Astro A20 Gen 2 Wireless Headphones Review

The Astro A20 Gen 2 look very similar to their predecessor, the Astro A20 Wireless. They have an eye-catching color scheme along with Astro's distinctive blocky headband shape. They aren't likely to be confused for anything other than gaming headphones, especially as their boom microphone can't be removed. Note that the Xbox variant of these headphones have a green and white color scheme.

These headphones are decently comfortable. They feel lightweight on your head and have fairly plush microfiber-lined ear cups. Unfortunately, the ear cups don't swivel, which could cause a bit of discomfort if you have large ears.

The Astro A20 Gen 2's control scheme is passable. It's easy to use, with dedicated buttons for power on/off, EQ preset cycling, and channel mixing between game and voice audio. You can mute the mic by simply flipping it upwards. There's also an infinite scrolling wheel for volume adjustment, though it doesn't offer any audio cues or physical feedback once you've reached a maximum setting. There's also no way of determining the voice/game balance.

These headphones are fairly breathable. While they don't trap as much heat as some over-ear headphones thanks to their microfiber ear cup padding, your ears are still likely to start sweating during long listening sessions.

The Astro A20 Gen 2 aren't very portable. They're quite bulky, and since their ear cups don't swivel flat, they can be hard to store in a bag or pouch, though their boom mic can swivel upwards to avoid snagging on something. You also need to carry around their wireless transmitter for them to work.

These headphones don't have a case or pouch.

These over-ears are well-built. The ear cups, hinges, and headband have a fairly high-grade plastic construction that should survive a couple of drops and bumps. The cloth padding on the ear cups and the silicone-like material lining the headband are also quite soft. Unfortunately, these headphones don't have an IP rating for dust or water resistance, though we don't currently test for this.

The Astro A20 Gen 2 are decently stable. They shouldn't have too much trouble staying in place if you're wearing them while gaming but can fall off with vigorous head movements. Thankfully, their wireless design eliminates the risk of having an audio cable snag on another object and yanking them from your head.

• Astro A20 Gen 2 headphones
• USB-A to USB-C charging cable
• USB wireless dongle
• Quick Start guide

When using the 'ASTRO' EQ preset, these over-ears have a somewhat excited V-shaped sound profile. Their bass range is slightly overemphasized, which can intensify the thump and rumble of sound effects in action-heavy games, but it doesn't totally overwhelm more delicate in-game dialogue or music. Their exaggerated treble range can make some higher notes, like cymbals, sound piercing. If this isn't to your liking, you can cycle through three built-in EQ presets: 'Astro', which emphasizes bass, 'Pro', which emphasizes vocals and dialogue, and 'Studio', which provides a more neutral listening experience.

The Astro A20 Gen 2 offer great frequency response consistency. You shouldn't experience too much of a deviation in bass delivery on separate occasions, though a slight drop in bass may occur if you wear glasses or have thick hair, which can interfere with their seal against your ears. Treble delivery can vary a little more noticeably depending on their fit and positioning.

These over-ears have great bass accuracy. Most of the range is overemphasized but very flat, yielding a bit of extra thump, punch, and warmth without sounding too boomy or muddy. This should please fans of action-heavy games or listeners of genres like EDM and hip-hop.

The Astro A20 Gen 2 have impressive mid accuracy. Most of the range is fairly flat, so voices, vocals, and lead instrumentals should sound full-bodied and present within the mix. However, a minor overemphasis in the high-mids can give these notes a slightly harsh, honky quality.

The Astro A20 Gen 2 have sub-par treble accuracy. The entire range is overemphasized, meaning that dialogue, vocals, and lead instruments can sound harsh and painful while higher notes, like sibilants, can have a piercing quality. Since their treble delivery can vary a little depending on their fit and positioning, your experience may vary.

