A50 Gen 2 (Xbox One)

I went from A50s Gen 2 to The new Lightspeed ones, I get more distance, audio and mic quality is better, battery is way better, and the comfort is fine, I just had to adjust the height. Its been a great upgrade for me

I preordered my A50Xs and im super happy about them. Before these I had A50 Gen 2 from their release until these Xs came out. Had more issues with those, but that was mostly the micro usb cable coming loose off the docking station. I use them basically every day, on average 8-10 hours per day.

Same thing during the PS4 Pro years people would debate steel series or Astros. I went with Astro 50s back then and loved them over all the ones I returned. When I bought a PS5 the thing I didn’t care about Astros was the passthrough box. That started with a 4k/60hz anyone could use or convert past gen from optical to hdmi. But then exclusively only bundled the 4k/120hz pass through ability with the Gen 5/X. I loved the Astros, but the converter passthroughs vs a dongle that doesn’t touch the HDMI signal has been more appealing to me lately. It’s better for future proof to keep using them. Been looking at the Steel Series and others, but haven’t quite settled. Still using the OG 3D Pulse PS5 headphones and my Astro Gen 2s are in a drawer collecting dust for now.

I’ve only had the Gen2. Negatives were limited EQ profile at the time, battery was soldered so a hassle to change. They fixed that at least. The pros why I bought it was it had a louder preamp DAC then most $99-$150 headphones. That way I didn’t have to EQ to get more loudness like the 3D Pulse I have. I have a bunch of different headphones for making music like ATHM50xs and others. I’ve honestly thought about just getting a DAC and using some of my studio ones. In mine I didn’t get the feel of open back, but I do know what you’re talking about. When I bought the Astros I had a 50% off waiver at my work for them. I tried all the usual suspects back then and all of them were finicky, felt horrible on my head or some issue. But that was 2017-2020 or so. I haven’t tried the Gen 5 or X series. From what I read everyone seems to point to just using the old 3D Pulse or get Audeeze. Steel Series Artic I have no experience with. I just remember at PS5 launch before Astro and others could get it together. The Artic ones were pretty popular sellers. I’ve just noticed in the past the difference between a $100-$200 game headset wasn’t much. But once you get into the $300-$400 range things get a lot better. It’s just when buying a pair of say $350 headset for gaming, I ask myself if this should go into my music studio instead for tracking. As it’s a lot of money to just use as a gaming headset.

I had the old a50 before logitech bought them, They lasted about 6 years than slowly falling apart and the battery giving up After that i bought a40s have em for bout 3 years now and no problems

My green astro Xbox 1 a50's still work after all these years. Use them in my series x.

I have the maxwells currently and they are great but I used to have an old Astro a50 before latest gen and I do find even with changing settings I miss some things like footsteps

I also vote for the A50’s. Best pair of gaming headphones I’ve ever owned.