"Best gaming headset for audiophiles" is one of the categories on our list of best gaming headsets, and it's easy to look at that and wonder if you shouldn't be looking at just audiophile headsets to begin with. Headsets are mainly about audio, after all, and it does seem to logically follow that audiophile headsets would have the best audio (I mean, it's in the name).

Well, not so fast.

Headsets are mainly about audio, but that doesn't mean that the "objectively" best-sounding headset by audiophile standards translates to the best-sounding headset by gaming standards. Nor does it mean that you should choose your gaming headset based on audio quality at the expense of everything else.

Audiophile headsets, including headphones, are primarily designed around one thing: audio fidelity. In other words, they're designed and tuned to reproduce audio exactly as it was recorded, which is exactly as the artist heard it when they were recording it, and is therefore exactly as the artist intended for it to be heard. This doesn't necessarily mean it's going to sound amazing to everyone. In fact, to many people it will probably sound somewhat underwhelming, but it's really the only objective way we have of measuring what makes audio "good," since how something sounds depends largely on individual listeners' preferences.

Gaming headsets, on the other hand, are designed around... well, everything else. This doesn't mean they ignore audio fidelity completely, but it tends to not be the priority. (Many premium flagship gaming headsets have been focusing more on audio fidelity in recent years, but it's still generally not the priority.) Gaming headsets tend to focus on other features, such as comfort, convenience, and communication. And when they do focus on audio, their priority is about making games sound good — which is generally not the same as making them sound accurate to their original recording.

Don't get me wrong, some of the "audiophile" elements do help games sound better; for example, detailed, layered sound and a wide soundstage make virtual environments sound more realistic. But ultimate realism isn't always what gamers are looking for. If you're playing a competitive first-person shooter, you're probably looking for audio cues to give you a tactical advantage: you want sound that's directionally accurate and that singles out specific details, such as footsteps and gunshots. You're not here to appreciate the individual details you can pick out from different layers of audio if those details prevent you from hearing what's important. If you're playing a game that's designed to make you feel something with the sound, an epic fantasy or a horror RPG, for example, then the goal isn't really accurate sound reproduction; it's for the game to sound epic (or horrifying, I guess).

There isn't a universally perfect answer, of course, because it depends on how you're going to use the headset. It's easy to get swept up in the audiophile hype, but you shouldn't ditch your mainstream gaming just yet. Here's what you should consider before buying into either side.

Comfort

There are plenty of audiophile headsets and gaming headsets that are comfortable — and plenty that are... not so much. While both categories tend to put comfort at least somewhat high on the priority list, comfort means different things for different listeners. Audiophile headsets tend to be larger and more open — larger drivers can produce more sound with less movement, and less movement means less distortion; an open-back design lets sound waves move through the headset instead of bouncing off the enclosure for a wider soundstage and better spatial accuracy. Open-back headsets offer more listening comfort: you won't feel like the sound is closing in and overwhelming you like you will with closed-back headsets, and you'll be able to listen for longer.

Gaming headsets, on the other hand, are largely closed-back (though there are several open-back gaming headsets on the market now, including the Corsair Virtuoso Pro and the Turtle Beach Atlas Air), with smaller drivers, so there's not as much consideration toward listening comfort. They do, however, tend to focus more on physical comfort. They are lightweight and flexible, with gamer-oriented features such as Turtle Beach's "ProSpecs" earpads, which have softer foam near the front to prevent discomfort for gamers who wear glasses. Or the hinge-free design of Logitech's G735 headset, to prevent snagging on longer hair and piercings. Audiophile headsets are designed to be physically comfortable, but gaming headsets are specifically designed around the gaming audience.

Convenience

Convenience is one area in which gaming headsets will basically always win, hands-down. Not only are audiophile headsets not designed with convenience in mind, they're usually the opposite: wired, with very little non-audio-focused tech, and many require a separate audio interface to even work with a PC or gaming console.

Gaming headsets, on the other hand, are packed with technology to make your life easier. Headsets like the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II and the Razer BlackShark V3 Pro let you connect to multiple devices and switch between them seamlessly, listen to two audio sources simultaneously, and quickly cycle through game-ready EQ presets. Gaming headsets try to put as many controls as possible at your fingertips, from on-ear dials and buttons to detailed app-based EQ tuning to separate desktop base stations (such as the one included with the HyperX Cloud Alpha 2 Wireless).

