A really good pair of headphones should be like a comfy pair of
shoes.
How so? You just put them on, and forget that they’re
there. HyperX have removed the red from their Cloud Revolver
headsets, added an ‘S’ (which normally brings on outbreaks of red –
well, in cars) and, more importantly, added simulated Dolby Digital
7.1 surround sound. In headphones! Isn’t technology grand?!
They may not have much funk looks-wise, but these puppies certainly
pass the comfy test. The ear pads gently swallow your ears while the
headband automagically adjust top your bonce. We won’t say that it’s
like they’re not even there feel-wise – they still weigh around 360g
- but we didn’t find ourselves scratching our heads every five
seconds in the way such devices usually have in the past.
Considering that it would be insulting to give our previous headset
to a deaf person (caveat: we don’t use headphones very often) the
Cloud Revolver S was/were (take your pick) a sonic revelation. We
normally revel in our receiver and myriad speakers pumping out the
sounds (as for our neighbours, well, if they’d stop slamming their
fucking door all the time...), but these helped us understand why
some people prefer to escape into their own bubble of personal
sound. We swear we were yelling out “Behind you! Behind you!” at
times.
We tested them on PS4, PC, Xbone and Switch. This
involves various compatibilities. The handy little clip-on surround
box, which has big on/off buttons for both surround and the
microphone, as well as headphone and mic volume and an equalizer
button, took seconds to get happening when plugged into the PS4 via
USB. PC delivered much the same result. For Xbone and Switch you
just plug directly into the controller and unit respectively. This
knocks the 7.1 out of contention, but you still get pretty darned
fab sound.
There’s quite some freedom of movement, too,
especially when factoring in the extension cable. This brings the
length to over two metres – even more with the control box attached.
The detachable microphone is nice and bendy, although it got in
our way a few times (likely more us than it). There were no
complaints from anybody about the audio quality that it delivered,
except perhaps for our regular bouts of blocked throat clearing.
AHEM! Sorry about that, folks. Melbourne. Winter. OK?
We’re
not experts on headsets, but we know what we hate – and we don’t
hate these. The HyperX Cloud Revolver S certainly isn’t the cheapest
option out there, nor the funkiest looking (why’d they nix the
redness?) What we’ve learned by now, however, is that sometimes
paying a little more is worth it in the long run – and looks aren’t
everything.
