3
HyperX Cloud Alpha
KINGSTON £70
Bearing the fruits of
HyperX Cloud’s long
legacy of excellence, the
newest Cloud Alpha presents
excellent sound and build quality
with the essential features done
well, and no feature-flab inflating
the price. The stereo soundscape
in this closed-back design is
punchier in the low end than I’d
usually go for, but the extra bass
doesn’t interfere with overall
clarity – and frankly, in games and
music environments, it sounds
great. Each 50mm driver’s dual
chamber design is intended to
give low, medium and high
frequencies space to resonate
without interfering with each
other, and you do get a sense of
that while listening to them.Elsewhere it’s the usual
impressive build quality, generous
padding, clear mic and high
comfort levels over longer play
sessions that the Cloud design
has always offered. The in-line
controls are the only exception to
that rule – they feel flimsy in
comparison to the rest of the
package. I recommend the Alpha
over the Cloud II (only just)
because of the better frequency
response range, although
there’s very little separating the
two models.Powerful but clear sound
Bombproof build quality
No detachable cable
Flimsy in-line controlsVERDICTSPECS WIRELESS: NO / DRIVERS: 5 0MM DUAL CHAMBER NEODYMIUM / CONNECTIVITY: 3.5MM ANALOGUE /
FREQUENCY: 1 3HZ-27,000HZ / FEATURES: DETACHABLE NOISE-CANCELLING MIC, IN-LINE CABLE CONTROLS
4
Arctis Pro Wireless
STEELSERIES £300
Essentially this is a
fusion of two great
SteelSeries models, old
and new. The Arctis Pro Wireless
combines the wireless capability
and digital control box of the old
Siberia 800 model with the
comfort and sound performance
of the newer Arctis range.
Positioned right at the top end of
the roster, the Arctis Pro Wireless
is all about luxury. You need to
pay for that luxury for sure, but
what you get is definitely worth
the money.
As with the old Siberia 800, I
love the ability to change
batteries quickly, plugging the
depleted one into the base station
to charge, and popping the
charged one out so that younever need to plug the headset in,
or worse, take a break from
gaming while you wait for it to
charge. I love the controls housed
in that base station’s digital
display too: chat mix, virtual
surround, EQ presets and more
can all be adjusted with a few
taps. The icing on the cake is
Bluetooth: it teams up with the
2.4G wireless connectivity for
lossless sound, and means you
can use it with mobile devices in
addition to your PC. This headset
is an excellent all-rounder.Controleverythingononebox
Smart battery switching design
Menus sometimes confusing
ExpensiveVERDICTSPECS WIRELESS: YES / DRIVERS: 40 MM NEODYMIUM / CONNECTIVITY: USB WIRELESS, OPTICAL, 3.5MM ANALOGUE /
FREQUENCY: 1 0HZ-40,000HZ / FEATURES: NOISE-CANCELLING MIC, RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES W/ BASE STATION33GROUP TEST