Even wired gaming headsets often include multiple ways to connect to various devices. For instance, the HyperX Cloud Alpha Air is wired, but it comes with a standard 3.5mm analog cable for plugging into a standard audio jack, a USB-C extension (with USB-A converter) for plugging into a USB-C/USB-A port, and a PC headset extension for plugging into separate audio/mic jacks.

The wireless gaming headsets from the audiophile sector that have these features still manage to implement them in a way that is... well, inconvenient. Audeze's Maxwell and Maxwell 2 allow for dual-wireless connectivity but do not give you a way to manually switch between the two. Instead, Bluetooth always takes precedence over 2.4GHz wireless — full stop. It's infuriating, and it's one of my only real grievances with those headsets.

Communication

A standalone USB gaming mic will almost always make you sound better than a built-in headset mic. But that doesn't mean that you should ignore headset mics or how gaming headsets implement other features that help you communicate with others, whether they're team members or stream viewers, while gaming. (Besides, some headsets, such as the Razer BlackShark V2 Pro (2023), have microphones that actually can rival the best USB gaming mics.)

If you go with an audiophile headset — or headphones — you'll likely need to invest in a separate gaming mic regardless. There's more to communication than just the mic, though. Many gaming headsets, such as SteelSeries' Arctis Nova series, have built-in ChatMix, which lets you channel your game audio and your chat audio through different channels and mix them together on your headset. This lets you dial up (or dial down) chat if you need to hear what's being said over whatever epic music or sound effects are playing in the game. Gaming headsets are also backed by peripheral software that, while often frustrating, is, ultimately, designed around the needs of gamers. Software-based noise reduction/cancellation, microphone EQs, and sidetone are all particularly useful communication tools that you won't find on most audiophile headsets.

Audiophile or gaming headset?

At the end of the day, audiophile headsets tend to focus on audio above everything, which is exactly what audiophiles want. But it's not really what most gamers want. A great gaming headset does have to sound good, but that's not all it has to do.

There are, of course, gaming headsets from audiophile companies, such as the Audeze Maxwell and Maxwell 2, as well as headsets from gaming companies that implement audiophile features, such as the open-back Corsair Virtuoso Pro. And while a headset like the Audeze Maxwell 2 does a decent job of bridging the gap between audiophile and gaming, it makes some sacrifices; it's a very heavy headset (thanks in part to its large, 90mm planar magnetic drivers), though it is relatively comfortable for its weight. It sounds great, but it doesn't do the best job of implementing the gamer side of things — while it has a wide soundstage and decent spatial immersion, that's not the same as pinpoint spatial accuracy when you're listening for footsteps and gunshots.

And while the much pricier Audeze LCD-GX sounds incredible, it's basically the perfect example of how an audiophile headset focuses on sound at the expense of all else, as its gaming features are... mostly non-existent. The only thing that really makes the LCD-GX gamer-friendly is the fact that you can plug it directly into a PC because it comes with a 3.5mm cable and a PC (dual 3.5mm headphone/mic) converter.

So, should you get an audiophile headset in lieu of a gaming headset? Probably not. If you need a gaming headset for its gaming features: multi-device connectivity, super accurate positional audio for tactical advantage in shooting games, the ability to mix chat and game audio on the spot, convenient microphone, connection, and volume controls at your fingertips, or physical comfort for a marathon gaming session, definitely not. Yes, you will give up some audio fidelity and quality by picking a gaming headset over an audiophile one, but you aren't going to miss that when you're arguing over voice chat while trying to determine how far away the enemy is.

HyperX has decided to toss its hat in the ring of open-back gaming headsets with its newest, the Cloud Alpha Air. It's definitely not the first open-back headset we've seen in the past few years — others include the $200 Corsair Virtuoso Pro, the $180 Turtle Beach Atlas Air, and, of course, the $900 Audeze LCD-GX. The Cloud Alpha Air is at least somewhat budget-friendly at just $149.99.

The Cloud Alpha Air is a wired over-ear open-back gaming headset designed for comfort and immersion. It features dynamic 40mm drivers with a frequency response range of 20 - 20,000 Hz and a special "HyperX Bass Tube" to keep the low end present without compromising the open-back design. And, like other HyperX headsets (which are some of the best gaming headsets we've tested), it's extremely lightweight and easy to wear for hours at a time.

Design and Comfort of the Cloud Alpha Air

The Cloud Alpha Air is a wired over-ear (circumaural) open-back headset with a detachable boom microphone. It has large, plastic oval-shaped earcups with metal grilles attached to a padded steel headband. It's a fairly lightweight headset — HyperX has its weight listed at 9.6 ounces (272g) without the boom mic attached (the boom mic is listed at approximately 0.42 ounces / 12g), but we found the headset weighed closer to 10 ounces (283g) (the boom mic, however, weighed closer to 0.07oz / 2g), and came in at just under 10.6 ounces (300g) with both the boom mic and cables attached. This still makes it one of HyperX's lightest headsets — slightly lighter than the HyperX Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless and Turtle Beach's Atlas Air open-back headset.

