ASTRO Gaming A50 Wireless Headset + Base - XB1

I am becoming convinced that none of the traditional gaming headset vendors can create a decent gaming headset. At least not one for XBOX One and have it be completely wireless (no chat cable).After numerous issues with Turtle Beach's 800x, including an RMA, I have decided to try the ASTRO Gaming A50s now that these are completely wireless. I have read all these great reviews on them, but I have to tell you for $300 these do not feel like they should cost that much.For one. They simply do not work without the USB cable plugged into the headset itself for power. I am guessing the power button simply does not work because moving the power button does not appear to make any difference to the operation of the headset. I can only power them up with a USB cable connected. I am very disappointed in the quality of these out of the box.Once they have power, they sound nice enough. The controls take a little getting used to. You have to change the ratio of the voice chat volume to the game volume, and then you can adjust the volume as a whole. I am not sure yet if this is better than having two volume controls, one for chat and one for game volume.I would also prefer a mute button. I do like that the mic mutes when moving it up, but also like the option of tapping a button. The other buttons take a little getting used to as they are pretty small and on the back of the right ear cup. It will take some getting used to where they are.Finally the charge base seems a little temperamental. It appears to take a little finesse to place it properly to get it to charge.If mine were not defective when opening the box, I would probably give these 4 stars, but receiving a broken unit gives me reason to believe the QA process that Astro uses is not very good. This makes me wonder what other issues may pop up.UPDATE 2/5/2017I have a replacement set from Astro and they power up and work OK. The mic was pretty mute when talking with my friends through XBOX live. I connected the setup to my PC and and the MIC volume was set to about 75-80%. I punched it to 100%. Now they think I am very loud. I moved the mic farther from my face to account, but will probably turn the mic down a little more in the PC application. Just sort of a pain to take it off my XBOX, move it to the PC and sync the new settings and then move it all back. Sort of trial and error. The headset sounds good enough, and it is relatively comfortable. I am really not liking the only mute option is to move the headset boom all the way (ALL THE WAY) up. If not, all the way, it does not mute. It makes noise when you handle the boom to mute it, which is counter to the point of muting. I am OK with muting with the movement of the mic boom, but it should mute sooner and not be ALL the way vertical. It really should have a quick tap button to mute though. Far more efficient. Also, still not pleased with the way it sits in the stand. Still pretty flaky, requiring a little fussing to get it charging.If you do not need or desire 100% wireless on XBOX One, I would recommend another option. It will save you a ton of money and probably give you much better features to boot.Update 2/27/2017Operation has been fine for the last few weeks. It still takes some effort to get the headet seated into the base properly to charge it. A little surprised this is how Astro decided to design this headset and they were OK with the charging system. The lack of a proper mute button is really becoming irritating. I hate it when people are sneezing, coughing, or otherwise making unwanted noise into my ear. I do my best to mute my mic to mitigate that with everyone listing to me as well. Not having a proper mute button is really making this difficult. I cannot swing the mic boom all the way to the farthest upright position to engage the mute fast enough to catch a sneeze. I find it odd that this would also be the way they would design this. There is no reason you cannot have two mute options. One with moving the mic boom up, and it should activate at considerably less than 90 degrees, the other being simple tap-able button on the outside of the ear cup. My wired Logitech USB headset had this feature and love it. Use it for conference calls using Skype all the time.What could have made this headset great, is a mute button and a better charging option that did not rely on a flaky seating of the headset in a base station. Seems there was some odd design choices here that really hold these headsets back and make me regret shelling out $300 for a supposedly premium experience.Update 3/22/2017Two major bugs with this headset1) The base station seems to 'loose connection' with the console routinely. The best way to work around this is to unplug the USB and plug it back in. Sometimes switching to PC mode and back will fix it but not always. Some forums suggested this is some issue with the XBOX instant on feature, but I have found the headset base looses its connection to the Xbox regardless of the instant on being enabled.2) The game chat does not work in all games. XBOX Party Chat works fine (as long as you unplug and replug the USB in) but games like Destiny also have game chat, and the headset will not broadcast voice. It does not even detect any noise being transmitted by my MIC, but I can hear others talk. This is also a serious issue. Not everyone uses Party Chat or has issues of their own with Party Chat. So having a headset that does not work in game chat is very limiting.At this point, if I could return this headset I would. If this were a $50-90 dollar headset, I could kind of forgive all the issues and design flaws with this headset, but for $300, the experience should be exceptional and it is not.UPDATE 9/15/2017: Firmware update and fixed the issue with requiring the USB to be unplugged and reconnected every so often for the XBOX to detect the headset, but now it is back and doing it more than ever. It actually takes multiple attempts to disconnect and reconnect the USB now. The issue with game chat not working is still a problem even in Destiny 2. I don't know if this is something specific to Destiny as I don't really play other online games that require or can benefit from voice chat.Worst money I have ever spent, Well, now tied with the crap headset of the Turtle Beach Stealth 800x.I HOPE that the new headset that Turtle Beach is releasing, which uses the native wireless protocol of an xbox controller, may be better, but never again will I buy a wireless gaming headset without trying it out first. I highly recommend you try before you buy or simply look to wired headsets.