lorne
CAGiversary!
Tritton AX360 5.1 Gaming Headphones - A review
Seeing as how I've had these headphones for over a month now, I figured I'd share the experience with fellow CAGS who might be considering a purchase. If you don't want to sink a lot of money in a surround sound system or you want to rock your world without rocking everybody else's, these are the way to go.
The kit comes with:
Headset
Audio Controller(amplifier)
Removable Microphone
Microphone Extension Cable
Digital Fiber Optic Cable
Coaxial Audio Cable
Soft Carrying Case
G9 Adapter (PC only, 5.1 sound card adapter)
Power adapter
Quick Start Guide
The headphones are bigger and heavier than most headphones(well they do have 4 speakers in each can). Very padded and comfortable but can get kinda warm after a while and marathon gaming sessions can wear on my neck a bit. Also you might look sorta dorky wearing them because of the size. But it's so worth it.
Using a THX certified DVD(i.e. Toy Story), run the THX optimizer for surround sound and you'll get a feel for the volume controls and how they affect the speakers. Turns out the front and rear volume controls are equally balanced on my pair which makes adjusting the volume at a glance easy; adjust front and rear together then add center and subwoofer to taste. The surround effect of headphones can never match real surround speakers in a room but these do really good. You can hear things coming from behind you and the little details developers put in the rear speakers are too cool. I was playing King Kong on the 360 the other day and could have sworn the thunder clap I heard behind me was outside.
Even if you don't take the surround sound into consideration, the sheer dynamic range of Dolby Digital is very impressive. And these things can get loud. Imagine the home theater room at Circuit City and you'll have some idea of how big these sound. Example: I first tried them out on Prey on the Xbox 360. Adjust the volume so that footsteps sound about right. Walk around. Whoa. These boots feel heavy. Great atmosphere. Fire gun... GHAAA!!!
The subwoofer/vibration feature is really an accomplishment. You feel the lows just as much as you hear them. In fact it tricks you into thinking the bass is louder than it really is. I think they overdrive the speaker coil and it has sort of a "springy" feel to it. Turn down the other speakers and the bass sounds distorted but when you balance everything out it just works. For more bass, turn up the amplifier volume to the max and cut the front/rear/center in-line volume. At first I thought the bass was kinda gimmicky but it gives it such a kick that can't be denied and I've really grown accustomed to it.
While these headphones are not exclusively for the Xbox 360, that is where they really shine. Dolby Digital is da freakin' bomb and the Xbox 360 does it best(I'm now really saddened that the Wii won't have DD). If you plug it into a PS2 you have to manually set the amp to Pro-Logic(if the game even supports it) and PS2 games don't sound as impressive as the original Xbox or better yet, the Xbox 360.
You can also use the headphones with any soundcard or any audio source for that matter. Just use the included adapter and plug the front jack into your MP3 player or whatever. But this is done without the benefit of the amplifier and for listening to music I'd rather use my $30 Sennheisers.
With these headphones, optical is where it's at. I tried using the coax connector of my old PC soundcard to no avail which lead me to purchase a Dolby Digital Live card - the Diamond ExtremeSound 7.1 DDL which I can also recommend. Currently the cheapest DDL card out there. It has handled every PC game I've thrown at it(after installation, about 8 games in a row, without a reboot mind you). Half Life 2 sounds amazing with these headphones and the right soundcard.
Can't comment on the microphone as I have never tried it.
- Warning, don't plug/unplug the optical cable into the Xbox 360 while it's running with a game in the drive. Just don't. I was being extra careful but somehow there was a bump and then I had a nice ring around the outer edge of Ridge Racer where before, there was none.
Pro's:
THE SOUND
Positional audio
Bass for days
Long cable
2 headphone outs
Cons:
Tad expensive
Short optical cable
You have to wear headphones
No quick way to turn volume down
You have to have a Dolby Digital source for them to really earn their money.
So yeah. Recommended.
Seeing as how I've had these headphones for over a month now, I figured I'd share the experience with fellow CAGS who might be considering a purchase. If you don't want to sink a lot of money in a surround sound system or you want to rock your world without rocking everybody else's, these are the way to go.
The kit comes with:
Headset
Audio Controller(amplifier)
Removable Microphone
Microphone Extension Cable
Digital Fiber Optic Cable
Coaxial Audio Cable
Soft Carrying Case
G9 Adapter (PC only, 5.1 sound card adapter)
Power adapter
Quick Start Guide
The headphones are bigger and heavier than most headphones(well they do have 4 speakers in each can). Very padded and comfortable but can get kinda warm after a while and marathon gaming sessions can wear on my neck a bit. Also you might look sorta dorky wearing them because of the size. But it's so worth it.
Using a THX certified DVD(i.e. Toy Story), run the THX optimizer for surround sound and you'll get a feel for the volume controls and how they affect the speakers. Turns out the front and rear volume controls are equally balanced on my pair which makes adjusting the volume at a glance easy; adjust front and rear together then add center and subwoofer to taste. The surround effect of headphones can never match real surround speakers in a room but these do really good. You can hear things coming from behind you and the little details developers put in the rear speakers are too cool. I was playing King Kong on the 360 the other day and could have sworn the thunder clap I heard behind me was outside.
Even if you don't take the surround sound into consideration, the sheer dynamic range of Dolby Digital is very impressive. And these things can get loud. Imagine the home theater room at Circuit City and you'll have some idea of how big these sound. Example: I first tried them out on Prey on the Xbox 360. Adjust the volume so that footsteps sound about right. Walk around. Whoa. These boots feel heavy. Great atmosphere. Fire gun... GHAAA!!!
The subwoofer/vibration feature is really an accomplishment. You feel the lows just as much as you hear them. In fact it tricks you into thinking the bass is louder than it really is. I think they overdrive the speaker coil and it has sort of a "springy" feel to it. Turn down the other speakers and the bass sounds distorted but when you balance everything out it just works. For more bass, turn up the amplifier volume to the max and cut the front/rear/center in-line volume. At first I thought the bass was kinda gimmicky but it gives it such a kick that can't be denied and I've really grown accustomed to it.
While these headphones are not exclusively for the Xbox 360, that is where they really shine. Dolby Digital is da freakin' bomb and the Xbox 360 does it best(I'm now really saddened that the Wii won't have DD). If you plug it into a PS2 you have to manually set the amp to Pro-Logic(if the game even supports it) and PS2 games don't sound as impressive as the original Xbox or better yet, the Xbox 360.
You can also use the headphones with any soundcard or any audio source for that matter. Just use the included adapter and plug the front jack into your MP3 player or whatever. But this is done without the benefit of the amplifier and for listening to music I'd rather use my $30 Sennheisers.
With these headphones, optical is where it's at. I tried using the coax connector of my old PC soundcard to no avail which lead me to purchase a Dolby Digital Live card - the Diamond ExtremeSound 7.1 DDL which I can also recommend. Currently the cheapest DDL card out there. It has handled every PC game I've thrown at it(after installation, about 8 games in a row, without a reboot mind you). Half Life 2 sounds amazing with these headphones and the right soundcard.
Can't comment on the microphone as I have never tried it.
- Warning, don't plug/unplug the optical cable into the Xbox 360 while it's running with a game in the drive. Just don't. I was being extra careful but somehow there was a bump and then I had a nice ring around the outer edge of Ridge Racer where before, there was none.
Pro's:
THE SOUND
Positional audio
Bass for days
Long cable
2 headphone outs
Cons:
Tad expensive
Short optical cable
You have to wear headphones
No quick way to turn volume down
You have to have a Dolby Digital source for them to really earn their money.
So yeah. Recommended.
