Review: HyperX Quadcast S

For a time, if you were looking for a USB mic to start a podcast, stream on Twitch, or even just have better Zoom calls, the only name anyone would utter was Blue Yeti. 

But over the past couple of years, a challenger has appeared that's now all but taken over the market, at least on Twitch. That mic? The HyperX Quadcast S. Just like popular online gamers, I've been loving it. 

Photograph: HyperX

I had only used the Quadcast S for an hour or two before I had the distinct thought that whoever designed it must have spent a lot of time with other USB mics. It's not that I was ever dissatisfied with my old Blue Yeti, necessarily. But if I'd had this HyperX mic first, I might've been.

For starters, on the top of the microphone, there's a touch-sensitive pad that can mute the microphone. This is easily one of the handiest features, especially if you need to quickly cut your audio while on a livestream. Muting the microphone also disables the colorful LEDs, so you get instant feedback that it's safe to talk.

On the (literal) flip side, there's a gain knob built into the bottom of the microphone. This made it easy to adjust the input level on the fly. The only minor quibble I have with this is that there's no input level indicator on the microphone itself, or in HyperX's software, to help position the gain. 

This isn't a huge problem, since apps like OBS usually have them already, but come on HyperX: The LEDs are right there. Just turn the whole mic into a level meter while the gain knob is in use. Or at least blink red when I start peaking! Whatever, it's fine. 

On the rear of the microphone, there's a dial to switch between four polar patterns: stereo, omnidirectional, cardioid, and bidirectional. These are fairly standard, and you probably won't ever need to change the pattern if you use a consistent setup and only record yourself, but it's still nice to have the flexibility. The mic also connects via USB-C, a welcome upgrade over the mini USB of the previous Quadcast mic (as well as some competing mics, including the Blue Yeti).

The main event on the Quadcast S is the LED lights. Normally, I wouldn't give a gadget too much credit for having RGB lighting—especially something aimed at gamers, where that's all but legally required—but HyperX has nailed doing it tastefully. The lights inside the core of the microphone blend into a pleasant gradient that feels more like a subtle accent color, and less like a frontal assault from Rainbow Road.

While the original Quadcast only had red LEDs, the Quadcast S has the full spectrum of colors, which you can customize via HyperX's Ngenuity software. There are options for solid colors, lightning effects, or the most pleasing (in my opinion): wave, which slowly transitions across a spectrum of colors you pick.

It's clear from this design that HyperX expects this microphone to be seen. This is perhaps a large part of the reason that so many Twitch streamers are using it. Just as an experiment, while writing this review, I opened up Twitch and checked a random assortment of streamers. Out of the 15 I could see on my screen, five of them used some version of the Quadcast.

It's everywhere.

Screenshot: Eric Ravenscraft

Of course, it wouldn't be this popular if it didn't have the audio quality to match. Fortunately, it does. The signal processing on the Quadcast S manages to bring out rich, deeper tones, without crushing higher vocal frequencies too much. It doesn't have much professional flexibility, but if you want a set-it-and-forget-it microphone that sounds great out of the box, this is the one to go with.

My one gripe is that the Ngenuity software, while great for customizing the RGB lighting, is pretty useless for almost anything else. There's no way to add a high- or low-pass filter, no vocal effects, and the aforementioned lack of a level meter in the app. Curiously, it displays which polar patterns are available, but since this is set with a hardware switch, you can't change it in the app. 

Again, it's not a major concern, since whatever app you're using to stream or record probably already has most of these features. But it would be nice to see more tools for controlling audio than it has for lighting.

Photograph: HyperX

The Quadcast S is so convenient, so stylish, and sounds so good that it's hard to imagine ways that it could be better without fundamentally changing who it's designed for. But that does raise a tiny bit of an issue: HyperX has designed the kind of microphone that's ideal for someone who wants to get started on a hobby or side hustle like streaming, but if that hobby grows too much, there's not much room to upgrade without incurring a lot of extra costs.

Professional-grade audio gear uses a more complicated setup that includes an interface, possibly a preamp, and (for portable setups) a recorder as well. This gear almost always uses XLR microphones. Moreover, these mics tend to avoid the kind of built-in processing that makes devices like the Quadcast S sound so good out of the box, but makes later editing or custom processing harder.

If you think you'll never want to upgrade your audio setup, this isn't an issue. But at $160, the Quadcast S is inching into the area where it might make more sense to spring for a cheap interface and a decent XLR mic. 

Still, that decision is subjective, and HyperX's mic won't disappoint while you're using it. Plus, professional mics don't usually come with sweet RGB LEDs.