HyperX Cloud Mix Wireless Headphones Review

The style of the HyperX Cloud Mix is a mix of the cups of the Cloud Alpha with the yolks of the Cloud II, all in a nice and sleek all-black design with a silver HyperX logo on the cups. The padding on the headband and ear cups is thick and the overall design feels high-end. They also have a detachable mic that you can unplug when using the Cloud Mix as a Bluetooth headset.

The Cloud Mix are comfortable headphones that you’ll be able to wear for a while, but they feel a bit tighter than similar HyperX headsets such as the Cloud Flight. The padding of the headband and the ear cups feels a bit stiff, but we expect it to soften up with time. You will still be able to play comfortably for long gaming sessions, but the Cloud II and Cloud Alpha are slightly more comfortable overall.

The Cloud Mix controls change whether you are using the headset wired for gaming or with the Bluetooth connection. When wired, you have access to the mic-mute switch on the in-line remote and get a volume wheel as well. The wheel is a bit small and a bit harder to use than the physical buttons on the cups. When wireless, you have a volume rocker and a multipurpose button, which lets you manage calls and music, skip tracks, and trigger your device’s voice assistant. Note that the on-cup controls don’t work when the headset is used wired.

Unfortunately, this HyperX model doesn’t have channel mixing like the Cloud II. On the upside, when used wirelessly, you have a voice prompt for the powering and pairing procedures, and you also get notified of the battery level, which is nice.

The Cloud Mix aren't very breathable, as they create a tight seal around your ears which doesn’t allow for much airflow. You'll feel a noticeable difference in temperature when wearing these for a while, and you might also sweat more than usual if you use them during your workouts.

Like most over-ear gaming headsets, the Cloud Mix isn’t very portable. The cups don’t swivel to lay flat, and they can’t fold into a more compact format. Usually, gaming headsets stay in one place around your gaming setup, but the Cloud Mix is also designed as Bluetooth headphones to be used on the go. They don’t come with a case to protect them, which is disappointing.

They come with a small pouch that doesn’t really protect the headphones against water exposure and impact. However, the pouch seems thick enough to help protect against scratches, and it doesn’t add much bulk to their design, which is nice.

Like most HyperX headphones, the Cloud Mix are very well-built. The cups feel dense and solid while the headband and yolks are made out of metal, like the Cloud II and Alpha, giving an overall sturdy feel to the headset. Unfortunately, there’s a cable that is visible and could get stuck on something. The detachable cable and microphone make them more durable and would both be easily replaceable if damaged.

The Cloud Mix are fairly stable for over-ear headphones due to their tight fit. You should be able to jog with these without them falling off, but they won’t be ideal for most sports. Also, when used with their Bluetooth connection, you’ll be able to get rid of the cable, meaning you won’t have to worry that it could get hooked on something and yank the headphones off your head.

• HyperX Cloud Mix headphones
• Detachable boom microphone
• 1/8” TRRS audio cable
• PC splitter cable
• Micro-USB charging cable
• Carrying pouch
• Manuals

The Cloud Mix have poor frequency response consistency. In the bass range, the maximum amount of deviation across our five human subjects is more than 16dB at 20Hz. This is quite significant and noticeable. Even at 100Hz, there is about 9dB of deviation across multiple users. The treble range, on the other hand, has a good and consistent delivery.

The bass performance of the Cloud Mix is very good. The range is fairly flat but slightly overemphasized throughout the response range. Their LFE (low-frequency extension) is extended down to 10Hz, which is excellent. This ensures a good reproduction of thumps and rumbles. Mid-bass is also virtually flat but hyped by about 3dB. This gives a bit of excess emphasis to the bass and kick instruments. High-bass is also over our target by more than 3dB, adding a little bit of muddiness to the sound.

Also, their bass delivery varies significantly across users, and is sensitive to the quality of the fit, seal, and whether you wear glasses. The response here represents the average bass response, and your experience may vary.

The Cloud Mix have a great mid-range performance. Low-mid follows the small overemphasis of high-bass, which will make vocals slightly thick and cluttered. Mid-mid is virtually flat and within 1dB of our target, ensuring a clear mix with well-balanced vocals and lead instruments. The small dip around 600Hz, however, will slightly nudge the vocals/leads to the back of the mix, but this will barely be noticeable.

