I hate to spam this board, but for the AusGAFers who don't visit Rocket Chainsaw's trading section...
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For sale is one
Astro Mixamp Pro. "What the hell is that?" I hear you ask. Firstly,
here it is on the official Astro website. Now I'll explain.
The Astro Mixamp Pro is an audio solution aimed at downsampling surround sound signals for stereo headphones. The way it works is you plug the mixamp directly into your PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 via an optical cord (for best sound quality), then plug your stereo headphones into the mixamp. The mixamp takes the surround sound signal and samples it down to stereo via Dolby Headphone, retaining the 'feel' of sitting in a surround sound speaker room. Personally I would describe the sound as 'airy', and I mean that in a good way. It makes games sound less like audio is coming from your left and right speakers stuck to the side of your head, and instead like it is coming from multiple sources around the room you're sitting in. It is a 'fuller' sound, I guess.
There are a few reviews on YouTube and websites, and all are positive. It also came highly recommended to me from gamers, who felt the Astro allowed them to better pinpoint footsteps and ambience of surround sound game environments when only using stereo headphones. I should also note it is not available (to my knowledge) in Australia, unless there's a specific import retailer dealing it. I imported it from the US via the official website.
So if it's so good, why sell it?
I bought the Astro as part of a bulk sound upgrade, which included a Dolby Headphone compatible sound card for my PC and a swank new pair of headphones. My reasoning was the headphones would give me great quality private audio, the soundcard would sample down for PC, and the mixamp would handle consoles. Problem is I rarely use my PlayStation 3 as it is, and when I do I find myself sticking to speakers. Unlike my PC, where I frequently use my soundcard and it's Dolby Headphone function (same thing, and I love it), as that's where I game the most, I've found the Astro mixamp sitting around gathering dust. I've used it literally twice,
maybe three times. And that sucks, because it's cool. In addition to this, the Wii U has no optical port for audio, rendering the Mixamp useful only for my PlayStation 3. Had the Wii U an optical port I'd probably keep it.
Thus I am selling it. This is what is included in the pack, based on when I bought it back in January of this year.
- Astro Mixamp Pro (again, see here)
- 3m optical cable (for PS3/360)
- 3m USB-to-miniUSB power cable
- 2m 3.5mm-to-3.5mm audio device cable
- 1.5m controller cable (for connecting your Xbox controller to integrate LIVE chat)
- Y-Adapter (to connect a PC headset)
- Instruction slip (not that it's hard or complicated in the slightest to set up)
- Rechargeable battery (the amp takes normal batteries, but I picked up a rechargeable to free up the USB ports)
The quality is pretty much mint. There's some minor scratches on the front of the Mixamp that were there when it arrived. The instruction slip is a bit crumpled but perfectly readable and clear. The box has some corner markings from simply being cardboard. Outside of these minor cosmetic blemishes the product is as mint as they come.
The Astro Mixamp Pro currently retails for US$129.99, which is the price I also paid. The rechargeable battery was optional for US$19.99. I then paid US$39.95 for shipping. The entire purchase, all up, cost me AU$189.31 to bring it from the US to Australia.
What am I asking? Not even close to that. $120 or something for the lot would be fine. I'm not even sure someone here will bite, and will probably end up advertising on Gumtree and/or eBay later on. Postage is a separate issue. I live in Melbourne so pick-up would be ideal. Security of postage and price is up to you. The box itself is padded and surprisingly sturdy, but I'd hate to send it cheap and have it arrive covered in postie poop or something.
Anywho, picture time. I can supply more pictures at higher resolution if the need be, and if you've got any questions just ask.
