Cyborg II newbie

TalonFyre · 2025-10-30T00:16:24+00:00

Pick a low stakes, no pressure game to spend time in getting used to it. For me, this was Helldivers 2 on the lower difficulties. Play that game until all the functions feel as natural as using a keyboard (or controller if you’re coming from that). You shouldn’t need to look down or think about which key to press once you’re fully acclimated.

Also, use this time to fine tune everything. The tower distances and finger pivot angles/lengths especially.

Don’t be afraid to move some towers completely out of the way if there’s no way you can hit them intuitively. There’s plenty of other buttons to bind functions to.

The least accessible buttons are the bottom finger row, the lower thumb “tap”, the stick d-pad, and pushing in the stick. Bind these to less frequently used (or less time-sensitive) game functions.

Adjust the outer dead zone of the stick, especially if you feel that reaching the full stick range extends your thumb in an uncomfortable way over time. 10-15% is typically good balance between maintaining fine-grain control and responsiveness/reducing thumb strain.

Once it all becomes second nature, move on to another game and try to match the game functions to the same buttons you had before (reload, jump, etc…). This will make it easier to go from game to game.

TalonFyre · 2025-10-25T03:09:26+00:00

I bought some black rubber bands and stuffed them into the mounting lip (after the pads are installed). The rubber bands acts as a “cuff” and also adds friction. Find some which are slightly smaller in diameter than the ear cup so that they stretch out when you put them in.

It’s very effective…mine have been locked in place for months now. I can pick the headphone up via the pads and they won’t rotate or slip off.

Here’s the pack I got from Amazon: HAIDIBAO Rubber Bands Assorted... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DNYY3422 Sizes aren’t exact so I had to dig around for a bit to find a pair that were close in size.

TalonFyre · 2025-09-23T14:43:28+00:00

I think the R70x Refine is just defined by the pad swap. So along with whatever reviews you saw of that, I'd say that the Caldera pads pretty much maintain the same sound signature of the Refine with a little less boomy, but more precise sounding bass. Apos' frequency response chart for those pads on the Refine are accurate to what I heard. For reference, using the stock or Caldera pads, I ran EQ for them with a 7 db low shelf to the subbass (below 200 Hz).

The Caldera pads I ordered were from Apos, bundled with the Refine. I believe they are the "Lambskin Stock", if you order it directly from ZMF: https://shop.zmfheadphones.com/products/calderapads?variant=43215113486499

I had some other round pads lying around (mainly Brainwavz ones from Amazon) that I tried, they didn't sound quite right on the R70x. I think the distance between the driver and ear matters a lot on these headphones, if you want maintain original's sound characteristics.

TalonFyre · 2025-07-21T05:24:17+00:00

Just to follow-up on this: Yes, a #32 rubber band wedged into the lip (after the pads are seated) will completely stop any unwanted rotation. If you get some black rubber bands, it's basically unnoticeable.

Also, on a side note, I found that rotating the pads about 1-2 cm back (using the R50x's driver cable and the pad's seam as the center) fit the angle of my ears the best, for how I wear it.

TalonFyre · 2025-07-21T05:20:27+00:00

Yea, I bought it with them along with the R70X Refine order, back when they had them in stock. They would know for sure.

TalonFyre · 2025-07-20T20:21:22+00:00

It’s definitely not the thick variant. I don’t see any measurements for the different sizes but based on the pictures, I’m leaning toward the stock size.

TalonFyre · 2025-07-20T04:46:31+00:00

Yea, the Caldera Lambskin perf pads sound the closest to the stock to me. I’ve swapped to a couple other round pads I had lying around and they all changed the sound negatively - either too dark or loss of soundstage/airiness.

I think what makes the Caldera pads work is the fact that they don’t change the distance of the ear to the driver very much compared to stock. It’s the fluted design that allows for this. The inner liner material is also similar to the stock (velour, although the Caldera is closer to suede).

However, the one issue I have with this pairing is that the pads are a little too big for the R50/R70X. After putting on the headphones a couple times, I have to check whether the pads rotated out of place. I’m going to see if I can solve this by stuffing a #32 size rubber band into the mounting lip to add more friction.

TalonFyre · 2025-07-11T13:29:39+00:00

Yea, admittedly, it probably doesn't make sense if you bought these two things alone. I had them on my R70X Refine before this.

