LucidSound LS50X Wireless Gaming Headset for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S with Bluetooth

I purchased the LucidSound LS50X and the SteelSeries Arctis 9X headphones at the same time and spent an hour with both connected to the same Xbox One X, doing an a/b/c comparison with these and the Turtle Beach Elite 800x I am replacing. I am returning the LS50X, and I will tell you why.Let’s start with what these headphones are supposed to do.Connectivity:The LS50X connects to the Xbox One X via a usb dongle. You plug it in and within 10 seconds you have sound.10/10The Arctis 9x connects to the Xbox One X via proprietary signal, just as the wireless controller does. Press the pairing button on the Xbox One X, hold power button on the headphones, and within 10 seconds you have sound.10/10Sound QualityThe LS50x has neutral lows, neutral mids and very recessed highs. The highs are rolled off harshly. This makes reloading, shooting, footsteps, etc sound dull in comparison to the Arctis 9x and the Turtle Beach Elite 800x. The directional aspect is really good. I can hear exactly where the gunshots in MW are coming from. The most disappointing part of these is the sound separation and overall presentation of sound, which is a dealbreaker for me. There is a lot of sound being presented to you. But it is all jumbled together. Some of you cannot tell the difference. I am a music engineer, so it is exceptionally noticeable for me. This lack of effort in presentation on LucidSound’s part for a $250 flagship product is unacceptable. In addition, the background music is just “in your face” at all times, on all EQ settings. The background music drowns out everything else, and its just a complete mess of a presentation. Doesn’t sound like a big deal… until you use the Arctis 9x.6/10The Arctis 9x simply does everything right. The background music is crisp and clear. The general noise floor is nice and quiet. Background music is super clear and crisp, but in the background where it needs to be. I don’t need to hear the soundtrack Activision chose for in game play. I need to hear nearby footsteps and guns cocking. Those sounds are so crisp and up front that it makes you feel like you have superhuman hearing. This helped me maintain focus to a level that i have never been able to with any other surround headphone. Every sound sounds like it has its own place in the mix. They are easily identifiable, whereas it is all jumbled together on the LS50x. The one gripe i have is they are lacking a little in the bass department. But for effectiveness of identifying the exact location of nearby enemies, they are the very best surround sound gaming headphones i have used in my life, beating out the Elite 800x by a decent margin, and winning by a landslide over the LS50x.9.5/10Chat QualityI had two friends join my party to test out the chat quality.How my friends sound to meIn both headphones my friends sounded clear enough to understand as intended during gameplay. Their voices were noticeably more crisp and clear sounding on the Arctis 9x. Like all other sounds with this headphone, their voices sounded separated from the gameplay, not bunched together. Unfortunately my friends voices sounded jumbled in with the in game audio on the LS50x. It is not horrible. But it is not even ideal. The Arctis 9x chat is better than ideal, it is refreshing.Similarly, not to my surprise, my friends said i sounded much more clear on the Arctis 9x than i did on the LS50x. They stated that I sounded slightly muffled on the LS50x in comparison.LS50x: 7/10Arctis9x: 10/10Bluetooth FunctionalityBoth headsets connected to my iPhone 11 with no issue. For music, the LS50x has more midbass than the Arctis 9x and less energy in the high end. The LS50x offered almost zero sound separation. If you like a really warm signature for music, you may prefer the LS50x. If you enjoy classical music and appreciate hearing the actual depth of all of the instruments, the LS50x will be a nightmare. The Arctis 9x offers amazing instrument separation, close to what an open back set of studio headphones would. I was impressed by this. But the midrange is lacking, as these are EQd to do what the LS50x couldn’t dream of… creating a gaming space where you can hear all of the right things in game to make your experience advantageous to you.SummaryI would not purchase the LS50x if they were priced at $100, based on their sonic presentation, though I believe that is a fair price point with all other things concerned. The asking price of $250 is a complete sham. No disrespect to the creators of this headset. I would purchase two sets of the Arctis 9x, and i may do so as my son and i both need a pair. I love them. They do everything right and most importantly, they do exactly what they should be designed to do.Final scoreLucidSound LS50x: 6.5/10SteelSeries Arctis 9x: 9.5/10

I don’t typically write reviews but dang.. putting these bad boiz on are like stepping off of the landing craft on the beaches of Normandy. The directional hearing is superb. I can hear all of you suckers trying to sneak up on me while I’m blasting my GRAU at your teammates. If I listen close enough I can literally hear your bones shuttering from across the map while you’re camping in the corner. This headset truly changed my game. I am actually a better player now and I feel like Pablo because these bad larrys are rich! I’m sorry to the other guy that got below me that got the bum set. You’re missing out.

If the microphone was good, I would have given this 5 stars. But it’s not good. I asked my friends their thoughts and none of them like it. They thought it sounded muffled. For comparison, I’ve used the free headset that comes with my older Xbox One consoles as well as Turtle Beach headsets.The design does look very premium, made of high quality materials. It’s pretty comfortable even for a big head like mine. The sound is excellent. I use Dolby Atmos for Headphones and the positional audio is great. I love that it’s wireless. There is a little USB dongle but it’s unobtrusive.I also like it has a mic mute button instead of moving the boom mic. It’s why I didn’t like the Astros. Sometimes when you’re playing, you want those brief moments of muting your mic. On the Astros, you have to lift up your entire boom mic to mute. And then you have to lower it to talk again and that’s not good in the middle of a gun fight. It also has a little light at the end of the boom to tell you if you’re muted.There is a little nitpick. The big round dial on the right ear determines the game audio/chat audio balance. You rotate it toward the front to hear less chat and more game. You rotate it toward the rear to hear more chat and less game. Well, this control is not very good. You keep turning and turning and the game audio is much higher than the chat. And then you turn to a point where it suddenly causes the game audio to be very quiet and you hear mostly chat. So it’s very difficult the fine-tune the game/chat audio. I still might return it because of this but I think I have the right balance now.And the last thing is how scary the firmware update process is. First, Windows thinks the software is malicious. Second, the whole process is scary. You load the software, you insert a needle into a pinhole on the dongle and while holding the needle in the hole, you’re supposed to insert the dongle into the USB port. it’s hard to tell when you can let go of the needle or if hold the whole time or if it even matters.I almost got the SteelSeries Arctis 9x but I held off because people said it becomes uncomfortable for people with large heads. I got to try them out at Best Buy and they seemed comfortable but I only wore it for a minute or so. But comparing build quality, the Arctis 9x seemed cheaper (and that also has a bad mic according to other reviewers). I also liked how the Arctis 9x had a retractable mic as well as no dongle needed.