The Cloud Alpha Air's earcups are pretty roomy, with thick memory foam padding covered in soft ultrasuede material. The earcups tilt and swivel a little, but they're not as flexible as the earcups on many gaming headsets — and they don't swivel flat. The headset features a steel headband with leatherette-covered padding at the top and metal-reinforced yokes, so that explains the rigidity. The earcups are independently height-adjustable, with about an inch of extension for a maximum inner headband measurement of approximately 12 inches (300mm).

I found the Cloud Alpha Air to be very comfortable, despite the headband's relative rigidity, since the whole package is pretty lightweight and well-padded. However, I can see users with larger heads having problems with the top of the headband, as the padding did press on my crown slightly.

This is a wired headset, so there aren't a lot of ports or on-ear controls. The left earcup has two 3.5mm jacks, one for the detachable boom mic and one for the primary audio cable, as well as a microphone mute button, and the right earcup has a volume wheel.

The Cloud Alpha Air is wired, but the wires are detachable, and it comes with everything you need in the box to plug it into various devices. The main cable is a standard 4-foot (1.2m) 3.5mm, and it comes with two extension cables: a 4.5-foot (1.37m) 3.5mm to USB-C extension (with a USB-C to USB-A converter attached) for plugging it into a PC or console, and a 3.5-foot (1m) PC extension cable with separate audio and microphone jacks. That gets you about 8 - 8.5 feet of cable when you're plugged into your PC, which is decent — though I would personally prefer single long cables instead of the extension system, as the extension system means there's a weight (where the cables connect) in the middle. The cables are braided and seem high-quality, if a bit heavy. The headset also comes with its detachable boom microphone in the box, as well as a thick drawstring carrying bag for keeping everything together.

Specs

Audio Performance of the Cloud Alpha Air

The Cloud Alpha Air features dynamic 40mm neodymium drivers, with a frequency response range of 20 - 20,000 Hz (still pretty standard for gaming headsets, despite several companies coming out with premium models that have wider ranges).

Music sounds very good on the Cloud Alpha Air. The headset has a mostly neutral sound profile, with bright, detailed highs, a full, present mid-range, and solid but not overly powerful bass. It definitely has a wider sound stage than its closed-back counterparts, though it's not quite as wide or as open as some open-back headsets (such as the Audeze LCD-GX). Mid-range-heavy songs such as K-931's Lonely World and Enya's Orinoco Flow sounded especially dynamic. The headset has a built-in "HyperX Bass Tube" designed to maintain powerful bass, despite its open-back style. This works decently well — while I still found bass to be more powerful on closed-back headsets such as the Razer BlackShark V3 Pro, the bass was definitely present (and fairly detailed — I could hear the full run of the bass drum in Lorde's Royals).

Games sound even better on the Cloud Alpha Air, thanks to the open-back design. Games with multi-layered audio environments, such as Uncharted 4 and God of War: Ragnarok, really stood out on the headset — I could hear every individual creature in jungles and make out conversations with (possibly unrealistic) clarity in cities. Directional audio was also very good, though I would probably still opt for a closed-back headset for competitive first-person shooters where the direction of footsteps and gunshots is paramount. But you can't beat open-back headsets for exploring an open world (and for being able to hear things happening in the real world).

Microphone of the Cloud Alpha Air

The Cloud Alpha Air has a detachable 10mm boom microphone with a unidirectional polar pattern. It sits at the end of a 3-inch flexible metal gooseneck you can bend toward your mouth for better pickup, and the arm has a small red indicator light near the microphone end that lets you know when it's muted. It's the same microphone found on HyperX's other premium headsets, including the Cloud III S Wireless and the Cloud Alpha 2 Wireless.

The mic performs about as well as expected — it's good for a headset mic, but it's definitely still a headset mic. My voice was clear and full-sounding over both voice chat and in recordings. But the mic's pickup was pretty low by default — for other HyperX headsets I've been able to adjust the gain in its Ngenuity software, but I wasn't able to get Ngenuity to recognize the Cloud Alpha Air (I imagine if it had recognized it, it would have been adjustable, however). Hopefully this is fixed in a software or firmware update soon.

