HyperX Cloud Stinger S Gaming Headset Review

A new color and a new dongle

Photo taken by the author.

The Cloud Stinger family is HyperX’s budget lineup of headsets, and if you click through to their official product page and scroll to the bottom, you’ll see it contains a frightening number of different models. I tried to take a screenshot of the whole table of options but it wouldn’t fit completely in view even on my 4K display.

That’s a lot of models, and there are three more to the right that wouldn’t fit in this capture. Screenshot taken by the author.

Here are the important details to remember when trying to sort through this mess. The Stinger family’s price ranges from about $40 on up to $99. The “Core” models use smaller 40mm drivers, less luxurious ear pads, and cheaper frame materials. The standard non-Core models use full memory foam padding, feature 50mm drivers with more powerful sound reproduction, and have a beefier build. All of them have attached cables and microphones, and the wireless models offer zero backup analog connection.

The Cloud Stinger S (official page) launched earlier this week for $60, and it’s an update of the very first Stinger model that I reviewed all the way back in 2017. I bought one from Amazon to check it out. It’s a closed-back, wired gaming headset with a long 2.5m cable, a swivel-to-mute…