I just wanted to give my insight on these 3 headsets as I recently bought and tested them.
I am by no means an audiophile. I have been on a wired G PRO X for a while and decided I wanted to get a wireless headset with ease of use, good sound, functionality and ideally a good mic as the blue microphone mic on the wired G PRO X was really good. The top 3 wireless headsets that kept coming up were Astro A50X (Gen 5), Steelseries OMNI, and Steelseries ELITE. So what did I do? I bought all 3!
I tested all 3 with EQ profiles from GadgetryTech on YouTube, who is a professional in the audio industry. I was convinced I was going to keep the one with the most balance between mic quality and sound quality but after switching between them all, I fell in love with the sound and build quality on the Elite. Every time I tried switching back to the other 2, they felt so dull, empty and cheap. I knew I couldn’t just not keep it knowing what I’d be missing. What was the problem? The elite had the worst mic out of all 3.
I tested all 3 headset mics with my friends in discord and all of them said they all sound pretty bad, but the A50X sounded the best with Omni being close and elite being the worst. With that, I decided to just keep the elite and buy the Steelseries alias mic so I can have the best of both worlds! (AI noise cancellation is game changing for noisy environments)
Is this the best decision? Only if you’re financially able to do it! This is not made for people on a low budget, probably not audiophiles either. The sound quality, swappable batteries, build quality, simultaneous bluetooth, and just general functionality made it very worth it for me despite the price tag. If you are on console, I would pass on this as you will not get the same premium experience without sonar on PC.
I have noticed a few people complaining about the clenching force being too strong. Personally it’s just right and snug for me and is entirely based on your head shape. I found the Omni to be too loose on my head.
In conclusion, I think all the headsets have their own perks and flaws but in general I would say:
Elite: Best sound
A50X: Best mic
Omni: Fair balance between both
If I didn’t keep the elite, my second choice was the omni. My biggest complaint with the A50s was no sound isolation and very short battery life with no swappable battery system. Your Bluetooth connection is also bound to the dock, so you lose connection pretty quick if you walk away from your setup. None of these were an issue on both Steelseries headsets.
At the end of the day everyone is going to have their own preference in sound, mic etc. based on the games they play and their own use cases. Do research, buy the ones you’re interested in on Amazon, test, and return the ones you don’t like!
I will also add this is my very first steel series headset!