LucidSound LS50X Review

Retailing at roughly £250, the LS50X is a flagship headset from LucidSound that has been crafted with the PC and Xbox consoles in mind. Its strapline features include dual noise-cancelling microphones, a pair of custom-toned drivers, and five separate EQ settings. With the headset being priced in the same ballpark as some of the best available on the market, does it have what it takes to be able to stand up to the competition?

For this hefty price tag, the first thing you might be wondering is what exactly comes in the box. Purchasers will receive a detachable boom mic, a dongle for PC and Xbox connectivity, a swanky sticker, a USB-C charging cable, and a sturdy protective case. Having the dongle right in the box was something that I appreciated, as I have had to purchase one separately with some lower cost headsets. Something that is noticeably absent though is an aux cable. I know that most people will purchase this with the intention of using it wireless, but there are still some devices out there like the Nintendo Switch that doesn't have Bluetooth capabilities.

With the LS50X resembling the look of a pair of Beats, I have to admit that it is one of the best looking headsets ever to have fallen into my lap for review. Its colour tone feels classy and minimalistic with it being mostly black and with just the logos on the ear cups and the metal frame around both sides to provide some visual variety. The materials used here just screams quality and there is a really robust feel to the headset as a whole. The only design choice that I had mixed feelings about was the foam-like material under the headrail. Sure, this did feel really comfortable, but its appearance felt pretty inconsistent with the rest of the design and it reminded me of the inside of a winter coat.

The headset also feels really intuitively designed when it comes to its controls, as managing your volume level and muting audio is all done by using the ear cups. A simple tap of the cups can mute and unmute your audio, and you can adjust the overall level by twisting them around and treating them almost like a giant dial. Whilst the design is top notch, I can't say that it is the comfiest headset that I have ever used. At 408g, it is pretty bulky and over long durations, I found that my ears would hurt and that I would need a break from using them. What I will say though is that they are extremely flexible with you being able to extend the headrail and almost rotate each ear cup by 360 degrees to achieve the optimum placement.

In terms of connectivity, the LS50X has a USB-C port on one of its cups, so you can plug in pretty much any modern Android charger to help give it some extra juice. With a full charge you can get a respectable battery life of 20 hours, and I never found it to run out on me when doing a stream or taking it out in public. Also in terms of connectivity, I found the headset simple to pair up with my devices whether I was using my phone, PC, or Xbox Series console. On PC or Xbox you can just plug in the dongle and it's instantly recognisable, and by holding down its Bluetooth button, it can easily be detected by mobile devices.

When it comes to the audio performance, the headset has five different EQ modes that can be toggled between at the push of a button, and it even has surround sound capabilities when used on Xbox with Windows Sonic. The audio here is wonderfully crisp and there were many times when listening to music that I would notice minor subtle touches in the arrangement spring to the forefront. Being able to tailor my listening experience with five different EQ settings was also a definite plus, but I found that even when listening without these enabled, the headset delivered a nice balance between frequencies with tracks never sounding too noticeably heavy on the treble or bass ends of the spectrum.

As I lightly touched upon previously, the LS50X comes with two different microphones, a detachable boom mic and a secondary mic built directly into it. Both of these noise-cancelling microphones support mic monitoring and switching between them is awfully simple. Whilst it didn't completely blow me away, I found the boom mic to deliver a respectable performance and it never felt like it was going to snap when bending it around to find the right position for my voice. It was nice having two microphones here as I never had to disconnect my headset if I received a call when listening to music after removing the boom.

It's price tag might be a hefty one, but I can't see many people having buyer's remorse after purchasing the LucidSound LS50X. The headset is packed with plenty of bells and whistles such as dual noise-cancelling microphones, five separate EQ settings, and surround sound capabilities, and it benefits from an intuitive design and a crystal clear sound quality. Whilst my thoughts are mostly positive, if I had to criticise some aspect I'd say that it's not overly comfy and it's a little on the heavier side. Still, if you've got the money to spend and you're looking for a quality headset to give you a lot of mileage, I'd give this one a consideration.