HyperX Quadcast 2 review - Bop it, twist it, scream it

As someone who makes content for a living I guess you could call me a professional screamer. Screaming was one of the first things I did when I was born, after all, and I was a natural. So when I first tried the Hyper X Quadcast 2 and found I could scream insanely loud with no distortion, both myself and my inner child were pretty heckin’ delighted.

This mic, as well as its accompanying stand, are built from hefty, weighty aluminium that feels fantastic to hold. The metal even has a glossy shine to it, literally sparkling when it catches the light. The only part of the stand that doesn’t feel like it is made from aluminium are the shock mount rings, which I am guessing are made from elastic threaded through plastic.

Included is a stupidly long 3 metre braided cable that I am obsessed with, sporting USB C connections on either end complete with a neat little USB C to USB A adapter. This means this mic can be used with not only PC but also Mac, Playstation, Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck. Anything that allows a USB microphone really. But this comes with a catch…

Plugging this mic into my Mac for the first time, it instantly glowed with frosty blue pulsing light. While I was happy it was so easy to set up, when I went to change this light setting I realised that currently, the Hyper X Quadcast 2 does not have compatible software for anything other than Windows. You can still use it as a microphone, it will still do its basic function but you can’t change the light settings. So I grabbed my USB-A adapter and moved to my PC.

I hope you like blue because while this mic is said to have ‘customisable lighting effects’ it does not have RGB.

Once I installed Hyper X’s NGENUITY software, I realised I could use a total of 6 lighting effects. Solid, Blink which flashes on and off which to me is insanely annoying (I’m not sure why anyone would use this one) Cycle which dims and then brightens the light, Lightning which is essentially a faster version of this, Wave which fluctuates the light from the bottom of the microphone to the top and then the coolest setting VU meter which is based on audio input so it lights up only when I am talking.

‍Below you can listen to a recording of me testing out the mic without changing any of the settings and with no mic filter. This includes going through all 4 polar patterns and showing off the clicking dial.

I genuinely can't figure out how to save these light settings to the microphone so that I can use them on my Mac or consoles. I find the NGENUITY app really unintuitive to use. There is no ‘save to microphone’ option that I can find and saving my light settings to the light profile called ‘base settings’ does nothing either. When I plug it back into my Mac, the microphone continues to pulse at me, as if mocking me. I have dubbed this mic my PC mic only, and others particular about lighting may want to do the same.

There are two other parts of this microphone that also light up not only this mic but my day: the mute button and the dial. The mute button is fun. Slap this thing on the space top of its head and instantly no one can hear you scream. 

It is extremely sensitive, the mere quick tippy tap of my finger tip exposes my voice to anyone lucky enough to be in the discord group call I’m in. I wouldn’t say this is an issue though and more of a perk. I don't tend to set it off unintentionally, and always know when I have thanks to the bright lights which turn off when the mic isn’t in use. These indicators mean I'm never caught unaware, and it’s really handy to be able to mute the thing quickly to have a chomp of food or slurp of bubble tea.

The light up dial is super useful for making speedy adjustments to my mic volume, though it's anything but discrete. The dial creates audible clicking sounds and because the dial is attached to the mic, these sounds are noticeably present when recording.  

This dial can also be used to change the volume on a pair of monitoring headphones plugged into its audio jack on the back by pressing in on the dial. As a fan of buttons, this is a very satisfying one to press. Holding it down for 2 seconds also changes the polar pattern of the mic.

I would say all 4 patterns, cardioid, omnidirectional, stereo and bidirectional do their respective jobs well. When using the mic in bidirectional especially, which is meant to make only the front and back of the mic audible, it is harder to hear sounds coming from the sides of the mic even when I am talking into the sides right up against the microphone, which I find really impressive.

In stereo I can talk into the left and right parts of the mic and it is obvious to someone listening in headphones which side of the mic I am speaking into. The light ring at the top of the mic shows which polar pattern is currently in use, handy for people who can’t use the software. I haven’t seen a mic before at this price point that has multiple cardioid patterns like this and I am very impressed by these features especially.

This mic does a great job at not distorting due to volume. At the mid range setting I can be as loud as I want without worry which is fantastic for streaming and podcasting. But an added cost to this already fairly pricey microphone is that you will likely need a pop filter. Thankfully you can pick them up pretty cheap, but it's a wild exclusion. While I can scream into this thing insanely loud, the minute I emit an overzealous P sound, air bypasses the thin frost coloured foam of the internal plosive guard pretty easily. Now that I have added my own filter, this mic is still very crisp.

With this slight adaption the HyperX Quadcast 2 is a solid addition to screamer or streamer's desk setup. It's RGB lighting options may be slim, but the recording quality across microphone modes, ease of use, long girthy cable, and slappable mute more than make up for it on my end.I find it very easy to unscrew and mount onto my mic arm and it does a very good job at broadcasting my screaming to the world on SIFTER’s various podcasts.

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A HyperX Quadcast 2 was provided to SIFTER for the purpose of this review.

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