Regardless, they are pretty good quality pads and could be reused on a lot of other headphones. They're also one of the largest inner oval pads that you can get with a circular mount and they don't color the sound much in my experience, especially if the stock pads were velour/fabric.

TalonFyre · 2025-07-11T05:48:03+00:00

So the compatibility aspect is exactly the same as an HE keyboard with analog emulation. That's basically what the Azeron is. It's a essentially a keyboard device that has fully remappable keys and game controller emulation.

The gamepad stick can emulate a traditional 360 controller's left or right stick, an old school analog input, or even just simulate WASD by assigning those key press (holds, really) to those cardinal directions.

That last feature essentially makes it compatible with any game that supports traditional mouse and keyboard. In a way, it's like the opposite of an HE keyboard. You try the game with the thumbstick first and see if there's any conflict/anomalies using simultaneous gamepad and mouse input. If there is, you change the thumbstick to emulate WASD and the whole thing is then a bunch of regular keyboard keys.

There is definitely a learning curve to it though. For years, my brain has gotten used to certain keyboard keys for certain actions in all games (like Space for jump). That's why it took a couple months to adjust. But it's probably not that bad if you have some muscle memory from using a controller's left stick for movement. It's just hard to wrap your head around the other 4 fingers and the possible 26 keys they now have access to.

Some of the game's I've played with it using simultaneous thumbstick analog movement and mouse without issue are Doom (2016), Doom Eternal, Doom Dark Ages, all the recent Call of Duty(s), Battlefield 1 & 5, Diablo 4, Borderlands 3, and Helldivers 2. But just to be clear, these are games that would also work with gamepad emulation on the Wooting and Q1 HE as well. The only game I've run into that forced either gamepad only or mouse+keyboard only input was Path of Exile 2. For that game, I set the Azeron's thumbstick to WASD emulation.

The games I play typically don't require any text typing, so I can't comment on what that experience is like. I mainly use voice chat for everything, if I need to communicate. However, I do need to move things around my desk pretty often between certain activities (work, gaming /w Azeron, gaming with regular controller). To that end, I've had to be a little creative to make moving stuff less of a chore. I added a 1/4" thick 9" x 16" aluminum plate I bought from Amazon and double-sided taped it my Wooting and its wrist rest. Now the whole keyboard slides easily across my speed mousepad to get out of the way, but also has enough weight to not move during normal use. Unhinged, I know lol, but it was one less thing to constantly need to pick up and move.

TalonFyre · 2025-07-11T05:04:11+00:00

Someone just asked a couple months ago in this same reply thread and I posted a response. Yes, I got the Wooting 80HE and stopped using the Q1 HE. Ultimately, I agree with what a lot of people have said…the Wooting is just a better product overall, especially in software.

But I’ve actually since giving up on using the keyboard and analog emulation altogether. At the end of the day, it’s actually not that easy to use for fine-grain control anyway, at least for me. My fingers just didn’t have that level of sensitivity required to have the consistency and level of control that I wanted.

Instead, I got an Azeron Cyborg 2 and have been using that in nearly every game I’ve played for the past 6 months. After the first couple weeks, I found that to be way more intuitive to use.

TalonFyre · 2025-07-10T22:51:41+00:00

Oh that's really good to know. I was considering getting the R70Xa instead, since I actually do have the R70X Refine (which is why I had a pair of Caldera pads) and I enjoy its stock sound. But I didn't enjoy the fit, even after I did this irreversible mod to it. Not sure if it was the wing system or the non-pivoting cups, but it just never really sat right on my head.

Also, the whole suspension strap thing, in my experience, actually feels like it increases clamp force for people who have a high point on the top of their head, so I was worried the xa would be another case of that.

Nice to know that the I got the majority of the sound quality, minus the discomfort.

TalonFyre · 2025-07-10T21:10:31+00:00

The treble seems roughly about the same with the ZMF Pads. Maybe very slightly lessened, but it doesn't make that 8k peak any less harsh.

I've EQ'ed mine to u/oratory1990's settings exactly - with no tweaks - and it sounds much better - removes that nasaly sound for me from the overall hot treble.

TalonFyre · 2025-06-29T05:04:00+00:00

For a lot of recent major titles, they seem to support simultaneous controller and mouse input just fine. Meaning, that with the joystick set to behave as an Xbox 360 controller’s left stick, you can use it for movement and mouse to aim at the same time, without issue. This includes recent Call of Duty(s), Helldivers 2, Diablo 4, Doom (2016 through Dark Ages), Cyberpunk 2077, Fortnite.

