The soundscape is, however, incredibly well balanced out of the box. Unfortunately, that’s not something the Astro A30 offers. I’m a sucker for headphones with big bass. There’s even a great hard case included with the A30 for use as a travel headset. It means you can viably use the headset as everyday headphones-helped along by around 27 hours of battery life-and still use them to make calls or issue commands to a digital assistant. Speaking of mics, the A30 has a detachable boom mic and an inbuilt microphone. On the left earcup is a microphone mute toggle. The right earcup also houses a power button and Bluetooth button, far enough apart to avoid accidental bumps. Alternatively, bump it left for more game balance and right to prioritise chat. Push it up for more volume and down for less. Initially, I wasn’t a fan of a volume joystick instead of a dial, but it’s a clever inclusion that doesn’t take long to get used to. At one stage, I accidentally bumped off one of the earcups and thought I’d broken it, but they’re magnetic and I appreciate how easy they are to remove (if only for cleaning). Otherwise, I found myself reaching to adjust or take them off after a couple of hours. My workaround was to shift the headband into a looser fit, which deters headbanging but makes longer sessions comfortable. I think the earcups are okay (though they could be thicker), but the headband has insufficient padding. The Astro A30 Wireless headset isn’t uncomfortable, but it has a firmer fit for my bigger noggin. Gaming headsets in particular should be built for longer use, which means comfort is paramount. I prefer softer materials for gaming headsets, either pleather or cloth. Mwave has the cheapest price on the Astro A30 at $349 at time of publishing. The Astro A30 headset can be purchased through Scorptec, Harvey Norman, JB HI-FI, Kogan and Mwave. Thankfully, you can also buy the reasonably priced USB-A transmitter for the other platform (assuming you can find stock), which is a cost-effective concession to cover the major gaming bases. The Xbox and PlayStation versions aren’t a problem if you stick to one platform. Both versions work with PC and mobile devices via Bluetooth, but you may want to buy the A30 USB-C Mobile Transmitter for Switch if you want a faster wireless connection for competitive gaming. The main catch is there are two versions of the A30: one for Xbox Series X|S consoles and another for PlayStation 5 systems.

That excludes the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless, which is ridiculously priced these days. While comfortably shy of the Astro A50’s $550 asking price, the $399 RRP for the Astro A30 Wireless means these gaming cans are towards the pricier side of town.

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