- Manufacturer: Gioteck
- Model: TX50
- Type: Gaming Headset
- Supplied by: Gioteck
Receiving a package from Gioteck brought back fond memories of sitting in bean bag gaming chairs and using some of the most unique and affordable controllers I could get my hands on. It’s only recently that I found out they were back in the game making fresh new products, including the TX50.
Gioteck’s premium gaming headset looks so new and unique. Fresh, yet distinctively Gioteck. Boasting 50mm Drivers, Alcantara ear cups and robust construction, the TX50 claims to be the best in its price bracket. That is a fairly bold statement, but with a retail price around £30, it’s hard to argue with.
Geoteck has fitted the headset with 50mm drivers, a staple of high-end gaming headsets. A 50mm driver usually guarantees a fairly good soundstage, and powerful and precise audio. The TX50 has most of that. The soundstage is decent, and the audio quality is exceptional for the price but the audio tune is what lets it all down.
The TX50 is a stereo headset that has no configuration options, so you are stuck with the tune that has been implemented for you, and in the TX50’s case, the audio tune is basically bass boost.
Bass boost is usually a tune used to make small drivers feel more impactful and give off a wow factor during explosions and such, but since the TX50 has a good set of 50mm drivers it is utterly unnecessary and takes away from its performance. The TX50 would have been much much better with a neutral or high to mid focused tune. This would have given a more eSports focused sound, boosting the subtleties in audio like the zing of a bullet casing or the crunching footsteps of a nearby enemy.
With the current tune, you end up with less detail and muddy lows. As an overall however the TX50 is ok, though the drivers have huge potential that was not realised. For a £30 headset, it’s still a fair amount better than most of its competition in terms of audio fidelity. Despite the tune, the 50mm drivers still deliver better directional audio than most smaller drivers in other headsets in its price point.
If you pair the TX50 with something like a Cyrus Soundkey the audio is impressive. Using the software of a decent DAC to counteract the tune made the TX a true competitive sounding headset.
As a side note the TX50 was wicked to listen to MGK and Tom Mcdonald on.
It’s in the construction where the TX50 shines, They have an extremely robust and sturdy-feeling body. Made nearly entirely of reassuringly strong plastic with a soft-touch coating makes the TX50 feel like it could survive a fair pounding and being sat on more than a few times.
The cups themselves feature a perforated metal grill emblazoned with the Gioteck logo. The grills give the headset the characteristics of an open back system, and it works to its benefit, also again making the unit feel extremely durable.
The headband is fairly stiff with enough give to flex when being put on and provide a fairly strong clamping force. The adjustment points are fairly standard, with a clicky slide extension on each side for sizing and a vertical pivot on the cups that allows the clamping force to be eased a little and let the cups move to fit properly on your head.
There is however no pivot for horizontal rotation on the headset, and paired with a slightly cambered stance on the cups means more pressure is applied to the back of the cup than the front.
This is not necessarily a bad choice. It feels strange at first but after a while, it becomes apparent that this is to avoid the cups pressing on your temples and soft spots.
The cups and head cushioning have a beautiful Alcantara covering, and it is possibly my favourite feature on the TX50. Alcantara is one of my absolute favourite materials and it is featured all the way through the cup cushion. This makes for an amazingly comfortable and premium feel and I applaud Gioteck for breaking the mould and going for a unique material.
The Alcantara cups are not particularly deep, and this allows your ears to be pressed against the drivers. This would usually be uncomfortable but with the Alcantara it is perfectly comfortable and it is surprisingly good at isolating noise. Usually, budget open back design headsets isolate next to no noise but the TX50 with its lush Alcantara cups does a pretty good job of it. Again, I can not stress enough how much I love the feel of the Alcantara.
Next up is the microphone. It’s a fairly standard gooseneck style mic that has flip-up functionality on top of its free moving gooseneck.
The mic is housed in a plastic casing on the end. It’s not the greatest mic on earth by any standard; The audio produced by it echoes significantly and feels like the mic is on an open pick up pattern listening to everything rather than cardioid directed at your mouth.
During testing the mic was picking up a lot of room noise and sounded extremely distant from the user. This can be fixed to some degree when on Xbox by adjusting the mic monitoring. It’s usable and does the job and for the total price and package of the TX50 it’s about where it needs to be, though a pop filter foam sleeve made a fairly substantial difference and would have been a great inclusion with the TX50.
Last on the list for the TX50 is its cable. The TX50 comes fitted with a fixed flat cable ending in a standard 3.5 mm input jack. Around 2 thirds of the way up the cable you will find a large set of inline controls featuring a mute switch, an old school scroll wheel for volume control and a clip on the back for attaching to clothes.
The cable at first felt really flimsy and in contrast to the rest of the headset weak, but it seems to be fairly strong for its size, with the flat design also helping avoid it getting tangled up and knotted.
I would have preferred to see the controls on one of the cups rather than inline, but the inline controls will work well for mobile gaming when you are out and about. As the TX50 is a multi-platform headset it is safe to assume the inline controls and flat cable are to be suited to all platforms rather than designed for dedicated setup gaming.
Summary
Overall the TX50 is impressive for its price range and is a huge step in the right direction for Gioteck. Packing all of the positives the TX50 has into a £30 package allows you to forgive any shortcomings it may have.
It will be perfect for mobile gaming or younger gamers that can’t afford a top tier headset but still want some punchy performance. They will also be perfect for a multi-purpose headset, perfectly capable of gaming and almost perfect for media listening.
