Astro Gaming A50 Circumaural Headset - Black

Pros: Very comfortable, and i am picky.
Decent battery life
microphone is very good at picking up only my voice.
wireless 5.8 ghz makes it work all around my house with no interference.
mixamp is wonderful. and makes things easy.

Cons: The cable is to short.

Other Thoughts: I know this headset is expensive. But it is SOOOO worth it.
I've owned plenty of turtle beaches, used a couple Tritons, but this headset takes the cake! I have never had one that is better.

Pros: Very clear
Very loud and no distortion

Cons: Not made for Music may sound decent but defiantly not a plus for them.

Other Thoughts: If you don't like bright speakers than just let these ease in and there brightness will defiantly go down. When I first got them they were really bright but just after a month or so they eased way down and there perfect now.

Pros: Work great and are super comfortable. I love that the mix amp has a optical out on it so I could still run my 7.1 surround sound reciever. Great for late night gaming and it picks up the slightest noise. It also blocks out alot of sound so your head is really in the game. A little on the high pricey side but I wanted something that would last and looked good and I know Astro will stand by their product.

Cons: Included optical cable is really short, also the charging cord is really short as well, I think it is meant to only be charged on the stand even though you can charge it while using it so you might want to buy a couple long cords that I mentioned.

Pros: Absolutely audiophile-like superb clarity, and cranks really high. My previous Logitech G930s always had a hissing sound.

7.1 works pretty well with Star Wars III's opening dog fight scene - you can hear the ships coming from behind you and over the head.

SPDIF input! Finally I get to use my dedicated sound card's audio processor, and not my CPU, to encode 7.1!

Fully compatible with A/52 over SPDIF for true Dolby Digital experience with mkvs. The Turtle Beach XP510s were also pretty close, but I feel the Astro A50s are much better quality. Absolutely no distortion at full A/52 levels, unlike the G930s and XP510s!

The "base/bass" from Star Wars III's opening dog fight scene actually make the ear cups vibrate excessively, almost like they are trying to jump off my head. Freakin awesome low-end response, though not as low as an actual 15" subwoofer could reproduce.

The ear cups are kind of a plush foam or plush suede feeling. Much better than the sweaty faux leather in the G930s. Though, see cons.

The voice communications shows up as a dedicated "sound card" like the G930s, allowing you to output audio over SPDIF, as well as having voice for Skype and Gotomeetings.

Per the above statement, you can simultaneously use both the spdif audio out while chatting over Skype (note, Windows has a "lower volume" feature when using both which you can adjust or disable).

You can pair up to 4 A50s to the base station, if I ever wanted the wife and kids to join in on a movie.

Cons: The 7.1 virtual channels definitions aren't as separated like the TurtleBeach's XP510s, since the XP510 can change the "angles" virtually with a button. Though, the XP510 could never remember what I wanted since it constantly cycled on/off.

Excessive hissing when turning up the mic feedback, aka Side-Tone (Logitech), aka voice-behind (TurtleBeach), aka "I can hear myself while talking, so I don't yell." Considering the device's audio quality, I don't really mind as I can turn it down separately when not using the mic (though the wheel takes a whole lot of turning to turn it down, talk about fine-grain turning!).

Very Bulky, slightly larger than my Logitech G930s (the ear cups' backing). This was a big concern of mine, since I commute 230 miles round trip every day and almost went with the Astro A30 instead.

Lacks bluetooth for HSP for the price tag. This is a great feature that is missing to listen to music from cell phones and laptops while commuting that I miss from my TurtleBeach's XP510s. Hopefully the next A60 or whatever will have bluetooth.

Too quick to power off it seems. I'm constantly having to turn it back on between audio sessions, mutes for phone calls, etc.

The plush foam-like ear cups are much better than faux leather in the G930s, but it still makes me sweat a tad when compared to the cloth-like XP510s.

Additional headsets are a whooping $200! Then again, the same price goes for the A30s with the wireless mixamp.

