately not automatically triggered when you move the microphone up out of the way like some other headsets in this price range now let's move on to listening tests all listening tests were done on a stack in a titanfall game stream or with my usual mix of top 40 music and I'll say this the AG ones have a much more balanced frequency response than you'll typically find on a gaming headset nice accurate and clear highs rich mids and punchy strong but not overpowering lows I haven't tried the open back ath a DG ones but man I don't think I care even though I got the closed version it's amazing how natural they sound they do such a great job of not making me feel like I'm in a tiny little cave with a plastic speaker mounting apparatus clamped to my head I mean sure that's what's actually going on here but that doesn't mean I want to confront that reality I'm in my zone right and even more impressively because of their da DSR double their damping system they don't leak sound that translates into better positional audio because your left ear can't accidentally hear right channel sound and more immersive gaming since you'll never be bothered by annoying spouses children pets and I mean hell the apocalypse could probably happen with these on and I wouldn't notice that either the other real world benefit of their isolation is that you also won't bother those other folks with whatever you're listening to whether it's games or music now because of their price they end up in side-by-side listening tests against some tough competition though by comparison the AKG K 702 s are much harder to drive having much higher impedance and similar bass response but lacks some oomph in the mid-range and have more Sparkle at the high end something that some people prefer but passed a certain point I find fatiguing to listen to I do prefer a kgs suspension headband implementation but I really do not prefer the hard foam that they use on the ear cups compared to this nice soft stuff I also dug my PC 350 s which are still quite similar to the current ma high-end clothes back from Sennheiser out of a bin where I found them at Luke's place he's so fired mids were strong on these similar to the 80s but the highs were comparably vailed something that may be an issue when pinpointing in-game sounds and their bass while strong and punchy only really delivers if I press them against my head to seal them because I think Sennheiser was designing these for elves these are also really hard to drive for a gaming headphone my last competitor is the DT 770's from Bayer dynamic and it's obvious why these have such a good reputation I've got the ADM impedance version and apart from being much more difficult to drive I'm sounding a little bit Basinger they were I'd say equally pleasing to listen to noise isolation is not as strong though and this is likely partly due to the cloth ear cups and obviously they have no included mic or included USB soundcard but then again they are less expensive overall now speaking of the included mic let's get into microphone quality this headset will be the first entry into our new standardized mic testing system I'm going to record 3 test phrases on an asus thunder FX external sound card one like i'm having a conversation with someone on skype one like i'm excited in the middle of a game and one like i'm speaking quietly so as not to wake the baby i'm going to link to these sound clips in the video description for your convenience though here is a clip from this headset that should basically make you want to go buy it right now holy actual balls the mic on the ag-1 is unreal if you didn't tell me this mic was integrated on a gaming headset I would believe it was a much more expensive standalone solution Bravo Audio Technica I guess that's what some audio engineering expertise brings to the gaming headset scene so the conclusion for this product is this great first attempt Audio Technica took a new market one that they admittedly haven't addressed before and designed a product for it that is really solid it sounds great in games I mean good headphones sound good in games and will satisfy all but the most discerning audio files when it comes to music enjoyment as well and I mean when I say discerning I don't mean in terms of quality they sound great it's just that some people prefer a slightly different sound signature for music enjoyment versus gaming that's all they've got a fantastic microphone on here and apart from view Argonaut complaints which I covered pretty thoroughly in the video this is pretty much as good as I could expect a gaming headset to be the drawback I mean well it's linked in the video description if you want to buy one but prepare yourself because the price tag reflects the premium quality of the product is price they are very expensive but sometimes you get what you pay for speaking of getting what you pay for audible.com I swear with over a hundred and fifty thousand audiobooks available to download at a moment's notice and listen to on your phone or in your car on your headphones see how these things went together so nicely sorry I got distracted there all the point is that whenever you wherever you happen to be these guys seem to have everything one of the hot items on the bestseller list right now is an original story called Doctor Who dead air that is not only about the Tenth Doctor but also happens to be voiced by David Tennant so if like me you didn't get enough of him and his relatively long but still too short run as the doctor you can easily get your fix by signing up for a free trial of audibles monthly audiobook service the first one is free and if you decide you like it you'll get an audiobook of your choice every month to enjoy just head over to audible.com slash Linus to learn more guys like and share this video if you liked it dislike it if you disliked it and leave a comment on the Linus tech tips forum linked in the video description if you want to discuss this product or you have constructive criticism for me and my team also linked in the video description of our support link with options to buy t-shirts like this one give us a monthly contribution to help us keep making these videos for you or give us a kickback whenever you buy a 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