ASTRO Gaming A50 Wireless Headset + Base Station Gen 4 - Compatible With PS5, PS4, PC, Mac - Black/Silver

First impressions:-Nice packaging, everything is brand spanking new with really nice plastic peels. Awesome new smell too.-Connecting the headset to my PC with the included optical and USB A to Micro USB cables work instantly, all I needed to do was switch computer output to optical out for my sound card.-Did some preliminary testing with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare + Warzone. Sound profile is differently from my recent Sennheisers, will have to play around with EQ and Dolby Sound settings. Sound's fine, just a really wide soundstage compared to the Sennheisers with Dolby Sound on, which I'll be getting used to.-Its taking a long while to charge the headset by today's standards, where you can almost fully charge a smartphone in less than 45-minutes. ~25% in an hour is not bad for something that will sit on the charging base for like 16-18 hours out of each day, though.-Almost the same as my old Gen 1 Astro A50s, with some really nice improvements. I like the comfort and the removable foam on the ear cups and head band for easy cleaning/replacing. Also nice to have a button to switch EQ profiles on the fly. And I now have again my favorite feature from my old headset, the rocking right ear cup plate to balance game and chat audioI've had many headsets over the years, always tried to get something nice and comfortable for long sessions, and tried to go for the best quality+comfort+features balance I could find for my PC+PS4 desk setup. I've had these headsets over many years, and in this order: a Logitech G700, Corsair Vengeance 2000, a refurbished gen 1 Astro A50, cheap Logitech G33 when my Astro was stolen during travel, Steelseries Arctis 5, Sennheiser Game One, Sennheiser GSP500. Out of all these, the Astro A50s and both Sennheisers are easily above the rest, these three are high quality headsets with satisfying sound. Steelseries Arctis 5 is easily the most comfortable of the bunch, and had lots of really nice features, but a faulty proprietary connector and the bad customer service experience that followed turned me off their brand forever, even if Amazon made things right in the end when they didn't have to(Thanks Amazon!).I loved my old Astro A50s, and these feel like coming back home, with some really nice improvements. I like the removable foam on the ear cups and head band for easy cleaning/replacing. Also nice to have a button to switch EQ profiles on the fly. The charging base is also really nice to have, and the expected 15-hour battery life should make life much easier compared to the 3 hours I used to get on my old refurbished ones. I now have again my favorite feature from my old headset, the rocking right ear cup button to balance game and chat audioI'm really looking forward to enjoying my Astro A50s with my PC + PS4, and hopefully PS5 when it comes out. I'll be updating my review to reflect my user experience as time goes by, Especially if any issues pop up.

I've owned three ASTRO A50 headsets over the years, and sadly, each new version has been worse than the last. What used to be a premium product has turned into a frustrating mess of poor build quality and unreliable performance.The headband joint snapped on Day One of owning this latest model—literally hours after unboxing. For a headset at this price point, that's completely unacceptable.While the sound quality and comfort are very good, those pros are completely overshadowed by the technical failures. The firmware is buggy, and the docking station app is borderline useless. My headset will sit on the base all day, appear to be charging, yet still shows a low battery warning—and worse, it will sometimes just shut off mid-game even when it says it’s fully charged.For a product that markets itself to serious gamers, these kinds of issues are not just annoying—they're deal-breakers. I won’t be buying another ASTRO headset again unless they seriously improve their quality control and software.

The first A50's I ordered were advertised as "refurbished" and I quickly found out that was not a good idea. They were listed for half the cost of a brand new pair, so I thought why not. I assumed someone else ordered a new headset because their old headset station stopped working, so they swapped their broken station for the new one and then returned the item & basically replaced the headset station for free, because the charging station never powered on. Needless to say, I returned the refurbished headset and bit the bullet and paid for a brand new pair. I know alot of folks might be apprehensive about spending $300 on a gaming headset, but after years of blowing through cheap headset after cheap headset I decided it's time to invest in the best headset money could buy after reading reviews on the A50'S. I've now owned & used them for about two months and held off on leaving a review until I spent enough time using them for a honest and fair review of the product. I can honestly say the sound is superior to any other headset I've ever used. They sound great for gaming but what came as a bonus is when I discovered they were even more amazing for listening to music. I like to crank the volume up and listen to my favorite music often and found out these work better than my actual studio headphones that I used to wear for causal listening. The headset comes with a software app where you can EQ and adjust the volume, bass etc settings to your liking. These suckers are loud and that's the way I like em! Nice high, med and low range. I really can't complain about a single thing, other than after a couple of hours they can become slightly uncomfortable, but that may be a ME problem and not a product issue, as I typically have issues with migraines and having anything pressed against my head for extended periods of time. Oh, and when placing the headset back onto the charging station, sometimes it acts a little picky about how I place them onto the station if the headphone contacts aren't touching exactly where they need to be on the charger; it takes a little wiggling around to get it to make contact & charge. Battery life seems decent. I have no idea what the advertised battery life is but you'll probably get about 4-5 hours easily with a full battery. Additionally, the material they are made with feels strong & durable, but also lightweight at the same time - almost like a carbon fiber material.Case and point - this is more than likely the last headset I'll ever need to buy (knock-on wood) unless something horribly goes wrong and they stop working or get destroyed. Highly recommend if you have the extra cash to invest in a A+ product and are looking for the best possible gaming headset out there.