Astro A38 Gaming Headset Review

Performance

While testing the limits of the A38 I got the drivers to max out at 95 dBa, more than loud enough to block out the noise of the world around you. With the headset on my ears, I found that 65 dBa of the sound leaked at 100% over a range of 3ft, and just 41 dBa at 50%. This is very good as it means that if you’re not maxing the volume out, you shouldn’t be bothering those sat near you; good news for your fellow commuters on the way to work.

One of the standout features on the Astro A38 is the noise cancelling technology, I tested it out in the noisiest environment known to humankind, my kids bedroom. Two kids tearing around and playfighting with toy swords and yelling and never sounded so peaceful, I could barely hear them over my personal selection of heavy metal. The same technology is great for blocking out any external noise, such as traffic, or a busy crowd.

Sound quality is nothing short of amazing. I paired the headset up to my Sony Xperia Z3 via NFC and found everything sounding incredible without any additional tweaking required. Bass is rich and clear, with enough low end thump to satisfy a wide range of music tastes. There’s a lot of detail to the mids and high tones and overall the sound is pin sharp. Everything from electronic music, classical, audio books and punishing death metal sounded great, so what ever your taste, the A38 should deliver great sound.

The build in controls are easily accessed without looking, and all the buttons are in easy to remember places, so you shouldn’t have to take the headset off just to adjust the volume. Despite not having a boom microphone, the A38 work very well for making and receiving calls and the multi-function button on the side makes answering calls a breeze.

The headset is very comfortable to wear and stays firmly in place. It’s good enough to stay in place while going for a light jog, but anything more active and you may want to look into a dedicated sports headset. Overall, the A38 gave a solid all-round performance.