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Topic: Does anyone know this Astro Mixamp 5.8? (Read 2159 times) previous topic - next topic
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Does anyone know this Astro Mixamp 5.8?

In my search for a decent set of surround sound headphones I saw this article saying that you could attach the Astro Mixamp 5.8 with your own stereo headphone to get a fairly good 3D effect.
Right there I remembered the virtual barber shop (http://youtu.be/IUDTlvagjJA) and kept thinking if the effect would be the same, better, worse or even unrelated.
IGN gave it a good review, but I'm not quite convinced yet. Can anyone say one or two things about this amplifier? I do know the sound gets a lot more clear and all, but I'm looking for the surround aspect.
Also, I found a similar device, the Turtle Beach's Ear Force DSS, and I can't tell wich one is better...

Does anyone know this Astro Mixamp 5.8?

Reply #1 –
Any device with Dolby Headphone will sound basically the same. It won't be as cool as Virtual Barbershop, cause there the sound was recorded that way with special microphones. Dolby Headphone doesn't have that information of where exactly the original sound is coming from, but it still has 5 points (from the 5.1 channels) that it can virtualize on-the-fly. It works pretty well for what it is, and it's leagues better than the competition, except maybe for DTS Surround Sensation Headphone, which is the only one that comes close, in my experience. I've tried SRS, Creative, Pioneer, Sennheiser, C-Media and they all suck really bad.

That said, there are 3 different Dolby Headphone modes (and 3 DPLIIx modes as well). Most devices can let you change between them, but some don't. I've read somewhere before that if it doesn't tell you which, it's mode 2 ("living room"). 1 is "studio" and 3 is "movie theater". I keep switching between 1 and 2.

Tip: when you test it, you'll be able to hear easily it's pretty damn good if you play a discrete channel test.