I know a lot of people around here do not use headsets, but I'm a very competitive gamer and go to as many LAN events, gaming competitions, and online tournaments/ladders as possible. For high-end gamers, a headset is an absolute must. I won't go in to every detail to explain this, but think of it this way: With a headset, you can hear your opponents before they even see you. It's a simple competitive advantage.
Well, my Tritton AXPRO's came in a couple weeks ago, so I have been able to really put it through some good testing with hours on end of Gears 2, Halo 3, and a little COD4. While reading this, keep in mind that between my brother and myself, we also have the Turtle Beach X1, X3, X4, Astro A40, and Tritton AX360--so I have done quite a bit of head-to-head testing as well. To make a long story short, I'm sorely disappointed with the AXPRO in just about every aspect. It's a horrible product. Here's a quick review to explain...
SOUND
First off, the sound on the AXPRO is pathetic. I thought the AX360's sound was an epic fail--but the AXPRO is even worse simply because it's only marginally better, but costs almost twice as much. Yes, surround sound is great--but there is very poor bass response in the AXPRO just like with the AX360. The mids lack clarity and the highs have no equilization whatsoever. Overall, it sounds way too "tinny." The TB X4, on the other hand, has deep boomy bass, rich mids, and crisp highs. You can hear the difference immediately! Especially with Gears 2 (which I feel has the most "in your face" sound engine), I got a headache after only 20 minutes because the overall sound was so harsh. Plus, the bass being so muddy really takes away from the 3D surround sound positioning. In fact, whenever a nade explodes, all you hear is this "BLAH" sound that seems to mask all other sounds for that second. I expect that this unbalanced equalization is due to the fact that the decoder box is a pre-amp, but the audio controller is amplified--so there's literally two master volumes counter-acting each other here. As for the audio controller, that thing is pretty useless because it's simply not accurate at all. The LED's change color depending on the how high or low you put the sound, but there's like 3 levels for each color. This means that if you want to increase the bass a bit, it's impossible to reset it back to it's original level unless you put the master volume all the way to the max or totally off. Retarded.
COMFORT
The AXPRO is extremely uncomfortable in several different ways. The headset is RIGID--NOT adjustable--and the earcups are NOT oversized. I don't have a large head at all (fitted hat size 7 1/4), but felt like I was stretching the AXPRO just to put it on. One of my buddies is a pretty big guy (about 250 lbs), so he's got a large head--and I honestly thought he was going to snap the headband in two when he tried to put it on. When he was wearing it, he said it felt like his head was in a vice--there was a lot of pressure due to the helmet-like design. As for the earcups, they're the same exact diameter as the TB X1 or X3--so they sit on your ears, not around them. Before I got the AXPRO, I was led to believe that the earcups were oversized so that the padding rests on your head. Since they're not, this means that they can get uncomfortable if you wear them for more than an hour. What makes it even worse is the constant pressure from the headband squeezing the sides of your head. Speaking of which, I found out REAL quickly that you CAN NOT wear glasses with the AXPRO on your head due to the way that the headband is designed. I was wearing contacts when I first tried them, but my brother had his glasses on--which made me put mine on as well just to see what he was complaining about. Again, the design of the headset comes into play yet again because it also negatively effects those who wear glasses.
SETUP & FUNCTIONALITY
Whoever designed this setup is a complete moron. Did anyone ever wonder why Tritton doesn't list anything in the "Package Contents" portion of the AXPRO's product page? Well the reason is because they'd have to constantly answer why there's TWO AC ADAPTERS! Yes, you have to not only plug in the decoder box, but the actual headset as well. Why in the world they couldn't make the whole thing with a single USB is beyond my understanding. Even if power is required to power the audio controller (i.e. amplifier), they could have achieved that with a "through" USB to the decoder box. This way, only a single USB cable would have been needed. Since you can't plug anything in at 99% of the LAN events or centers out there, this is a huge problem if you try to use these outside a home setting. They're as restricted as a wireless headset. Also, they only include about 10-feet of cable. My plasma TV is about 12 feet from my couch, so the cord not only didn't reach, but it was suspended in the air like a tight-rope while I was using the headset. This meant that the headset was constantly pulling my head forward. When I tried to compensate for the lack of cord length by resting the audio controller on my coffee table, I had to lean forward--which caused my back to start hurting after a while. After getting fed up with that, I took the headset into my bedroom to hook it up to my other Xbox where I have a smaller 22" Viewsonic monitor. Well, the problem that I had here was that while sitting in a chair, the audio controller just dangles down--and that makes the headset pull down awkwardly as well.
SUMMARY
So as you can probably tell by now, I am WAYYYYY disappointed in Tritton's AXPRO. For $160, the AXPRO should sound at least as good as the Astro A40 with MixAmp. I've been using the TB X4 for the past several months pretty regularly--and when I'm not, it's the HPX with MixAmp or AX360 decoder. As soon as I put on the AXPRO, I noticed a huge difference right off the bat, but really wanted to give it the chance to prove itself over an extended period of time. For a solid 2 weeks now (including real gaming-heavy weekends), the AXPRO continued to baffle me with it's inadequacies. The ONLY positives I can possibly take out of it is the somewhat solid construction (solid to a fault though), much higher quality materials used as opposed to the AX360, and great visuals on the box. I'd say that the manual is great too, but they screwed that up as well. There's a little note that comes inside the box outlines some corrections to the manual.
EVALUATION
On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best, I'd give the AXPRO a solid 4. FAIL
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