Microphone Performance

The microphone of the HyperX Cloud Alpha S was tested by connecting it to the ASUS Maximus XI Formula motherboard. To review the microphone's sound and compare it to similar headsets, I used the Adam A7X speakers and Shure SRH840 headphones, both being studio monitors, connected to Audiolab's M-DAC, a high-quality digital-to-analog converter that functions as an external sound card when connected to a PC. Testing was done in Discord, TeamSpeak, Skype, and Audacity, and I also used Audacity to record sound from the microphone. The sound was recorded with microphone sensitivity set to 100% and was not post-processed or edited in any way.

For reference, this voice recording was made with the Rode NT-USB, a high-quality studio microphone:



This is the sound recorded by using the detachable bi-directional microphone supplied with the HyperX Cloud Alpha S:



The microphone sounds decent but somewhat compressed. I found it perfectly usable, clear and loud enough for in-game communication with my teammates (Discord and TeamSpeak 3), although I wouldn't recommend using it for anything more serious than that. Well, at least not when it's plugged into the supplied USB sound card. When you plug it into a different sound card, it becomes very clear that the built-in capsule can offer better performance and is effectively bogged down by the supplied USB sound card. Take a listen of these two samples recorded by plugging the headset into an integrated sound card (ASUS SupremeFX S1220 audio codec) and the Creative Sound Blaster E1 external USB sound card.




Easily discernible is that my voice sounds much more natural, airy, and pleasant. It's hard to tell why the supplied USB sound card doesn't offer a higher-quality microphone input, but it is what it is. I ran into a similar issue back in 2017 when I reviewed the HyperX Cloud Revolver S (read it here). HyperX needs to step up its sound card quality game, especially in the input department.

Take a listen of the following samples to hear how the HyperX Cloud Alpha S compares to some other gaming headsets out there.