Although I've been gaming since the early 80s and built my first PC, a 486DX-33 in 1993 just to play X-Wing, I don't consider myself a hardcore gamer. I baulk at the thought of spending more than £100 for a graphics card, for instance.
I had been looking for a new headset for some time but, as I'm tight with money, couldn't bring myself to get a new one. I had been looking at the HyperX range and the Stinger looked like it might do the job. My previous gaming headset literally fell apart 18 months ago.
It was a Turtle Beach Modern Warfare 3 unit with a retail price of around £130. I was 'lucky' enough to pick one up on sale by eBuyer for much less ... about £50. To be honest, I never used any of the gaming-centric functionality. It had several pre-set modes for handling the audio from different types of games. Modes that were supposed to give you an 'edge' over your opponents in multiplayer games. But the long and short of it was that, despite its attractive packaging and the large plastic case it came in, that's how the headset always felt - plastic and cheap. Bits started coming away from it after a few months. It was also very uncomfortable with the rough gauze-like ear pads rubbing your skin. So I wasn't particularly distraught when it decided to give up the ghost. It certainly wasn't worth £130 and it's put me off buying Turtle Beach headsets.
I'm an Indie game developer and one long-term project I'm working on is a game where players have to speak into the microphone to cast spells. The thing is that it's going to be quite tricky for most players as they'll have to speak Elvish. Well, actually it's Welsh but Tolkien did use the language as the basis for one of his Elvish dialects. So I needed a new headset with a microphone. So back came my interest in the HyperX Cloud Stinger. The HyperX range of headsets had received high praise in recent years and the Stinger was no exception.
The HyperX Cloud Stinger is advertised in many places as being for PC and PS4. It will, in fact, work with pretty much any system that has a 3.5mm jack. The first thing I did was plug it into my Samsung Galaxy S7. For me, one of the biggest disappointments of the Turtle Beach unit was the sound quality. It was quite tinny and not particularly loud. I have some hearing issues so for me to get the most out of a headset, it needs to be LOUD! Thankfully, plugged into my S7, the Stinger was indeed surprisingly loud. In fact, once or twice I had to turn the volume down a notch. The Stinger has a volume control slider on the right ear cup which can be easily found with your thumb.
The sound quality was, for my ears, excellent with a fair amount of bass but wasn't over the top.
The best bit, however, was how it feels. It's quite light and the cushions completely surround your ears, rather than sit on them. Initially it felt a little tight (I have a big head) but after a while I almost forgot I was wearing them. The cups themselves are made with memory foam, like the more expensive HyperX headsets. I can certainly agree with other professional reviewers that the memory foam makes a massive difference when you're looking at long gaming sessions. Played some 3-4 hours of Elite Dangerous last night and didn't feel the need to take the headset off once.
The microphone needed some adjustment on my system. Initially it wasn't being detected but I realised that one of the drivers that handles the microphone looked to be missing. A quick driver reinstall fixed the problem. However, the microphone wasn't very responsive so I had to increase the decibel level in Windows. The sound quality from the microphone isn't too bad for a headset this price. Unlike the more expensive units, the microphone doesn't detach but it swivels vertically out of the way. Doing so will also mute the microphone.
All in all, very pleased with this product. The only potential issue is that it's almost entirely plastic. However, it still feels better built than the old Turtle Beach headset.
Incidentally, if you want to use it with an Xbox One then you need either a £20 adapter that allows you to use headsets with 3.5mm plugs, or use a controller with a built-in 3.5mm socket, like the Xbox One Elite Controller.
We bought it for £50 from Argos. You can pick them up for around £35 from Amazon. I'm sure they're a similar price at Amazon in the US. If you're looking for a no-frills headset then you could do a lot worse.
