This time last year I didn’t own anything that had RGB. I thought I was too good for all of those silly lights. “I’m an adult who pays rent, why would I want lights coming out of my PC?” I would say to myself in the mirror.
Good people of the internet, I was wrong and I’m sorry. Every single bit of kit I own with RGB lighting on it has improved my life by around 5%. That means I’m currently around 15% better at life than I was this time last year.
Despite knowing this, I was still a little bit reticent about the idea of a microphone with RGB. Like, what’s the point? So, when the HyperX Quadcast S was revealed, I once again became a fool – “This is stupid, why do you need RGB on your microphone?” – and I was once again wrong.
RGB lighting has once again improved my life. With light glowing from behind the grill of the microphone, I’ve got my Quadcast S set to flow between colours slowly from the top and bottom. It’s like a lava lamp on my desk, and it helps keeps me calm in times that would otherwise be stressful. It also makes it really simple to know if the mic is on or not because the lights turn off if you mute it.
If full on RGB is a bit too much for you, there’s also a counterpart microphone which just has the red and none of the green or blue. It still lights up in use and dims when muted, but it’s a little more subdued for those wary of garish colours.
I should probably talk about the quality of the mic too, given that it’s so obnoxiously high.
The sound quality for general speech is absurdly good. This is thanks to a built-in pop filter alongside an anti-vibration shock mount. The result is that anybody listening to you, whether that’s your mates in whatever game you’re playing together, or your viewers if you’re a streamer, will hear absolutely everything that comes out of your mouth. They’ll also hear your cats meowing as they pretend they’re starving despite the fact that you fed them half an hour ago.
You can easily mute the mic by simply tapping the top of it, which is nice if you need to rush off for whatever reason, or just if you’re going to sneeze or something.
There’s a volume control built into the body of the microphone, which allows you to raise or lower your own voice without fiddling with Windows menus, and you can even change where it’s picking up sound from thanks to having an array of polar patterns to choose from. For most gaming situations, the standard cardioid pattern helps pick up sound in one direction, but you also have stereo, bidirectional and omnidirectional, so you can use the mic for one-on-one interviews or group chats around a table. You know, for when that’s allowed again.
A built-in headphone jack lets you monitor the audio to can allow you to check you’re sounding alright. This is great for people who want to feel incredibly professional, but isn’t likely to be used by the average gamer.
