TRITTON AXPC, USB True 5.1 Surround Sound Gaming Headphones

by Tritton

Product Details

• Item Weight: 12 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000O118F6
• Item model number: TRI-UA512
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: May 20, 2007

Product Description

AXPC True 5.1 Gaming Headphones w/ removable mic USB connectivity

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good product but lousy software and drivers, November 28, 2007

By 

T. Middleton (Southeast, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: TRITTON AXPC, USB True 5.1 Surround Sound Gaming Headphones (Personal Computers)

These headphones are a very good quality set. The base response they have is impressive, sound quality is very good and they are comfortable enough to wear for a long period of time. The microphone is also excellent with no problems with clarity.

Unfortunately, this company still does not have a good functioning Windows Vista software package for this headset, and doesn't seem to be in a rush to get one released. Functionality in Vista is therefore greatly limited, and the driver is very annoying - you have to reboot Windows to change from speakers to headphone or vice-versa.

I would not recommend this product to anyone until new proper drivers and software are released, and then I would probably give it a 5 star.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excallent headset, May 13, 2008

By 

S. Holmes (Colorado) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: TRITTON AXPC, USB True 5.1 Surround Sound Gaming Headphones (Personal Computers)

So I got my Tritton AXPC today and like a little kid on Christmas I tore into them, eager to try them out.

After getting it all set up I pop in some of my favorite games, consisting of Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Call of Duty 2, Unreal Tournament 2004 as well as Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion. These games work flawless with the AXPC. Taking full advantage of the positional audio, which really helps submerse you into the games, although most gamers know it's more about reflex and counter attacks rather then pinpointing enemies.

The rumble effect that goes hand-in-hand with the subwoofer channel also provided a welcome extra dimension to my gameplay by emphasizing explosions and vehicle movement.

In three games however, the AXPC had serious issues with positioning ability. These games include Quake 4, PREY, Battlefield 2142. The rear audio in Quake 4 and PREY was completely missing. When you talk to a character and turn around so your back is facing them, all I could hear was ambient noise. There was no issues with my Logitech G51 speakers, I was able to hear the character loud and clear.

For battlefield 2142 I could not tell the difference between front and rear at all. I had also heard some popping noise as well. I tried both hardware and software rendering with no change. I attend to get some popping nose with my Logitech speakers using my onboard sound (Realtek ALC660).

After educating myself a little to see why these titles preformed poorly with the AXPC, I found out that these games use OpenAL which ties heavy with Creative Labs and X-Fi sound cards. Since Microsoft killed off DirectSound with Windows Vista, we are probably going to see more and more games using OpenAL. As to why the AXPC don't work with OpenAL I am not sure. Until C-Media or Tritton rolls out a driver update to combat this issues we are going to be playing these games in stereo mode.

After testing the games I wanted to spend a little time trying out the detachable microphone. I quickly rounded up some friends in Skype and TeamSpeak to see how good the mic sounded... The quality was superb! There wasn't a moment that someone couldn't understand me and they all marveled at the audio clarity coming through to them. A +20dB mic boost feature exists which can be extremely useful for voice applications that don't provide their own amplification, although a small amount of hiss is introduced.

I started to wonder "Can the AXPC be taken seriously outside of gaming?" I started to test some music to see how it sound. I played some my favorite bands consisting of Slipknot, Nine Inch Nails, Bullet for my Valentine, Daft Punk, Rage Against the Machine, and Guess Who. After just firing up some music, it sounded kinda plain with no real depth to the music. I popped open the equalizer and start to adjust some frequencies. After a little fine tuning I was able to get the music to sound remarkably well.

So now intrigued that the AXPC can be taken seriously outside of gaming, I wanted to explore other possibilities as well. I popped my copy of Lord of the Rings to see how it would sound with movies. I watched the climatic battle sequence in native 5.1 surround. Dramatic music, whizzing arrows, clanging swords, screams from behind and pounding orcs that set off the rumble motors... they all sound great on the AXPC, putting ordinary headphones to shame. Impressive would be an understatement here.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not for audiophiles, December 28, 2007

By 

Chris S. - See all my reviews

My wife got me a set of these for Christmas, and I can tell you they will be going back to the store. The sound that comes out of these headphones sounds like it's being piped through two tin cans connected with string. I tried classical music, rock, games, messing with the equalizer, but I could not get the sound to come out to my liking. The sound was crisp, but just didn't sound natural at all, no matter how hard I tried.

And then there's the comfort. For a set of headphones with the padding large enough to fit around my ears, I expect the padding to be thick enough to keep the main headphone speakers from touching my ears, but that is not the case here.

Between the audio quality and the comfort, I couldn't stand to wear these for more than about 10 minutes. For the price, there's got to be a better headset out there.