review

Gioteck TX-50 Analog Gaming Headset

Monday, December 16, 2019

While the analog 3.5mm headphone jack is slowly becoming a legacy port, we aren't yet at a point where wireless audio and digital audio have truly eclipsed the 3.5mm audio connection!
The main difference between an analog headset and a digital headset comes down to the location of the audio processing. With a USB headset, the audio processing takes place via the headset's sound card, whereas with an analog headset, like the Gioteck TX-50, the audio processing is done by the source (i.e. computer) the headset is connected to.
Compared to many USB headsets' sound card, most computers' sound card tend to do a better job, which is why if you have a quality sound card in your computer, it makes more sense to let the computer process the audio conversion.

plastic headband frame
There aren't many headsets these days that come with a single 3.5mm connector and the Gioteck TX-50 is one of them, providing an all-purpose audio solution for private listening for a range of heads. The TX-50 headband is made of plastic and can be adjusted up to 2.5cm, which is enough for most heads but, it may not be enough adjustment for tall-headed users.
Luckily, the under foam padding of the TX-50 headband is thick and split down the middle, which is useful especially with headsets that have a short adjusting headband. The split headband design does help to relieve any hot-spot pressure points that may arise from the headset band.
The Gioteck TX-50 headset band also has a pivoting design that allows the earcups to be tilted up and down, which is always a useful feature to have to further enhance the fit and comfort of the headset.
The Gioteck TX-50 earpad foam padding is covered by alcantara material, which has a texture similar to suede microfiber material. Alcantara, which is mostly made of polyester, is also water resistant, breathable and fire resistant but, unlike polyester, alcantara is soft. The Gioteck TX-50 earpads do feel nice around the ears so, you can wear the headset for quite a while.
That said, the TX-50 inner earcup have very little depth; hence your ears are literary "next-door" to the speaker drivers, resting almost flush against your ears. Fortunately, there is a thin layer of foam padding to divide the speaker drivers and your ears, which is nice but, if your ears naturally stick outwards you probably won't be able to wear the Gioteck TX-50 for too long because of the rubbing.
Being open-back, there is a fair amount of sound leakage at 100% volume but, this is mostly appreciated by someone that is, literary, sitting next to you. If someone is sitting across the room, the sound leakage won't be as noticeable.
Given the bulky construction, the Gioteck TX-50 are mainly designed to be worn-at-home, although on a cold day, the Gioteck TX-50 suede-like earpads could double as a nifty pair of outdoor earmuffs. The TX-50 headphones have a rubberized hard plastic finish, making them fairly lightweight (300 grams). The inside of the earcups measure 8.5cm tall and 4cm wide, while the outer shell of the earcups measure 12cm tall and 7.5cm wide.
If you're a traditional gamer used to USB gaming headphones, you will find the Gioteck TX-50 3.5mm audio jack a breath of fresh air. In terms of audio quality, there is not much between USB and 3.5mm audio connection. But, there are some advantages to using a 3.5mm connection and, one of them, is having the audio being processed by the computer's DAC amplifier instead of the headset.
Also, since the 3.5mm connection to a computer is analog it is recognized by the motherboard's audio manager so, you will be able to easily tweak the audio of the Gioteck TX-50 without having to download any additional gaming suite software. The headset will also work with any other 3.5mm audio source  such as Xbox One and PS4.
The overall sound quality of the TX-50 is very good, thanks to massive 50mm speaker drivers, which deliver the full range of audio frequencies in a natural way, including the bass which is rich. Thanks to the open back design, sound stage is wide so, you can even hear in-game footsteps of enemies coming behind you.
The Gioteck TX-50 microphone is integrated on a 19cm-long flexible arm that you can bend anyway you like. There isn't any visible mesh grille on the microphone like you see on some boom microphone arms. A microphone grille is always good to have since it does help to keep dust from settling on the microphone and minimize spopping sounds.
That said, the TX-50 microphone does provide a natural voice quality without any distortions even at close range so, it's very probable that the microphone may incorporate a mesh filter internally. You can place the microphone at any angle, thanks to the boom microphone arm, which can be rotated upwards and downwards. There is no automatic volume mute when the microphone arm is lifted up though.
The Gioteck TX-50 headset comes with a long 3ft long flat TRRS cable that ends in a single 3.5mm TRRS connector; hence the cable carries both left and right audio channels, as well as a microphone channel. This means, you can plug the TX-50 into the 3.5mm headphone jack of a smartphone without a splitter. Most analog headsets typically do come with a TRRS cable that splits into two cables for the audio channel and microphone channel.
Depending on your laptop or computer, the audio and microphone can be constructed into a single port or split into two ports, which will require a splitter. The Gioteck TX-50 doesn't come with an audio splitter. Fortunately though, audio splitters are very cheap to buy and, you may even have one laying around the house.
Inline the Gioteck TX-50 headphone cable, you find a sizable volume remote box with a volume thumb wheel and a mute switch slider. Instead of a status led, the mute switch integrates a red sticker and green sticker to indicate when the volume is muted.
When you slide the switch into the muted or unmuted position, a red or green sticker will show. The volume remote also has a shirt clip on the back so, you can attach it to clothing rather than having it dangling down.
Whether gaming, listening to music or listening to TV, the Gioteck TX-50 provide superb volume and sound quality. This is reinforced by the fact that the Gioteck TX-50 is a wired gaming headset, and like all wired headphones, they deliver near-lossless quality audio, which is great if you listening to rip CDs or Hifi streaming via streaming services such as Tidal. A 1 year warranty is also included.

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