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Now that everything can play audio: consoles, phones, computers and more, it’s hard to find a pair of quality headphones that will work for all of them and sound good too without breaking the bank. Those days of frantically searching for those headphones or maybe buying multiple pairs might have ended with the HyperX release of the CLOUD Stinger Headphones.
Before I get into the headphones themselves, let’s start off with the features and specs.
Features and Specs
- Dynamic 50mm directional drivers with Neodymium Magnets
- Headphone Frequency Response: 18Hz-23,000KHz
- Headphone Input Impedance: 30 ohm
- Sound pressure level 102 ± 3dBSPL/mW at 1kHz
- Volume control slider on headset ear cup
- Connector: 3.5mm (4 pole)
- Ear Coupling: Circumaural, closed back
- 90-degree rotating ear cups
- H.D: < 2%
- Input power: Rated 30mW, Maximum 500mW
- HyperX signature Memory foam ear pads
- Premium Leatherette head band
- Cable Length: 51.19” and 66.93” Extension Y-Cable
- Weight .61lb
- Stereo compatible with PS4, Xbox, Wii-U, PC, Mac and Mobile device (Xbox One Requires Adapter)
- Swivel to mute or unmute microphone
- Electret condenser microphone
- Microphone Frequency response: 50Hz ~ 18,000Hz
- Microphone Sensitivity: -40 dBV (0dB=1V/Pa,1kHz)
- Polar Pattern: Uni-directional, Noise cancelling
- Adjustable Steel slider
- Multi-platform compatibility
Let’s check out the unboxing.
As you saw in the video, here is everything included.
First off, in the package HyperX includes the Quick Start Guide, providing information on everything the headphones can do.
Then another one sheeter on one side congratulating you for joining the HyperX team, signed by Anders Willumsen the HyperX General manager. On the flip side
A little marketing a la HyperX, mmmm products.
The headphones come with a Y-Splitter extension cable. This cable not only extends the reach of the headphones, but it allows the single connection to branch out to a microphone and headphone connection. The cable itself is 66.96 inches long. If you notice one end plugs into for example a PC’s microphone and headphone jack, while the other end allows you to plug another cable into it, the other cable leads to the headphones.
Another thing to mention is that this cable is not braided, it is just a rubberized cable, though I will say it is durable. I have already run this cable over a few times with my chair and it does not have a single dent and it works perfectly fine, I am a bit surprised honestly. Rubberized cabling is not bad at all, it doesn’t kink up on me and it makes for a more affordable pair of headphones.
HyperX gets the branding where it can, its logo’ed on the female side.
Not much on the extra’s, let’s get to the headphones
[nextpage title=”The Headphones”]
The headphones come packaged very nicely in a foam block etched out to perfectly fit the headphones, a home if you will, a place to rest it at night.
A quick look and they might look like a standard pair of headphones… but there’s a little more to them.
We will start from the cable and work our way to the headphones.
The plug is a 4 Pole 3.5mm jack. The 4 poles allow for the Left and Right audio along with connecting the microphone into 1 jack for devices that function this way. Devices that function this way are mainly Cell phones, many tablets and things of that nature to allow you to record and listen through the same 3.5mm jack.
If you look closely, this end also has the HyperX etching on it.
Working our way up that rubberized 51.19” cable, we find left ear cup. Keeping the 50mm driver from lying flat on your ear and being incredibly uncomfortable, is what they call the HyperX signature memory foam ear coupling circumaural ear pads. They cover my complete ear, my ear easily fits inside, so the pads rest on the sides of my head, very comfy and oddly enough, they don’t make my skin sweaty like I thought they would.
Flipping the ear cup around, we find the Microphone.
Zooming close to the rear end of the microphone, it looks like its opened up, not sealed. This allows for more natural recording.
On the other end, where your mouth would be, you find the directional side of the microphone, it has 7 little holes to pick up audio.
The microphone from base to tip, is 6.5 inches. There are a few other features of the microphone that are pretty cool.