Like some other HyperX headphones, the Cloud Mix doesn’t have the best treble range performance. There is a broad and noticeable dip from 2KHz to 7Khz, which will negatively affect the brightness and detail of vocals and lead instruments in that region.

The imaging is great. Their weighted group delay is 0.21, which is within a very good limit. The GD graph also shows that the entire group delay response is below our audibility threshold, suggesting a tight bass and a transparent treble reproduction. Additionally, the left and right drivers of our unit were very well-matched, which is important for the accurate placement and localization of objects and instruments (voices, footsteps) in the stereo image. However, these results are only valid for our unit, and yours may perform differently.

The HyperX Cloud Mix have a sub-par soundstage. The PRTF graph shows a mediocre amount of pinna activation, but the interaction is fairly accurate. There's also no 10KHz notch present either. This and their closed-back design suggest a soundstage that is perceived to be small and located inside the listener's head, as opposed to in front.

The HyperX Cloud Mix have sub-par isolation performance. These over-ear headphones don't have active noise cancelation (ANC), and therefore don't provide any isolation in the bass range. This means they will let in all the low rumbling noises of airplane and bus engines. Also, in the mid-range, important for blocking out speech, they achieve about 7dB of isolation, which is bad. In the treble range, occupied by air conditioning noise and sharp sounds like S and Ts, they provide more than 32dB of isolation, which is good.

The leakage performance of the Cloud Mix is decent. The significant portion of their leakage is between 400Hz and 5KHz, which is a relatively broad range. The overall level of the leakage is not very loud either. With the music at 100dB SPL, the leakage at 1 foot away averages at 39dB SPL and peaks at 54dB SPL, which is slightly above the noise floor of most offices.

The Cloud Mix have an integrated microphone for when using the headset wirelessly, but it also has a boom microphone for when it’s wired for gaming. The boom microphone has great recording quality and speech recorded or transmitted with this mic will sound full, detailed, and natural. In noisy situations, the mic performs well and is capable of separating speech from noise in the most demanding environments, such as gaming events. Since you’re going to use the two microphones for completely different use cases, we also measured the integrated one. The results are here.

The boom mic has an excellent recording quality. The LFE (low-frequency extension) is at 89Hz, which is very good. The HFE of about 10KHz is also very good, resulting in speech with presence and detail, making it very clear and easy to understand. For the integrated microphone, you can expect a normal Bluetooth microphone performance, with speech that is thin-sounding and lacking in detail.

The boom microphone has impressive noise handling. In our SpNR test, it achieved a speech-to-noise ratio of 36dB, which is great. It indicates that this mic will be able to isolate speech from noise even in the noisiest environments. Also, the built-in microphone seemed to be good at noise handling too.

When used wirelessly, the Cloud Mix have about 24 hours of battery life, which is great. This should last you a while and won’t need daily charging. You can also use them passively, even when the battery is dead. Unfortunately, you’ll need to plug the micro-USB cable on top of the audio cable while gaming to recharge their battery simultaneously, and the charging cable is very short.

HyperX doesn’t have a software with customization options like most other popular gaming brands, like SteelSeries, Astro, or Logitech.

This headset is Bluetooth compatible, but can’t be connected to multiple devices at the same time. You have to disconnect their boom microphone and cable and power the headset to be able to pair it to a Bluetooth source.

We scored these headphones wired since most consoles don’t have audio and mic support over Bluetooth. You shouldn’t have any problem if you use them with the audio cable, which nullifies the latency issues. When used with Bluetooth devices, their latency is about average at 228ms. They also support aptX (214ms) and AAC codecs, for an overall better performance and slightly lower latency. You can also use the headphones wirelessly for gaming if you have an appropriate dongle that supports aptX-Low Latency and you can expect about 35ms of delay, but you won’t be able to use the boom microphone if you do so.

When used wired, this headset is compatible with any console or PC that has a 1/8” jack. With their TRRS connection, you’ll have audio and microphone support on all platforms, making them very versatile.

These headphones don’t have a dock or a base. For gaming headsets with one, you can look at the SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless for a dock with customization options or look at the Astro A50 if you want a charging dock.