Launched in early August, the Cougar Immersa Pro gaming headset is an update from the original Immersa release. While it uses the same dual headband support and soft leatherette covered ear cups, the Immersa Pro now has the sound level control and mute switch on the right and left earcups, respectively. This means you no longer need to use the in-line controller on the USB cable to adjust either of these settings. Show The Cougar Immersa Pro also features support for Ultimate 7.1 Virtual Surround Sound via a USB sound card. Simply plug the USB mini-plug on the headset's braided cable into the 7.1 sound card. If you want to use the Immersa Pro on your mobile device or console, you can use the provided USB mini-plug-to-3.5mm stereo adapter. The Immersa Pro includes LED lighting which is confined to a circular ring around the ear cups to provide flare without being too intrusive. Using the "Cougar UIX System" software, you can control the LED lighting (in simple "Steady", "Breathing", and 3 "Swift" settings) with a choice of 16.8 million colors that includes a "Speed" control bar for a custom setup. Of course you can toggle the LED lighting off completely. The Cougar Immersa Pro gaming headset does not incorporate a swivel joint on the earcups, so I am very interested in trying out this design. Let’s take a look at what is included in the box, then a closer look at the design before finally hooking the headset up to my test computer for gaming and listening testing. Packaging/Contents: The Cougar Immersa Pro gaming headset comes in a pressed cardboard package with a matte black finish. The front panel is adorned with a photo of the Immersa Pro, and listed along the bottom are headset features. The back panel lists several additional features like LED illumination on the earcups, the ON/OFF switch for the Mute function, and UIX software program. The two side panels of the outer packaging list more features like the available 16.8 million colors and the microphone. As seen in the next two images, the right and front panel flip open to reveal the Cougar Immersa Pro headset itself inside a clear plastic protective shell. After removing an inner gray cover, we find a small black box above the headset foam cushion that contains the adapter for the 7.1 virtual sound card, a mobile device and game console adapter phone plug, and the user manual that has all of the information you will need to setup your headset. 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 "regular" Cougar Immersa didn't bother with being neutral or natural. It was a bass-heavy, explosive-sounding headset that tried to make everything sound as fun as possible. Subtler details, such as distant enemy footsteps, disappeared in that process, and certain types of voices caused ear fatigue because of their boominess, but buyers on a tight budget didn't really care about any of that. The new Cougar Immersa Pro comes with larger speaker drivers (50 mm, instead of 40 mm), which had me slightly worried. I was afraid that it would simply offer more of everything mentioned above, which would lead to excessive amounts of bass and move the sound a couple of additional steps away from acoustic naturality. Thankfully, the reality of it is quite different. The audio performance of the Immersa Pro has next to no similarities to the cheaper Immersa. The speaker drivers have been tuned very differently. This time around, the bass isn't nearly as dominant. It's definitely there in quantities that are necessary to make everything sound full, but it's much mellower and with less bite. That immediately leads to two good things - the boomy vocals have been completely eradicated and you can actually hear quieter sounds properly. Thanks to that, the sound of the Immersa Pro sounds wider, more grandiose, and the headset fares much better than the regular Immersa in terms of spatial positioning. You won't get as much information about your in-game surroundings as with, say, the SteelSeries Arctis 3/5/7 or HyperX Cloud Alpha and Revolver, but unless you're a competitive gamer, the gaming performance of the Immersa Pro should and will make you happy. Much like its cheaper sibling, the Immersa Pro leaks next to no sound. It also does a good job of passively keeping out ambient noise. MusicThe original Immersa sounded fun when used for music, with its deep, punchy bass. At least until you queued up a song or a genre that wasn't as focused on the lower part of the sound spectrum. The Immersa Pro focuses more on balance across the entire frequency range. It never sounds boring, nor will it fall apart in terms of acoustic performance when you want to listen to a more complex rock song or a tune in which enjoyment comes from being able to hear the finer details. If you're mostly into rap, EDM and similar genres, there's a slight chance you might find the massive bass of the cheaper Immersa more pleasing than the refinement of the Immersa Pro. For me, there's no question - I'd pick the Immersa Pro for my music listening sessions ten times out of ten. It still has plenty of bass and handles every other part of the spectrum with much more precision and finesse than its sibling. Since this is a USB headset, it comes with its own sound card, so getting a dedicated DAC/amp is pointless. The supplied sound card has a clean input and output and offers plenty of volume, as well as several other features we'll cover in the software section of this review. 7.1 Surround SoundThe Cougar Immersa is capable of producing virtual 7.1 surround sound. It does so by using Cmedia's technology called Xear Surround, and the surround itself is toggled inside the Cougar UIX System. Even though the surround sound is just an added feature and definitely not a defining characteristic of the Immersa Pro, it should be noted that the surround effect is poor. Instead of getting a better sense of space and having the sound come from outside the headphones, everything gets placed roughly a couple of centimeters above your ears. That includes sounds that definitely shouldn't be there, such as gunfire that originates from directly in front of you. The clarity and dynamics of the sound are also completely changed, and not for the better. For example, cars in PUBG are quieter than usual, and firing your own gun pierces through and into your ears to such an extent that the whole experience becomes very uncomfortable. In short, forget about using this headset's surround sound. Don't even bother trying it out, it's plain bad. |
