Astro MixAmp ... Way Too Much Reverb/Echo

[blinkstar]

I picked up one of these for gaming a while ago after reading a few glowing reviews ... tried every possible way to connect it and they all sounded BAD ... Why?
 
This thing slathers on reverb\echo like CRAZY. I'd fire a gun in an outdoor level and it sounded like I'd pulled the trigger inside a concrete chamber ... Just terrible.
 
What the hell? Can I be the only one who noticed this? I wish someone else had mentioned it before I put down money for this thing.

 

[deFiniLoGy]

I recalled that is a special feature that can be turned off in the Mixamp.
I remember that it can be turned off but I can't remember how to, sorry.

 

[blinkstar]

Thanks for responding! I don't remember any special feature like the one you mention, and I've googled this issue ... but maybe I will dig up the mixamp and try again.
 
Is anyone else familiar with the feature that deFiniLoGy is talking about?

 

[deFiniLoGy]

http://forums.astrogaming.com/showthread.php?7600-Echo-with-A40-mix-amp
 
Maybe this will help??
Have you tried tweaking the settings in your xbox yet?

 

[blinkstar]

I don't have an xbox. When I was using the mixamp it was with my PC. Thanks for trying to help but that link is from someone having a problem with their mic, and I also don't have a mic.
 
Reading up a little bit on Dolby Headphone it looks like there are three variations: DH1, DH2 and DH3. DH2 and DH3 are said to add a lot of echo/reverb to the sound. My guess is the mixamp uses one of those.
 
I just can't believe all that all the reviewers, including some on here, never bothered--or more unbelievably, maybe never even actually noticed?--just how thickly this thing lays on the reverb ...

 

[deFiniLoGy]

I had it hooked to my xbox 360 through TOSlink, and I can't hear that much of echo... sorry can't help much...

 

[majorrocha]

The topic is very old, but I was relieved when I found this post. 

I recently bought an Astro A40 + mixamp and couldn't regret more because of all that echo and reverb that it uses to simulate the surround sound. 

 

[blinkstar]

Glad I could be of some help!
 
This amp comes highly recommended in that 10,000 post gaming headphones thread, which is very strange, because it is TERRIBLE.
 
Just terrible. When I first started this thread, the only thing I had to compare the mixamp to was Creative's virtual surround tech, and that murdered the mixamp.
 
Since then I've picked up a full-sized Marantz receiver with Dolby Headphone out and it sounds EXCELLENT. There is some slight reverb, but it is nothing like the overkill reverb from the mixamp.
 
How that thing gets so much positive press I'll never understand, especially when you directly compare it to DHP done right.

 

[Tophar01]

I found this thread after my A50s starting having crazy echo out of nowhere. Turns out one of my setting in the Realtek HD Audio Manager had been changed. Under the Digital Output (Opitical) the Environment setting had somehow been changed from "None" to "Concert Hall"

 

[blinkstar]

Glad you found a solution but the problem on my end was strictly related to the Mixamp.

 

[derbigpr]

  I just can't believe all that all the reviewers, including some on here, never bothered--or more unbelievably, maybe never even actually noticed?--just how thickly this thing lays on the reverb ...

 
 
People who buy and review Astro stuff probably never heard anything better, that's why they didn't notice or probably didn't care, and that's why they buy Astro stuff in the first place, it's all hype and marketing for gamers. Sell that and get a decent soundcard for the same money or less.    The cheapest Asus soundcard with a headphone amp integrated under 100 dollars will outclass that Mixamp.

 

[blinkstar]

   
 
People who buy and review Astro stuff probably never heard anything better, that's why they didn't notice or probably didn't care, and that's why they buy Astro stuff in the first place, it's all hype and marketing for gamers. Sell that and get a decent soundcard for the same money or less.    The cheapest Asus soundcard with a headphone amp integrated under 100 dollars will outclass that Mixamp.

 
Well I didn't sell it, it's laying around my house gathering dust somewhere. But I do have an Auzentech Xfi Prelude 7.1 sound card with custom caps I'm pretty happy with, along with the full-sized Marantz receiver ...
 
If you look in the gaming forum, there's a thread with about a billion posts in it called Mad Lust Envy's Headphone Gaming Guide. Mad Lust Envy is treated like a god in that thread and he raves about the Mixamp ... when I disagreed, he responded with this:
 
"Well going from stereo to DH is a big difference and the reverb/echo is the first thing everyone will notice, but after you spend days with it, the effect gets overtaken by the sheer amount of awesomeness, so yeah, not an issue at all."
 
'Not an issue at all.' Ridiculous. The sound quality of the Mixamp doesn't magically improve the more you listen to it. It's as bad as it ever was. The thing is, Dolby Headphone is actually pretty decent ... when it's implemented well. The Mixamp's use of DH is simply terrible.