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Next, I connected the MixAmp 60 adapter and played Star Wars Battlefront and NBA 2K17 on an Xbox One.
#WHITE ASTRO A10 HEADSET DRIVERS#
Still, the Cloud Stinger and Roccat Cross and their larger 50mm drivers delivered fuller sound. The boom of a bazooka rumbled convincingly and the snap of rifle fire sounded crisp and clean, while the whir of helicopters overhead was distinct, showing great mid-frequency performance. With Battlefield on a PC, the Astro A10 supplied dynamic sound with good separation between low and high frequencies.
#WHITE ASTRO A10 HEADSET PC#
To test the Astro A10, I ran it through games on a PC and an Xbox One and then connected it to an iPhone to test how it handled music playback. The thick, rubber boom is flexible but doesn’t hold its position as well as the Turtle Beach Recon 50. It has an inline volume control - you get a volume slider but no mute button.Ī flip-to-mute boom mic is permanently attached to the left earcup. The other audio cable is 80 inches long and terminates in a 3.5mm audio jack. You can use these to raise the levels of game sounds or your voice chat so that the two are balanced to your specifications. It has volume buttons on one side and two button opposite labeled Game and Voice. A short, 41-inch cable with the MixAmp 60 adapter that plugs into an Xbox controller. The Astro A10 comes with two audio cables. Inside the earcups, 40mm drivers power the audio output, the same size as found on the Plantronics Rig 400HX and the Turtle Beach Recon 50. Despite the ample padding, you can wear the Astro A10 during marathon sessions without working up a sweat. I usually prefer the feel of earcups wrapped in synthetic leather, but the soft fabric on the Astro A10 is stellar. Still, the headset is generally comfortable in use. There’s a small pad on the undersize of the headband given the heft overall of the headset and the thick padding on the earcups, I’m surprised this pad isn’t a bit cushier. It allows for height adjustment and the fabric padding on the earcups is thick and soft.
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If you don’t mind its relative heft, the Astro A10 is comfy. The HyperX Cloud Stringer and Roccat Cross are both in the Goldilocks zone, neither too heavy nor too light, but just right. The Astro A10 takes it to the extreme in the other direction, and simply feels too heavy. Basically, they feel like budget headsets. The lighter the headset, the more comfortable it is sitting atop your head, especially for long stretches, but the Rig 400 and Recon 50 both felt a little too light - to the point of feeling flimsy and cheap. The two lightest are the Plantronics Rig 400 and the Turtle Beach Recon 50, each weighing in at 209 grams. The next heaviest is the HyperX Cloud Stinger at 276 grams. With the non-MixAmp audio cable attached, the Astro A10 weighs 365 grams, which is by far the heaviest of the group. Title=More%20Expert%20Tech%20Roundups&type=articles%2Cvideos&tags=tech-roundup&count=6&columnCount=6&theme=articleīecause not all of the budget headsets we're currently evaluating have detachable audio cables, I weighed each with an audio cable attached to standardize the weights. The Xbox-focused model I am reviewing features green accents, and the other A10 models gives you a choice of color accents: red, blue, or - for an extra $10 - Call of Duty camo. Its plastic is charcoal gray too, which looks a bit classier and upscale than plain black in my opinion.
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The earcups are heavily padded, and inside the plastic-covered headband is a steel frame. The Astro A10 does not look or feel like a cheap, budget headset. It loses the MixAmp adapter and ships with a 3.5mm audio cable and a splitter cable. There's also a $59.99 vanilla Astro A10, which is meant for PCs, Macs and the PS4. A second audio cable is included that lets you use the headset with PCs, Macs, PS4, phones, and tablets - any device with a 3.5mm audio jack. The MixAmp M60 is an adapter for Xbox controllers that provides volume controls and the ability to balance the audio levels of game sounds and your voice chat. I am reviewing an Xbox-centric model (but will work on PC and PS4), the $99.99 Astro A10 + MixAmp M60. I took it for a spin to see how a budget headset from Astro stacks up against its competition, which includes the HyperX Cloud Stinger, Plantronics Rig 400, Roccat Cross, and Turtle Beach Recon 50. Astro's A10 Gaming Headset (See it on Amazon) / (See it on Amazon UK)represents the company's expansion into lower-end of the spectrum. Or at least, it used to be high-end only. It does one thing and one thing only: high-end gaming headsets. If you have shopped for a gaming headset for more than two seconds, then you’ve likely encountered the Astro name.
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