I am the furthest thing from an audiophile so please take it easy on me.

Since 2017 I’ve been using a pair of MPOW 059 bluetooth headphones as my PC gaming headphones. They cost about $35 at the time. I first bought them to use wirelessly with my phone for music and YouTube videos, but one day I tried them out with my PC using a 3.5mm cable (the headphones have a jack for that) and found them to be pretty great and comfortable to wear for long periods of time. ( This is the current model, mine is an older one - https://www.xmpow.com/collections/headphones/products/mpow-059-pro-lite-bluetooth-headphones-black)

It’s been over six years now and they’re showing signs of age, though. Sometimes the balance between left and right gets messed up and terrible-sounding, so I need to rotate the plug in the jack until I find the ‘sweet spot’ that will give me the proper audio again.

So I decided to buy a good gaming headset. After an evening spent researching, I found that countless youtubers and redditors were dripping with praise for the HyperX Cloud II. It’s several years old at this point and there’s a new Cloud III out, but the II was about $70 and the III was $130, and the II was still getting rave reviews even this year and last. So I bought the II and I’ve been using it for a couple hours. ( https://www.amazon.com/HyperX-Cloud-Gaming-Headset-KHX-HSCP-RD/dp/B00SAYCXWG/ref=sr_1_3?crid=TMVZMLCLHPYX&keywords=hyperx%2Bcloud%2B2&qid=1700962136&sprefix=hyperx%2Bcloud%2B%2Caps%2C135&sr=8-3&th=1 )

While YouTube videos and music sound about the same quality as my old MPOWs, gaming audio just sounds muddy and muffled on the Cloud II. I’ve noticed that game music sounds fine, but the clarity and crispness of sound effects have taken a steep dive. Wearing my old headphones, it feels like I’m just naturally hearing the sounds as though they were coming from the real world around me. With the Cloud IIs, I’m acutely aware that I’m hearing sound effects coming out of little speakers next to my ears. As an example, while riding a dragon around in World of Warcraft, with the MPOWs it sounds like I’m hearing the sounds of its flapping wings coming from somewhere close by. But with the Cloud IIs, it sounds like its wings are buffeting my ears directly, literally right up against my ear canal. It’s like the difference between the sound you hear when you rub your cheek - the sound of your fingers against your skin - versus the sound you hear when you rub around the entrance of your ear directly - louder, but more muffled and distorted. That’s how I would describe it, at least, as an ultra-layman when it comes to audio.

Is this just something I need to try and get used to? Is the Cloud II bringing me indisputably higher-quality and more accurate gaming audio, and I just don’t like it at first because I’m used to bad quality sound? Could the Cloud be defective? I’ve tried all 8 of the USB ports on my PC plus the built-in 3.5mm audio output jack and the muffled sound is identical in all of them. Might I need some sort of new audio component for my PC, or a new motherboard with better audio, or something? I’ve checked and rechecked and nothing weird like Loudness Equalization is toggled on, nor Room Correction or any other of those optional checkboxes.

I’m just kind of baffled because the reviews for the Cloud II said it had an impressive wide soundstage, which I took to mean I would feel more immersed in my games, but if anything it feels like the soundstage has shrunk. Standing in an open field listening to the wind and distant birdsong and rustling leaves, when before it sounded like real life now it sounds like everything was collapsed inward onto me like a tight bubble. Every sound’s source seems to be right next to my actual ear holes.

Thanks.