HyperX Cloud Revolver Gaming Headset
This Is What It's Supposed To Sound Like...
The boom mic’s tip has mesh openings on the front and back, and the people we gamed with reported that we came across loud and clear, both using in-game chat, and our voice app of choice, Discord. This headset’s noise-canceling mic is TeamSpeak and Discord certified. The retail packaging also displays checkboxes for Skype, Ventrilo, Mumble, and Raidcall. Our one gripe with the Cloud Revolver is that the mic’s flexible shaft doesn’t really let you adjust its position more than an inch or so in any direction. No matter how much you contort it, it’ll still be visible out of the corner of your eye. This is one area where the Cloud II has the Cloud Revolver beat. Thankfully, the mic can be removed from the headset, it uses a 3.5mm plug.
The headset weighs 360 grams, which makes it slightly heavier than our Cloud IIs, but the big difference maker is in the ear cans. The Cloud Revolver’s are slightly larger, letting the super-soft pleather-covered memory foam ear cushions envelop your whole ear. As such, the weight of the headset is against your skull, not your ears. The headband is also soft and covered in pleather. The flexible steel frame of the headset holds onto the ear cans, which seem to pivot on a ball joint, ensuring that the cans rest flat against the sides of your head and put very little weight on the top of your scalp.
The cans of the Cloud Revolver are fully enclosed, which means you don’t get a lot of external noise filtering in, however, there is a series of small vents that appear on the front and back edges of the driver housing. Although HyperX doesn’t call them out specifically, these features may help the 50mm neodymium directional drivers deliver that impressive spectrum of sound, through the low, middle, and even high frequencies. HyperX uses the words “separate” and “precise” when referring to the headset’s capabilities. After spending several weeks with this headset within easy reach, those words feel fitting.
HyperX mentions the Cloud Revolver’s “studio-grade soundstage,” but unless you’re wearing this headset, that phrase sounds an awful lot like marketing gobbledygook. But it’s really not. What I think they’re referring to is the Cloud Revolver’s uncanny ability to trick your brain into thinking the source of the sound is several feet away, not just an inch away. To that end, there were several occasions where a particularly quiet or reverb-heavy piece of music sounded like it was bouncing off of the walls. I found myself repeatedly removing the Cloud Revolver to make sure I wasn’t accidentally pumping music from my PC’s speaker system at full volume.
Another hint and this headset’s impressive performance came as I was listening to a song I’d played dozens of times, on headsets, in the car, with earbuds, and on just about any device with a speaker installed in it. Suddenly, I was hearing a sound that I’d never heard before. It was a subtle, wispy trilling thing, swelling up just a split second before the thunderous thud of a bass drum. It came back again before the next thud. And again. Then it was gone. I got chills.
On a traditional headset, the instruments used on a given piece of music tend to meld into a mass of sound. For instance, when listening to jazz, you might be able to follow a single instrument, but as more sound is introduced, you’ll tend to lose those quieter instruments, then they’ll come back. On this headset, each instrument felt like it had its own character and nuance. Instead of the sounds bleeding together, they complimented one another, as all good music should. I could hear the movement of the musician’s fingers over the strings like never before. This is what the musician wants to share with you. And while wearing this headset, it sometimes sneaks up on you and knocks you off your feet.
I listened to a lot of music with the Cloud Revolver, but I also watched movies, TV shows, and played games. So many games. I was not disappointed even once.
