[SteggyB]

NEW INFORMATION: Starting with Meadowlands, Astro Gaming will be providing 100 splitters for sale, at
the price of $20. So if you and your teammates need to all use the 2 mixamps provided to each team in the splitscreen rounds, be sure to locate and buy these splitters, because supplies are limited!

Note: Feel free to ask questions about whether your particular headset is allowed. I couldn't think of every headset there is obviously, so directing me to yours will help me add content while answering your question. This thread is not a place to complain about rules/not allowed items. If you have a legitimate question regarding the rules or if your headset is allowed, feel free to ask, if you want to just complain you will receive a maturity warning.

MLG Headphone/Headset Rules, setups, and Usable/Unusable Items

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One of the most common questions for an MLG event with players is what can they use at an event; namely headsets. In the past there has been uncertainty pertaining to what headsets you can do, depending on the difficulty of setting up, whether it be wireless, etc. For the 09 season, the League Ops team has come up with a set of rules that can define what players may and may not do in terms of headsets.
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Rules for Headsets at an MLG Event
1. Players may not unplug anything from the TV, Xbox, or Astro Mixamp.
2. Players have no access to the power outlets and may not use any headset that requires power.
3. Players may use any available USB ports on the Xbox.*
4. Players may use any open plug-ins on the Astro Mixamp and TV.
5. Wireless headsets may not be used.
6. The xbox 360 headset is allowed.

*There will be no available USB ports during split screen play.

Note for splitscreen play: Only ONE mixamp is hooked up to each xbox. During splitscreen play this means 2 people will need to share a mixamp. It is not a garuntee that astro will be providing the splitters that allow you to share a mixamp, so in addition to the materials I will post below to make each setup work, plan on bringing a 4 pole 3.5mm splitter. I'll try to find a website that sells these.

Also be advised that if you are a coach and your team is using headsets or using the daisy chaining from the mixamp, you will NOT be provided with a mixamp of your own. Each xbox has 1 mixamp, so a total of 2 for each team in splitscreen games, and 4 for each team in single screen matches.
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With these rules evident, we can now come up with a list of headphones which will not be allowed at events.
Unusable Headsets at an Event

• Tritton AXPro - Requires the use of a wall outlet for power. Falls under rule 2

• Turtle Beach X3 - Wireless headphones that fall under rule 5

• Turtle Beach X2 - Wireless headphones that fall under rule 5

• Turtle Beach X1* - Requires USB Power that will not be made available during Splitscreen play. Falls under rule 3's note.

• Turtle Beach x4 - Wireless amplifier requires an optical cable input which the 360's already using for the astro mixamp, which falls under rule 1.

• Tritton AX360 - Requires optical cable input and AC power, which falls under rules 1 and 2.

*During single TV play, X1's will be allowed since there will be an available USB port.

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Now that we know what isn't allowed at an event, we can know what is allowed.

Headphones that are allowed, and what you need to make them work

-Any stereo headphone that will include a 3.5mm jack, which can include

• Sennheiser 515/555/580/595/600/650 so on

• Grado sr60/80/225/325 so on

• Audio Technica ad700/ad900 so on

• AKG

• Beyerdynamic

• etc.

Please note that a lot of stereo headphones have a 1/4" jack, which means you need an adapter to turn it into a 3.5mm jack. Make sure that you have this because you will not be provided with any of these at an event. Many headphones will come with adapters to turn either a 1/4" into a 3.5, or vice versa. If you do not have this jack, you can purchase them anywhere, but here is an example of what you would need for an event.
http://www.amazon.com/3-5mm-Stereo-J...73481& sr=8-3

That will allow you to plug your headphones into the astro a40 mixamp. You can just plug headphones into the headset port of the mixamp and play fine. If all of your teammates play this way, you simply need to speak loudly to hear each other since the headphones that I have listed at least, are open designed, which allow you to hear outside noises. so you will be able to still hear your coach as well if you use this option.

Your team can also all use the 360 mic so you could just talk to each other in game. If you are worried the other team can hear you, a simple mute on the other team is all it takes. It allows you to hear each other better. however you would still need to hear your coach through the headphones since you will only have 4 controllers. i mean, you could possibly use a 2.5mm splitter for 1 players controller so the coach can get in on the action, but a coach walks around to see every tv, and that would interrupt a players playing, which i would not advise.

You can also use a desktop mic paired with a *4-pole 3.5mm y adapter* that will allow you to take advantage of the mixamps daisy chaining ability, which will help if you have a coach since he will be able to join in on the action. I really suggest getting together with your team before a tournament to be in sync, because if you guys don't connect the same way, it will make communication so much harder. keep it consistent guys.

So, when using headphones with a 3.5mm jack, plan on bringing either

• Just your headphones

or

• Your headphones

• 360 mic

or

• Your headphones

• A Desktop mic with a 3.5mm jack, such as zalman mics

• a *4-pole 3.5mm y adapter* to plug both 3.5mm jacks into the headset port of the mixamp

*Note on this Y adapter: It appears that only astro actually produces a 4-pole version of a 3.5mm y adapter, and they only sell it with the astro mixamp.


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The Astro A40 Headset

-Of course the astro a40 headset will be allowed at events. They are what the mixamp is designed for. They don't require any external power and can hook directly into the headset port of the amp and in the 360 controller. When I was discussing consistency earlier, this is a great headset to use, because you can make it work with your team whether they are using the daisy chaining with desktop mics and headphones, or you can make it work with your team if they want to just use their 360 headsets.

So for A40 owners, plan on bringing

• Your Astro a40's

• The cables to hook your headset to the headset port of the mixamp

• Now your option is either daisy chaining if the rest of your team has a40's, or bring the other cable that connects to your controller if your team has headphones and an xbox 360 mic.

