Review on ASTRO Gaming A40 TR Headset + MixAmp Pro TR 🎧 for PlayStation 4 (2017 Model): Superior Gaming Audio and Precision Control by Claudia Phipps

EDIT: My original review is in full below. I'll give a 4 star rating but explain how I fixed the microphone quality. I connected the mixamp to my computer and used the Astro desktop program to adjust the microphone tone to eliminate peaks and decay. Now the microphone sounds acceptable. They don't sound as good as my friend's Turtle Beaches, but now it's an acceptable mic and I can use the mixamp as intended. These headphones are really good in some areas and not so good in others. The sound quality is the best I've ever used in a headset (from the Sony Gold, Turtle Beach Stealth 400, and HyperX Cloud Core). 7.1 surround sound is great for audio-intensive games like Black Ops 4 and sounds great in single-player games like God of War. Stereo mode works well too, which I would recommend for some games like PUBG. If you're using a mixer connected to PS4, a little volume control is really good for parties/games. This is one of the best parts of the mixamp. Both controls on the mixamp are very slim and feel very high quality. I appreciate both the streaming port on the back of the mixer, which allows me to connect audio to my Elgato with an extra cable, and the additional port on the front, which allows me to connect my phone to the mixer to add music Listen. I also use the front aux port to connect my Nintendo Switch to the mixer to stream audio on my A40s. The various Mixamp buttons are a little confusing at first, but after a quick Google search they were pretty easy to figure out. The top one is the power button, which can be toggled from PC mode to console mode or vice versa (more on that later), the bottom left toggles audio presets, and the bottom right toggles 7.1 surround sound on/off. All indicators glow red when the mic is muted, which is nice. Overall the mixamp is great and the best part of this pack. What really spoils the whole thing is the microphone. The mic on this headset is worse than ANY headset I have ever used which is terrible for a $250 headset. Their quality is much worse than the mono microphone that comes with the PS4. Many solutions have been posted on YouTube and Reddit for this, but none of them worked for me, so here's what I did: I used an external Blue Snowball microphone. I already had one for my PC so getting it wasn't a big deal, but getting it to work is a challenge. The main problem with using an external microphone is the inability to use the game/voice kit on the mixamp, which is one of its best qualities. The PS4 system can only recognize ONE USB headset at a time and will treat the Blue Snowball as a headset. When you go into the device settings, the audio output needs to be set to TV AND AMPLIFIER to allow sound. This does not affect group chat, it just takes away from the versatility of the game/voice controls. All in all, do not buy this product. Buy ASTRO MixAmp, it's a great product. Use with a HyperX or SteelSeries headset for great sound and versatile mixer versatility.