The microphone can be raised or lowered, nothing big there. The big thing is when raised, the microphone is muted and when it is lowered the microphone is one. They make a clicking sound to let you know it is muted or unmuted. Another nice thing about the microphone is that it is not just a stiff piece of plastic, it’s almost as if it was made out of rubber, it can be bent to extremes. Check out this video to give you an example of what I mean.
Moving up a little, we have the HyperX logo and to the left and right of that something that makes these headphones a little more comfortable.
So as you know, you can wear earphones like this, but the band can make them a little uncomfortable because they squeeze your head a bit. It’s something we have gotten used to.
Usually available only in more expensive headphones, you can actually tilt the headphones a bit, so they fit much nicer.
You can tilt them inwards or outwards independently.
This is how you would put down every other pair of headphones, and it works but you have to be incredibly careful with them. For example, if you are headed to a LAN party and have to toss them in your bookbag, or store them somewhere.
You can actually rotate the earcups so that they would fit perfectly in your bag, or to hug the wall if you hang them.
Tossing them in my bag, heading out for a bit with my friends to a LAN party.
You can rotate them individually if you like, you don’t need to rotate them both. Let’s move up a little more. They can be rotated inwards up to 90 degrees.
Like most headsets, they are adjustable but unlike most other headsets, the slider is not made out of cheap plastic. The sliders are actually made out of high quality steel, just to make sure they last. Following our path, we find the headband.
The top is relatively plain, but it does have the HYPERX logo. Underneath that…
Just like the ear cups, the head band comes lined with the HyperX signature premium memory foam Leatherette. They are amazingly soft and cushy, to make it extra comfortable, and I am bald, and they don’t make my head sweat any so you folically gifted individuals should be fine.
Off a little more to the other earcup, I won’t bore you with the same the other one had, but there is a volume slider.
Pretty self-explanatory I think, but to raise the volume, the slider the slider towards the + and to lower the volume you move it to the -.
Just in case some of you are not sure how to plug it in and configure it, I will go over that for you in this next chapter.
[nextpage title=”Installing and Configuring”]
First off, there is no software to install, no drivers at all so you will not need to download anything, HyperX did a great job on that. If you go to their website for these drivers and click support, here is what you will find under the “Downloads & Drivers” section.
OK, where do the cables go connected?
If you turn your PC around, you will notice there are a few 3.5mm ports or plugs. This particular PC, a friends that I am working on only has 5.1 audio, but some of you might have 7.1 or more audio and might have more ports. Regardless of this you will typically have a green one and a pink one too, if you are color blind… it might be a little rough but if you look closely you will also see an audio out and a microphone.
After you find the green and the pink ports, you will grab your 2 cables that come from the headphones, well they split from a single cable with the Y adapter, and look at the colors on the end. If you look at the pic above, the rings on the connectors are pink and green as well to tell you were to plug it in, and once again if you are color blind, HyperX was thoughtful enough to label the ends as well.
Here are have the 2 barely plugged in so that you can see the colored rings.
and in this picture you can see the cables fully plugged in… but now what, do they start working immediately? Well, sometimes they will work right away but if you have other audio devices plugged in you will need to do a little configuring, but its real easy and I will also show you here.
Over on the taskbar, on the bottom right hand corner, you will see a little speaker looking icon, right click on it and chose “Playback devices”
On the playback tab, select your sound card, it can be a SoundMax, AC97, HD, Sound Blaster or a ton of other ones, but make sure they are the correct ones the right click on them.
When you right click on them, a bunch of things will appear on the drop down, you will need to select “Set as Default Device” and “Set as Default Communications Device”.
After you do that, this will be the only device with a green check next to it. Now let’s enable the microphone, so click on the “Recording” tab, right next to the Playback tab we just did some configuring in.
Here will be just like we saw before, select your sound card.
Now right click on it again, and be sure to select “Set as Default Device” and “Set as Default Communications Device”.
Like before, after setting the default device, it will be the only device with a green check next to it. OK, we are almost done, now lets configure them real quick. So now, go back to the “Playback” tab.