The mic mute button is easy to press, and the indicator light is a nice thought — but it was too low and too dim to be useful to me (I had to keep moving the mic up to see it, which seems like it sort of defeats the purpose of having an unobtrusive indicator light). I also had the same issue I did with the mute mic button on the HyperX Cloud III wired headset, where pressing the mute button caused a noticeable blip in my recordings.

Features and Software of the Cloud Alpha Air

The Cloud Alpha Air is supposed to be configurable with HyperX's Ngenuity peripheral software, which should let you do things such as tune the EQ and adjust the microphone's input gain. But, again, I couldn't get any version of Ngenuity to recognize the Cloud Alpha Air.

Bottom Line

If you've been thinking of getting an open-back gaming headset, the Cloud Alpha Air might be the headset you've been waiting for. As long as you don't mind the wires, it's an excellent headset for the price — it's comfortable, lightweight, and it sounds great whether you're listening to music, watching movies, or gaming. While I couldn't get it to connect to Ngenuity, I honestly don't count that as much of a point against it — peripheral software often causes more headaches than it's worth, especially for a headset that's mostly analog to begin with.

Fighting all the doom and gloom around the ever-increasing prices for our favorite gaming tech, it's nice to come across the occasional cheap deal that makes for a fantastic impulse purchase. If you want a gaming headset for the kids, or something you can chuck in a bag for travelling and not worry too much if it gets damaged, then we have a winner today! With a massive 40% knocked off the list price, the HyperX CloudX Stinger 2 is only $29.99 on the HyperX store. That's a very nice saving of $20 on the $49.99 list price shown. This is a wired gaming headset that is marketed for the Xbox, but has a standard 3.5mm combo jack, so it is compatible with any 4-pole TRRS combo-jack audio connector.

● Check out this deal at HyperX

The HyperX CloudX Stinger 2 is a wired gaming headset that connects to your audio source via a 3.5mm audio connection. The headset comes in the Xbox livery, with a mainly white color scheme and green and black accents, matching the infamous Xbox green used on their consoles and peripherals. Inside the over-ear earcups are large 50mm drivers with comfortable memory-foam earpads. This is a one-size-fits-all headset and has an adjustable headband to customize the fit. You can chat to friends and quickly cut comms with the flip-to-mute microphone, making it easy to have a conversation without everyone else in the chat hearing.

Just $29.99 is a fantastic price for a budget gaming headset from a reputable brand. You can connect these cans to any audio source with a 3.5mm audio port, but if you want to connect to your desktop and your PC doesn't have a combo jack (headset/mic combined) input and has separate headphone and Mic inputs, then you will need an extra TRRS-to-dual-TRS Y-splitter cable; these can be picked up for a few bucks from Amazon.

These days, the best gaming headsets tend to share a lot of qualities. They all sound great, have decent microphones, and are comfortable enough for full day gaming sessions. And, once you pass a certain price point, almost all of them are wireless. For years, that meant keeping track of battery statuses and remembering to charge or be faced with plugging in or logging out to recharge.

The Glorious GHS Wireless InfinitePlay changes all that with its hot-swappable battery system. Unlike other headsets with hot-swappable batteries, like the Steelseries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless and the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II, the Wireless InfinitePlay also has a built-in battery to keep the sound pumping and comms connected while swapping batteries. It sounds great and is plenty comfortable, but does it earn its $230 asking price? I think it does — and, compared to its competition, it almost feels like a bargain.

Glorious GHS Wireless InfinitePlay Specs

Design and Comfort of the Glorious GHS Wireless InfinitePlay

The Glorious Wireless InfinitePlay is the epitome of stealth. There's no RGB and the only-colored accent is at the edges of its elastic headband. It's only when you look closely that you'll see the Glorious logo in subtle gray on the right ear cup or the headband accents or the flashes of the brand’s iconic orange inside each ear cup.

Apart from those subtle accents, the headset's blacked out appearance makes it a good fit for use on the go. I wouldn’t give a second thought to wearing these out of the house if the need arose. And you may want to, because even though its asking price ($230) is lower than some of the competition, these are still pricey enough that you may want to wear them for more than just gaming — and they live up to that.

Glorious has put a lot of effort into ensuring that the Wireless InfinitePlay is exceptionally comfortable. The headset uses an elastic headstrap that runs beneath its plastic headband. Using plastic allows for a relatively lightweight design, and the elastic helps distribute what weight there is. In the two weeks I had the headset in for testing, I didn’t experience any head pain, which is something I’m particularly susceptible to.

