HyperX Cloud Revolver S gaming headset review / Overclockers.ua

Quite often, gaming headsets that claim to be the best of their kind come into our laboratory, but far from always they manage to prove their worth and surprise with their real capabilities, not only on paper, but also in reality. Today we would like to please you with the latest HyperX model, which will go on sale today or tomorrow – Cloud Revolver S.

The novelty is actually a development of last year’s Revolver model (without the S prefix at the end) and is the top in the American brand’s headset line. Let’s take a closer look at the Revolver S model, see how it differs from its predecessor and whether it is worth considering it “for use”.

Contents of delivery

The packaging of the HyperX Cloud Revolver S headset is unlikely to surprise fans of the series – it is made in the same style as the boxes of other models. On the front side, we see an image of headphones and a control panel, a description of the main features, including: 7.1 Dolby Surround sound, an audio card in the control panel, a microphone with an advanced noise reduction system and studio sound quality. I really want the latter to be true. In addition, below are logos that testify to the certification of the headset in the most popular VoIP services TeamSpeak and Discord, which adds confidence in its quality.

The reverse side echoes this information and announces the presence of 50mm directional drivers, a steel headband frame and memory foam filling the ear cups.

Under the dust jacket, which is not thin in itself, there is an impressive box. You can be calm for the safety of the headphones during any transportation – the design of the box is very rigid, and looking inside we will see that it is also completely filled with foam, in which the headset rests.

The package includes almost everything you need. In addition to the headset itself and the USB remote control, there is a removable microphone and a 2 m cable extension. Considering that the length of the headphone cord itself is one meter, and the cord from the remote control is 2.2 meters, the total length of the entire headset cable reaches more than five meters . We are used to the fact that top-end headsets usually come with a pair of spare ear pads made of a different material, but in this case there is no such option.

Appearance and ergonomics

Visually, the HyperX Cloud Revolver S headset almost completely repeats the predecessor model, but all the details that were criticized have been corrected and this speaks in favor of a manufacturer that listens to its customers. The design, despite its rather large size, does not seem bulky and this is achieved by the absence of a huge amount of plastic both in the headband and in the phones themselves.

The outer part of the headband is made of steel, which has a very positive effect on both the reasonable rigidity of the structure and its reliability.

Moreover, the metal frame does not end at the beginning of the bowls, but expands and forms a ring in which they are fixed. When falling from the headset, it is unlikely that something will break off or fall off and the damage will be more cosmetic than affecting performance.

The padded inner headband is ostensibly filled with the same proprietary memory foam as the ear pads, and indeed it does hold the shape of the dent a bit from pressing on it. In general, the material is quite soft and very comfortable when landing on the head. The color of the line, as in other places, the manufacturer changed from red to white, which clearly added versatility and removed notes of “gaming” loudness.

The suspension walks along plastic guides, and the elastic bands that provide tightening are located inside the headband. By the way, the clamping force is exactly as it should be – not too strong and does not put pressure on the head.

The external design of the bowls has not undergone changes in shape compared to the Revolver model, but the manufacturer has completely got rid of the glossy plastic and replaced the color of the decorative elements from red to white. Perhaps soft-touch plastic, from which the bowls are made, collects fingerprints, but it does not scratch, unlike gloss, and it looks much more expensive and more solid.

There are not very many degrees of freedom in the inner bowls. They lean in all directions, but not more than 10-15 degrees. This is absolutely enough to comfortably place them on the owner’s head and, again, adds to the reliability of the design as a whole. You can be sure that nothing will creak or dangle after several years of use.

The microphone is removable and connects to the left phone of the headset using a standard 3.5 mm plug (aka “mini-jack”). Around the plug, the leg has a rectangular shape and thanks to this kind of key, the microphone will not spin around its axis, interfering with the owner and breaking the socket.

The microphone leg is rubberized and can be bent (within reasonable limits, of course) to give it the most comfortable shape.

The material from which the ear pads are made is, of course, a substitute for leather. The filler, which was already mentioned above, is soft and moderately elastic with a “memory effect”. The ear pads are comfortable and completely cover your ears. Of course, in the summer they will be a little hot, but this is the norm for most headsets.

By removing them, we will have access to large 50mm drivers with neodymium magnets. In addition, we see that the design of the bowls provides for two sets of holes. They cannot be called phase inverters, and perhaps this will slightly reduce the pressure of the bass, but it will add transparency to the middle ones. In general, this should have a positive effect on the balance of frequencies.

Now let’s move on to what radically distinguishes the Revolver S from their predecessor – to the source. If the usual Revolver depended on the user’s audio device and the technologies provided by it, then the new model is absolutely self-sufficient. Moreover, the sound card built into the remote control supports Dolby Surround Sound, an important technology for gaming headsets that claim to play volume. The remote control is small and has all the necessary controls. On the front there are buttons for enabling / disabling the Dolby mode and a microphone, equipped with a red backlight. On the right side of the remote control there are playback and recording volume control wheels.

If the user turns off the surround sound, the stereo mode is automatically turned on, and the button on the left side allows you to switch between three equalizer presets. The three white LEDs will alternately light up to indicate the mode change.

