Kingston HyperX Cloud II Pro Gaming Headset Review

TECHNOLOGY X BENCH

This Test Bench build was the result of some great relationships and purchase; our appreciation goes to those who jumped in specifically to help the cause.  Key contributors to this build are our friends at ASRock for the motherboard and CPU and be quiet! for the PSU and cooling fans. Also, a big thank you to Thermaltake for the case and Kingston for the RAM. We have detailed all components in the table below and they are all linked should you wish to make a duplicate of our system as so many seem to do, or check out the price of any single component.  As always, we appreciate your support in any purchase through our links!

SYSTEM COMPONENTS

TESTING METHODOLOGY

In order to test HyperX Cloud II the sound we played through a variety of action movies. We also listened to multiple genres of songs from hip-hop and pop to hard rock over both the USB connection on the PC as well as the 3.5mm jack to mobile devices including an iPhone 6 Plus, iPod Touch, and Nexus 7 tablet. We then finished off with the main use for this headset, which is gaming. For our gaming testing we played a few hours of Battlefield 4 and Borderlands on PC and Call of Duty Advanced Warfare on the Xbox One.

USING THE HYPERX CLOUD II

COMFORT

Overall the headset is very comfortable. The weight is 30 grams less than the original. There is enough pressure holding them on your head so they don’t fall off if you bend over to pick something up with them on. However, it isn’t too much to where it starts to bother you after you have been wearing it for extended periods of time. After extended use, 6-8 hours, the headset was still very comfortable. At times the headset felt as if it wasn’t even there.

When using the leatherette ear cushions, they block out the outside noise a bit better, but tends to not breath much as the velour ones. Therefore, one’s ears can start to warm up after extended periods of use. Our preference is to use the velour ear cushions, which also lets you hear your voice better when speaking.

SOUND

The performance of the speakers was quite rich and clear throughout our testing.

When used without the USB sound card, by default the audio output is weighted towards the midrange frequencies and the highs. While there is a bit of bass, it is nothing earth shattering.

The inline sound card boosts the power of the headset speakers a bit. It definitely helps with expanding the sound stage of the speakers, especially once 7.1 is enabled. The sounds is much more surrounding. When listening to our FLAC audio and movies, the 7.1 virtual surround sound tones down the treble and fills in the mid-tones and bass more. Overall, the listening experience is more immersive. Stereo just sounds hollow and cold in comparison.

When gaming, the sound came through pretty directional as it was without the 7.1 virtual surround sound, however once it was enabled, we were able to pinpoint sounds much better. Overall, it helped us track down quite a few more enemies via their footsteps and movements.

For us, we simply leave 7.1 enabled for all occasions for the best sound out of this headset on PC.

MICROPHONE

The mic has been changed to expand the frequency response from 50-18,000Hz, the original’s range was just 100-12000Hz. When in use, voice picked up clearly and no background noise passed through. It isn’t as good as a studio microphone, but it is still much better than some other mics we have used in the past. Even during phone calls the headset and microphone proved to work well. Plus, the flexible boom allowed us to move the mic completely out of the way when eating, no more getting pasta sauce smeared all over the pop filter!

REPORT ANALYSIS AND FINAL THOUGHTS

When it comes to putting the HyperX Cloud II to the test it proved itself quite well. The comfort of this headset is up there with the best. The extra included velour cup cushions proved to be the best feeling and throughout testing we even felt as if it wasn’t on.

The sound quality proved to be crisp and clear, however the bass was lacking in our opinion, especially when listening to music and movies. However, for FPS gaming the sound output from them was great and very helpful with tracking enemies. The included microphone also was clear throughout our gaming session chats and on multiple occasions people asked what microphone we were using as it was so clear and had such little background noise.

The HyperX Cloud II is a very good gaming headset at a decent price point, especially considering the quality and features it provides. Just the fact that it includes an inline sound card with virtual 7.1 output should be enough for most laptop gamers. For those with no sound card or older audio chipsets this headset should prove to provide great sound when gaming. And for those who don’t just game on PC, this headset being cross platform is a big plus!

After reviewing this headset fell that it easily deserves our Gold Seal award!

It is currently available for pre-order on Amazon.com and will be available on February 9th, 2015. So if you are in the market for a new headset and want something that will not only sound good, look good, but also last you quite some time, this headset may be the one you want to wait for!

Check out Amazon.com for the HyperX Cloud II!