Today we are looking at arguably two of the most popular gaming headsets in the market,
under $100. The Hyperx Cloud Alpha's, and the Logitech G Pro headsets. Now both of these
headsets come with a 3.5mm audio jack so they will work with pretty much anything. So whether
you play on an XBox, a Playstation, a PC, or even a VR headset, these headsets have you covered.
But, they don't necessarily sound the same on each platform, which I'll get to later. So which one of
these, if any, should you buy? Well here I'm going to take you through what's in the box with each
headset. Go through its build quality, the look, the fit, the comfort of them. Go through sound and
mic quality as well, and I'll give you some mic samples so you can hear exactly what they sound
like, and I'll cover any unique features that either headset has. And by the end of the video
you'll get my verdict on whether either of these headsets you should consider as your next headset.
Welcome to my Tech Gear. Let's get into it!
Build quality wise we're going to look at the G Pro's here first. These are really well built.
You've got an aluminium frame with a steel band through the middle of it so they're nice
and strong. You can bend those left right and center and they're not going to break.
Really well built. I do like the ear pads, they're a nice big size so they're going to suit a range
of ears and the memory foam means that they mould to your head really nicely so i can put these on
and it fits really nicely on your head. It's also super easy to tell left from right because they've
gone and put L and R inside the ear pads so you can easily distinguish between the two.
Cable wise it comes with a braided cable. So it's a 2m braided cable here with
inline volume and mic control. Pretty standard for a gaming headset and then it also comes with
a y-splitter so you can plug it into the back of your pc. That's only a 10-13cm long splitter so
you're limited to a two meter cable here and no longer. It also comes with a USB
dongle which you can plug the headset straight into here and that enables some extra features
which I'll get to later. The mic on the headset is nice and low profile. It can be quite big on some
headsets but it's nice and low profile here. It's also detachable. There you go. So if that broke
you could just buy that you don't have to buy a brand new headset. Also, you could wear these out
and about without the microphone and they wouldn't look out of place walking down the street.
Now we're on to the Cloud Alpha's. Now these have a nice strong aluminium frame,
so similar to the Logitech. They're nice and strong. You can bend these. They're not going
to break. They're pretty bulletproof. You can bend and twist them and they twist right back.
The cables here are straight rather than coiled like they were on the Logitech
which is a little bit annoying if you've got smaller ears because they can kind of flick inside
a bit but you can put them back there to try and keep them out of the way. They're just not as
nicely done as the G Pro's. The ear pads here are a nice soft leatherette with a memory foam inside
it so they're super comfy on your ears and mould to your head really nicely. Telling left and right
is now on the headband itself rather than in the ear pads so it's a little harder to see I guess,
but it's not exactly difficult. With the Cloud Alpha's you get the main 1.3m cable which has the
integrated volume and mic switch here, so it's a shorter cable than the G Pro's so that'll make it
better for console rather than PC gaming, but it does also come with a 2m extension lead that ends
in a Y-splitter for your mic and your audio so it'll work for PC and console equally as well.
One other thing it does have which is a bit of an added extra bonus is it also comes with a
carry bag. So, if you're going to take these out about you can shove them in here before you shove
them in your bag to keep it nice and protected. Now these definitely aren't as design neutral as
the G Pro's. The red and black, they don't scream 'gamer', but it definitely is a more gamer look,
but it's really well done. You've got the red stitching across the top with the HyperX logo
embedded in the top. It's just a really well designed headset that's been like this for a
few years, with good reason. It does also come with a removable mic as well so if you're not
going to be using it for gaming and just listening to music and stuff then you can
wear these all by itself. Would I wear these out and about? Probably less so than the G Pro's.
Fit-wise, the G Pro's, at 320 grams aren't the heaviest headset you can buy neither are they the
lightest either. So depending upon your preference that could be a good thing or not. Clamp-force
wise, with the ear pads, there's definitely a clamp force on your head and you do notice it
but it's not a crushing force, so again that may be more or less to your preference. The ear pads,
as I've said before, are nicely low profile and you've got quite a large diameter on the ear
pads so they're going to suit a wide variety of people, especially those with larger ears.
Wearing glasses with these are actually okay.
Whilst it's a tighter clamping fit than maybe some other headphones it doesn't press a lot
on the glasses and that memory foam helps to mould around the glass's arm quite nicely.
In comparison, the Cloud Alpha's here are super light at only 298 grams.
Combine that to the fact that the clamping force on these is a lot less than the G
Pro's and you feel like when you're putting clouds on your ears! The ear pads here though are smaller
than the G Pro's so it's definitely catered to those with smaller ears. I did also find that my
ears heated up quicker in these than the G Pro's, and I think some of that is down to the size.
These leatherette ear pads are super soft and comfortable. Combine that with the lightness and
the light clamping and these headsets are ideally suited to longer gaming sessions.
If you wear glasses with these you'll have absolutely no problems because
they're super soft and comfortable and mould nicely around your glasses arms.
Now we're on to sound, probably the most important aspect of any headset. Here, the G Pro's give you
a bright wide sound stage. It's very in-your-face though out-of-the-box. This is in line with
what the G Pro range is aimed at. Logitech works specifically with eSports players and
others to create ideal hardware, from headphones to keyboards and mice that are geared to give you
the best gear for eSports, especially first-person shooters like Fortnite, Valerant and Apex.
It's a sound profile here that accentuates every sound, making footsteps and the like
really stand out from the rumble that more bass heavy headphones emphasize. The result though
does mean that it's not the most comfortable sound profile to listen to for long periods of gaming
as it's very bright. Personally I'd tone it down a bit, which you can, which I'll get to in a bit.
