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DAILY MANIFESTO

How Do You Review Headphones?

Posted on Monday, March 14 @ 12:18:03 Eastern by Daniel Bischoff

I attended two gaming events in two weeks over the past month and everywhere I went, publishers and developers used Astro Gaming's A30 headset to show off the sound in their games. I had to know why these high-end surround sound headphones were so popular.

Astro hooked Game Revolution up with a pair of A30s and the wireless mixamp that powers the 7.1 channel surround sound in them. As awesome as the headphones sound with games, I'm wondering how it works on everything else. That's why I'm asking you, the GR crowd, to give me a list of music and movies to take in with my ears.

Got a song with some amazing stereo effects or a movie with the best surround sound you can hear? Put it in the comments. I'll be listening all week until Game Revolution's review goes live.

Related Games: Astro Gaming A30 Audio System

Comments

Eyebrowsbv31
Joined: Nov 2005

Posted: Mar 14th, 2011 at 12:21 pm
I'd make everyone in the office wear them for an hour, get a good variety of head sizes and such. I've got a honeydew head, so most headphones are uncomfortable.

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--Henry--
Joined: Jan 2010

Posted: Mar 14th, 2011 at 12:25 pm
Star Trek on Bluray has the most balanced audio of all current movies, so that would be a good test. Sunshine, also on Bluray has a very dynamic but subtle audio track. And Cloverfield, again Bluray obviously, is all over the place. Three great movies with very different audio tracks.

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sliverstorm
Joined: Jun 2007

Posted: Mar 14th, 2011 at 12:49 pm
Compare them within their class: Closed circumaural. If you're doing the review for us, compare across price range as well. Those things cost $200. Are they giving us $200 worth of audio quality? How do they compare to similarly-costed systems, and how big of a jump up in quality/price are they from the next best thing?

In terms of features, sound quality, microphone quality, extras, and comfort.

Expecially comfort. If I'm using them for gaming/computer use, I want to know how they'll feel on my head for 6+ hour stretches. I don't know much about how to qualify good vs. bad sound, but let me tell you: if they feel like iron maiden earmuffs after an hour, it doesn't matter if a ****ing sorcerer trapped the souls of Ulysses's sirens in the cans.

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mrallamericanboy
Joined: Jun 2006

Posted: Mar 14th, 2011 at 1:20 pm
Kingdom of Heaven on Blu-Ray has a great range of dynamic sounds and music. it sounds great on my system so if these are expensive then they had better sound good as well...

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usaglory
Joined: Mar 2009

Posted: Mar 14th, 2011 at 2:09 pm
It's important to know how well they sound with music. Most home theaters for example are well suited for movies/games but not for music. Don't know if that's the case with headphones made for gaming. Try Therion "Secret of the Runes " CD. Best band in the world and this is their best album. They use all different kinds of instruments in their songs.
Also make sure to mention the specs (frequency range, size of drivers, signal to noise ratio, weight, the length of the cable unless they're wireless among others).

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Imnickson
Joined: Jul 2006

Posted: Mar 14th, 2011 at 5:50 pm
I would definitely play Amensia: The Dark Descent, the ambient sounds in that game are horrifying, and INCREDIBLE. Also Deathsmiles has a good soundtrack, test the high ends with it. Bad Boys II has lots of things that go boom. Equilibrium has some really good gun play/sounds, also Lord of War has some awesome gun bangs.

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