Here, highlight the newly enabled audio device and click “Configure”
The “Speaker Setup” window will appear and here, you will want to make sure you select “Stereo” and click “Test”.
The test will play a sound on the left and right channels of your headphones, you should hear it. If you don’t, you might have the slider for the audio lowered all the way, or might have some other issues, but we will assume it is working for now then click “Next”.
On the “Select full-range speakers” section, make sure the “Front left and right” check box has a check in it then click “Next”.
You are now finished configuring the headphone, so click “Finish”. Now we will need to configure the microphone, so now click on the “Recording” tab, select the newly green checked Microphone and click “Configure”.
This will open up the “Speech Recognition” section.
Here click on “Set up microphone”
On the “Microphone Setup Wizard” section, make sure you have the “Headset Microphone” selected and click “Next”.
After clicking “Next”, you will start the wizard, make sure your microphone is where you would normally have it and click “Next”.
And here you will need to read the sentence “Peter dictates to his computer. He prefers it to typing, and particularly prefers it to pen and paper.”. It might take a few tries but afterwards the “Next” button will activate, so click “Next” when it does.
You are finally done here, so click “Finish” and OK on the other audio windows that are open.
Now that we have setup the headphones and the microphone, whats next? In the next chapter I do some recording in Battlefield One then I show you how the HyperX CLOUD Stinger sounds like on the Playstation 4, Motorola Droid Maxx, and on my wife’s Apple iPhone 5c.
[nextpage title=”How does it work?”]
Now that we have gotten through the makeup and setup of these headphones, which is in my opinion very nice for the price, let’s check out a little on how the microphone works in game. To show you, I played Battlefield One and I recorded myself. Check it out.
Like one of the youtubers on the video commented, “doesn’t sound like the soup can tinny sound” and he’s right, they sound great.
It not only connects to a computer, since it is using 3.5mm jacks, it can be connected to just about anything either to record or to hear. In this video, I show you how to connect it to the Playstation 4, I show you how to enable it in the PS4 and also how to enable and disable the microphone. Then I show you how it sounds and my Motorola Droid Maxx, my wifes Apple iPhone 5c and how it records on my PC.
I show you a little on how it sounds too, though it is a bit difficult since I had to raise the headphones to the camera, so you can hear a little bit. I played Unravel and Spelunker World just to hear the some of the audio but I did play Plants Versus Zombies to test the microphone and speaking to the players, they said it sounded great.
A short chapter, but it is the last, so let’s see if you agree with my findings on these headphones.
[nextpage title=”Final Thoughts and Conclusion”]
It seems like every company comes out with a different headphone that can do something special, or just a pair that makes sounds but HyperX doesn’t want to make a pair that just makes sounds, they want to stand out. Unsurprising HyperX did an amazing job with these headphones paying attention to even the smallest details, many of which some might not even notice.
Now, some might complain that the cable is not braided, it’s not USB and it’s not Virtual 7.1 surround like the HyperX Cloud II headphones, which also were nice but with all of those extra’s comes a bigger bill. You can still pick up a pair of HyperX CLOUD II’s, and they do sound great, but for half the price you can pick up the Stinger. I have reviewed and still own both… but I have to say I prefer the Stinger, the microphone sounds so much better and the audio to me sounds much better, there’s nothing Virtual about this quality.
With that said, I have to give these headphones a 5 out of 5 Stars, and award it Dragon Bloggers Editor’s choice.
The Cost, Quality, Performance, Durability and features are spectacular for the price.
We are influencers and brand affiliates. This post contains affiliate links, most which go to Amazon and are Geo-Affiliate links to nearest Amazon store.
I have spent many years in the PC boutique name space as Product Development Engineer for Alienware and later Dell through Alienware’s acquisition and finally Velocity Micro. During these years I spent my time developing new configurations, products and technologies with companies such as AMD, Asus, Intel, Microsoft, NVIDIA and more. The Arts, Gaming, New & Old technologies drive my interests and passion. Now as my day job, I am an IT Manager but doing reviews on my time and my dime.