I dont know what has been discussed in this thread so far, but I wanted to chime in on Turtle Beach headphones. I have had the Turtle Beach 500x for a few years now, and I would not recommend Turtle Beach. Their sound quality is amazing, but their build quality is horrendous, as is their support.

I had the 3 of the same model, and all three the same issue was encountered(plastic pieces on the side that hold the headphones tight broke) Their support is extremely limited, and I wouldnt buy Turtle Beach again.

Go with the Astro's, they are solid.

The one thing that I will note on the Turtle Beach headphones is that even though it was Xbox Branded, it works with PS4 also as its just USB. Id assume Astro does as well, but not sure.

Turtle Beach doesn't even sound good. The issue is Gamestop heavily offers these at the stores, and they are cheap, so moms and the young folks buy these up as if they are good. I have tried quite a few headsets recently, but by far the best are the Cool Master MH751 and GSP 300 in the <$100 range and the GSP 600 for higher end. Sound is crystal clear in the highs, mids, and lows and build quality is great. Wireless headsets don't really sound that great, created interference/connection issues and are overpriced. Astros are not that great, like you mention, bass is not good in games and won't assist you in hearing footsteps, etc. in game.

I honestly loved having the headphones completely wireless, and I thought the sound was pretty good. I havent tried hte Cool Master or GSP so I cant comment to that. Ive only heard good things from the Astro's, but no first hand knowledge.

Identical experience here w/ the 500X. Ear cups broke off. Superglued them, still working 2yrs later. Sound was good, but there's literally no difference between the sound formats that their settings allow for. I'm either gonna go for the LS35X or the Steel Series when it's out for the Xbox One X.

Agreed - the 700s are average at best...

It is still an absolute joy every time i pop on my GSP600s worth every penny.

Those for Xbox?

Yep - just a simple 3.5mm plug right into the controller. Master volume on one cup, fine tune via Xbox audio sliders. Mic is superb (which is important to me), flip it up to mute. No frills, just excellent sound quality and construction.

The 500 series is entirely the same, except open back design (600s are closed back).

SteelSeries has some really cool design ideas and features, but below average durability and atrocious customer/product/warranty support and reading the absolute horror stories on /r/SteelSeries deterred me away from their top-end products almost in perpituity. Paying > $300 for their flagship headset should not result in a destroyed product mere months into ownership, and reportedly attempts to RMA or get parts are a battle that rivals the end of The Hobbit.

I truly wish some of the upper-tier manufacturers (BOSE, Sennheiser, etc.) would get serious about premium wireless gaming headsets. However my experiences with LucidSound have been good, and above all else they helped me out with my just-out-of-warranty RMA without any fuss and that's worth it's weight in my book.

I don't know if it's because these companies are based in western countries or not, but it's certainly a pattern I've noticed.

Wow i'd never heard that. Hopefully they fix it w/ the Xbox release. I'd love a hi-fi gaming headset, but it'd cost more than the system itself. I think that's where the problem is as far as a market for them(but I'd GLADLY pay $450 for a hot one).

I heard the LucidSound 35X is amazing on XB. I'm a PC/Playstation guy so it doesn't really apply to me. I will say that article gripes about the headset feeling loose; the brand new LS41 (I believe they share a lot in common) I just recieved grips my head like a vice wrapped in pillows. It's perfect. I also don't have a particularly large skull.

In the PC gaming world, cost is all relative. For example, I spent $1000 (USD) on a gaming monitor. Could I have played the game on a monitor at half the price or less? Sure. But without certain features like overclocked refresh rates and G-Sync, my just-as-expensive graphics card wouldn't be seen to full potential.

For audio, I play exclusively on headset for audio; not only out of respect for the others in the house, but because I'm often in a context of voice chat and gameplay.

As most of us here are home theatre enthusiasts, we can all agree that the video experience is half of the whole--audio quality and capability is just as important.

So why squelch the experience with "just average" gaming headset drivers and components? If PC gamers are willing to shell out thousands for the rest of the gaming rig, surely a premium headset market exists and in my humble opinion is disgustingly underserved.

For example, if Sennheiser came out tomorrow and said they took the wireless station and tech of the RS185 headphones and mixed it with the audio and mic capabilities of their HMD 300 PRO and added in some 7.1 processing I'd shout at the top of my lungs, "TAKE MY MONEY!" even if it was another cool grand I had to drop. Because (being an owner of Sennheiser headphones) I know what they're capable of and I cry for that experience in gaming. The market IS THERE. Someone in product R&D just needs to notice it and stop wasting time on things like the GSP headsets. Nobody wants flashy, transformers headsets in gaming unless they're twelve years old. Is that really Sennheiser's demographic? Additionally, wired headsets are certainly less desirable for the MMO/marathon gamers (bathroom breaks have to happen!) ...

