Astro A40 2011 or Turtle Beach PX5 : elfin beauty or multifunctional beast?

Story old as time......

Thegameveda needs a new gaming wireless headset ... my ageing but awesome ( 17 hours game time) Motorola S805s have literally biodegraded in my hands ... they actually fell apart piece by lego sized piece...like some plastic eating nanites chewed through them .. the cones and Bluetooth still function .. just the band has disintegrated ....

A piece of your favourite hardware dieing of course makes an excellent excuse to look at some upgrades... And  so I take to the web and find the awesomely expensive Astro A40 2011 edition and the now a lot less expensive Turtle Beach PX5

Hands down the Turtle Beach PX5 has so many more options to mess with wireless sounds 2 Bluetooth radios , and 7.1 2.4 Ghz wireless

And the beauty and mountain of kudos on which the Astro A40 proudly sneers down from on all rivals is also quite the deal clincher ... most Steve Jobsian in fact ...

But I come at this dilemma with years of experience , whilst I  loved the freedom and 17 hour battery life of the S805s , as the world moved to wireless broadband I started to notice , cut offs , playing with consoles , external Bluetooth transmitters and downloading on iPad , PCs ,laptops and tablets which is mostly where thegameveda lives now all produced cut outs or complete drop outs .. downloading a Steam game on a tablet or PC , or a game on PSN or Xbox live would kill the music or sound stream to the Bluetooth receiver

So when I read the official blurb re possible interference of  the 2.4ghz speed of the wireless used on the otherwise excellent Turtle Beach PX5s coupled with the fact that it also has 2 Bluetooth radios .... a nightmare scenario of hours spent pairing , unpairing , messing with router settings followed , plus the certain knowledge that the number of wireless devices we use will increase with time really made the decision easy for thegameveda...

So it is not the kool aesthetics ,or the chic boxing , or the heaps of praise that lead me to make my choice : which as you probably guessed is going to be the Astro A40 2011 edition

7.1 sound in Bluetooth headsets will arrive for $99 this September in the Official Sony PS3 7.1 Bluetooth headset , cannot wait to connect it to my mix amp and see what happens .


It is the wise choice of the developers of the Astro A40 2011 edition  to use a 5.8 ghz frequency , and all that experience of Bluetooth vs Wireless N Broadband  that made me part with what now seems far too much money . 

Full review when I have finished cracking my piggy bank collection and have the Astros in hand...


In the USA 

  














and in Blighty : if you reside in a wired Internet gaming household : get the PX5 from Game or

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Turtle Beach Ear Force PX5 Wireless Headset for £143.20 ! Great but isn`t that your Astro A40 money?

So  I am the happy recipient of a very expensive some may venture too expensive Astro A40 gaming sound system ... which I talked myself into getting over the PX5 ... and boy am I glad because the PX5 just dropped a whopping £50 in price ..... 

The bane of all wireless headsets is interference with your internet connection , this is one of many reasons Apple pulled Bluetooth headsets from its stores , you can pair one with your iPad 2 , but watch for drop outs as you download an app, the same happens on PC , PS3 or 360  , this is also the reason why Sony ..ok ..hopefully why Sony is bringing it`s official PS3 Bluetooth headphones late to the game and A2DP is missing on the PS3 since it launched... 


If you need a Bluetooth 7.1 headset that does not kill your Internet connection then wait a few weeks till Sony brings out theirs ( which may still revert to using RF for 7.1 and Bluetooth for chat and A2DP) ..it is promised at $99 which will likely translate to £99 in olde world money. The thing that turned me off the PX5 is the 2.4ghz frequency it uses.. mixed with Bluetooth radios . I know from experience all these things interfere with wireless N ( the ONLY source of the Spice Melange) and having used the Astro A40s for all of one day ..I have literally been floored by them ...falling out of my chair every time something shot by my head ... or somebody shot me ( in gameland)


So whilst the PX5 may now be a budget wireless headset compared to Astros , there be a darn good reason for that .... and that is highly likely to be the design choice to include 3 radios that interfere with your favourite wireless internet connection  and run at the same frequency as your beloved Xbox 360 slim joypad... and remember not to walk by your microwave with them switched on..... oh and of course there may also be a new version on the way to coincide with one of the AAA releases due this Autumn.....


thegameveda is currently testing the Astro A40 2011 Edition to see if there are drop outs whilst downloading and streaming using wirless N , but since I was having too much fun opening and closing the Bento styled box of the mix amp... the results  will have to wait ...


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Sony Playstation 3 7.1 Virtual Surround Wireless Stereo Headset selling fast at $99

For $99 you cannot go wrong , core gamers will of course have their Astro A40s already , but if you want to keep those pristine for MLG action , you could do worse than have a set of these for less professional gaming exploits , now if only they made them in white ... 

The reviews so far say the 7.1  virtual sound does not compete with higher end sets , also as you are not using the optical out ,you will lose a USB port for the 2.4ghz dongle ( a frequency that likes to meddle with wireless broadband downloads ) , and you will also not have 7.1 sound for Bluray movies ... which is a killer feature of  Bluray movies ... The lack of Bluetooth is to be expected .

In my humble opinion  if you are at all serious about gaming save up for some Astros instead  , or at the very least get the 7.1 Mix amp and then you can have 7.1 sound coming from any headset you connect to it,including that from your Bluray movies  . Even if you avoid the $300 bundled  official A40s , you can still get 7.1 simulated sound from whatever existing headphones you have say your ipod headphones , or those weird pink ones your sister walks around wearing just get the Astro  mixamp... Not for bragging rights but for the  5.8ghz frequency of the  mixamp , I have been using this for 2 months now , and it is the first wireless set up that absolutely will not interfere with your wireless broadband , and allow you to hook up with your PC , 360 , and PS3 through optical out to get your simulated 7.1 sound fix. Currently any Bluetooth headset , and 2.4ghz frequency RF headset will knock itself out ,or your wireless broadband , try downloading whilst playing or surfing and you will see  ,not to mention going haywire when you walk past a fridge or microwave!  

this lets you connect any headphones you like to get your 7.1 fix and it comes in a cool bento style box!

this gets you some bragging rights and is currently the best in class solution to trouble free simulated 7.1 sound in games and films  , on PC , 360 and PS3 , and it comes in an even cooler box...

and this saves you  money....  in the short term  of course if you really want to save money then go for this 

which will give you the same look without the any functionality but for for a 10th of the price ....

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