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Even a budget-priced gaming mic can drastically improve your audio setup — and the best gaming mics start at just $60. While HyperX's newest budget-friendly contender, the SoloCast 2, isn't the most exciting mic on the market, it's pretty impressive for the price.
The SoloCast 2 is a standalone USB gaming microphone with a cardioid polar pattern and a condenser capsule that records at 24-bit / 96 kHz. While its specs aren't wildly different from those of the original SoloCast , it has a brand-new build that feels much sturdier, features a clever built-in stand, and adds a large tap-to-mute button on top. Not bad for $60 (available now, in black).
While the original SoloCast looked like a pretty traditional condenser microphone, the SoloCast 2 is a sleek, solid black cylinder with a novel built-in stand. HyperX's second-generation budget-friendly USB microphone is a pretty neat-looking update: the mic is housed in a matte-black plastic chassis that measures 6 inches (152.4mm) long by 2.08 inches (53mm) in diameter. The upper half of the cylinder features a matte black metal grille with HyperX's signature honeycomb pattern. Under this grille, there's a foam pop filter and an internal shock mount — the 14mm electret condenser capsule is suspended inside the chassis to prevent any interference from desk vibrations (as it is, after all, a desktop microphone).
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware) (Image credit: Tom's Hardware) (Image credit: Tom's Hardware) (Image credit: Tom's Hardware) (Image credit: Tom's Hardware) The SoloCast 2 might look like a solid cylinder, but it's actually got a unique, integrated desktop stand. There's a hinge at the back of the cylinder that lets you tilt the microphone back 40 degrees — angling it so it's directed at your face, if you're sitting at a desk. That stand part of the cylinder is nice and hefty — the full unit weighs about 12.9 ounces (365.7g), and the bottom is lined with non-skid rubber material just to guarantee the mic isn't slipping around your desk.
There's a bright red indicator light at the bottom of the mic (tilting the mic up also angles this light toward your face, so you won't miss it) that tells you whether the mic is muted or recording. It's red when the mic is recording, which threw me off… quite a bit, honestly, as many gaming microphones with RGB lighting default to red when they're muted. I realize that red for recording makes sense, and that red is HyperX's color, and that this is an issue most users will not have. But, still.
(Image credit: Tom's Hardware) (Image credit: Tom's Hardware) (Image credit: Tom's Hardware) (Image credit: Tom's Hardware) Aside from its neat little built-in stand, the SoloCast 2 is pretty simple. There's a large, flat, tap-to-mute surface on the top of the mic — I'd expect nothing less from HyperX, as this is definitely my favorite feature, and there's a USB-C port on the back of the mic, near the hinge. On the bottom, there's a mounting point that's compatible with both 3/8" and 5/8" threaded mounts, so you can fold the microphone up and mount it — stand and all — on a boom arm or mic stand.
The SoloCast 2 is a simple, straightforward mic with a built-in stand, so it includes only one accessory in the box — a 6.5-foot (2m) USB-C to USB-A cable.
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/peripherals/microphones/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/peripherals/microphones/hyperx-solocast-2-review#main
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