Everything is nicely packaged and there's the new mixamp in the middle. Below we have a look at the rest of the contents.
Yes, that is an optical cable in the box. And yes, that IS Commander Shepard guarding them. But that's what they look like on the stand there on the right.
Comfort and weight are BIG factors in deciding on a pair of head phones. On both counts the A50's CRUSH the competition. I could wear these all day and barely notice they were there. I have never had a set of headphones that felt heavier in your hands than they did on your head...until now. Yet they feel very sturdy. They have been dropped a few times and you couldn't even tell.
Wireless signal is unbelievably solid. I spent the evening cleaning up my kitchen after the kids were in bed and my transmitter had a fridge and a wall between myself and it, and there was ZERO discernible signal loss. Even with 2 wireless routers, 1 acting as a router and the other as a wired/wireless repeater, cell phones, and a wireless home phone in place there were no issues.
The big question though is...What is the audio quality like. Well, let me tell you. How well the virtual 7.1 is implemented can mean the difference between winning that top spot championship match and walking away in second. As stated above, these are not audiophile headphones. These are designed with a specific target market involved: Gamers. I was using TRUE 5.1 headphones before this. With 4 separate drivers in each ear. The quality of those was extremely good...especially for sub $100 headphones. These Astro's make my last pair look like a n00b whose corpse was just tea bagged. This is not a statement I make lightly because my last pair of cans was really pretty solid for gaming. For music however they were not so hot. The audio fidelity is just incredible. especially for not having any kind of sub woofer. This does not waver at all regardless of what genre of music I have playing. You will find me listening to Kottonmouth Kings or just as likely to hear me listening to Slayer, Stevie Ray Vaughn, or Deadmau5.
With all this, we still haven't talked much about much of what these cans have to offer. Now I am of the belief that quality audio is pretty crucial for gaming. I am currently running a Creative Soundblaster Z card which only supports up to 5.1 setups. however, it has an optical output which is NEEDED with the A50's, and it also has a separate headphone output with its own amp for quality audio through regular run of the mill headphones. With that in mind let me tell you about the auxiliary input jack on the left ear cup. its a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. but with it I can pump my game audio through the wireless transmitter, and then run a cable from say my headphone jack on my sound card to play music through a separate channel on the headphones, pretty cool right? Well it gets better... the right ear cup has a switch that allows you to turn the volume of the game down for the music, or turn the music down in favor of the game audio. Now for music that's great, but where this REALLY comes in handy is if you are playing an online game like call of duty, you can pump the voice chat audio from say vent through the aux cable on the headphones and highlight the audio chat to improve teamwork and cohesiveness.
So, onto the last few things that Need touched upon. I currently have THREE mics for my computer, the one built into my webcam, the beam forming mic that came with my soundblaster card, this is the one I primarily use as it is of very high quality, and the one on my A50's. As such I have not actually used the one built into the A50's but it should be noted that, more people than not spoke highly of the mic, and it is NOT removable like on some of the other Astro sets. This is not a con for me personally but it might be for some of you so I didn't want to leave that info out.
The stand that comes in the box isn't the sturdiest thing in the world, but I have had no issues with it. One thing I really did have a problem with though was the lack of an instruction manual. now this may very well be something i can look up, but I like to have a physical book in case I need to reference something and my Internet is down or something. It should also be mentioned out of a sense of fairness that they are VERY simple to set up.
The A40's and A30's have what Astro calls Tags. basically these are magnetic plates with designs relating to games and gaming on them that you can buy to customize your cans your way. These are NOT available on the A50's. Really this isn't THAT big of a deal but it was one of the things that made Astro stand out from the crowd.
And finally the battery life. If you use the attached mic most people tend to get between 8 and 10 hours out of a fully charged battery. For those of us who don't use the attached mic that life span can extend out to 12 hours, which is plenty long enough considering you can still use them while they are charging, though if you do I strongly suggest getting a longer charging cable.
The Good:
Very high quality audio over all, the positional 7.1 is quite good for being virtual, light and comfortable, ability to have voice chat and game audio on separate channels and switch between on the fly, long battery life, strong wireless signal, and multi-platform making these a very versatile set of cans.
The Bad:
The $300 price tag is obviously going to be the big con for a large group of gamers. The lack of included manual, but again, this is more of a personal con than it might be for others so take it for what it is. The final con being the lag of being able to use the famous Astro Tags that the A40's and 30's can.
The MEH:
not much to say here really, if I HAD to be picky I would say that they feel less sturdy than they actually are, and because they ARE sturdier than the feel this goes here instead of with The Bad.
Final thoughts:
If you have the money for a set like this and you are a gamer I can safely say that I HIGHLY recommend them. The overall quality is undeniable, and they look pretty slick too. The lack of tags is kind of a let down, but it is by no means a deal breaker or even that big of a deal really, but it would have been nice.
