Home > Consumer Reviews > TRITTON AX51, True 5.1 Hardcore Gaming Headphones, Analog Connection for 5.1 sound cards.

This is the headset you want if you don't want extra drivers/software chewing up your resources. No Vista compatibility issues. Just plug it into your existing 5.1 soundcard ports and away you go. I'm using an Creative Labs Extreme Gamer X-Fi with this headset. I had to tune the graphic equalizer to my preferences and the headset sounds great! Crisp sound even at 'too loud' levels. The bass rumble is also cool. For First Person Shooter games, this 5.1 headset gives you a definite advantage.

I have spent a few $100 over the last 6 years buying headsets and have ALWAYS been disappointed. That is not the case with the Tritton's.

The sound is great, the mic is great the setup is easy. But the most impressive thing is how good they feel on my head.

The subwoofer in it is not as good as the $100 one I have connected to my entertainment center... but then that one is the size of a coffee table and the Tritton's is small enough to fit in these head phones... so that is understandable.

Well worth the money.

I have purchased many headphones and none have really stacked up like this ax51. I had a 100$ pair of platronics dsp 500 model which had an onboard stero processors since they were usb, but unfortunatley the company refused to develop any windows vista drivers so I was unable to get the full features of the headset. These headphones have the best bass I have ever heard, they are hooked up to a creative X-fi extreme gamer sound card which gives them full eax 5.0 Advanced HD surround sound, gun blasts sound amazing. They are comfortable to wear, and as long as you own a 5.1 surround sound card they will work. No drivers for the headset means no vista conflicts. The rumble technolgy is perfect its not overpowering and its not weak, microphone is very clear as well. Best pair of headphones I have ever owned.

I have some Turtle Beach 5.1 headphones I liked a lot for the sound quality, but they were like pressing two slabs of metal against my ears -- no padding worth mentioning. I decided to try these instead. I refuse to play computer games with stereo headphones, as 5.1 surround sound is better for telling if someone is behind me and to my left or in front of me and to my left. Although headphones can't deliver positional sound as well as speakers, 5.1 is discernible versus stereo and makes a difference.

I'm no audiophile but the quality on these headphones sounds great to me. The mic is plenty good for voice-over-IP as well (e.g., Ventrilo). The flexible boom works well.

I deduct 1 star for the in-line controller, though: it has a volume mute and a microphone mute but there's no visual or tactile indication that they're on or off. There's a bright blue LED that indicates power to the unit but there's no way to turn the unit (and thus the bright light) off. I'm not overly fond of the master volume control being a, I dunno what to call it, see-saw switch rather than a wheel like the other controls. They also should have included a Y-adapter for the hookup, so you could easily keep both your speakers and your headphones plugged in. Luckily, my Turtle Beach headphones came with that and I just recycled it for these headphones.

Still, I'm tempted to rate it 5 stars anyway just because it passes the comfort and quality test. 4 hours on my old headphones were ear killers. Literally unbearable. These are nice and cozy.

I bought these last December for Christmas, only to have the right ear blow out and die a couple of months later. Tritton honored their RMA policy and I was able to exchange them for a new pair, but only after paying for shipping and waiting two weeks for the packages to exchange. The replacement pair has been working fine for the past month, but I'm starting to hear the bass crackle, which was the first sign of failure during the time I used up the first pair.

Hardware-wise, these headphones are built great. They're big, heavy and fit real sturdy- some may not be into that sort of thing, but I'm loving it. The sound coming through the front channels is great and the subwoofer and rumble effects are amazing- having a sudden explosion literally rumble the headset is a visceral experience. The rear and center channels (the extra speakers that make this a "surround" headset) are noticeably tinny, but the only place you'll notice this is in a speaker test. In-game, bass supplements these channels to even out the quality. And music only uses the two front channels, anyway.

However, the software side of things is like opening a can of worms. It's all dependent on your soundcard- I have a Soundblaster Audigy SE, and while it's served as a great 2.1 soundcard all these years, I've found so many more problems I have to work around for getting solid 5.1 audio. Specifically your card's driver supports- I know I've got a budget card, but I have to have a certain version installed for older EAX 4.0 games like Thief 3 and FEAR, but have to install a different driver version for newer games using the OpenAL codec. The entire process can take hours out of my day! It doesn't seem like the headphones fault that I discovered my awful driver support, but I wouldn't have to deal with this on a 2.1 setup.
That being said, with the right combination of a good soundcard and these headphones and a game that supports the fancy audio features you never even knew were in the game. In just Far Cry 2 alone, I've so many new ambient effects that just completed the game. Especially with the way the rain makes foliage sway and shake with positional audio sources.