Anytime someone asked me what Gaming Headset they should buy, I wholeheartedly recommended the HyperX line. Solid, great sounding and with a range to meet all price points. They offered some of the best gaming oriented headsets that could easily double for music daily drivers. Behind their line is an OEM called Takstar. They built their original Cloud lineup off of the Takstar Pro-80 model. It was comfy, built like a solid boxing glove, and isolated great thanks to its earmuff like design.
Takstar has always sold it’s own branded headphones and has had a highly regarded model called the Pro-82. Although there has always been a lot of praise for them in the audiophile world as the best entry level closed back at under $100AUD, you had to go through obscure sellers on eBay or AliExpress, which meant not everyone felt safe buying them. Cooler Master noticed this, and although they’ve had some headsets under their Masterpulse line for a while, none of them ever really caught my attention. But their new MH751 and MH752 are a bit different.
The MH751 is stereo with inline controls, while the MH752 bundles a 7.1 USB dongle. Apart from that, both models are identical as far as drivers, shape and build go. They’re both modelled after Takstar’s Pro-82, a step up from the Pro-80 the Clouds are based on. The original Pro-82 had a bass adjustment switch, but anything higher than the lowest setting was bloated and unbalanced. The Cooler Master models remove this adjustment, and what you’re left with is a really balanced sound.
Comparing this to the best I’ve heard from HyperX, the Cloud Revolver S, you get two quite different sounds. I praised the Revolver S for its incredible detail that shocked me into an A-B test with my much more expensive audio setup. The MH752 in comparison, has less bass quantity but a more balanced sound. Think of it as more neutral allowing you to hear a bit more of everything, where the Revolver is a bit more V shaped i.e, more bass and more treble quantity.
Isolation is fantastic. The environment around you muffles quite a bit when wearing these and despite being completely closed back, it manages to sound quite open, with a wide soundstage and detailed separation. These two qualities help in games, but also give music a very airy feel, something not every closed headphone manages to do. The Revolver S isn’t able to do this quite as well, suffering from light resonance and reflection artifacts usually associated with closed back designs. So there’s definitely some dark magic going on with dampening inside these matte black cups.
The mic is removable and, should you opt for the MH752, the 7.1 dongle is detachable so you aren’t limited to USB and can easily unplug it and go direct with a 3.5mm jack for portable use or with any gaming consoles. I never use the 7.1 adapters and believe they all alter the sound way too much. But it’s good to see Cooler Master has that option, and the MH752 does have a nicer 3.5 cable without the inline controls anyway.
Games like CS:GO, Overwatch and PUBG have all implemented head related tracking into their audio options for headphone surround built into their engines. These are usually much better quality than any aftermarket option as they are developed specifically for the game and don’t warp the sound. Luckily, the MH752 doesn’t rely on the 7.1 usb adapter to sound good and by extension, the MH751 should sound just as fantastic without one included.
The most important thing about these 2 headsets though, is that Cooler Master managed to take everything great about the Takstar Pro-82, tune it for a wider soundstage, then bring it to market without inflating the price beyond the budget of gamers. Right now the MH751 retails at Mwave for $99 and the MH752 for $119. At these price points they punch way above their class in terms of sound quality and easily take my top recommendation for the best gaming headset at any budget and the best closed back portable music headphone under $150.
You can purchase the Cooler Master MH752 Gaming right now at Mwave.com.au (Currently $69 for the MH751 or $89 for the MH752 during Cyber Week)