Holiday Headset Review Roundup: Beyerdynamic MMX300, Astro A50, SteelSeries Siberia Elite

We’ve arrived at yet another holiday season, which means it’s time to buy things for others and ask others (read: your older sister who has done much more with her life than you have with yours) to buy you things. Sound is the most often overlooked aspect of the home theater, and Phil and Ian are here to show you the way should you be looking to fill that need as they take a look at three high-end headsets of varying price and utility you might want to consider. All Three are good sets, but they’re still very different.

Beyerdynamic MMX300

Price: $400

Carrying a $400 retail asking price, the MMX300 headset is recognizable as being for the elite crowd immediately, and for that kind of change this set does seem a bit barebones with only two ⅛-inch jacks for input and output, and a quarter-inch adapter for the folks who have some real equipment to use with it. Furthermore, it has no hardware controls for sound or microphone volume.

And unless you’re strictly making this purchase to listen to music (not a terrible idea), you’re going to be wasting your money if try to use these without an appropriately elite accompanying setup. On PC, you’ll need a decent sound card, for one thing, and an audio receiver would make the magic happen if you want to use the MMX300 with any of your game consoles (don’t even bother plugging these into the DualShock 4, as that outputs strictly in stereo).

But if you’ve got everything else, then the MMX300 provides a perfectly stellar audio experience across all media, and it brings out nuanced sound design in a way that you’re not going to be able to appreciate with your average set of phones. The mic is equally effective, with folks I chatted with (over Google Voice and Skype)  noting I was using a new (and much better) one without me telling them. 

However, the MMX300 is incapable of being your all-purpose new-gen headset because it can only function as one on the PC. If that’s all you’re looking for -- like if you’re going to buy a headset instead of a new console -- then the MMX30 is as good as it gets. It’s a no-frills system without any bells and whistles, but good lord does it sound wonderful. Beyerdynamics charges such a high price for these because it really is that good. 

Astro A50

Price: $300

In terms of sheer value, a $300 headset sounds like not much of one. But, really, the A50s are so versatile that it’s easily worth it, because you can use it for sound and chat on PS3, PS4, and Xbox 360 (You can get surround sound from the Xbox One but cannot chat on it currently) in addition to your PC, and if you’re just in this game for the sound then you can plug into your TV’s optical out port and be done with it. 

In truth, the A50s are basically the same as the A40s, but are instead wireless, with a receiver that has Astro’s Mixamp Pro inside of it (for surround sound). A40s bundled with the Mixamp costs $250, so the wireless surcharge is $50. As somebody who has wires running all over his living room (four game consoles, a PC and speakers hooked up to one TV, without an entertainment center to hold it all together, gets pretty wild), not having one running from my headset is awesome.

On first examination the sound the A50s produce (or, more correctly, the mix of the sound) is a bit lackluster on any of the three pre-ordained mix settings -- superbass (nauseating), no bass (very flat), and normal (the only one I ever use). It was good enough for movies and games in which the 7.1 surround really shines, but music was all wrong. But after a couple weeks of extensive use it’s warmed up significantly to the point where I actually like listening to music on them, and everything else has nearly the right amount of weight, even if it’s still a bit bass-heavy on the middle mix setting. 

Meanwhile, it’s got a couple other little perks, like the mic that auto-mutes when you push it up and hardware volume control that allows you to make everything far too loud if you’re into that. And while you’re supposed to charge the headset through the receiver, you can plug it into anything you want. (I use the PS4.)

It does have its drawbacks: the battery will eventually die, the set is a bit loose on my giant skull -- I can shake them off if I want to -- and sound must be routed through the receiver no matter what, and the receiver in turn must be powered via USB, meaning the A50s won’t be a good option for listening to music on the go with a tablet or phone. But as home device, the A50s fill so many possible needs it’s gross. Having optical in means as well that it does 7.1 Dolby right out of the box on any console without the need for any extra stuff.       

SteelSeries Siberia Elite

Price: $199

The SteelSeries Siberia Elite comes as an easy recommendation as it provides everything you could ever ask for in a headset, and then some. 

In typical headsets, the sound quality often suffers for whatever reason and wearing a pair typically involves a compromise of having the utility of being able to speak into a built-in microphone versus having good sound quality from the cans that come with. The generally accepted wisdom is that if you want sound quality, you’ll have to go for dedicated headphones and steer away from headsets. 

You don’t have to make any such compromises with the Siberia Elite, which sounded—at least to my ears—every bit as crisp as my much more expensive pair of Audiotechnica headphones. In addition to sounding crisp—and clear—the cans on the Siberia Elite are bass-heavy, but in a good way that accentuates the sound of gunfire and explosions you’ll hear in games like Battlefield 4, which I played extensively with the headset. 

The Siberia Elites are versatile enough that they’ll work on anything you can plug them into, including your PlayStation 4 and your PC. You can do so through the use of the cords that come with the headset and you won’t need to use the on-board sound card for gaming if you have a dedicated sound card or a similar input device. You won’t be able to use voice chat on consoles like the PS4 as the cords for the microphone and speakers are separate—at least, not out of the box. Fortunately, SteelSeries offers a mixer that would allow you to use the product for console gaming.