Meh they're ok, especially these weren't in the original packaging, hopefully there was just some chocolate on the mic and scraps of leather on the ear cups so I always lovingly scrubbed those god out of them and washed the microphone hard! They're ok compared to the HyperX Cloud II I currently have. I wouldn't say they are better. I would say if the cloud II is cheaper buy it and if the alpha versions are cheaper get them but at an additional cost. Get the ethers you disassembled into new ones, don't buy used ones or you could end up with a scrap sample when you buy! Much luck.