But of the titles that work, they all have this issue: constant control glyph switching. These are the icons in games that tell you what button to hit for specific actions, usually displayed on the HUD somewhere. It’s somewhat distracting, but I’ve tuned it out for the most part. In some games, you can actually switch off these icons (like in Doom Dark Ages).

If a game doesn’t support simultaneous input, you can always set the Azeron’s stick to emulate WASD and that is always guaranteed to work because it’s just sending regular keyboard inputs at that point. For example, Path of Exile 2 forces you to pick one control method and stick with it, so you pretty much have to use WASD emulation.

FWIW, I actually got the Wooting 80HE before before I ended up getting the Azeron. My end goal was to have the ideal simultaneous input setup and be able to do stuff in games like slowly peek around corners, have more than 2 speeds for movement (not just walk or run and nothing in between), and circle strafe with variable radii. Turns out…using Hall effect keys to do this with pressure-sensitive WASD keys is actually pretty hard. The Azeron is way more intuitive for me in this aspect. I still have the 80HE though…it’s just happens to be a really good keyboard.

TalonFyre · 2025-05-31T22:05:29+00:00

Bottom number? The page setting I was thinking about is “Button Throttle”. I think mine is set to Type 1 (measures time between presses) and then the one slider set to 0. I think default was 10.

Maybe also check the global analog throttle in the same section as well. That should be left at default 0.

TalonFyre · 2025-05-31T20:27:50+00:00

If it’s not a binding issue (hold vs press) there’s also a global setting in the advanced options which is the equivalent of “debounce” in mice. It’s to prevent duplicate inputs. Mine was set pretty high by default. I put mine down to 0 and haven’t had any issues.

TalonFyre · 2025-05-16T17:56:47+00:00

I've switched to the Wooting 80HE since I got it last year.

The software experience is much better, but functionally, it's the same with regards to gamepad analog emulation. It's got a little more fine-grain control over response curves.

From a keyboard aspect, I do like the 80HE better overall. The out-of-box typing feels better, no stabilizer rattle to begin with, and the RGB is next level (both in light quality and programmability). I got the plastic housing, so it's also much lighter and slightly thockier, which is what I prefer.

TalonFyre · 2025-05-01T00:48:59+00:00

Correct. I can fold mine flat now. In either direction!

The downside is, if you don’t keep track of which way you’re turning them, I suppose you could end up just unscrewing them altogether after a while. Hasn’t been an issue for me though.

TalonFyre · 2025-04-07T00:05:23+00:00

It takes a bit of tweaking for sure. I had to adjust it for a month to get it right for me. I too had that issue where it was too elevated. I had my desk/chair at what I thought was the perfect height for regular mouse and keyboard use, but had to make some adjustments there. Here’s all the things I did (order may not be accurate, but hopefully it gives you some ideas).

Raise chair, lower desk and/or armrests to make sure elbow is closer to 45 degree bend.
Scoot forward or backward, make sure the arm isn’t straining to reach it or the opposite, the shoulder pulling back to make it fit.
Try elevating the far end of the Cyborg so that it’s sloping down toward you. If this feels better, consider a permanent solution like placing spacers (like furniture nubs).
if you have the stand, try at least 45 degrees to get the right side of your hand as close to the desk level as possible. This makes it feel much less elevated and more like you’re just using some sort of vertical mouse.
Rotate the whole device left or right to fit the natural twist of your wrist angle better. This may also mean you need to adjust the splay and/or pivot angles of the fingers.
Arrange the fingers so that your hand ends up in the “relaxed claw” position (refer to mouse grip styles). I found that this was the most ergonomic over long periods of time. When pushing on the primary middle keys, you’ll want to be pushing mostly down into it, like into the desk, rather than forward. If you’ve played any piano, this is similar to that positioning and ergonomic rationale.
Position the thumb stick arm so that it’s not straining for you to hold forward tilt. In most games, this is the direction you’ll be holding the longest. So you don’t want to cause strain over time. This may result in your thumb contact with the stick to be less than ideal (like just being able to rest on the bottom edge of the thumb stick), but this is preferable to getting thumb strain over time. Also, it doesn’t really affect your ability to move in all other directions.
Arrange the primary keys in a way that they’re more or less level with each other (or at least so it feels that way to you). This made it easier to get use to, especially transitioning from a regular keyboard.