The ear cushions are made of a soft, pliable foam that’s accommodating to glasses while still offering a good seal around each ear. They’re trimmed in fabric and are very breathable, but be warned: plenty of sound makes its way in and out of these headphones, so don’t listen to anything at high volume you wouldn’t want your roommate to hear. There’s also no ANC, which could be a deal-breaker when other flagship headsets include it.

The grip force is strong enough to create a seal, but the headset has a bad case of floppy earcups that work against that. Each earcup rotates to lay flat around your neck — usually a plus — but the yokes (hinges) holding them just aren’t strong enough to keep them from turning on their own. This doesn’t make a big difference for normal listening, but between the floppy cups, reliance on plastic, and the light weight, this doesn't feel like a $230 headset when you’re picking it up and putting it down.

The headset sports dual-mode connectivity with support for 2.4 GHz wireless and Bluetooth 5.X and can swap between them on the fly with a press behind the right earcup. Changing sources is fast and reliable, but I still wish they were simultaneous and could play at the same time.

The headset’s hallmark feature, however, is its hot-swappable battery system. Like the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II and the Steelseries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless, the InfinitePlay comes with two batteries and a base station that connects to your source and recharges your second battery. When it’s time to switch, you simply eject the battery from its spring-loaded slot on the bottom of the right cup and slide the new one into place. If you don’t need the battery system, or don’t want the base station connected to your PC all the time, you can unplug a USB Type-C dongle from the back of the dock and use it standalone for a lower profile experience.

Where the Glorious Wireless InfinitePlay truly becomes unique, however, is that it supplements its two removable batteries with a three-hour built-in back-up that can’t be removed. While every other headset as of this writing (correct me in the comments if I’m missing anything) disconnects briefly when changing batteries, the second you remove swappable battery from the earcup, the standby kicks in so you never lose connection. It’s surprisingly high capacity, too, lasting around three hours before finally requiring you to put the second battery in.

This is a genuinely useful feature and one that I expect will become standard among the “swappable battery” headsets. It’s just so convenient in comparison and truly makes this headset feel “infinite” in a way its competitors don’t.

That isn’t to say the Wireless InfinitePlay should instantly be your go-to pick in this category. Its knobs are functional when worn and annoying when not. Each ear cup features a tall knob. The left controls Game/Chat balance and the right controls volume. Neither is labeled, so there’s a good chance you’ll accidentally turn the wrong knob and then wonder why your volume is so low (because the knob is tilted more toward Chat). There’s also a microphone mute switch just below on the left and a power button on the right.

The problem is that in the pursuit of making these knobs easy to manipulate by making them tall, Glorious also made them super easy to hit by mistake when it’s hanging around your neck. Earcups up? You’ll hit them with your shoulder. Earcups down? You’ll need to watch your head and chin. Neither of these are deal breakers, but it’s a strange problem to have when it’s so apparent in actual use.

Audio Performance of the Glorious GHS Wireless InfinitePlay

To drive with sonics, the InfinitePlay uses a pair of custom-tuned 40mm dynamic drivers. In the gaming headset space, this is a common configuration, but Glorious sets it apart in several ways. The first is that the drivers are angled within each ear cup. This is a technique found on many high-end audiophile headphones with the aim of increasing the realism and spatial details of what you’re listening to. The angle is intended to mimic how sounds enter your ear in real life: typically off-axis and guided by the Pinna. The impact is real but not profound, though it translates to some pretty great competitive acoustics when paired with Windows Sonic and Dolby Atmos.

Before getting to the second way that the InfinitePlay differentiates itself, it's important to remember that gaming headsets have a reputation for being boomy and overemphasizing bass while the mids and highs get muddy and overwhelmed. The wireless InfinitePlay is much more well-rounded out of the box. The bass is emphasized, but the tuning Glorious settled on raises the mids and highs to keep key details intact. To my ear, it strikes just about the perfect balance between engaging, fun bass and high-resolution, realistic, and positionally detailed sound.

But sound preference is almost as varied as gamers themselves. Within the Glorious Core software, you're able to choose from several different preset EQs or customize your own using an accessible 5-band equalizer. During my review phase, Glorious also debuted, albeit in beta, its new parametric equalizer system. If you're comfortable with its relatively steep learning curve, it allows you to change the sound to match your exact preference.

