Astro Gaming is a division of Astro Studios. You may not have heard of them before, but I'm guessing you've heard of the things they've designed: The Xbox 360, Compaq computers, Alienwares ultimate gaming computers, and even Nike golf clubs. That's right, the designs for some of the coolest stuff on the planet has come out of their shop. So now, they've decided to start a division to leverage some of that talent for their own products, starting with the A40 Mixer/Amp and Headset.
More after the jump...
On top of the people I make appointments with, sometimes I just wander the show floor of a Con looking for stuff I don't know about. I also tend to sign up for every contest, and at least look at picking up most swag (this makes great gifts for girlfriends, or writers who don't get to go to the Con). It just so happened that Astro Gaming had something I had never seen before, a free T-Shirt, and a contest to enter. This "Perfect Storm" of show floor bliss led me to a couple of products I hadn't heard of prior, but am now rather excited about.
Astro Gaming is a division of Astro Studios. You may not have heard of them before, but I'm guessing you've heard of the things they've designed: The Xbox 360, Compaq computers, Alienwares ultimate gaming computers, and even Nike golf clubs. That's right, the designs for some of the coolest stuff on the planet has come out of their shop. So now, they've decided to start a division to leverage some of that talent for their own products, starting with the A40 Mixer/Amp and Headset.
If you're a regular Gaming Nexus reader, you know how I feel about audio hardware, so when I say the A40 Mixer/Amp is the coolest idea I've seen for audio product in a long time, you know that's saying something. It is essentially a way to combine 5.1 Dolby Digital and Dolby Headphone surround sound with voice communication and amplification of audio input.
The idea is that you can plug in your own audio, use the Mic, and have that uninterrupted pleasure of listening to your iPod and talking smack while fragging your buddies, without having your PC or Xbox360 doing the heavy lifting of running your own music into your game. Further, with multiple A40's, you can create your own private hands-free full-duplex voice channel that's clearer than VoIP, and again no additional lifting for your PC. If nothing else, it could mean a lot less shouting at your next LAN party.
To take full advantage of the A40 Mixer/AMP, Astro has come out with a headset to go with it. Although it's designed to work with any headset, the A40 Headset will feature audiophile-grade sound and built in voice communicatin through an adjustable and detachable boom mic. It also offers removable speaker tags (likely to allow further customization), a quick disconnect cord, a cord for connecting to the A40 Mixer/Amp (and standard portable audio products), and a dual jack PC connectors with volume control.
While I didn't get a chance to demo this product on the show floor, we'll definately be demoing this product when Astro Gaming gets it to us, because while it isn't for everyone (total solution price is $249.99), for those that love high quality audio, and like to smack talk or coordinate with team members without going hoarse, it may just be the next big thing in gaming audio.
