Astro Gaming is at it again. If you remember our full review for the Astro Gaming A30 headset, you remember that we was highly impressed by the product. However the unsung hero of this review was the MixAmp. We mentioned that fact about the 5.1 Surround Sound, but we really didn’t get the credit where it was due. This 5.1 Surround Sound was due to the MixAmp. The Astro Gaming MixAmp allowed the A30 to hear the surround sound. If you had this MixAmp connected to your PS3 of Xbox, it got even better. With the MixAmp as your master volume control, you could toggle whether you want to hear the game music, or the voices or your team mates. But the MixAmp had one major (but minor) issue, and this was all the wires. They would run across our living room to the gaming console, and it just didn’t look good. But to us wireless is sexy and Astro Gaming has definitely brought that with it’s next version of it.
The Astro Gaming Wireless Mixamp 5.8 can take any wired headset and turn it into a wireless surround sound experience. Featuring 7.1 channel Dolby® Surround Sound via a secure 5.8GHz wireless connection. Featuring Point-to-Multipoint (PtMP) pairing and fully compatible with the Xbox 360 and the PS3, the MixAmp™ 5.8 can support up to four simultaneous users depending on your configuration.
Style
Right off the back, this thing has gotten uber stylish compare to the original. While we won’t fault the original since it got the job done, it was a hug brick of a device. The wireless version, has gotten smaller, lighter, and more stylish. If you look at the picture and compare, you see what we mean. Now the wireless MixAmp is pebble shaped, and comes with a little belt clip, so you can clip it and walk around with it. If you was going to get any MixAmp based on looks, this is the one you want.
Setup
Set up for the wireless mixamp 5.8 couldn’t have been easier. The mixamp comprises of a a RX unit and a TX unit. You connect the TX unit to your gaming console via a TOSlink cable, or you could like I did, hook it up to your home theater system’s receiver. Once this is connected, the RX and TX unit come prepaired out the box. If you happen to have more than one RX unit, you can pair it with the TX unit quite easily. The RX unit can run off regular double (triple A) batteries. Or you can purchase the rechargeable battery pack for it. Once paired, using the mixamp is a simple as turning on the RX/TX unit and plugging in your headphones.
Sound Quality
The MixAmp like the wired one before it boasts surround sound. The wired ones came with 5.1 surround sound, but the wireless MixAmp 5.8 comes out the gate with 7.1 surround sound. It features the same abilities as the original MixAmp like the power to control how much of the game or voice volume, and also adds in the bass expander which injects a sub-woofer effect into the experience.
The fact that all of this happens wireless is just beautiful. No longer do you have to worry about run cables across your gaming area for this kind of control. Now you can pick up and move around with no worry of tripping over cables, no worries moving too far away that you reach the length of a cable.
To wrap up, this is the MixAmp we have been waiting for. Light, small, stylish, and wireless. It has most of the benefits of the original, in a package that we can freely move around with. If you will be purchasing any MixAmp this holiday season, we suggest this one. Act now as the price will be $99.95 for a limited time and then $129.95 after, so get it while it hot! Check out www.astrogaming.com for more information. Also check out our Gallery for some more images
