HyperX QuadCast S - Microphone - USB

Wanted to give a review right when I got it. Little background, I dabble in streaming and play FPS online with friends. I was tired of having the wired mic headset combo and had a yeti previously but wasn't in love with it. I've had it about a month now and there's ALOT of good packed in this MIC and there are a few drawbacks as well. Pros: * Come across to other players online crystal clear *Software and MIC do a goodjob drowning out background noise *RGB is really on point. The app is fairly simple almost to simple. *The on/off on tap is a very overlooked option and these guys nailed it on this one. I have mine set to color when on and no color when off. That way you never have a hot mic. Cons: *The software needs a facelift, intergrate in the app some voice ... MoreWanted to give a review right when I got it. Little background, I dabble in streaming and play FPS online with friends. I was tired of having the wired mic headset combo and had a yeti previously but wasn't in love with it. I've had it about a month now and there's ALOT of good packed in this MIC and there are a few drawbacks as well. Pros: * Come across to other players online crystal clear *Software and MIC do a goodjob drowning out background noise *RGB is really on point. The app is fairly simple almost to simple. *The on/off on tap is a very overlooked option and these guys nailed it on this one. I have mine set to color when on and no color when off. That way you never have a hot mic. Cons: *The software needs a facelift, intergrate in the app some voice changing or something (overlays) NGENUITY is quite frankly a very simple minded app that is blah . *The gain control seems to really lack actual gain control .

I absolutely love this microphone. I have been using a Samson Meteor Microphone up until this purchase, so, yes this is quite the upgrade - even though in the right hands even the Samson Meteor can sound great. However, I am not a microphone expert; I am of above average microphone knowledge but not by much. Right off the bat I notice that the setup's ability to transfer from the included stationary stand to my boom swing-arm AND have the ability to change adapters which is incredibly convenient. Keep in mind, this is all without having to remove the shock mount that the quadcast comes with either. The microphone works well in any orientation whether in vertical or inversed position, to even sideways or offset. The microphone is painless to setup and easy to use, ... MoreI absolutely love this microphone. I have been using a Samson Meteor Microphone up until this purchase, so, yes this is quite the upgrade - even though in the right hands even the Samson Meteor can sound great. However, I am not a microphone expert; I am of above average microphone knowledge but not by much. Right off the bat I notice that the setup's ability to transfer from the included stationary stand to my boom swing-arm AND have the ability to change adapters which is incredibly convenient. Keep in mind, this is all without having to remove the shock mount that the quadcast comes with either. The microphone works well in any orientation whether in vertical or inversed position, to even sideways or offset. The microphone is painless to setup and easy to use, having a gain knob underneath, a touch-tap mute button on top, and a mode selector on the back. The ability to choose from four pre-programmed scenario-based settings (podcast vs. interview vs. chat etc..) without needing a complex software is great and it is all at your finger tips with the mode selector. Speaking of software, the accompanying downloadable application for your desktop allows you to customize your sound settings and, of course, the RGB colors, patterns, ambience, and reactiveness. I am always partial to my blues and greens and, boy, did I get them. The sound of the microphone is great even when using my typical chat services, Discord, Zoom, and Teams. I unfortunately do not have experience with recording with intent like as voice overs, but my friend does like to capture instances of us playing various videogames together. Even without a "boosted server" the quality is crystal clear with a wide range. The addition of a built-in pop filter allows for some better hands-off control, giving the user the optional freedom of no external pop filter mounts or covers should they choose to do so. Although, it is always recommended to consider getting one depending on your vocal habits. The material used in the construction is very reassuring and has a nice matte black. The stand itself is very solid and you would have to put in a little effort to knock this thing over. I don't see myself getting a new microphone anytime soon, and I hope that I never have to!

Good USB microphone. A lot of the price probably comes from the RGB, which make of that what you will. I've found that while you can just keep it off entirely, without it can be difficult to keep track of whether it's physically muted or not. Unless you are sensitive to sound and use mic monitoring by plugging your headphones directly into it. It's convenient that it comes with both a stand and an adapter to screw onto the shock mount to attach it to boom arm. I find it odd that the shock mount is screwed directly onto the mic, but I don't really understand the engineering of that so I won't make any broad, sweeping criticisms about that. It's overall been very good, but I've found that I've had issues with it on my new desktop setup. I have been unable to ... MoreGood USB microphone. A lot of the price probably comes from the RGB, which make of that what you will. I've found that while you can just keep it off entirely, without it can be difficult to keep track of whether it's physically muted or not. Unless you are sensitive to sound and use mic monitoring by plugging your headphones directly into it. It's convenient that it comes with both a stand and an adapter to screw onto the shock mount to attach it to boom arm. I find it odd that the shock mount is screwed directly onto the mic, but I don't really understand the engineering of that so I won't make any broad, sweeping criticisms about that. It's overall been very good, but I've found that I've had issues with it on my new desktop setup. I have been unable to completely narrow down/figure out what exactly the problems are but my guess is that it has something to do with hardware acceleration settings and the amount of power required to power this microphone. Because of the adjustable RGB lighting on this version, it uses USB-C which from what I understand requires more power than the last model. After building my new PC, I found that for whatever reason, using certain software or doing certain things in certain software would cause most of my USB devices to experience power issues (like constantly disconnecting and reconnecting until I stopped doing whatever it was that caused it). I managed to MOSTLY stop/mitigate this issue by disabling hardware acceleration in the things that were causing it (the things that at least HAD the option to turn off hardware acceleration), mainly Discord and Google Chrome, and I also bought a USB 3.0 hub that plugs into the wall that I have everything plugged into now. But to this day the mic still experiences this issue as sometimes when I use ShareX to take a screenshot or just something random (it's pretty much always been something with screen capturing software from what I can recall at this moment) the mic will flicker and briefly disconnect before regaining connection, usually once I stop using ShareX, etc. I am unsure if the above problem is the cause of this next issue, which is a really minor one, but ever since I started experiencing these issues, every so often the HyperX NGENUITY software on Windows that is used to change the lighting settings, etc., will constantly tell me I need to update the firmware of the microphone, and I'll follow the instructions, only for it to just tell me to do the same thing some random number of times. From what I can tell after checking it in the settings, the firmware version isn't actually changing so I have no idea if something extremely minor got broken inside the mic from the power delivery issues. It's more annoying than anything; the mic still works fine more or less. The final issue I have with this mic, which is most of the reason I can't give this 5 stars is that there must be something wrong with the design of this mic in regard to static electricity. I live in a dry place in the US during the winter and sometimes I can feel the tingling of static electricity within the space between my ears and the earcups of my headphones. When I plug my headphones directly into the microphone, this static electricity is captured by the mic's monitoring and I can hear it as very loud, brief buzzing. It is at the end of the day an erratically occurring annoyance, and thanks to NVIDIA Broadcast it solves the biggest part of this problem which is that other people can hear it when I use VoIP software like Discord and so forth. If it weren't for NVIDIA's software this would be a tremendous issue that would make me even more frustrated with it. But anyways, I don't know if this is an issue with my headphones as well, as I don't have another pair to test this issue with. I have also read on places like Reddit that people experience this static electricity issue on other HyperX products, so this might just be a common problem among their product lineup. I also don't know if this mostly just me being unlucky with my living environment and the overall compatibility of all the hardware I've selected for my desktop. In summary, it's a good and easy to use USB microphone that sounds good enough. It's probably slightly overpriced, but hey what else would you expect from a gamer-targeted product like this?