Closer Examination, Build Quality and Comfort

The design of the Mad Catz F.R.E.Q. 2 has strong industrial vibes. Its most distinctive visual element is the dual headband. The principle of the dual-headband design is simple—instead of having to adjust the "height" of your headset by sliding the earcups up and down the frame, just putting it on your head will have the inner headband stretch as necessary.


The outer metal headband holds the headset together, and the inner one consisting of two padded metal wires rests on top of your head. I have a fairly large head, but came nowhere close to fully extending the inner headband as there's plenty of space to work with even if your head is exceptionally big. The tension of the inner headband isn't too high, so you won't feel like there's something pulling the earcups up while wearing it.


The inner headband isn't heavily padded, but doesn't feel uncomfortable at all; the suspension system does a good job of distributing the weight over the top of your head. The pleather, foam-filled ear pads are fairly comfortable as well. The clamping force of the frame could be a tiny tad lower, but soft materials mostly make up for that. Even though you won't exactly forget you're wearing it, the Mad Catz F.R.E.Q. 2 gaming headset can be used for multiple hours at a time without causing significant discomfort to any part of your head.


The ear cups are sealed and made out of plastic. There's a black metal plate on both, with the printed Mad Catz "cat scratch" logo. Together with exposed screws, it all looks very industrial and raw, which is undoubtedly the aesthetic Mad Catz was going for.


Wires connecting the earcups loop through the inner headband. While fully rubberized, you should still take care not to yank them when handling the headset. The left and right channel are clearly marked on the inner side of the frame.


Here, you can see the microphone fully extended and completely retracted. It is built into the left earcup.


The rubberized microphone arm is surprisingly short. Fully extended, it sits next to my cheek, instead of my mouth. It's easily bent, but doesn't really stay in its position. I did try to talk directly into it and came to the conclusion that keeping it further away avoids popping noise, which is quite excessive with the capsule directly in front of the mouth and non-existent when right next to your cheek, in its default position. That said, the quality of my voice didn't change significantly, so this is an acceptable trade-off.


You will find the in-line remote control some 50 centimeters down the rubberized cable—it has a microphone mute switch and decent volume dial. There's no clothes clip. It's somewhat large, although very light, too light to drag the headset down.


The rubberized headphone cable is nondetachable. It terminates in a 4-pole (TRRS) 3.5-mm plug you can connect to your laptop, smartphone, console, or a mobile device to use both the headphones and the microphone. If connecting it to your PC, which probably uses two audio ports (microphone input and headphone output), you'll have to use the supplied dual 3-pole (TRS) splitter cable.