Audio Performance

I'll split the audio performance analysis into two parts—gaming and music. Even though the headset produces the same sound regardless of what it's being used for, you won't necessarily look for the same things while annihilating your virtual opponents as you will when listening to your favorite tunes.

Gaming

After realizing how comfortable the Cloud Flight is, I really, really wanted it to sound good, as that would instantly mean that it has the potential to become one of my all-time favorite wireless headsets. I was somewhat worried that it wouldn't be able to match the audio performance of the $100, analogue Cloud Alpha (reviewed here) since it doesn't use the dual-chamber speaker driver design that made the Alpha sound as good as it did. Much to my joy, there was no reason to worry—the Cloud Flight sounds great, both in wireless and wired mode.

The sound is well balanced, pleasantly bassy, nicely detailed and surgically precise in terms of spatial positioning. And that's exactly why I mentioned Shroud, one of the best PUBG players in the world, in the introduction of this review. The guy had no problem picking up and showing off the Cloud Flight in his streams simply because the headset provided him with all the information about his enemies he could possibly need. Be it PUBG, Battlefield 1, CS:GO or any other game where it's essential that you know where the threat is looming from, the Cloud Flight delivers.

At the same time, it doesn't ignore everything else on account of accuracy. It also has plenty of bass to create excitement and much-needed warmth and manages to stay cohesive and clean when reproducing high frequencies. Thanks to that, there is no ear fatigue during even extended gaming sessions. If I had to compare it to the Cloud Alpha, the Alpha has more snap in the low-end and slightly smoother, less pronounced highs. In comparison to the SteelSeries Arctis 7, the Cloud Flight sounds fuller and more fun. The Arctis 7 is thinner in the bass region, although that can be somewhat improved upon by using the equalizer within its driver. Still, in terms of out-of-the-box sound performance, both for gaming and music, the Cloud Flight offers slightly more than its main rival.

If you're into virtual surround sound, bad news—it's not supported at all. The Cloud Flight is a stereo gaming headset and there's no getting around that.

Music

The fun sound of the Cloud Flight translates nicely from games to music, resulting in very good performance in various genres. The bass won't leave you disappointed even if you're primarily into EDM and rap. At the same time, there's enough detail and clarity to make other genres, such as heavily guitar-driven ones, sound good as well.

If there's one aspect I find potentially lacking sound performance-wise, it's the maximum volume level in wireless mode. I constantly had the Cloud Flight turned all the way up, both while gaming and listening to music. That gave me enough volume to be able to enjoy both properly, but sometimes, I did have the urge to turn a certain song up even more, simply to get even more of that nice sound the Cloud Flight produces. In wireless mode, that was impossible—once the volume in Windows reaches 100, that's as far as you can possibly go.

One possible solution is to connect the Cloud Flight with a wire. Assuming you own a decent integrated sound card, or an external DAC with a headphone amplifier, you'll be able to get much more volume than the Cloud Flight could ever offer you in wireless mode. You don't have to worry about distortions either—it can handle being played much louder than what its wireless mode is capped to.

This isn't a big issue as I'm confident most users won't ever feel the need to go above the volume the Cloud Flight offers. For those who will, there's a solution, albeit not a particularly practical one.