The parametric equalizer is such an important feature that it fundamentally changes how you should consider this headset and any reviews of it. Think of a standard equalizer as a hairbrush: You can make some changes and change your look — but the changes are surface level. A parametric EQ is like going to a barber and being able to completely reinvent your look from scratch. Any claims about the headset's sound that aren’t related to its resolution or technicalities, need a big ol’ asterisk: *unless your change it*

With that in mind, the technicalities of the headset are certainly above average and fit its premium price point. The headset features a 20 Hz to 20 kHz frequency response range, which makes it capable of reproducing the full range of human hearing. Within this range, Glorious has also built in protections so that as you play with different EQ settings, you'll never need to worry about accidentally pushing the headset beyond its limits. This is a major pitfall within the audiophile space, as it's easy to introduce distortion if you're not careful. Here, that's simply not possible, as it handles all of your gain adjustments automatically.

Layer separation isn't amazing, but it is what I would consider above average. I didn't have any trouble picking out audio cues like footsteps of enemies in the next room in Battlefield 6 or little bits of occluded dialogue working through crowds in 007: First Light. Audio cues don't have the same expansive sense of space that you'll find with large-format planar magnetic drivers, but it sounds good and is up to the challenge of competitive gaming and deep listening.

The angled drivers provide a subtle improvement, but as I mentioned above, the bigger upgrade will come from turning on Dolby Atmos. If you’re not a fan of algorithmic surround, the native soundstage is mid-sized with more horizontal space than depth. It plays nice with built-in surround sound effects within games, so you have several options to choose from if you want to push a decent soundstage to good or great territory. For music and movies, the default tuning works very well. Everything from Coheed and Cambria to Zach Bryan had a fullness that was free of any of the haze or muddiness from the registers stepping on each other.

In comparison to its biggest competitors, the Steelseries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless and the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II, the InfinitePlay has more bass than the Arctis Nova Pro though isn’t quite as detailed across the board. Compared against the Stealth Pro II, the sound quality is much more apples to apples, but the parametric EQ puts it over the top for customization potential.

Taken as a whole, I think most people would be very pleased with the sound of the Glorious GHS InfinitePlay without touching a thing. But the room to play is a big asset if you are also an audio enthusiast that likes to dial in their gear.

Microphone of the Glorious GHS Wireless InfinitePlay

The Glorious GHS Wireless InfinitePlay comes with two microphones: a detachable boom mic, which plugs into the left ear cup and an embedded mic for taking calls on the go or whenever you don’t want the better mic plugged in.

While functional, the embedded microphone is worth avoiding if at all possible. It works for taking calls, but like most embedded mics, it’s muffled from being built into the earcup and too far from your mouth to sound truly clear.

The detachable boom microphone is much higher quality. Since it’s built on a gooseneck, you can adjust it and reposition it in front of your mouth. There was no pop filter included with my sample, but I didn't find the mic to need one when positioned correctly. I don’t think I would use it anyway, though, because there’s alright a slight muffled quality to vocals. It’s not bad and doesn’t have the same nasally, compressed sound that headsets like the Steelseries Arctis 7/9/etc., but it’s noticeable and prevents the headset from truly replacing desktop mic solutions you might already be using.

There aren’t many options for customizing the microphone, but there are a couple. You can adjust its gain from low to high, enable and adjust sidetone, and turn environmental noise canceling on or off. While ENC does make a difference for removing ambient background noise, disabling it didn't improve the actual quality of the audio that was captured, so I'd recommend leaving it on.

In comparison to the rest of the headset, the microphone is fine but not exceptional. For talking with friends and non-broadcast use, however, it works well.

Software and Features of the Glorious GHS Wireless InfinitePlay

I’ve been following Glorious since its founding, and while its products have usually landed in Good to Great territory, it’s a small company and its size is reflected in its Glorious Core software. Glorious has done a decent job of developing its capabilities and polish over time. It could still be made simpler for ease of use.

With that in mind, the version of Glorious Core accompanying this headset checks most boxes in features and capabilities, though it lacks competing features, like microphone EQ adjustment and vocal FX. You can adjust the EQ, sidetone, mic gain, and noise cancellation. It also lets you check battery status, Bluetooth state, and adjust how fast the headset falls asleep to save battery.

The biggest issue currently is that accessing and using the equalization features isn't as straightforward as it could be. For example, there is simply no option to access the parametric EQ. Instead, you first have to go to Custom EQ and click the Edit button, and then click to add a node. It's just not straightforward, and a handful of tools explaining its different functions would make a big difference for EQ newcomers.

Overall, Glorious Core continues its path of iterative development. If you're not a fan of software, though, Glorious still has you. You can change your settings directly to the headset across its five onboard profiles so you can take your settings with you between PCs and platforms.