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PC Headsets with Dual 3.5mm Jacks

Which can include:

• Sennheiser PC350

• Beyerdynamic MMX 300

• QPad QH1339

• and more

To connect these to the mixamp at an event, you need to turn the dual 3.5mm jacks into 1 3.5mm jack. The way this works is using a 4-pole 3.5mm adapter. Astro is the only company that makes these as of now, and they only come with the Astro Mixamp. Astro will be providing limited quantities of these adapters at events, so if you don't own a mixamp, hopefully you can grab their adapter to use with your headset. So for a PC Headset, to hook up to the mixamp you will need

• Your Headset

• 4-pole 3.5mm Y Adapter

[SteggyB]

Usable Headsets Continued

PC Headsets Continued

If a 4-pole 3.5mm Y adapter isn't available to you, you can use this method. Note that your teammates will have to do some tricks so they can talk to you. So basically, the big thing to buy is this steelseries adapter. http://www.steelseries.com/us/produc...or/information

Now, when you have this hooked up to your controller, you connect the cord that is attached to the adapter, and you plug that into the headset port of the mixamp. This way, you can hear your teammates if they are using the daisy chaining network setup. However, you won't be able to talk into the daisy chaining because that cord you plugged in is only for headphone, and the microphone just goes through Xbox Live through the controller. So what your teammates would need is to bring the cord that connects the mixamp controller port to the 360 mic controller port. This way, they will be able to hear chat in xbox live while they talk to each other in the daisy chain. So they will talk to each other in the daisy chain network, and you will talk to them via the xbox live chat engine. It would be a good idea to have the 3 teammates mute themselves if they are going to talk in the private daisy chain, so there is no echo. And this works for multiple combinations of those with the steelseries adapter, and those with the astros.

So what you'll need is

-For those on the team using the steelseries adapter, you need

• Your PC Headset

• The Steelseries 360 adapter

-For those on the team that are able to talk in the daisy chain network but want to talk to those with the steelseries adapter as well, you need

• Your headset(ex. Astro A40

• The cord that goes from the controller port of the mixamp to the mic port of the 360 controller

And then your team is all set.

Turtle Beach X1

While this headset was previously thought to be unusable for events in splitscreen rounds due to it requiring USB power and no usb ports would be available, I have figured out a way to make it usable. However you will have to spend about half the price of the X1's themselves. The Way you can use X1's at an event is with a USB battery pack. What you can do with this is, if it's the rechargeable kind, you plug the battery pack into the wall of your hotel room, or wherever possible(not at events though) and you charge up the battery. This battery then has 2 usb ports where you can connect and charge devices. There are even some that run straight off of AA batterys, so bring a pack with you and you can be set. So with a USB battery pack like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Tekkeon-TekCha...2856800&sr=8-2
you just plug in your x1's and they will run off of batteries. I'm not sure about the performance of these devices, but it is the only way you will be able to use X1's during splitscreen play. If it is worth spending extra money to use them, then go for it. That single charge costs 20 dollars, and you would need 4 of them if you have a team of 4 all using X1's. You could also use this:http://www.amazon.com/Digipower-EBP-...56800&sr =8-4
which has 2 slots, so for a team of 4, you would need only 2 of these. So you would save yourself 20 bucks + price of batterys. However I'm not sure on their performances such as how long they'll last, so if they die out on you when you're at the event, you're kind of screwed.
Anyways, so simply, you will need these in order to use X1's at an event.

• Your Turtle Beach X1's

• The headphone jack of the X1's go into the mixamp port while you can plug
  the 360 mic attachment from the x1's volume control to the controller

• and the USB battery pack to power the X1's

or, if you would like to go the Daisy chain way

• X1's

• Astro mixamp PC headset adapter(4-pole)

• USB battery pack to power the X1's

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Turtle Beach HPX

The other turtle beach headset allowed at an event is the turtle beach HPX headset. This is actually a very simple setup, because TB has an adapter meant for the HPX+mixamp. So simply, your setup would be

• Turtle Beach HPX

• TB HPX astro mixamp adapter

or if you want to make it difficult for no reason, you could do this

• Turtle Beach HPX

• The PC attachment for the HPX(the 2 3.5mm attachment)

• 4-pole 3.5mm Y splitter

But again, there's no logical reason for that setup. It's there just because.

[Trigga.]

Great job of recognizing that this thread was NEEDED asap.

[xl_Obelisk_xi]

Okay so this might sound like a stupid question to some people, but I don't know the answer to it. You mention the A40 mix amp is usable, but you didn't mention that the headphones themselves are usable. Well, can we use A40 headphones at events? I know they are sponsored by MLG so it would be dumb if they aren't usable at events. But a friend of mine told me they weren't usable and I would hate to spend $250 and not be able to use them.

[Vivi]

Originally Posted by xl_Obelisk_xi

Okay so this might sound like a stupid question to some people, but I don't know the answer to it. You mention the A40 mix amp is usable, but you didn't mention that the headphones themselves are usable. Well can we use A40 headphones at events? I know they are sponsored by MLG so it would be dumb if they aren't usable at events. But a friend of mine told me they weren't usable and I would hate to spend $250 and not be able to use them.

Yes, you are able to use the Astro A40's at events. Every Halo 3 team at Vegas in 2008 used Astros.

[2AMPd]

Good writeup. Should answer a lot of questions.

[NtD Gr3nade]

Link my thread, cuz everything in it is legal. I'll throw your's in there when I re-organize the first few posts next week .

[unrealdustin]

Great job putting all of this together.

[Juh-Jesse]

Wow dude thanks. I just made a thread asking what mics were able to be used last night. This helped a lot.
Great post.

[garrettb]

Awesome guide!