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

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.

I am your average gamer that wanted a decent set of 5.1 surround headphones for use when I don't want to wake everyone in the house with my full system. In general, I'm happy with the purchase and it fits my needs perfectly. However, one of the ear pads (not the speaker, just the padding) fell off within the first few days. I was able to reattach it with some strong glue and have not had any trouble since. Also, I have my normal system on optical, so I can switch between the two with a quick setting change and don't have to mess with any wires.

Four (slight) negatives: 1.) The surround is good, but could be better. I had trouble telling how far the helicopters were away in Crysis. They sound like they are on top of you when they are much farther away. This could be due to something other than the headphones, but I didn't have this problem with speakers. This was the only time that I really noticed this problem as well. 2.) Volume control poorly placed. I'm rather tall and would have liked more cord between the headset and the controls. 3.) The controls themselves could have been better, the main volume control in particular is a rocker and not a dial, which is annoying. 4.) Build quality, as mentioned before.

The only things I found wrong with this headset are: 1. A small amount of background noise, this could be my sound card. The PC is new and I have never had speakers on it. I have only used a USB headset (This is not USB one reason I selected it), so the noise could be the PC. I have not really tried to adjust the sound out (there are full adjustments on the headset control)it does not seem to be noticable except when there is silence in the headphones.
2. The control is a little heavy but there is a clip to attach it to your shirt.

Overall, I am completely satisfied with this headset. I use it for online racing and wear it for several hours at a time (goes completely ovrer the ears with out contact). I have not really tested the surround sound aspect yet, it is not applicable to the particular SIM I use.

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 wanted some great gaming headphones. These aren't them. First, they are too heavy and feel like they are going to fall off when you lean forward. They don't have a mic that reduces background noise. The bass sounds distorted. Whenever I used them for Team Fortress 2, the game wouldn't run. I had to use my regular (not 5.1 sound) headphones. I am using a built in soundcard and not a soundblaster, this may be the reason for some of my issues. Although it is a new motherboard with 7.1 sound.
The plus side is I did hear a wider range of sounds than my old headphones. I could hear sounds I never heard before. That was pretty cool. I would not recommend these headphones if you have built in sound or a smaller head. And I would not recommend the microphone if you use them in an area with lots of background noise.