Now here is something interesting a Hi-RES Gaming Headphone Dac and Amplifier which the manufacture Cyrus claims will make Bass sound deeper, vocals clearer and instruments more spacious. So letโs check it out, for this, I am using an MSI Z170A Gaming M3 motherboard with onboard sound from Realtek and a pair of SteelSeries V2 Headphones, one of my favourite gaming headphones.
But before we start who is Cyrus well here is a quote from them;
Cyrus a specialist audio company built around its Research and Development team, which encourages innovative ideas, feeding our obsession for ever higher quality reproduction. Our mission is simple โ we want you to enjoy your music. Working to achieve this we allocate a great deal of time to our highest performing models. The exceptional engineering and technology used in these products forms the foundations of all our models allowing even entry level hi-fi components to benefit from years of research.
Everything drops off in a small box, which when opened up you see the small Soundkey, also in the box you get a velvet bag, Micro USB to USB and a cable that allows you to attach your headset to the Soundkey, with a separate cable to attach the microphone to your pc.
Connecting up is simple, plug-in into a spare USB power and attach your preferred headset and away you go, but letโs go back a little. When I first looked at the Soundkey I thought this little device costs how much ยฃ99.99 its better blow my mind when it comes to the overall sound experience, otherwise ill be pissed. The Sound key is compact, looks like a think piece of Bubble Gum coming in at only 8mm in thickness, its smooth, seamless it is gorgeous. It is stupidly light and perfectly balanced, perfect from mobile phones, MP3 Players well anything. The Cyrus logo is on one side and SoundKey etched on the other side. There is also a choice of colours I went for black, I just found it more suitable for my device and did not stand out.
Taking a closer look at the Soundkey sone side has a 3.5mm audio connection for headphones in, on the other side is the micro-USB connection, there is no room for anything else. As the Cyrus Soundkey is for PC, the USB connection provided is solely for PC ONLY, you can get a Soundkey that offers both PC and Mobile. I have Windows 10 obviously, anything older is just stupid and well from what I know the key only works with Windows 10 as well and can handle audio streams up to 24-bit/96kHz.
OK now, let get on with it, OK forget it, I can not wait till the end of the review, I am just going to tell you now, IT IS MIND BLOWING. The audio quality improvements are just astounding. From the start, I used the SteelSeries V2 MSI Edition and was like OK I can hear the improvement, but I wonder if newer headsets can also be improved? So I moved to a pair of 50mm high-performance audio driver headphones the new LucidSound LS25 eSport Edition and wow, the improvement was astounding. Even before I plugged the headphones into the Soundkey, I thought the audio was great, but putting the headphones through the Soundkey just enveloped the audio experience to a whole new level I have never thought possible or even thought there was better sound.
I then had to test Dolby Atmos, come on if anyone knows me, I adore Dolby Atmos, Its a sound experience no other program has been able to replicate to such a degree, which surrounds you with audio. All I can say is, nothing, I cried, the sound through the headphones was just magical, the headphones even vibrated thanks to the deep bass surrounding the earcups.
Music, Games, Movies, TV, well everything was brought to life in a way I have never thought possible a true testament to audio proficiency, a SoundKey that I truly believe every headset owner should purchase without a doubt. What you get is something you will never regret and will adore.
I tested this Soundkey with the following devices,
- SteelSeries V2
- RIG500
- RIG800HD
- Lucidsound Ls25
- Lucidsound Ls40
- Lucidsound Ls20
- Lucidsound Ls25
- SteelSeries Arctis 7
- HyperX Cloud Alpha
- HyperX Cloud Flight
- Edifier M3600D
- Samsung Galaxy S9 STD Headphones
Every Headset and one set of Speakers that audio experience was improved.
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