Audio Performance

I'll split the audio performance analysis into two parts—gaming and music. Even though the headset produces the same sound regardless of what it's being used for, you won't necessarily look for the same things while annihilating your virtual opponents as you will when listening to your favorite tunes.

Gaming

The previous gaming headset with a dual chamber speaker driver design I tested was the $100 HyperX Cloud Alpha. As HyperX's headsets already sounded great, many of us considered their switch to a completely new driver design somewhat risky. Luckily, it all turned out well, with the Alpha now being the best-sounding gaming headset they have on offer.

The Cougar Phontum also sports a dual-chamber design, as well as a large 53-millimeter graphene diaphragm. However, that by itself doesn't really tell us anything about the sound quality as the implementation and tuning of these audio drivers can be completely different, and different it is.

First of all, do not judge the audio performance of this headset before giving the graphene diaphragms a bit of time to stretch their proverbial legs. Initially, the sound quality was awful—muddy and shockingly veiled. I was absolutely certain that I had forgotten to turn off one of my sound card's surround sound options in the driver, or that I hadn't plugged the headset in properly. Thankfully, after only an hour of using the Phontum, things started changing for the better. All of my following observations are from after that initial burn-in period.

It's a bassy headset with a sound signature that immediately reminded me of the Cougar's very own $50 Immersa. The bass has a good weight and a decent kick, and it digs quite deep. Cougar did avoid boosting it by too much at around 80 Hz, which results in a nice fullness of the sound without making the lower end annoying or distracting.

The upper midrange is tuned in a strange way, almost like they wanted to achieve an always active virtual surround sound effect, perhaps in an attempt to make the soundstage seem wider. It's hard to say without a full spectrum graph and an appropriate analysis, but it feels like the right side of the V-shaped equalizer curve doesn't climb up fast enough—its shape is more of a "\_/" than a "V". Because of that, the Phontum didn't do me any favors in terms of spatial awareness. While playing PUBG, I had no idea where I was getting shot from most of the time.

I was able to roughly estimate the general direction of incoming gunfire, but precisely pinpointing my enemies was next to impossible. The same occurred in Battlefield 1 and Fortnite. In short, while things do get better after turning the volume up, this isn't a headset you will want to use if you're mostly into multiplayer shooters, especially if your sound card doesn't offer a system-wide equalizer that would allow you to compensate for certain drawbacks of the audio driver's tuning at the factory.

On the upside, after switching to single player, things got better. When spatial awareness isn't imperative, the Cougar Phontum offers plenty of kick and rumble to make things entertaining. The midrange and higher frequencies manage to stay coherent enough for dialogue-heavy games. Overall, it's a pleasant-sounding headset that has one obvious flaw—it doesn't do a good job of turning your attention to the exact locations of your in-game targets.

Music

For listening to music, the Cougar Phontum will undoubtedly be liked by many. Plenty of bass and a recessed midrange are exactly what the masses are looking for if they can also crank up the volume without any distortions, which is definitely possible with the Phontum as it manages to stay distortion-free even at high volumes, which causes happiness to ensue.

The bass is weighty, but not by so much as to make the Phontum only good for EDM, rap, and similar music genres. Since the 80–100 Hz range isn't boosted into oblivion, you can also enjoy rock and metal music without risking the bass guitar to be too dominant and annoying. The bass is even fast and snappy enough to be able to deal with the double bass pedal and blast beats. When the bass is out of control, those turn into a sloppy mess, which is not the case with the Phontum.

It's not the most detailed and refined sound I've ever heard, not by a long shot, but for $50, you definitely get your money's worth. With only a little better in-game spatial positioning, this would be one of the nicest-sounding gaming headsets in its price bracket. Since it isn't, the Phontum is in an awkward position—it's a gaming headset with music performance that is significantly nicer than its in-game performance, at least if you are into multiplayer shooters.

There's an audible difference between the two pairs of supplied ear cushions. The thicker ones physically move the speaker drivers further away from your ears, which makes everything sound a bit more wide and open. With thinner ear pads, your ears will literally touch the plastic pieces inside the ear cushions, the ones that prevent you from physically touching the speaker drivers. The sound signature becomes a bit more muffled and veiled, which I really didn't care for, and comfort is higher with thicker pads as well. In short, avoid using the thinner pads Cougar supplies whenever you can.