Astro A40 & ASUS Xonar Essence STX

[zeelive]

Hello everyone!

I would like to buy the Astro A40 Headset.
It Looks a bit complicated to plug into the computer since it has an Astro MixAmp.
You can check out this headset here.
Astro A40 Audio System | A40 Headset & Mixamp | AstroGaming.com

I was wondering if I was able to plug in my headset in the soundcard.
You can check this sound card here
ASUS - Sound & Multimedia Devices- ASUS Xonar Essence STX

and if not,

Can I use the benefit of my soundcard trought my headphone or I am obligate to plug something in the soundcard to hear the difference?

(This is a really newbi question, I don't know much about sound card 😛)

Thanks for any answer!

 

[bigshootr8]

Well on my setup it has a reciever and mixamp so i have a bass expander what I mean is the volume range when it turn it towards voice my volume range goes higher.

The biggest thing on the pc setup is you have to setup your sound card with your a40.

 

[zeelive]

OMG this is soooo weird. Is this normal that I can listen to music trought my headset with only the USB cable going from my comp to the mixamp, and my headset cable from my headset to the mixamp?

what is the use of the optical cable ?!

 

[zeelive]

Man this is so weird haha!

But yeah now I Managed to plus the mixamp into my soundcard.

The EQs are changing a little bit the sound and the dolby is working.

The weird this is that now the little turning button on the button have like change side. I don't know how to say it but, when I turn to the left now my volume is increasing and when I go to the right the volume is getting lower.

 

[bigshootr8]

Hmm, hahah that is weird! I leave the nob in the middle honestly more of a gimmicky thing the mixer at the bottom.

Hows the sound?

 

[zeelive]

The sound is good. But I think there's something not correct still.
When I watch my software of my SoundCard, Normally when Im set on the right sound input, I see the sound "waves" in the program going up and down, but when I set the input that I have right now witch is "S/PDIF Pass-trough Device (ASUS Xonar Essence STX Audio Device".

It's when I put it in "Speakers (ASUS Xonar Essence STX Audio Device" that I can see the waves going up and down but no sound, I don't know if it's normal or not

 

[bigshootr8]

Sounds normal to me. SO what I'm gathering is you are getting sound through the pass through but when you try to set to speakers you do not?

 

[zeelive]

Well, overall I think that everything is setter alright now. I wasen't just sure when I put the input "speaker" if I was suppose to hear sound from my headphone but I guess not 😛

 

[bigshootr8]

Yea when I change my settings my playback settings it will only work one way for me. Honestly my opinion they are great headsets the a40s but the two cons I take away from them are a bit chaotic to get going with a pc and the cables 1 standard headset has mic and stereo.

 

[zeelive]

Yeah that's chaotic, and they dont even give a adapter for the optical cable, that cost like 1$ if you buy it on the internet ...

they need to give more information on how to set it up in the computer also

 

[bigshootr8]

Indeed I was quite upset with them as well when it came to that. It took me a week or so to get it to work exactly the way I wanted it. Which is why when I see people asking about the astro a40 on toms I jump on it to help people because you buy an expensive piece of hardware you expect it to work the way you want it to with little effort.

 

[fuzionxZ]

Oh okay I see what you are talking about. I was watching this guys video and he goes into the 2013 model. To help you out as well I'll share my audio settings with you guys. Mic gets very very loud on the pc so I have to turn it down quite a bit so people don't feel there having there ears starting to bleed. It also looks like if you get the new version you will have no choice but to use the optical cable they give you which is fine it will come with the mixamp.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOExIlPvrIg

Hi I'm having a similar problem. I've got the mixamp + some Beyerdynamic MMX 300 headphones but I'm not getting surround sound from them -- only upmix stereo. My playback devices look nothing like yours as well. I don't have the SPDIF out/headphones options (even though I'm connecting via SPDIF) -- will I need to get a sound card like the STX/DX in order to hear it? Thanks.

is what it looks like.

(Don't mean to hijack your thread OP -- it's just that I have the same problem and am wondering if the solution applies to me too.

 

[bigshootr8]

Well the way that it was explained to me which may or may not be the case for your headset was I had to have Dolby digital live to be able to utilize to surround sound with the headset.

 

[bigshootr8]

Chance are you will need a sound card to get the surround sound due to the fact the realtek onboard audio does not supply dolby digital

 

[fuzionxZ]

Okay, thanks for the advice. I assume the Sonar DX/STX would work fine, right?

 

[bigshootr8]

 

[bigshootr8]

This should work as well as STX if you were to go that route. I have zero experience with the asus software so I'm not exactly sure how you would set it up but I hear its a better experience in comparison to the creative solution.


DX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132006&Tpk=xonar%20dx

STX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132010&Tpk=xonar%20stx

What I have
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102019


What you would probably get if the creative solution was the updated one. Which looking at the software I've seen may be easier to setup but from what I've heard from astro is stay away from creative due to buggy drivers.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102041

 

[fuzionxZ]

Yeah I was considering creative at the start; but I've seen a huge of people mention how unreliable/bad their products can be -- reviews on websites don't help it's cause either.

Well thanks for clearing that up! I'll probably be getting the STX

 

[bigshootr8]

yea more then likely the direction I would go myself I mean you have a expensive headset yourself. It needs love and care 😛