Astro A50 Gen 4 vs A50 X

Great thorough and detailed reply. Thanks so much—you guys rock 🙏!

Apr 15, 2024 12:49 PM By  Christopher Steward

Hi there and thanks for the great question and the kind words! You’re right in that old Astro A50 does score slightly higher when it comes to the ‘Neutral Sound’ usage and it does score lower in the usage boxes that you pointed out. It’s worth noting though that imaging is something that varies between different units , so we wouldn’t really factor that in too much when it comes to comparing the two headsets’ sound profiles. When referencing the ‘sound profile’, this usually encompasses headphones’ scoring in the bass, mid and treble accuracy boxes, which add up to a bigger picture of the sound profile. While the A50 X does score in the yellow for treble accuracy, there are notable improvements in the bass and mid-accuracy which means that it scores higher on average across all three frequency ranges. That said, we recognize that describing the default sound profile as ‘more balanced’ might be a little confusing for users so we can look into changing the wording of this to be more precise. Thanks again for bringing this to our attention and we hope you keep enjoying the site!

Hi there and thanks for the great question and the kind words! You’re right in that old Astro A50 does score slightly higher when it comes to the ‘Neutral Sound’ usage and it does score lower in the usage boxes that you pointed out. It’s worth noting though that imaging is something that varies between different units , so we wouldn’t really factor that in too much when it comes to comparing the two headsets’ sound profiles.

When referencing the ‘sound profile’, this usually encompasses headphones’ scoring in the bass, mid and treble accuracy boxes, which add up to a bigger picture of the sound profile. While the A50 X does score in the yellow for treble accuracy, there are notable improvements in the bass and mid-accuracy which means that it scores higher on average across all three frequency ranges. That said, we recognize that describing the default sound profile as ‘more balanced’ might be a little confusing for users so we can look into changing the wording of this to be more precise.

Thanks again for bringing this to our attention and we hope you keep enjoying the site!

Hi there and thanks so much for all the work you do!

I notice the text summary comparing the two models says the newer version (A50 X) has a “more balanced default sound profile” than the A50 model, but isn’t it the other way around? The A50 is more even across the Neutral Sound metrics, with no real weak link like the newer X model has. The X model is in the Yellow score range for Treble with the review noting inconsistencies, its Soundstage score is in the Red zone, and various other sound metrics such as Imaging are lower; plus overall the older model gets an 8.1 score from you vs the newer model’s 8.0 for Neutral Sound.

Given these factors shouldn’t the text say the opposite, that the older model is a bit more balanced and well-rounded. If it’s not an error, what is the rationale for it?

Thanks again so much for all your work and appreciate you guys!