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In my 23 years as editor-in-chief of Gamereactor and almost 30 years as a reviewer, I’ve never encountered a headset that requires such an odd connection to the gaming console you want to use it with as the Logitech Astro A50X. We’re talking super weird things here. Very strange. When I first unboxed these expensive gaming headsets, I was disinterested as I just sat there staring at the included instructions. “What does Logitech mean?” I thought. Then I started connecting wires to make them work and was none the wiser.
The A50X works on PC as well as PS5 and Xbox, and you can switch between different platforms/sources with a silly hotkey, which makes it a bit unique on the market right now. Microsoft in particular is known to have limited the ability of third-party manufacturers such as Logitech to produce headsets for both Xbox and Playstation, often resulting in today’s Xbox headsets being Xbox-only. Now every PC headset on the market also works with the Playstation 5. As a multi-format junkie, I not only find this frustrating (and Microsoft a bit greedy), but it’s also not surprising. Spencer & Co clearly want to sell their own headphones rather than see Logitech, HyperX, Turtle Beach, Steelseries, Razer and all the other companies poaching their potential customers. However, this is not a problem with the A50X. That’s not a problem because, as I said, they work in all formats.
However, the A50X isn’t content with plugging a USB-C cable into the console or plugging a USB-A dongle into the console’s front port to receive the signal from there wirelessly. NO. That is not enough. Instead, Logitech required me to connect the console’s HDMI cable and a USB cable to the headphone charging dock. The HDMI port should then be connected from the charging pad to your TV/monitor, a solution I’ve never seen before. The reason lies in the way Astro interprets signals. The A50X wanted the entire signal to deliver the desired sound image (including Atmos), and the results speak for themselves. Because no matter how tricky it is to connect these headphones to an Xbox Series X or Playstation 5, they sound incredible. In terms of sound quality alone, I would call them the best gaming headsets on the market today. That’s how good they are. One can complain that the mix in the headphones is a bit “front sound” heavy, like many other things currently available on the headphone market (in many cases I blame the Apple Airpods), but that’s not the case excessively the case, and it doesn’t ruin the original sound. Beautiful sound and video that can also be fine-tuned (in most cases anyway).
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Very loud sound. The soundstage is large, spacious, roomy, punchy and detailed. There’s a lot of control too, and in games like Grand Finale, Call of Duty: Warzone and Avatar: Pandora’s Frontier, I heard things in these headphones that my normally excellent HyperX Cloud Alpha couldn’t convey. The sound is soft and pleasant, and despite wearing the A50X on my head for six hours, I never got tired of listening to it, plus these headphones are very musical. They reproduced my favorite music well, and it’s worth noting that Logitech’s graphene diaphragms are feather-light and perform faster and more clearly than the components used in the A50s.
On the PC you can also avoid the whole thing by using HDMI-in-USB-in-HDMI-out via a charging station. For the PC, USB-C is connected directly to the charging station without affecting the sound quality. The A50X are also very comfortable and well made, with luxurious materials, a beautiful design and a very good microphone, and feel expensive and solid rather than plastic like most gaming headsets, regardless of price range. I’m not a big fan of Astro’s cheaper models because their cases compress my skull so much that I can’t bear to wear them for more than 35 minutes. However, that’s not the case with the A50X, which is like a really cute, lightweight hat caressing my skull. Very convenient. Very durable. No complaints.
The Logitech Astro A50X is disgustingly expensive. £359. They’re also excellent, offering audiovisual and build quality that Razer, HyperX, HP Omen, AOC, Turtle Beach, Corsair or Roccat simply can’t match at the moment. If you want to find gaming headsets that sound equally good, you’ll have to look into the high-end headsets that Audeze and others are peddling, which cost more anyway. I’m not thrilled with how Logitech solved the connection issues with the console, but I can’t complain too much because the sound is as good as it gets.
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