Ergonomics and ease of use

The design of Cloud Revolver S, although it is classic, but thanks to the use of steel, definitely deserves a detailed analysis. Therefore, we begin to praise and scold.

The manufacturer managed to very accurately select the degree of compression of the metal frame of the entire structure. The force is not too high and will not put pressure on even large heads, but at the same time it is sufficient to confidently fix on the wearer’s head. The suspension also does not strain with pressure and perfectly relieves the load from the ears. But even though the headset sits well on the head and does not fall off while walking, I would not jump, run or bend over in it – it will not tolerate this and will immediately fall. Although, the mere fact that we approached such details speaks of the convenience of the design as a whole.

The cord is braided and has a reasonable thickness, so you don’t notice it when using the headset, and this is probably the best thing you can say about the wire in these headphones.

The recording quality of the microphone is just excellent, your interlocutors will be pleased with the purity of the sound. The noise suppressor also works at “five”, extraneous sounds are filtered out well. Probably the only thing you can find fault with is the design of the microphone mount. You can understand the manufacturer, because having made a non-removable rotary microphone, they immediately run into criticism from those who would like to walk down the street in a headset. But the reverse side of the coin is also present. When you take off the headset and hang it around your neck, the microphone sticks out literally in front of your nose, like an improvised front sight. The leg is not flexible enough to remove it from sight. It turns out that you have to either put up with it or turn it off every time after the end of the voice connection.

The remote control pleases with an indication of the microphone being turned off and the presence of all the necessary controls. There is nothing more to be desired from him.

In general, the headset leaves a positive impression of use. When you take it in your hands and your fingers hit the metal, you immediately feel the reliability and confidence in its fate in a few years. You can easily spend many hours in a row in it, absolutely not noticing its presence on your head and enjoying the sound quality.

sound impressions

I must say right away that any claims from this section should be taken as a compliment, because the sound of the Revolver S should be compared only with its predecessors, for example, in the face of the first HyperX Cloud. By the way, it’s worth mentioning right away that the sound of the Model S is almost identical to the regular Revolvers. Perhaps quite a bit clearer averages for last year’s model are explained by the fact that they are already well warmed up, and I’m testing the new product just out of the box.

Indeed, they can be judged and rewarded absolutely objectively without discounts on the gaming orientation, because the sound quality makes one wonder, especially after listening to many competitors. And believe me, this is a very pleasant surprise. Headphones have a very balanced sound character.

There is no unhealthy skew to lows, which is usually explained by “gaming” positioning. The bass is good and clean. Perhaps it could be a little denser with a more closed design of the phone bowls, as in the same Core of the first and second generation, but there are more degrees of freedom, which means more comfort for the user. But the low ones do not mumble and do not buzz, which is just fine.

Mids and highs are transparent and clear. There is no tightness and inconspicuousness, which usually depersonalizes the sound of gaming headsets when playing musical compositions.

Overall, the headphones deliver a great balanced sound suitable for both hip-hop and rock. An important plus is that they will allow you to adjust the equalizer and give you the sound you need.

And here we move on to the reverse side – 7.1 and game sound. We usually understand that in a gaming headset, the manufacturer makes a certain compromise. In this case, Kingston has found the perfect balance. Taking great speakers housed in a good build, they didn’t tie them to purely gaming use. The well-established Revolver headphones are complemented by a sound source that natively supports Dolby Surround. And this is probably the best of the surround sound reproduction options. Dolby-enabled devices cannot compete with other virtualization technologies or discrete multi-channel audio headsets.

In this regard, by pressing the surround sound button on the remote in games, you will be very pleasantly surprised. And after 10-15 minutes, getting used to this sound and turning off the Dolby mode, you just won’t understand how you could play in such a flat and soulless environment before. And this is true, without any exaggeration.

Games that natively support surround sound, like Battlefield, will allow headset owners to experience new colors. You really start to feel like you’re in the middle of the battlefield, and the enemies are much better positioned… if you can take your eyes off the whole gamut of sounds and focus on the stomping of the enemy running in the building above you.

Even in the classic Counter-Strike 1.6, virtualization gives its results and the game content becomes more saturated.

The only minor disadvantage is that the voices of your comrades will also be added with surround sound, but I would like them to be played in stereo mode, because the virtual room of teammates is hardly of interest to us.

conclusions

So what did we end up with? Kingston has done an excellent job of evolutionary development of its top model and released a new modification of it, namely the HyperX Cloud Revolver S headset.

While retaining the great musical sound and balanced sound, the headphones have their own detachable sound source, capable of great surround sound virtualization. Comfortable and reliable design, excellent recording quality, variability of use – everything speaks only for the use of these headphones. But the most important thing is frankly better and much more detailed sound than many competitors, and not only in games or music, but in all possible usage profiles without distortions in certain frequency ranges.

The estimated cost of the headset, according to information received from the manufacturer, will be 3789 hryvnia ($140). This is not the smallest amount for a gaming headset, but less than many rivals offering much less lively and high-quality sound for a lot of money. I usually tell you that the choice of headphones is up to everyone, because sound is extremely individual, and manufacturers often make such compromises within one product that you don’t know if you are ready to put up with them. But HyperX Cloud Revolver S can be with a pure soul and with great pleasure to advise you to purchase.