Tritton AX360 headphones - first impressions

I got a few chances to use my Tritton AX360  headphones last week. Here are my first impressions.

DAY ONE
Installation woes

The first night I got them home I waited until the family was asleep and got set for some plug-n-play goodness. Unfortunately it wasn't so easy for me. I have an XBox 360 Elite, with the HDMI output. The headphones have either a digital coax, or fiber optic cable connector, there wasn't either one of those ports on the back of my Elite. I have the HDMI plugged directly into my receiver.

Luckily my DENON receiver has fiber optic outputs. So I turned around the receiver and plugged the headphones into the optical port... no audio. Dang. Oh, wait... I remember. I have to assign the inputs to the outputs. Where's the flippin' manual? Got it. Okay, now where's the instructions on programming the outputs? Here... but wait, I need to follow the prompts on the on-screen menu, and the on-screen menu doesn't show up unless you're connected via component cable. It doesn't show up through HDMI.

And it was then that I remembered reading all the criticisms of the Denon 887 about a year and a half ago. And I still bought it anyway.

So fast forward about an hour and we get to the point where after button beating on the front console of the receiver for what seemed like forever, I was finally able to get sound to the headphones. Everything was way too loud, so after dialing in the four volume controls, (center, front, rear, sub), I was ready for action.

I popped in COD4. Right away I was impressed while just sitting at the main menu. I never knew there were little beeps and background noises at that menu. Of course, typically I don't pause and listen for that sort of stuff either. No one was online on my friends list, so I headed into the campaign.

These headphones rock!

I can hear footsteps in the distance. You might say, "Wow, big F'ing deal?!?" No seriously, I mean I can even gauge which direction they are coming from and how far away they are.

You feel grenades. The rumble feature in the subwoofer acts much like the controller's rumble.

So after my initial WOW I decided to call it a night and shut off the XBox.

DAY TWO
The Foo Fighters ROCK!

The next night my wife and I were watching the Foo Fighter's concert "Live in Madison Square Garden" that she had recorded from Fuse TV. Our daughter was already asleep so we couldn't crank up the surround sound, which is my favorite way to watch concerts... LOUD! So about 2 songs into it I remembered the headphones, powered them on and tweaked the four volume controls.

After getting it all dialed in I passed the headphones to my wife so she could hear the difference. She was amazed. She watched the remainder of the concert with the headphones on her head. She kept shouting at me when talking, which I thought was pretty funny. "I CAN HEAR THE PIANO!" Shh... "I LOVE THIS SONG!" Shh... "THESE GUYS ROCK!" I put my finger to my lips, I seriously thought she was going to wake the baby. I managed to get the headphones back on my head for the encore and was thouroughly impressed. So they get 2 thumbs up for TV concert viewing too.

DAY THREE
More installation woes... The microphone?!?

So Friday night rolls around and I fire up the Xbox to answer the Call of Duty. I put my new favorite toy on my head and see that I have 5 friends online. 3 are playing Halo, 1 playing Rock Band and Haha was playing COD4... perfect. My first multiplayer experience with the headphones. So I go to send Haha a message to let him know that I'm online and when I preview my message... nada, zilch, nothing. Poop.

I get out the little fold out manual that came with the headphones and double-check my setup. Mic is plugged into the 360 controller, sound is set to play to both headset and speakers. Dang.

Rather than burn my precious game time troubleshooting the mic I send a text message. Haha sends me an invite and I'm in. The game is "Search and Destroy". I've never played it before. I could hear all in-game audio but I had no mic. So I couldn't communicate. I felt lost. I followed a teammate around a corner and we both ate a couple grenades. The other team obviously saw us coming and coordinated their grenade toss. That's when I find out that it's a game with no respawn. So I watched my teammates to try to figure out how to play. Looks like we defend the bomb, if they get it we have to find it and diffuse it before time runs out.

The next round I chose a silent setup and took up a defensive position. I hid behind a car and listened to the enemy walking up. As soon as I heard them in front of me I popped up and took em out. Then back to prone to listen for the next one. I got two guys this way and then our team won the round.

The headphones are totally changing the way I play COD4. I used to run and gun, and usually ended up on the bottom of the scoreboard most games. But now I tend towards the middle bottom. I'm learning patience, and once I get my mic figured out I'll be able to coordinate defenses and attacks with my teammates.

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From the Tritton support webpage...

How do I connect the AX 360 microphone to a XBOX 360?

• For use with an XBOX 360, do not plug the microphone into the mini-jack on the headphone. Mount the microphone to the left ear cup of the headset. Connect the microphone to the extension cable(included with your AX 360). Plug the opposite end of the microphone extention cable into the mini-jack located on the game controller.

No microphone controls? 

• Thats right! Why would you want another knob or wheel to mess with, you want to get into your game.

• To adjust the way others hear you, just simply move the ultra flexable microphone attachment closer or further away from your mouth until other Xbox Live users can hear you.

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Um, yeah, I tried that.. Still no mic. Defective hardware maybe? Overall, I'm still very impressed with the headphones and chalk up the difficulties I've had with the installation to my own shortcomings. I know Bear has the Tritton AX360 setup and his mic works, so it's gotta be something I'm doing/not doing.

Anyway, those are my first impressions. And now back you the regular blag rhyme postings.