Battery Life of the Glorious GHS Wireless InfinitePlay

Glorious GHS Wireless InfinitePlay is true to its name. With this headset, you don't ever have to worry about running out of battery life again. You can literally run the battery dry and then spend another few hours gaming before needing to do anything about it. With the pun fully intended, it's glorious.

Glorious rates each battery for up to 85 hours of listening time. It took a few cycles for the batteries to reach their full capacity, but I found this to be relatively accurate depending on what I was listening to, how consistently,and how long. With the battery system, it is very much a non-issue however. By swapping the battery once a week, I didn’t have to worry about battery life at all. It didn’t even get low enough to warn me about replacing it — I just changed them when the thought occurred to me and it worked perfectly.

Bottom Line

At $230, the Glorious GHS Wireless InfinitePlay finds itself rubbing shoulders with some of the best gaming headsets available today. It offers great sound and a fantastic hot-swappable battery system that eradicates low-battery anxiety, and its lower price point definitely lends it a lot of appeal in savings alone.

But the layout of its knobs and lack of ANC are shortcomings that you'll want to consider. If you're a streamer, the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro 2 is a killer pick to achieve stream-worthy vocals while still enjoying a high resolution sound. If money is no object and you demand ANC and mic options in a comfy, long-wearing design, check out the Steelseries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless.

Taken on its own, the GHS Wireless InfinitePlay is easily the best headset Glorious has released yet. It is outstanding with its infinite battery life system. It also comes in a bit cheaper than its competitors, which makes some of its trade-offs easier to accept. If you want great sound quality in a wireless headset with as close to wireless freedom as is possible today, it's definitely worth a look.

Everyone wants the freedom of a great wireless gaming headset, but it's hard to find one that's budget-friendly without compromising on... well, a lot. HyperX's new Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless is a budget-friendly (ish) wireless headset that doesn't compromise on much — it's got large, 50mm dynamic drivers with a frequency response range of 10 - 50,000 Hz, an ultra lightweight, comfortable frame with reinforced metal yokes for durability, and it gets up to 80 hours of battery life on a single charge, which is a number we usually only see in much pricier products. The Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless comes in at just under $100, which isn't nothing, but is significantly cheaper than the $200 - $300 price range of headsets with similar specs.

Design and Comfort of the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless

The Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless is an over-ear (circumaural) wireless gaming headset with a lightweight plastic frame and a non-detachable flip-to-mute boom mic. It's mostly made of plastic, with a matte black finish and some machined texturing around the outer edges of the large, oval earcups, but it does have stainless steel sliders in the headband for durability. The earcups are independently height-adjustable, and they also tilt and swivel 90 degrees for flat storage (though the headset doesn't come with a travel bag or case). The earpads and the underside of the headband are padded with soft, leatherette-covered memory foam, which does an excellent job of passive noise cancellation.

It looks like a gaming headset, mostly because it has a non-detachable boom mic. HyperX's HX logo is glossily debossed on both earcups, while the HyperX text logo adorns the top of the headband. It's not unattractive, but it does look a little cheap — I blame the matte black plastic; it's hard to have this particular finish without looking like you're cutting corners at least somewhat. It feels relatively sturdy for its weight, and the flexible frame makes me think it would hold up decently well if you take care of it. The leatherette-covered memory foam padding feels more premium than the rest of the headset, so that's a nice touch.

The Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless is expectedly lightweight, weighing in at just 10.1 ounces (286.5g). It's almost two ounces lighter than the extremely comfortable HyperX Cloud III S Wireless (12.05oz / 341.5g), and it's half an ounce lighter than the Turtle Beach Atlas Air (10.61oz / 301g), which is one of the lightest wireless headsets we've tested. It's still heavier than wired lightweight headsets, however, such as the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 1 (8.3oz / 235g).

Weight isn't the only factor when it comes to comfort, but it certainly helps — and the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless is a very comfortable and adjustable headset. The headband measures around nine inches (228.6mm) with the earcups fully retracted, and each earcup can be extended around 1.5 inches (38mm) for a total headband length of just under 12 inches (304.8mm). While it wasn't so comfortable that I forgot I was wearing it, I had no problems wearing the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless for hours at a time.

It's a wireless headset, so it's got several on-ear controls. On the left earcup, from back to front, there's a power button and a USB-C charging port. On the right earcup, from back to front, there's a multi-function button, a volume wheel, and a mode switch for switching between 2.4GHz wireless and Bluetooth.

In the box, the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless comes with a short, 1.6-foot (0.5m) USB-C to USB-C charging cable, a 2.4GHz wireless USB-C dongle, and a USB-C to USB-A adapter.