The G Pro's here have an impedance rating of 35 ohms, which is an indicator of the amount of power
that these headsets require to run. At 35 that makes these headsets easy to run on
pretty much anything from consoles and pc through to mobile phones.
Now looking at the Cloud Alpha's, in comparison there is a much more flat sound profile here
that makes it a more comfortable listening experience. The bass in these is also a lot
fuller and more pronounced than the G Pro's. That's not to say that these are super bass-y,
but compared to the G Pro's there's a welcome addition to the bass when listening.
Now that will be helped by the wider frequency response. With a frequent response of 13 hertz to
27 kilohertz it has a wider range than the G Pro's that help give it that extra range. It's not as
noticeable as you would think though as the fairly standard 20 hertz to 20 kilohertz range that the g
pros have is nothing to be sniffed at. The Cloud Alpha's also incorporate a dual chamber design in
their headsets which it says helps provide better distinction and lower distortion in its sound.
The impedance ratings of these headphones are 65 ohms,
which is almost double what the G Pro's need to run. The end result of that is that you will
notice that these headphones do run quieter than the G Pro's. It shouldn't be a problem
for most people unless you're trying to blast your eardrums out at max volume.
So given all of that, what does it sound like? Well, as I said, it's a nice flat profile,
which you could tweak in your equalizers if you wanted to. It's a very comfortable listen. It's
a lot better listening to music and movies on these compared to the G Pro's because it's not as
harsh. So as an all-round headset, it's the Cloud Alpha's that i think are the better pick.
Now for the mic test. On paper at least the cloud alphas should sound better as
they have a wider frequency response with the G Pro's providing a frequency range
of 100 hertz to 10 kilohertz and the Cloud Alpha's offering 50 hertz to 18 kilohertz.
However, frequency range doesn't tell the whole story as it's more what you do with it
that counts. So let's go and do some mic tests, with the G Pro first and the Cloud Alpha second.
So what you're listening to now is a mic test of the Logitech G
Pro's. I've got the mic about four fingers away from my face so you can really hear what
it sounds like. I've just got this standard cable straight into my pc going straight into
the motherboard, it's not going through an amplifier or anything else like that,
so this is probably the most typical setup most people are going to have. So hopefully
this gives you a nice clear indication of what the mic quality on this headset sounds like.
Here we have the same test but with the Cloud Alpha headset instead. So again,
exactly the same setup. I've got the standard cable going straight into the mic port in my
motherboard. I've also got the mic three fingers away from my face rather than four because I found
the mic pick-up on this less sensitive than the G Pro's. So hopefully, good indication
of what the mic quality sounds like and you can hear the difference, if any, between the two.
So what did you think of those? Do let me know in the comments down below which one you think
sounded best in the mic test. Personally i think they both sounded good, especially for a gaming
headset. The G Pro I thought was the more natural astounding, less compressed, of the two. I will
point out that the mic was more sensitive when testing this so it needed to be further away from
my mouth it also meant that it was more sensitive to plosives so your P's. your B's, your T's,
that kind of thing. On the other hand, the Cloud Alpha's I thought sounded a bit more compressed
but they didn't pick up the plosives as much so were better sounding from a neutral perspective.
Now for what the mic is going to be used for which, is primarily gaming and online streaming,
where your stream is heavily compressed anyway, I think you're honestly going
to be happy with either one. For the more natural sound though and the lower profile
mic it's the G Pro that wins this for me here, but only just.
Now we're into the extra features of the headsets. Now the cloud alphas don't really have any extra
features unless you count the little cloth bag that it came with. What we're really looking at
now is the USB dongle that the G Pro's came with. This, when you plug it into a PC and
plug the headset into it, gives you access to Logitech's G Hub, and from there you can control
the sound profiles far more on this headset, and as i said before one, of the things and
the problems i had with the sound of this was it sounded quite harsh. So, you go into the equalizer
there and you can mess around with it, use some presets and find a sound that is right for you.
I would point out though that it only works if you're using a PC. So if you're using
these on a console, or a Playstation, which is a console, but on a mobile phone or anything else
you're not going to have access to that so it's very much targeted to PC players.
So which one should you buy or should you even buy either of them? Well this is a tough one. The
sub $100 headphone market is super competitive and here we have two of the best of the pack.
Now if you've been keeping score as I've been going through the video you'll notice
how even stevens it is with pros and cons on both of them, for different reasons.
These really are two of the best stereo headsets under a $100 that you can buy.
If you absolutely must have a surround sound pair of headphones then you can also get surround
sound variants of both of these headsets for approximately an extra 30 US dollars.
The HyperX Cloud Alpha S and the Logitech G Pro C headsets provide this. Personally I don't think
surround sound is really up to much on those and I think you're better off saving your money.
Headsets, and ultimately sound, are such a subjective thing. Some like a tighter fit,
others don't. Some like leather ear cups, some prefer cloth.
Some like more bass, others like a more neutral sound. So when headsets are this
close it's almost impossible to say that one headset beats the other, because, it depends.
So I'm going to try and generalize here to sum up. If you like more bass and plan on playing on
consoles for long gaming sessions then look at the Cloud Alpha's. If you're more a PC
player and you like a snugger fit or you plan on wearing these out the house, maybe then
look at the G Pro's. Personally I like them both otherwise I wouldn't have bought them. My son uses
the G Pro's and wouldn't wear another headset, and I prefer the comfort of the Cloud Alpha's.
I do hope this has helped you decide whether either of these
are the right next headset for you. Please don't forget to 'like' and 'share' the video
if you enjoyed it. Consider subscribing using the buttons down below if you're not already
as it really helps me to continue making videos like this for you.
And as always...
See you in the next one!