Still, none of the cons above warrant any type of egg deduction. They are just nick-picks that should answer some people's concerns.

Other Thoughts: I did not purchase from NewEgg (I always purchase from NewEgg!). The only reason was I had a store credit at Astro's website.

I have the following headsets:

Logitech G930 (painfully for two years)
Turtle Beach XP510 (one month, horrible bluetooth)

Each had serious flaws. The Logitech ones used your CPU to generate 7.1 surround, up to 25% during BF3 gaming sessions on my quad core i7 in the past! Not to mention Logitech's gaming software that is *required* to use the headsets, which attempt to take over all mouse input of other Logitech mice (I use my motherboard to control my mouse - direct conflict!). Not ot mention the faux leather made my ears/head sweat, and was very uncomfortable to wear after 10 minutes. Also there was a lot of cutting out since the Logitech's were only 2.4 Ghz, since I use 3 wifi routers in my home all on separate channels, which left no room for a 2.4 Ghz device.

The Turtle Beach ones used pure BlueTooth's HFP, not HSP, for communications. It was horrible audio quality, 8 kHz, in both speaking and mic input when paired with my two laptops, and two desktops across 3 different bluetooth doggles (effectively eliminating TB's "it's your bluetooth" defense). Others complained over Skype that I sounded like I was on a telephone. Not to mention they aren't true 5.8 Ghz like these Astros (I have a RF meter, it seems it would go in and out over enabling surround mode). Though I will admit, TB had by far the best battery life out of any other headset I have ever used.

Finally, I bit the bullet and got these Astro A50s. It was a hard choice between the A50 and A30s, because I needed something to travel with and the A50s were very large.

After all headsets I've had in the past, these A50s are the best I've used so far.

Pros: Very good sound quality sold built. Love it where u can switch the mic around to Which every side

Cons: Little pricey but well worth the money

Pros: Good sound quality, good battery life, comfortable, light, good mic

Cons: Absolutely horrible hiccup in the audio every 30 seconds, sounds like a beep with static and is loud and noticeable. An absolute deal-breaker on what could have been an amazing device. Same exact problem one of the other reviewers noted, so this is a common problem not an isolated incident. Do not buy.

Other Thoughts: You'd think that when you pay three hundred dollars on a product from what you thought to be a trusted vendor you might get a product even slightly usable. I can't even bear using it, every time I hear that audio hiccup I cringe at the thought of how immoral and greedy a company has to be to charge this much money for a product that has an obvious and common flaw.

Pros: The sound and build quality of these headphones are simply amazing. The bass is deep without being over powering. I haven't tried a whole lot of headphones, but out of the 4 Turtle Beach headsets I have tried and the Triton headphones these are by far the most comfortable.

Cons: I wouldn't necessarily call it a con, more of an annoyance, but the charging cable that comes with the headset is too short to charge while wearing. I know you can simply buy a longer one, but for $300 I would think they could have included one.

Other Thoughts: From what I've been told by my friends on TeamSpeak, the sound from the mic is very crisp and clear. I would highly recommend someone looking for a solid wireless headset to consider these.

Pros: The box is super nice, the headphones feel and look high quality, and the sound is absolutely superb.

Cons: The headphones can be a little heavy (not unexpected for a wireless headset, the stand could be made of something nicer than plastic, and they could have a AUX pass through so that speakers can be connected to the mix amp (allowing both to be powered over the optical).

Other Thoughts: Dont forget to update your firmware if you get these and you probably should check if you have an optical out from your audio source.

Pros: nothing

Cons: pc/ps3 - ok so the mic automatically mutes you after 10 seconds so when talking to your friends you will start getting lower and lower the longer you talk. you will hear alot of static and yourself in your earphones unless you have the mic muted.

ps3 - sound would cut off for 1 second every five minutes same mic problems as pc the fact you can hear yourself or any backround noise through the earphones is stupid and there is no way to disable it.

Other Thoughts: do no buy