Astro (Logitech) - A40 TR (Gen 4)

I've switched to Astro years ago and never looked back. Amazing audio, comfort and durability. Have both the a40 tr (10+ years old) and the A50.

You may get more and better input from one of the gaming subreddits. There's even a subreddit for Astro. I have the gen4 and it has been serving me well. I use it for both gaming and video calls for work. My only complaint is that the mic picks up wind from my ceiling fan very easily. Maybe gen 5 deals with that better.

My personal journey to find the perfect audio setup that works for me was long and expensive. Put simply, I tried a ton of the gamer-focused headsets first. Went through a lot, and some of them were actually decent, but in the end, I realized the truth: gamer headphones are not a good value. They put more resources into the branding and aesthetics than they do for actual audio quality. The one exception to this was the Sennheiser/Drop PC38x. These are wired open back headphones with a built-in mic. For me, these were far and away the best sounding "gamer" headphones I ever tried, and it wasn't even close. The open back really opens up the soundstage, which, at least for me, really helped with directional audio. The convenience of the built-in mic was definitely a bonus too. Sadly, it looks like they are no longer making these... maybe Drop or Sennheiser still makes something similar but I haven't looked. I ran the Astro a40's for a long time too. These also have an open back design, but I always found them to be a bit too harsh, and I spent WAY too much time trying to tweak the EQ to get them to sound good. The terrible software didn't help matters either. IEM's are all the rage now. I was skeptical at first, but have found this to be the best way to go. IEM's were always kind of a niche item that was historically expensive for a decent set, but over the last few years, a TON of really good IEM's have hit the market for super cheap. My current favorite set are the Truthear Crinacle Zero Reds. You can find them on sale pretty often for around $50. If that's too much, there are a lot of great options in the $15 - $50 range too. The KZ Castors come to mind: I think I got mine for like $25 and I like these almost as much as the Zero Reds. The Audiovance Vibes 202's are good as well and can be had for around $30. I like them because they sound really great, and I like the cables they come with. And of course, everyone loves the Moondrop Chu II. I have those as well and they are indeed quite good, especially for the price (around $20). The amazing thing is that all of the IEM's I mentioned above sound way better than the in ear monitors I used to use back in my days of playing live music... and they literally cost hundreds of dollars less. It blows my mind. The one downside to IEM's is the lack of a built-in mic. This is easy to get around if you are playing on PC, but a little less convenient if you play on console. I have a dedicated mic for my setup since I do a lot of music recording so it isn't a problem, but if you need a built-in mic, there are cables for IEM's that you can buy that have a little mic built in. I can't really speak to how good they are, but I would think that would work ok plugged directly into your Xbox or PS controller. Anyway, I didn't set out to write a book here when I started this post, but there it is... TLDR; iems are the way to go. Even the Moondrop Chu II's sound significantly better than even the most expensive gamer-focused headsets. And that's before you even consider cost. If you are like me, and your earholes don't generally like earbuds, you may need to experiment with different tips to find something that is comfortable enough to wear for long periods, but once you do it is awesome, and definitely worth the trouble.

The only wired ones I tried was the Astro A40 I dont own the mixamp but they still sounded pretty good just connected to controller.

Think theres the gen4 astro a40s before the buyout and honestly they are really great the last time I owned a pair.

bro my astro a40's are cleaaaan. i get so many "are you a streamer?" questions from it. it's nothing fancy at all, and they're cheap headsets. like $100-150. great quality, and they come with different ear muffs like a leather or a mesh pair. been using them since 2018, i'm on my 3rd pair since i keep fucking up the audio jacks on them lol

My Astro A40 headset never let me down

for $130, its a limiting price range. I'd recommend the Astro A40. higher end headset. but ive had mine for years. still have them, but switched over the the a50 now. Good budget headsets are turtle beach. wired will last longer, just be careful with breaking the wires. they are sensitive. if you throw them around, drop them, run the wire over on your chair, or twist them too much. they will fail. Source- Ive been playing with a headset for 20 years

If you want to stay using wired, I would actually recommend the Steelseries nova pro wired. They have great sound stock but also great with wicked cushions. Prior to switching to the nova pro's I was using a pair of a40tr's with amp. If you want to jump to wireless you can't go wrong with the a50's I recently switch from the nova pro wired to a50x and love the sound and mic quality. For an out of the box suggestion, A good pair of IEM's for when you don't want the weight of a headset on your head. Personally I use the Simgot Supermix 4. If you're on console these are great if you don't need a mic otherwise you'll need a USB MIC to go along with it.

True sweats use studio microphones and headsets. I have astro a40's and theyve always been fine for me

I went with a40s because I hate dealing with batteries lol

This. A40s are amazing.

I am very picky. They are too bulky for my liking. I'll stick to astros because they are pretty and sound good (from the reviews)

I went with a40s because I hate dealing with batteries lol

I strongly recommend the website "rtings" when shopping anything audio or visual related. Look for neutral sound, imaging, and passive soundstage. The rating for wired gaming will be unusually low for non-"gaming" headphones because there's no included mic, but I'm sure you already have a solution for that. I have been using my HD 598 for like 10 years at least and they're amazing. I have previously used Astro A40 and they had really good virtual surround sound. I also tried the Logitech something or other, like a $300 pair but the soundstage was horrible.. they were also closed back though.. I would not recommended changing headphones in your case, but you do you!

Astro A40 have been good to me for the past 5 years

I'm using the Astro A40's TR with the MixAmp for years

Razer black shark pro.... best and most comfortable headset i ever had. I had a astro a40 before and i think the razer beats it in every aspect.

Think they are doing away with the A40s I don't know for sure but referred a few people for the Xbox version but there never in stock for a minute now even turned reminder on never got it. You can't get refurbished anymore of them only ones you can find is the PlayStation version. I think Logitech may be discontinuing them since all there products seem to be going to only wireless now.

bro my astro a40's are cleaaaan. i get so many "are you a streamer?" questions from it. it's nothing fancy at all, and they're cheap headsets. like $100-150. great quality, and they come with different ear muffs like a leather or a mesh pair. been using them since 2018, i'm on my 3rd pair since i keep fucking up the audio jacks on them lol

Ive had the Arctis 7P+ for several years now and its still going strong! I had an Astro A40 Pro years ago and that fell apart relatively fast sadly