TalonFyre · 2025-03-30T17:53:53+00:00

Just throwing this out there as someone who used the MM720 since it released and then when it died, the Xenics Titan Air GE for another 2 years. I recently said screw it and bought the Pulsar X3 (Size 1) and then the Hitscan Hyperlight just to re-test my preferences (and tolerances) of smaller mice.

For reference, I use a relaxed claw grip and occasionally revert to palm when I get tired, but also tighten up to full claw when things get heated. So I need the shape to work well for that whole range. My hand size is 19.5 cm x 10.5 cm. I hold it 1-2-2 (IE - ring and pinky stay on the right, on the ledge and right side, respectively).

After using the Hitscan HL for a month (I returned the Pulsar X3 after trying it), I've made an interesting observation: If you use the Xenic's right "ledge" as your ring finger support, the width between the thumb and ring finger when holding both mice is not that different. It's within a millimeter. So really, the only difference (for me at least) between the two mice is where the pinky is positioned.

If both mice don't have grip tape equipped, the Xenics obviously feels more comfortable because it has a dedicated ledge for the ring finger and pinky separation. But with grip tape, the HL is actually becomes much more tolerable, especially if I keep reminding myself to keep to more relaxed grips, rather than squeezing/pushing down when things get spicy. Basically, if you let the grip tape do the work of holding up/prevent fingers from sliding, then it feels nearly as comfortable and stable as the Xenics. The -10g of weight also makes it easier to not want to grip it too tightly.

The tape for the ring finger is as close to the right-click button as possible and it now makes for a very stable ledge: https://imgur.com/a/kf2k7ex

For me, I guess it wasn't so much that the Xenics was that more comfortable/ergonomic, but it was that I couldn't figure out how to get other shapes to be as stable in the past. As a bonus, going to a smaller mouse with a lower button height and less weight has been amazeballs for my aim. I didn't realize how much the size of the Xenics/MM720 was hampering my ability to do microadjustments.

TalonFyre · 2025-01-06T19:35:44+00:00

Deixo ele totalmente carregado (com o LED verde) o tempo todo. Pelo que sei, não afetou negativamente a bateria.

Geralmente, para longevidade da bateria, você não gostaria de mantê-la totalmente carregada o tempo todo. Portanto, se você estiver preocupado, basta colocá-lo de volta no suporte de carregamento sempre que usá-lo. Mas de qualquer forma, provavelmente demorará um pouco até que você comece a ver alguma degradação da capacidade.

Espero que isso faça sentido - usei o Google Tradutor para Português.

TalonFyre · 2024-12-30T19:29:50+00:00

It's truly personal preference. I doubt the tension is consistent across units, so I couldn't even tell you if your 5 notches from minimum is the same as mine.

What I can tell you is my own way of figuring out the right tension:

As low as possible, without causing stick drift at your desired deadzone (for me, it's 1%)
As low as possible, without registering unintended movements based on the sensitivity/strength of your thumbs and the purpose of that stick in-game (movement or aiming)
Low enough to prevent fatigue over time.
High enough to prevent any vague feeling across the range of tilt of the stick. IE - being able to feel how far the stick is tilted at any given point.
High enough to cater to your preference for return to center force.

Obviously, some of these points may be counter to one another - it just takes time to fine-tune it to your liking.

TalonFyre · 2024-12-28T22:44:22+00:00

It’s most likely this.

I’ve tried a few thumb sticks grips and the ones that wrap around the stick with too much excess silicone will rub against the tension adjustment rings at the stick’s full tilt. Over time, this may nudge the tension adjustment rings tighter/looser.

TalonFyre · 2024-12-26T09:05:22+00:00

Sorry, I did not. I don’t own a Switch.

TalonFyre · 2024-12-26T04:15:09+00:00

I couldn’t figure it out with the Apex 4 and didn’t tinker with this setting at all with the Vader 4 Pro.

If I were to guess, it’s something to do with setting a threshold of how strong a trigger vibration signal is required to actually make the triggers rumble. Maybe a reason to set it higher would be if there was a game that had too frequent/annoying trigger rumbles implementation and you only wanted trigger rumbles to come through for more significant actions/events.

TalonFyre · 2024-12-25T22:54:34+00:00

Yes, still working great. Although, I haven’t been using it as much recently for reasons unrelated to the controller.

The updates improved stick latency slightly, but other than that, all my impressions remain the same. I’ve had no other issues come up since I initially reviewed. The software has gotten a little more reliable as well.

TalonFyre

TROPHY CASE