Closer Examination

There's no denying that the Cougar Phontum is a good-looking gaming headset. The outer headband is covered in pleather and is subtly engraved. Its inner side is painted orange and perforated, for no apparent reason other than looks.


Various other fine details, such as the bent metal frame and perforated centerpieces of these otherwise sealed ear cups, add to the pleasant aesthetics of the Phontum. The same goes for the flat wires that loop through the headband and connect the speakers, as well as its impressive-looking ear pads, especially when you're using the thicker pair Cougar supplies. As far as $50 gaming headsets go, the Cougar Phontum is quite possibly the best-looking one I've ever had the pleasure of trying. There's no chance in hell you could correctly guess its price if someone gave it to you to examine.


Like I mentioned earlier, the ear pads can be removed by simply pulling them out from the holes they're attached to through four plastic "pins". The supplied ear cups are marked with "L" and "R", which makes figuring out whether you should put them on the left or right ear cup a breeze. Even though the ear cups look symmetrical, you do need to take care about which goes where—it's impossible to put the left one on the right or vice versa.


Cougar bundled two pairs of ear cups with the Phontum. We'll go over the differences in the comfort and audio performance sections of this review.


The supplied unidirectional microphone is detachable. A standard 3.5-mm port is used, with its surroundings being shaped in a way that helps with keeping the microphone safely plugged in. You don't have to worry about turning it in the wrong direction as the headset's cable is positioned right next to the microphone hole, which effectively forces you to turn the microphone in the correct direction.


This time around, Cougar decided to clearly mark the head of the microphone to make sure users won't have to wonder about which part of the microphone they're supposed to be talking into. That should make it much easier to orient properly, as some gamers undoubtedly get confused by the fact that the microphone's head has another hole that is in fact used for background noise cancellation. Anyway, with an implementation like this one, which side should be pointing towards your mouth is more than clear.


The first part of the Phontum's cable is 1.2 meters long and terminates in a 3.5-mm TRRS plug, which you'll use when combining the Phontum with consoles and mobile devices. If that's the case, you'll have to control the volume on the device itself as Phontum's built-in volume and microphone mute controls only become available when the supplied dual TRS plugs are used—in other words, when you connect it to your PC.


When you want to connect the Phontum to your PC, the aforementioned TRRS plug will have to be plugged into the supplied in-line remote control. It's equipped with a clicky microphone mute switch and a volume dial. Since this is an analogue headset, there are no visual indicators to let you know that the microphone has been muted. You'll simply have to glance at the remote control to check on its current status.


The remote control is affixed to a cable that terminates in a pair of 3.5-mm TRS plugs (microphone input and headphone output). When using this "attachment", the total length of the cable goes from 1.2 to a full 3 meters.