These headphones have satisfactory peaks and dips performance. A peak in the low bass range adds extra thump and rumble to some mixes. Meanwhile, a dip in the low-mids can thin out dialogue, vocals, and lead instruments. Spikes in the low and mid-treble range can make vocals and lead instruments sound harsh and give sibilants a piercing, painful quality.

We encountered issues in testing the Astro A20 Gen 2's stereo imaging performance. The results obtained are not indicative of the headphones' real-world performance, and we are currently investigating the cause of this discrepancy. While we haven't evaluated their performance accurately in this regard, other comparable Astro headsets, like the Astro A20 Wireless, generally deliver great stereo imaging performance, resulting in the accurate placement of objects like voices and footsteps within the stereo image.

The Astro A20 Gen 2 have a decent passive soundstage. It should be perceived as being fairly open and natural, but also as though it's coming from inside your head instead of out in front of you.

The Astro A20 Gen 2 don't have any virtual soundstage features.

The Astro A20 Gen 2 have good weighted harmonic distortion performance. Audio reproduction should be clean and pure at both moderate and high listening volumes, though some users may notice a bit of distortion at moderate listening volumes in the low-mid range.

These are the settings used to test the Astro A20 Gen 2. Our results are only valid in this configuration.

The Astro A20 Gen 2 have terrible noise isolation performance. They filter out almost no ambient noise across the bass and mid ranges so you're likely to hear the low rumble of passing trucks as well as chatter from people nearby. They do a better job of isolating you from higher-pitched background noise, like the hum of an AC unit, but their performance in this regard is still sub-par.

The Astro A20 Gen 2 have poor audio leakage performance. People nearby may be annoyed by escaping audio if you listen to content at high volumes, even in a busy environment like an office.

The Astro A20 Gen 2 have a flippable boom microphone.

The boom mic delivers mediocre recording quality. Recorded speech is likely to sound thin and muffled, but fairly natural and mostly free of distortion.

The boom mic's noise handling performance is decent. Teammates and people on the other end of a phone call should be able to understand you, even if you're in a loud or crowded environment. If you want gaming headphones with a mic that does an even better job of separating your voice from background noise, try the ROCCAT Syn Pro Air Wireless.

The Astro A20 Gen 2 have impressive overall battery performance. They provide almost 20 hours of continuous playback time, which outlasts the advertised claim of 15 hours and exceeds the older Astro A20 Wireless' roughly 14-hour battery life. It should be noted, however, that battery life can vary depending on your real-life usage. They also feature a 10-minute auto-off timer to help conserve battery life when not in use. While these headphones don't support any sort of passive playback option on a wired connection, you can use them while they're charging.

These headphones don't have a dedicated companion app.

Note: The Astro Command Center companion software can be used to update their firmware, but no update is currently available, and we were unable to connect to the software in the meantime.

The Astro A20 Gen 2 aren't Bluetooth-compatible.

The Astro A20 Gen 2 have great non-Bluetooth wireless connectivity. When we originally tested the USB dongle, we measured over -500 ms of latency, even when using different PCs or ports. However, when streaming video, the latency wasn't as noticeable. We believe the issue is related to the communication between our software and the headset. As a result, we measured latency using a local video rather than our software. We also did five passes instead of our normal three, as we weren't able to get closely consistent results. Our new latency results now reflect real-life usage. When using the dongle, you shouldn't experience lipsyncing issues.

These over-ears don't support any wired connections. They come with a USB-A to USB-C cable for charging.

This variant of the Astro A20 Gen 2 isn't compatible with Xbox One or Xbox Series X consoles.

Note: The 'Green/White' variant of these headphones is advertised as being compatible with Xbox One consoles and PCs, but we haven't currently tested it.

These over-ears come with a wireless USB dongle for use with PS4 consoles and PCs. A white indicator light shows that the dongle is in PC compatibility mode, but pressing the button on its top surface turns the light to a solid blue, denoting that it's in PS4 compatibility mode.

Note: The dongle did get stuck in the PS4 compatibility mode during testing, and it took several re-pairing attempts to revert it to the PC compatibility mode.