Astro Gaming A50 (Gen2)

For $300, the Astro A50 earns superlative marks for audio, comfort and multi-platform versatility simply remains deeply marred by buggy firmware.

$299 on Amazon

Condolement

The A50'southward ear cushions were the most comfy in this comparison. Like the G930, they are soft, spacious and deep. Eschewing faux-leather, Astro opted for a less sweaty felt-similar material. It'due south a constructed fiber and the cushions are dense so it however gets pretty hot, but it was still less sweaty. Keeping them pristine looking may require a lint roller. Besides, unlike leatherish materials, material allows for increased sound venting which can be an issue for listening loudly in tranquillity spaces. The A50 seemed to handle this pretty well though. The headband adjusts to my large head with a trivial room to spare, so chances are it will fit your attic too.

Sound

Out of the box with no EQ tweaks, subjectively, I felt the A50 delivered better sound than the SteelSeries H Wireless. That's a expert thing for Astro considering the A50 simply has iii possible EQ presets. By comparing, the H Wireless sports a five-band equalizer which allows yous to dial in the audio you lot like. Because input into your A50 will likely come from a secondary analog or optical source (i.e. your sound card), you practise accept the option of using external EQ controls to fine tune your game or music audio. Surprisingly, half of the headsets had a problem producing bass. Non the A50. Astro's entry produced tight bass simply also retained its clarity. If you want your sound to thump, the A50 is a safe bet.

Wireless

Astro likes to tout KleerNet, an SMSC radio technology standard which delivers uncompressed "lag free" audio. KleerNet is tri-band, operating on 2.4GHz, 5.2GHz and 5.8GHz frequencies. SMSC says the 5.2GHz spectrum is utilized for surround sound, which theoretically gives the A50 an edge in bandwidth over its closest competitor, the SteelSeries H Wireless. As with all dual-band entries, the A50 didn't skip a beat when attempting to have it down with purposefully generated interference. Latency, which was measured by monitoring the round-trip time it took for mic input to reach the ear, was less than 100ms and identical to the H Wireless. They both tied for the fastest headset. The distance at which the A50 operated immune me to visit side by side rooms, faring only slightly meliorate than the H Wireless. Merely single-band ii.4Ghz headsets, namely the Logitech G930 and Corsair H2100, could venture farther out than the A50.

Microphone

The A50s mic is possibly the best in this roundup. Subjectively, it produced the about natural and clearest sounding input. The A50 employs dual-mic noise cancellation, a feature establish on many headsets but somehow not the H Wireless. Theoretically, this helps isolate your vocalization and ignore unwanted groundwork sounds. Every bit with most headsets though, though the results are subtle and minimally constructive. Air current dissonance was only an issue while walking straight under or in front of a fan set to an aggressive speed. The A50 handled wind far ameliorate than the H Wireless, merely less well than nearly other headsets.

Features and Value

Information technology is easy to error the "value" of whatever $300 headset. When compared to its equally expensive loftier-finish peers though, the A50 didn't fall short at delivering core features: audio quality, reliability and basic headset controls.

The important stuff makes it to the headset here: volume roller, chat mix aligning (game versus vocalism book), three EQ settings and a heighten-to-mute mic. Surroundings sound is on the transmitter. You'll find firmware updates for both the transmitter and headset, tri-ring wireless and what was subjectively the best 7.1 surround of all of our contenders. I believe the spacious earcups helped hither, adding perceivable depth to already cracking sounding headphones. The A50 is multi-platform, suitable for both PCs and consoles. The base station or "MixAmp" also serves equally a basic mixer, sporting a 3.5mm auxiliary jack, optical SPDIF in and SPDIF out. The headset itself also has a 2.5mm jack, something console gamers will find useful but not an aspect I tested.

Battery Life

The battery lasted most half-dozen.5 hours under the synthetic test which keeps the earphones and microphone continually busy. With this in mind, the A50 had the weakest battery life merely still provides aplenty fourth dimension for most gamers. If the bombardment runs out, the headset can exist charged while in use. However, the supplied USB cable is a mere 2 anxiety in length, so a longer cablevision may exist in order if you observe yourself in this situation.

Overall Quality and Impressions

For $300, information technology is no surprise the Astro A50 ships in an impressive box. Included are the few cables you'll need and one of the well-nigh well-designed set of instructions I've seen. This is a very sturdy headset with definite gamer appeal in terms of both style and features. The stand is a bit cheesy (the instructions even land information technology is designed to exist put together once and only once) only perfectly functional. This is actually the only headset to come with a stand then it'southward actually just a deal sweetener. The package includes a few cables and SPDIF optical to coax adapter which make its connectivity second only to the H Wireless.

The A50 came dangerously close to being my perfect choice except for one affair: ridiculous firmware issues. Trying every permutation of contempo firmwares for both the transmitter and headset together, I could non find a combination that did non take at least one issue.

The first issue I see was audio notifications existence clearly audible to friends. Whenever the battery is low or a setting is changed, the A50 provides its wearer with aural cues. These sounds were transmitted at total volume even with the mic in the mute position. Thankfully, rolling back to the final available firmware release fixed the audio notification issue. However, the older firmware introduced ii new bug: 5-infinitesimal auto shut off even while listening to music and a tranquillity but periodic buzz/hum in the right ear loving cup.

For the auto shut off event, I had temporarily fix the A50's USB transmitter every bit the default playback device. Although this was fine on the latest firmware, the older firmware didn't consider audio fed through USB playback as "in use" and would power downwards the headset within 5 minutes of turning information technology on. Switching back to SPDIF (or aux) input for playback solved it, which is necessary anyhow for chat mix to work.

The periodic buzzing in the right ear was stock-still by upgrading the headset firmware again, but keeping the transmitter firmware downgraded. This as well solved the auto shut off issues, but the audio notification problem returned. At that place was also at present a very faint hum in both ears. To make things more than complicated, I could barely hear myself speak equally the mic monitor volume inexplicably lowered to inaudible levels. This setting is not user adaptable. If all of that wasn't bad enough, on at least one of the firmwares I was unable to control the volume on the mic via Windows -- it but ignored book controls. Wow. Really, Astro?

Appealing to support was useless likewise. Astro always replied promptly, but the responses were always canned. The customs forum too has many complaints about the same bug I experienced above. One time again, there are prompt replies just no official solutions and even some "user mistake" attitude. Unfortunately, Astro appears to exist apathetic to its customers.