Cougar Spettro Active Noise Cancellation Headset
design
Compared to a lot of headset options on the Cougar website the Spettro arrives with a noticeably plain design. There’s no flashes of colour and no RGB, in fact there’s very little to suggest this is a gaming headset at all. Compared to something like the Astro A30 it’s positively boring, or simple, depending on which way you look at it.
An angular ear cup design does add a point of difference between the Cougar Spettro and a lot of competitors and sees it end up looking more like a sharper version of the RODE NTH-100, it’s a shape I quite enjoy actually. The headband offers the basic size adjustments you’d expect with a simple strip of padding that is probably the bare minimum you can get away with. The Spettro ear cup pads are soft and while wrapped with faux leather on the sides, feature a mesh fabric on the face. I found this slightly more comfortable for longer periods than faux leather, it’s certainly less sweaty but not as nice as the material on the NTH-100.
Overall I found the Cougar Spettro reasonably comfortable, though nothing particularly noteworthy. They did put some pressure on the corners of my jaw, an issue I find with a few different gaming headsets, but this wasn’t as prominent here than it has been on other headphones.
Build quality is nothing beyond average across the board on the Cougar Spettro headphones. The hard moulded plastic that makes up the entire headset lacks any sort of premium vibe but does the job ultimately. The buttons feel noticeably cheap and you’ll be welcomed by that classic Bluetooth voice that seems to live in every off-brand headphones. The Spettro’s ear cups do fold in to make storage and transport easier and there’s a felt bag included in the box which is a welcome addition, if not again feeling a little cheap.
performance
The Cougar Spettro offers dual connectivity with Bluetooth and a standard 3.5mm connection. Cleverly you can use both inputs at once too, a feature usually reserved for more expensive options so that’s great to see. Pairing the Cougar Spettro via Bluetooth was simple and unlike the Astro A30 there’s no additional apps to download.
Audio performance is reasonable with good bass and a balanced overall sound. Realistically as a stereo headset at this price point it was never likely to be industry leading but it does a passable job. Listening to music was fine with no distortion and while gaming I found it did a good job at engrossing me in what I was doing.
The Cougar Spettro offers active noise cancellation but this was a terrible experience. Testing it in an already reasonably quiet environment I felt as if turning ANC on actually added distractions to the sound rather than isolating what I was listening to. Unlike a pair of AirPod Pros which let you quickly zone out, I found the noise cancellation on the Spettro added some soft white noise with a strange tinny edge to it. Switching to ambient mode didn’t improve things, the white noise like listening to the inside of a shell remained though this time with more of the environment coming through too.
Battery life is acceptable with reasonably quick charging times too and the ability to activate digital assistants from the headset is good to see. Paired with my iPhone 15 Pro I was consistently able to activate Siri when wanted, though its responses were very quiet and bizarrely low quality. Whether this is an issue on the iPhone side rather than the headset I don’t know, but it wasn’t good enough to be something I’d regularly use as a result.
summed up
If you’re in the market for a new gaming headset but don’t have a huge budget to spend the Cougar Spettro gaming headphones are an OK option but you can likely do better.
While they’re reasonably comfortable and sound OK, average build quality and poor active noise cancellation spoil the experience.
