Just a few days ago we wrote about companies affiliating themselves with high-end manufacturers, and here’s another great example by one of those very companies. Astro Gaming, in conjunction with Konami Productions, have just announced that they will start shipping their MGS: Peace Walker Edition A30 headsets today, June 8. The A30 boasts many awesome features for the all-around gamer who is looking for a quality headset. Having tried Astro’s equipment before, I can tell you that the clarity and comfort is well worth the price tag of $149.95 if communication and sound are integral to your gameplay, especially when you combine it with their Mixamp.

“Our new ASTRO A30s have entirely reinvented what gamers expect from a modern, mobile-fluent headset.  Whether at home tearing up some multiplayer, traveling with a MP3 player or on the go with a favorite handheld gaming device, the A30s deliver superior audio and voice communication and still manage to look good doing it,” explains Brett Lovelady, Founder of ASTRO Gaming.  “And, what better way to demonstrate the A30s capabilities than with Konami’s upcoming Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for the PlayStation Portable, which is going to completely transform what gamers expect from a handheld game.”

When you buy your A30, you can purchase MGS: Peace Walker (PSP) for only $20, as opposed to the retail $39.99.  You’ll also be able to choose from three different frame colors: white, black and silver.

“We designed this innovative new headset specifically with PC gamers in mind,” said Able Planet’s chairman and CEO Kevin Semcken. “Gamers tend to spend significant periods of time playing online games and such extended play of rich multimedia sounds puts a cumulative strain on the ears this can cause hearing loss and fatigue.  Our technology minimizes this risk so that users no longer have to turn up the volume just to be able to drown out background noise.”

With this in mind I definitely wanted to try out the headset! It’s a decent looking headset with an adjustable mic, and it even comes with it’s own USB adapter which I don’t really see come with many headphones. So I eagerly popped open the package, connected the headphones to my Mac and proceeded to fire up WoW to test out the headphones. Over the next week I was able to get a good feel about this headset.

I can say that on the first day I could really tell that the sound quality was better than what I was getting from my usual headset. The ambient noises from the game sounded clearer and I didn’t have to have my iTunes volume as high as I usually did.  The microphone also seems to work quite well and projects clearly as I received comments from my guildmates that I sounded a lot clearer in vent. So I have to give it an A in the sound department as it has lived up to what it has promised to be and then some!

The area where I was a bit disappointed in was in the comfort levels. The headset has rather small earpieces and even after breaking them in for a few days, I have to take them off regularly as they begin to squeeze my ears a bit too much. Not good for when I want to play for an extended period, do a raid, or just sit in vent and talk with my guildmates. In this area they may want to take a page from other gaming headset makers and work on the comfort level. Most of the gamers I know who would use a headset like this tend to play for several hours at a time, and when you’re going to be wearing something on your head for that long you want to make sure that it’s comfortable.

But all in all I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the headset. I’m glad to see that a company is making a good headset that also improves sound while trying to prevent long term hearing loss. Even with some issues in the comfort level, if you’re looking for a new headset, I recommend taking a look at Able Planet’s! It’s also an added plust that this headset will work on both PC and Mac systems. The PS500MM retails for $99, so it’s relatively competitively priced against other manufacturers, and it can be found on their site or Amazon.

Headphones provided by Abel Planet.