Build Quality and Comfort

As stated earlier, the Cougar Phontum comes with two pairs of ear cushions. Both are filled with memory foam and covered in pleather and surround the ears completely. It should come as no surprise that the thicker ear pads are more comfortable—they simply contain more memory foam and keep your ears further away from the speaker drivers. The thinner ear pads, intended for use on the go, weren't uncomfortable either, but did bring the speaker drivers closer to my ears than I like. In fact, my ears started touching the plastic frame the speaker drivers are located behind. While this might not be the case with everyone as head shapes and sizes vary wildly between different users, I'd stick with thicker ear pads whenever possible. Another reason for that is that the sound quality is better when the thicker ear pads are used, but we'll get back to that in the audio performance section of this review.


The ear cups can be moved upward and downward along the metal frame to better support various head sizes. While this might seems like a lackluster system, it really isn't as the ear cups firmly stayed exactly where I placed them and showed no intention of accidentally moving elsewhere.


Although the orange underside of the headband is only lightly padded, it doesn't cause any discomfort to the top of the head.


The headset's frame is made out of bent metal. I am happy with Cougar's decision to leave it completely exposed because it increases that feeling of luxury and makes the whole thing seem much more convincing, construction quality-wise.

In line with what we are used to from Cougar, the Phontum is a good-looking, well-made and quite comfortable headset overall, especially if you go with thicker ear pads.