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I’m Using The HyperX Cloud Alpha Like a Normal Person
I’m challenging myself to use the HyperX Cloud Alpha as my main audio listening device for the next thirty days, until February 5th. It’s still one of the best $99 headsets you can buy, and I think it’s the only wired model HyperX should be selling at that price point.
They’re about to complicate the situation further by releasing a premium-priced wireless version, and I want to be in the best possible position to review it when it launches.
As a weird independent online reviews person who doesn’t use affiliate links and only rarely gets sent review units, I’ve gathered a small personal collection of gaming headsets and headphones. I use two or three pairs in any given week when I’m not reviewing something, for things like music listening, gaming sessions by myself or with a friend, or my non- writing job of recording voiceover material.
When I am reviewing a new headset, I use that product exclusively for about a week, then write up my full impressions here on Medium. On those occasions where I get an embargoed pre-release product, I don’t always have a full week to test it, and so I kick into marathon mode and try to cram a week’s worth of use into a few days.
This is exhausting, and it also doesn’t represent how real customers use this stuff. Tech and game reviewers are often put into a weird time bubble by the desperate rush to get something out when people will actually click on it. Yes, I sometimes receive “free products,” but each one is a huge work time commitment of dozens of hours just so I can then write what amounts to free bonus marketing for a large brand.
Normally, I use the first quarter of the year as a time to catch up on releases I missed, or to go back and check out classic audio and tech that’s still on the market after years and years of success.
However, this year I’m doing something different: I’m going to use a gaming headset more like a normal person. For the next month, I’m going to engage with the HyperX Cloud…
