Astro A30 vs A50
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Differences Summary
Connectivity and Controls
Headphone Audio Quality
Microphone Audio Quality
Software
Comfort and Build Quality
Verdict
Differences Summary
Both the Astro A30 and A50 are wireless headsets, but the A30’s focus is portability and versatility while the A50 is geared towards those gaming in one location.
The A30 can connect using 2.4 GHz wireless, Bluetooth, and aux all at the same time. The A50 only connects wirelessly to the included base station.
The A30 sounds much clearer than the A50, but the latter has more powerful bass.
The A30 uses faux leather ear cushions. The A50 has velour-like cloth padding.
The A30’s battery lasts up to 27 hours. The A50’s battery is stated to last up to 15 hours, but I never got near that.
Connectivity and Controls
A30
The Astro A30 comes with a USB wireless transmitter and a 3.5 mm cable. Bluetooth is built into the device. All three connections can be used at the same time. The aux connection can be used when powered on or off.
As for the controls, there’s a power button, Bluetooth button, and a joystick on the right earcup. The joystick lets you change the headset gain and game/chat mix volume. Clicking it in allows for additional controls on a phone like answering calls. A mute button is on the left earcup.
A50
Astro A50 Base Station.
The Astro A50 is far more limited in connectivity than the A30. It’s wireless only, there’s no Bluetooth, and it only connects using the Base Station as a (bulky) transmitter. The device also only charges when the Base Station is actually connected to a PC or console (not an AC adapter).
One advantage the A50 has is the controls on the headset itself. Up top on the right earcup is the power switch. Under that, there’s a Dolby Atmos button that lets you apply a simulated surround sound effect. On the outside of the right earcup are two buttons to adjust the game/chat mix. This only works on PC.
Game/Voice buttons are next to the “A50” text.
There’s an EQ button near the bottom of the right cup that lets you cycle between 3 different equalizer presets. You can configure them on PC in the Astro Command Center software. In contrast, the A30 requires you to swap between EQ settings using the Logitech G Hub phone app only.
Finally, there’s a headphone volume gain wheel on the very bottom of the right earcup.
Headphone Audio Quality
The A30 and A50 are night and day when it comes to sound. The A30 is clearer and sounds more spacious. However, the treble is sharp to the point of being painful without EQ. The A50 has far better bass and sub-bass, but the overall audio is a bit muffled. For reference, the A50 sounds like a lower quality version of its wired counterpart, the A40.
The A50’s bass sounds great during combat in Control, but I still prefer the A30.
I find the A30’s sound quality to be superior to the A50 just because of how detailed it is. I rate it even higher than the Cloud II and Cloud Alpha. It’s a great pick for both immersive single player games and for FPS games where hearing footsteps is critical. I definitely miss the A50’s bass, and I’d actually opt for the A40’s sound over either of these devices. But head-to-head, A30 > A50.
Microphone Audio Quality
The A30 and A50 boom mics are about the same quality. Neither are overly impressive for a gaming headset mic, but the tuning on both isn’t that offensive either. They won’t get close to a USB microphone, but they can get you by. The A30’s boom mic rejects background noises better than the A50’s before adding any gates or filters, so that can be helpful in louder environments.
The A30’s integrated mic isn’t as good as either boom mics, but it’s better than every integrated mic on consumer headphones that I’ve tried. The placement limits its effectiveness at isolating vocals from the environment, but if you want to keep the sleek design of the A30 without the boom mic, the integrated mic is viable.
Software
Logitech G Hub (mobile)
Astro Command Center.
The A30 is controlled using Logitech G Hub for mobile. As of this writing, it doesn’t connect to the desktop app. The A50 is compatible with Astro Command Center on desktop.
The A30’s app lets you change the equalization, tone sounds and volume, sleep timer, and other features. It’s buggy, it’s prone to disconnecting, and it feels like it’s in beta.
Astro Command Center has similar features like an equalizer and noise gate options. As far as features, both software are passable. In terms of stability, the A50’s software is way better. Also, once you set the EQ settings on the A50, you never need to use the software again to swap between them since there’s a button on the A50 itself for that anyway.
Comfort and Build Quality
I give the A50 a “B+” in comfort and the A30 a “B”. This one comes down to preference of size and materials.
The A50 is much bulkier than the A30 and it comes with soft cloth-like padding on the earcups and headband. The pads can be swapped out using the A50 Mod Kit parts. The frame is made of either metal or a really hard plastic - I can’t tell which it is to this day.
The A30 is all plastic, and it’s much sleeker than the A50. It has a greater clamping force as well. The padding is faux leather. That would give it the advantage for me, but the memory foam inside is too stiff for use over long periods. It’s not exactly painful, but it’s not something I’d want to wear for hours on end like the HyperX Cloud II.
One major weakness with the A50’s build is the paint chips off easily. For that reason I give the build advantage to the A30, but the A50 is more comfortable.
Verdict
I recommend the Astro A30 over the A50.
The A50 has its advantages - the padding is soft and comfortable, and the bass is a lot stronger.
However, the A30’s sound is much clearer and it’s actually portable since it can connect in 3 different ways: 2.4 GHz, Bluetooth, and 3.5 mm.
Also consider the Audeze Penrose. It’s less comfortable than both of these, and it has a lot of durability issues, but the sound is in a completely different league above the A30 and A50.
