Cougar Phontum Gaming Headset review

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Music makes u lose control

Cougar Phontum Gaming Headset Review - Time for the tunes

The Tracks

As reviewing something like a headset is so subjective, choosing a range of songs to test the unit with will also - inevitably - also come down to an element of personal taste. All of these tests were conducted whilst listening to (as I will be for all tracks listed) Spotify's high quality streaming service, meaning a solid 320KB/s bitrate for increased quality. The first track on my list, therefore, is going to be a recent favourite of mine. 'The Sound of Silence' by Disturbed is a reworking of the classic from Simon & Garfunkel from 1964. This, however, is a Disturbed take on the track, a band well known for being very much 'Heavy Metal.' It's a treat to listen to at the best of times, so how does it perform on the Phontum?



The track is dominated almost entirely by vocalist David Draiman, with the instruments taking a somewhat second fiddle. The instruments only kick in in the 'finale,' or so to speak. First of all, even with 100% volume, distortion was never detected. Excellent start. There was also no hiss or unpleasant 'noise' that I could hear, either. The unit does a superb job at bringing out the track's detail, with Draiman's voice standing tall. The backing instrumentation was easy to pick out, and wasn't muffled or muddied. If you would like a specific 'point' at which to listen to the song, then go straight to 3:20 to 3:45, where the track reaches its crescendo. No complaints at all for this first test.

The next track is a classic, 'Mr. Brightside' by The Killers. I think everyone should know this track, therefore I hope it needs very little introduction.



Mr Brightside is much more of a balance between the vocals and instruments, with the voice being deliberately distorted in the original recording. This comes across well here. I ended up listening to this track several times over the course of an hour, as it happened. The song was a delight to listen to, with each element discernable over another. I really couldn't find anything to fault here, either. If I were being very picky, this was the only time I really felt the need to adjust the EQ I had set earlier. The track - initially - did sound a little flat overall. Once this was done, however, I had no issues. Specifically, I had to up the treble end of the range a touch to brighten up the vocals. I had no such problems with bass, as there was low end aplenty available on this unit.

The final track I listened to was one I am sure nobody will know by name, but will certainly be familiar with once you listen to it.



Yes, this is the now relatively famous music from Battlefield 1's single player trailer. Now, I chose this for one main reason. It has the potential to be incredibly loud. The track itself has no vocals to speak of, and is entirely instrumental. I had been impressed so far with how little (if any) loudness distortion this unit had given me, and I was somewhat determined to find its limit. Well, with this track, I did. With volume cranked to 100%, distortion was there and noted. However, I remained impressed by how tame it was. Said distortion was barely a crackle, and once I backed the volume off to 90% (if only, I'll admit, to save my own eardrums), the issue was gone. In fact, I think it is a testament to this unit that they were able to get so loud and remain perfectly decent. Moving on, they were clear, and I was - again - easily able to discern the various instruments used. The original EQ I had tuned for the gaming tests proved perfectly fine here, indicating the issues with Mr. Brightside were just an oddity. Impressive once more, and a joy to listen to for 54.99.

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