Astro A50 Multi-Format Wireless Gaming Headset Review

The Astro A50 has blown my mind this week, I was expecting it to be nothing more that the A40 with the wires cut and on the surface, perhaps it is exactly that, but my overall experience of the headset was so much more than that of the A40 and it’s the first headset I’ve found that contends with my current favourite headset, the MadCatz FREQ7 in terms of features and audio performance, albeit they’re two completely different designs and the FREQ7 is hard wired, not wireless.

The A50 is easily the best multi format gaming headset I’ve tested, with no exception. The next in line would likely be the Turtle Beach EarForce XP Seven, with actually costs the same to buy, but I found it far more complicated and the headset drivers (which are incredible) are not as impressive as the A50, not by a long shot.

The build quality is really nice and while I would prefer a little plastic, I appreciate that they’re trying to keep the weight down to make room for batteries and to provide a comfortable fit to the end-user, something that has worked well given that the headset sits comfortably on your ears for hours, although in a warm room the ear padding does make you feel a little warm.

While I would recommend this for gamers, most of all I have to suggest this headset to music lovers as this is the next best thing I’ve found to my dedicated surround sound. If you need to keep the noise down in your house, you can rock out in comfort with the A50 for 8 to 10 hours before needing a recharge. The drivers are superbly balanced and everything from Cannibal Corpse to Genesis to “insert generic pop group name” sounds fantastic.

The only issue I have overall is the power of the drivers, they’re LOUD like nothing else and while that isn’t a bad thing I can’t understand why they need to be so powerful that the headset could double as a set of speakers to a small room of people! What did impress me about this though was the at the kind of volume where you need to have the headset away from your ears, the sound was distortion free. However if you want to melt your brain with high volume, you could do so with the A50. Fortunately, this headset still sounds great even at low volumes.

Pros

• This headset sounds amazing, looks fantastic and performed beyond our expectations.
• Wireless tech is hit and miss, but the A50 never missed a beat, never crackled, never faded away and has a 30ft range.
• The base unit and stand are lightweight, small and easy to use
• Swapping between systems is super easy thanks to the small number of cables required

Cons

• The £250 price tag is more than justifiable given their performance, but this maybe a bit too high for many to take a chance on trying out the headset, those looking for the next best thing should look at the wired A40 which are a little less expensive at £200.