Halo 4 Review

Inspiration by Monster Review

Score: 9.2/10-Near Perfect

Pros: Great vibrant sound, look and feel, solid construction, detachable aux cables, works without batteries.
Cons: Costly and a bit on the heavy side.

Monster Inspiration Unboxing

The new Monster headphone featuring active noise cancellation.  They are a high performance and high style headphone.  Featuring interchangeable headbands which can be purchased separately.  Coming in at $300 these are on the higher end market.

Sonos Playbar

Overview: The people at Sonos have officially moved into your living room.  They have created what they have dubbed the "PLAYBAR".  9 speakers, wireless connectivity, Bluetooth and high fidelity sound.  You can complete;y manage the Playbar through your phone and stream music as well.  Coming in at $700 can the device deliver quality at such a fee?  We will find out on its release 03/05/12.

Big Jambox by Jawbone Review

Overview:

Portable audio that replaces your boom box and maybe even your stereo shelf unit.  Jawbone first released the Jambox a wireless speaker with built-in rechargeable battery.  It connected to your device via auxiliary cable or wirelessly through Bluetooth connection.  The Big Jambox is just that it is a bigger version of the Jambox about 2x the size and about C-note more costly.

Sound:

This unit pumps out the volume.  Many people would be surprised to find this was a portable audio device and not a full fledged stereo unit based on volume alone.  The quality of this sound is great considering the small form factor.  It does leave a bit desired on the low end.  Bass is present but not thumping.  The mids and highs however come across clear and pronounced on nearly everything I played through the unit.  Also works a speaker phone when paired with you phone.  Voice comes across loud and clear and is great for speakerphone situations.  Also you have to option of LiveAudio  which gives you a simulated surround sound effect .  It works well only if you are direct in front of the unit providing 3d sound-shapes   For most situations you will want to keep this feature off.  As it takes some of the overall punch away from the sound.

Design:

The unit is amazingly portable weighing in about as heavy as a ultrabook 2.7 lbs.  Its has metal mesh over the unit minus the sides and 8 feet on the bottom of the unit for stability which are made of a rubberized soft material.  Located on the top you have Play/pause, skip and volume buttons.  It comes in three colors and designs; Graphite Hex, White Wave, and Red Dot.  You have on one side of the unit the power and pairing buttons.  Also located on the same side you have a mini usb for firmware  updates and a DC charging port.  This unit is unable to charge via USB like its predecessor (maybe due to the larger battery).  The battery will last up to 15 hours when connected through a auxiliary cable and around 9 to 12 when connected via blue tooth.  Overall it’s a rugged and durable feeling design while still maintaining a sleek and modern look.

Conclusion:

The unit with is incredible battery and loudness is the ultimate portable speaker system.  At $300 the unit is definitely pricey but is the best in the $300 and under category.  The sound could use some more rounded fullness.  Considering the small form factor I don’t believe more speaker could have been packed in.  

Score:  9/10 Amazing

Pros:  Amazing battery life, easy connectivity, Cool design/form factor, Clear undistorted sound at incredibly high volumes.

Cons:  Lack of bass, Costly($300).

Astro A50 Review

Overview:

The Astro A50s come packaged in a nice urban stylized box.  Inside the box you receive the wireless headset, mix amp, head phone and mix amp stand.  Also included is the power cable, charging cable, Xbox 360 chat cable and a digital audio cable.  Featuring a built in rechargeable battery.  The headset is very solid feeling.  It is a cross of metal and plastic with the hinges being metal and the headband of plastic.  The ear pads have a felt material covering a memory foam type of material.  On the head set you have built in mix amp controls.  The left ear cup has a no removable microphone that mutes when pushed into the upright position.  Also it has the mini USB used for charging and a auxiliary port for Xbox chat.  The right ear cup has a 3 way switch for eq settings, a master volume, and a game volume and chat volume mixer.

Sound:

The A50s have a 3 position switch for eq settings; Flat, Media, and Astro.  For gaming and most of my use I used the Astro setting.  The sound coming through this headset is massive.  Bass response is great and booms with every explosion and engine roar.  The passive noise isolation works great for making the world around you disappear into the audio bliss.  Also sound leakage is kept at a minimal, so you are not disturbing those around you.  Footsteps are clearly heard and the 5.1 audio does a great job of letting you know where they are coming from.  Overall sound quality is excellent and works for any genre of game.  The roar of the engines in Forza Horizion sounded life like and powerful.  The firefights and explosions in Halo 4 were pulse pounding.   The Mixer works well for balancing game audio and voice audio.  You can adjust this on the fly via the right ear cup.  The A50s are great for listening to music also.  The flat eq setting is great for providing clear warm audio with ample bass without distorting the music.   It’s worth noting that the Turtle Beach xp500 have better positional audio Technology even though it makes everything else sound artificial (in case you are comparing.)   Outside of that this is the supreme sounding headset for gaming and is also great for media also.

Comfort:

This headset is the most comfortable gaming headset I have even used.  I owned the Trittion 720, Turtle Beach PX3, Sony Pulse and the Turtle Beach xp500.  The A50s blow the competition away in comfort in my opinion.  In my opinion the Sony Pulse was a very comfy set and the T.B.s  have never passed average for me.  The only hindrance to comfort is the A50s are on the heavy side and after about 3 hours cause some slight fatigue.  The ear cups are large and cushy providing ours of comfort.

Conclusion:

Coming in at $300, this is a pricey headset.  In return for the price you get the BEST gaming headset on the market (or at least that I have used).  Comfort is a step beyond the competition providing hours on end of sublime gaming comfort.  Sound quality overall is best in class (outside of positional audio.)

Score:  9.7/10 Phenomenal

Pros:  Excellent sound quality, Solid build design, Extremely comfortable, Rechargeable battery with 8 hr + life.

Cons:  They are a little heavy, Firmware update needed for audio quality, Short recharge cable, Costly.

N-Pulse by Monster Review

• Pros: Great mids with tight bass response,  Balanced sound overall.  Solid build quality,  Great passive noise isolation. 
• Cons: Fatigue caused from clasping of the ear cups,  sometimes the highs come across harsh

Score: 8/10 

Best value in the Monster line up