So I sigh and wait! But not to beat a dead horse, Lucid has fulfilled most of my wants so far. I think Lucid has the capability to enter the premium (> $300) headset market and dominate it with some creativity and forethought. They're a smaller company, and even though they have industry veterans they are relatively young and still have that passion and drive to win--and more likely to take the challenge of producing that "LS 100" that I dream of. Not sure who their driver supplier/source is, but there's plenty of high quality driver companies they could reach out to, like Boston Acoustics, who aren't in the headset segment. The existing 50mm drivers are good, but they can't compare to the big dogs (and I don't think they're meant to). I'm sure a premium mic solution like what's on the Sennheiser SMD 300 above isn't impossible to source. Sure, they'd have to turn to a larger battery and the headset would become heavier... but I like a little weight in a set of headphones (makes them feel more robust and durable, too) and that's expected.

If they do--and they should--they better call me first, because I want serial number 1! Here's my blank check!

I'm in the market for a new pair of headphones for my Xbox. I primarily use it for gaming, but do watch Netflix and Hulu on it as well. The LucidSound LX35S have piqued my interest. These things have received great reviews for audio quality which is important to me. However, I see a bunch of negative reviews for audio dropouts. I suspect this is because the reviews were written before the firmware update to fix this issue came out, or people simply haven't updated the firmware.

Can anyone that owns a pair of these cans please give me their impressions? Thank you!

I can't say I have tried these, but in majority of these instances, Wired always will sound better than wireless. Wireless also comes with more headaches like having to charge it all the time and yes, the audio drop outs. Go wired for Xbox does not mean you have to have a cable run across your room. It's just a direct connect to the bottom of your controller. I would suggest under $100 go Cool Master MH751 for best comfort and sound in that price range. Heck, it's better than some of the higher priced headsets out there. If you want to splurge a bit, Get the Sennheiser GSP 600 which can be grabbed on Amazon for around $189 or so. Comfort is a slight issue with those, but the sound is great for a gaming headset.

Thanks for the input guys. I definitely want wireless. In any other world I would choose a wired connection. For gaming and the occasional TV show I don't want the intrusion of a cord. As long as the connection is not bluetooth, I'm all for it.

amoneys2k, I assume you're some sort of rep for LucidSound?

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Thanks for the response. I stumbled upon this thread today for the first time myself. Here is where I heard about your headphones and then started doing some research on them. I've been looking at reviews on YouTube tonight and have heard a lot of good remarks. I appreciate your interaction on this thread. That's great customer service and good for business!

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Wanted to follow up on my replacement LS-41 headset.

It's been working flawlessly. Range seems improved over the LS-40. Acoustics seem to be tuned more towards the higher end which took some getting used to (and tweaking of the EQ on my SoundBlaster card). At first I thought the memory foam cooling gel earpads were very gimmicky but they grew on me, even if they (laws of physics and all) only stay cool for a short time. I swear the mic monitoring (feedback) is better on these vs. the LS-40. I can actually hear myself without excessive volume. MAybe my LS-40 were malfunctioning? Beats me, but I'll gladly take it!

However all this in mind.... I will never understand why certain games on the PC just sound horrendous with surround mode enabled. I don't blame the headset, because using Dolby surround-sound test tools come up with perfect results.

For example, Final Fantasy XIV (Online MMORPG for PC/Mac/PS4) sounds like I'm playing inside of a metal 50 gallon drum, no matter how I tweak it. Every other surround audio source? Fine. No settings in the game client beyond simple volume sliders and "sound source" slider to adjust the listen point between the camera and the player on-screen (doesn't help). There's no weird surround modes (i.e. "Concert Hall") enabled on the card or via Windows. Not sure if that's an XAudio library problem or not. But I've had to get used to it. I don't remember having this problem with my Logitech G930s... but those were such utter garbage that I don't want to compare them to anything LucidSound makes.

So anyways, again, thanks to Lucid for helping me out. PAX East in a few weeks, I'll be looking for you guys.

Understood, and the Sound Blaster card is outputting Dolby Digital via optical. The headset does recognize the surround stream fine. Actual Dolby test tools (software) produce clear, wonderful surround sound channel signals that I hear without any of this "metal tunnel" effect.

Not having the source code of the game itself, I have no way of knowing how they're implementing audio (other than in past crashes I have seen the XAudio dll referenced and that's how I know what audio library they use).

Based off the reports I see (example here) the game does support direct 5.1 surround. So I have no idea what Windows 10 is doing to this signal, or if the game simply has a hacky implementation, or an X3DAudio->XAudio2 pipeline that has some odd DSP effects added to it. My only references are my ancient Logitech G930 headset, and a set of indepdendent surround speakers I dragged in to test with off the sound card optical signal. Neither of which are really an apples-to-apples comparison, which is why I still don't point any fingers at the headset decoding. It's just bizarre, but a small price to pay for the other luxuries. I can only speculate, but if you're really bored the game offers both the benchmark and a free trial if you or one of your guys wants to try it out on a Win 10 box. No idea if the benchmark accurately reflects the in-game audio engine or not. :shrug:

I have two wired Astros for gaming but they are too big for my son...and i want to switch him to wireless for his birthday present next month. Anyone with kids out there that can make a recommendation on a wireless pair? Nothing too fancy required..he mostly plays Fortnite like the rest of the world.

Does this fix the popping? It's just constant pop pop pop crackle for me while audio is playing.