Audio Performance of the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless

The Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless has large 50mm dynamic drivers with a listed frequency response range of 10 - 50,000 Hz, which is pretty far outside the normal range of 20 - 20,000 Hz (though we often see headsets outside this range these days).

Music on the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless sounded good — a fairly neutral profile with no immediately noticeable distortion at either end of the spectrum. The bass in songs such as Kaskade's POW POW POW was powerful-feeling without being muddy, and I could hear the full reign of the kick drum at the beginning of Lorde's Royals. It wasn't the absolute clearest bass I've heard, but I was impressed with the balance between power and restraint. The mid- and high-range also sounded good, though perhaps a little too neutral for my taste. The high strings in Britney Spears' Toxic were well-curbed, but the dynamics in songs such as Farruko's Pepas and David Guetta's Titanium (ft. Sia) felt a little... lacking in excitement.

Games also sounded good on the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless. While it doesn't have a particularly wide soundstage, the headset did a good job of picking up detail in dense, layered audio environments such as the cities of Baldur's Gate 3 and Where Winds Meet, or the jungle of Uncharted 4. In noisy environments these details did tend to blend together in a way that was more cacophonous than artistically rendered (but I suppose that's pretty realistic to how audio works in the real world, too). Directional sound was accurate, if not as finely-tuned as it is in premium, performance-oriented headsets such as the Razer BlackShark V3 Pro.

The headset features dual-wireless connectivity, though not simultaneous — a switch on the right earcup lets you quickly switch between the headset's 2.4GHz wireless and Bluetooth 2 connections. Audio sounded a little compressed over the headset's Bluetooth connection, but it was fine for taking calls or scrolling through TikTok.

Specs

Microphone of the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless

The Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless has a non-detachable flip-to-mute boom microphone that sits on the end of a 3.5-inch (89mm) flexible gooseneck arm. The mic is a 6mm back electret condenser microphone with a unidirectional polar pattern, and it does a decent job of keeping background noise at bay, even without any software-based noise cancellation active.

As for quality, the mic isn't anything to write home about — it's a pretty typical headset mic that picks up vocals loud and clear, but won't make you sound like you're a professional podcaster (or anywhere near that level). My voice sounded decently full over both voice chat and in recordings, but it still had the thin, slightly fuzzy quality that easily gave away the fact that this was a headset mic and not a standalone USB gaming mic. But as long as you're not creating content, this mic is perfectly capable for communicating with coworkers, friends, and teammates.

Features and Software of the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless

The Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless is supposed to be configurable via HyperX's Ngenuity software, but I downloaded both the new Ngenuity (Ngenuity 3?) and the legacy version of Ngenuity, and neither was able to recognize the headset when it was connected to my PC (wired or wireless).

Luckily, the Cloud Stinger 3 works pretty flawlessly out of the box, so you shouldn't need the software (HyperX's Ngenuity software generally tends to be lacking on features, anyway) to use the headset. The headset comes configured by default with voice prompts that tell you when you're switching between connections and when your mic is muted/unmuted (though this is fairly obvious given that it's a flip-to-mute mic), and tapping the power button once gives you the headset's current remaining battery life. There aren't any settings I desperately wanted to change, though I did want to see if tweaking the EQ could pull out footstep details, and HyperX does boast about its software-based spatial audio on the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless' product page.

Battery Life of the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless

HyperX rates the Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless' battery life at "up to 80 hours" over 2.4GHz wireless, which is pretty impressive given how light the headset is. The BlackShark V3 Pro, which weighs 12.96 ounces (367g), gets up to 70 hours of battery life, while the 1.23-pound (560g) Audeze Maxwell 2 gets over 80 hours. Of course, HyperX's other headsets also have battery life that far outclasses their peers — the HyperX Cloud III S Wireless, which weighs 12.05 ounces (341.5g) and retails for $180 gets up to 120 hours over its 2.4GHz wireless connection.

Bottom Line

The Cloud Stinger 3 Wireless is a lightweight, comfortable wireless gaming headset that offers impressive performance and battery life for its $99.99 retail price. It has large dynamic drivers with a wide frequency response range and a fairly neutral (if a little boring) sound profile and up to 80 hours of battery life. It's extremely lightweight and comfortable, though it does look and feel a little cheap overall, and its flip-to-mute boom mic is perfectly adequate for most typical gaming situations. At $100, it's not quite what I'd call budget-friendly (more like the low end of mid-range), but it's definitely worth the price. My only real complaint is that it's a little boring (in both sound profile and looks) — for something a little more fun, I'd still recommend the $120 Corsair Void Wireless v2.