Closer Examination

By far the most distinctive part of the HyperX Cloud Alpha is its red aluminum frame that connects the ear cups to the headband. Its styling is very aggressive, and I'm quite confident that many gamers will absolutely love it. If you're not that into gaming aesthetics and would just prefer a headset that's not going to stick out too much when placed next to your living room PC, you probably won't be too crazy about the route HyperX decided to take this time around. Both the Cloud Gaming and Cloud II Gaming look slightly more neutral - if only for the metal frame that is solid instead of perforated.


The black and red theme is continued on the headband, where we can see red stitching on its edges and a subtly engraved HyperX logo on top.


The inner side of the headband is covered in pleather and filled with memory foam. That makes it soft and very comfortable.


The same combination of pleather and soft memory foam can be found on the ear cushions. They feel very luxurious to the touch, but not too much so, unlike the ear cushions on my Oppo PM-3s, $400 hi-fi planar magnetic headphones.


They can easily be removed and replaced with a different pair as well, potentially made from a different material altogether. Since the seal the ear cushions of the Cloud Alpha form with the ears is quite tight, I'm guessing many will grab a mesh fabric pair of ear cushions for the summer months, for when the pleather ones will definitely cause your ears to sweat.


The ear cups look exactly like those on the HyperX Cloud II Gaming. The metal plate that covers them is decorated with the HyperX logo, and their outer frame is rubberized.


There are two 3.5-mm ports on the headset. One of them is used to plug in the supplied microphone, while the other is where the cable goes in. You're welcome to use a different audio cable than the one supplied if that's your thing. Unfortunately, you won't be able to use just any other microphone because the associated plug is made in a way that only has the supplied microphone fits. I tried combining the Cloud Alpha with the microphone that comes with the Cloud Gaming headset - it was a no-go as the connector is slightly different.


The cable is split into two parts. The first part is 1.2 meters long and terminates in a 4-pole TRRS plug, which you'll use when connecting the Cloud Alpha to console gamepads, mobile devices, or laptops, under others. If your audio source uses two separate ports for audio input (microphone) and output (headphones), which is the case with most PCs and dedicated sound cards, the secondary 2-meter cable comes into play. That one terminates in a pair of 3-pole TRS plugs. Both cables are braided and feel sturdy without it translating any noise into the headphones when touching clothes or anything else.


As with other Cloud headsets, except for the Revolver and Revolver S, HyperX went with a bendable microphone arm covered with a series of metal rings. Thanks to that, positioning the head of the microphone in any way preferred without having to worry about it not staying in place is easily done. The head is covered with a windscreen, which makes it look more professional.


You can of course remove the windscreen and use the microphone like that, but there's no good reason to do so. It looks worse, is more prone to collecting dust, and can degrade voice clarity.


35 centimeters down the "main" cable, you'll find an in-line remote control, the same one HyperX uses on the so-called CloudX Pro version of their Cloud Gaming headset. It's small, far too small for its weight to be pulling your head down, and consists of a microphone mute switch and a volume dial, which can be accessed and rotated from two sides. The solution works fine, but I'd be happier if the controls were on the headset itself. That way, I'd always know where they were instead of having to feel around my chest to then slide my fingers down the cable for the remote.