I got a pair of these a couple of weeks ago and have had no audio issues and that's without updating the firmware yet.

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Thanks. I have a Netgear Orbi system which I’m not getting rid of. I wasn’t aware that the LS35x didn’t work around mesh networks.

Now after a lot of spotty sound my headphones lost audio and will not turn off. I've tried everything including the three button holding as the site shows. now I can't play tonight. Not happy, don't know what to do. I also can't update the firmware because it won't turn off.

edit: 5 minutes later after I turned my Xbox off, my HEADPHONES turned my Xbox on. I just watched it happen. And then I was able to turn the headphones off. I always keep my LS35x's plugged in and lately my Xbox has been on when I know I turned it off. This must be what is happening. This is not acceptable.

That's why wireless headsets are crap. Stick with wired, it just works and it sounds better with less hassles.

Thanks. I created a ticket last night but the response was not helpful. Reiterated the three button push which I said I did. The ticket is 59616 if you want to jump in.

After much research, I picked up Plantronics RIG 800LX, which works with both PS4 and Xbox but there are couple of issues due to which I will be returning/selling them. Firstly, when connected to Ps4, none of the controls on the headset work so I can neither use chatmix or change volume. Secondly, the sound quality isn't good (even though it has received rave reviews). The sound feels hollow and lacks bass.

I have been looking at getting Hyper X Alpha instead, which aren't wireless but seem to be the best choice for multi-platform gamer but my concern is that I've read several reviews, where people have complained that the Ps4 controller does not provide enough power to the headset which causes low volume.

Is there any other headset that I should be considering? I would prefer to stay around $100 but could go higher for the right headset.

Well, if you're looking for multi-platform, wireless, and decent sound quality you're probably gonna be a bit underpriced at $100.

I've been on here a few times, but the latest LucidSound headsets are pretty solid in my experience. I've had the pleasure of using a few of their high-end units. I'm still happy with my LS41 set even months later. I don't think you're going to find better support folks, either. Smaller company means they still have a good caring local support team. I hope as they expand they don't offshore their support because that will be a sad day. If you've ever tried dealing with Razer or SteelSeries, you know what horrendous offshore support is like.

The LS35X is about $180 USD and seems to fill all your needs. (Full true XBOne wireless and surround sound).

If you forego wireless, the LS25 is $75. (Basic cable to PC or console controller) with similar audio specs (Stereo).

Audio tends to be well balanced (Not overly bassy like Beats, and not tinny like cheap heatsets...feels natural through the curve.) 50mm drivers are a sweet spot for headsets IMHO.



Just my thoughts. Good luck!

I've noticed the LS50X are now a thing....bluetooth? WOOT!

Verrrry tempting. Holding out for that magical mic quality upgrade I pray for, and then I will be unable to resist the "buy now" button....


https://www.lucidsound.com/ls50x-536.html

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, you missed the main point. The headset that you suggested is Xbox/PC only. I am looking for one that i can use with PS4 and Xbox as well.

The LS35X was a "partnership" product with Microsoft, so it highlights the XB. As far as I'm aware, all the LS products work on all consoles (even if undocumented). The one tough console was the XB. I will admit that I think the LS35X requires a cable with PS4.

I have used the LS40 & LS41 on PS4 without any problems. You could step down to the LS31 if you feel better about the console being printed on the box, but I believe you lose surround sound in the process. Or, like I said before, go wired with the LS25.

Beyond that, if you want surround, wireless with PC/PS4/XB1... you're going to have to pay big for it (i.e. $200+). The LS50 seems to be the king here, but it's not yet on the market. Blame the fact that XB1 and PS4 require completely unique wireless connections that cannot be blended together easily. One console's wireless radio/chip is absolutely incompatible with the other. For almost everything on the market, you're going to be plugging a cable for one or the other.

Maybe @amoneys2k can chime in...

You've pretty much covered it @fidelisoris . If you want dual platform, you need to pick which platform you're OK with having a cable to the controller.

LS35X is a good compromise because it's 100% wireless to the Xbox and you can wire it to the PS4 controller and the volume and mic mute controls on the headset still work. You only lose the ability on PS4 to adjust game/chat balance.

The LS31 is a little cheaper (often $99 on Amazon) and it'll be 100% wireless on the PS4 but you'll need a cable to the controller on the Xbox if you want to use the mic (game audio is sent wirelessly). Both allow you to use game/chat balance but you will need to move the USB base between consoles when you switch between them. (no need to do this with the LS35X since there's no base station).

The LS50X is coming out this holiday. It's going to be the most expensive option of the 3 but as fidelisoris mentioned it does have Bluetooth now which makes it a true mobile/gaming headset. Full details will be coming out shortly but it is 100% wireless on Xbox using a USB dongle. However you don't need to connect any other wires as it pulls the game and chat audio via USB. You can wire it to the PS4 controller and use it in powered mode and just like the LS35X the volume and mic mute controls will still work.

Thanks for jumping in. Love that one of you LS guys sticks around on here for product questions and support.

I'll be keeping tuned for a LS51 announcement someday (I don't use XBox... seems silly with a gaming PC!)