Hey readers, I know that you are likely familiar with SteelSeries by now. When we were at E3, they showed us a really cool modular headset, that looked and sounded great. They were pretty awesome, but being that they were more or less prototypes, it was hard to really get a ton of info on them. Well, the Flux headset is out and it is time for us to get into the nitty gritty with it. SteelSeries sent them over to take for a spin, man did we do it.

For starters, the Flux Headset is an on-ear headset, which differs significantly from the super popular Siberia v2 headset, which is a over-ear headset. While this was initially a concern, I was elated to find that the headset still was able to function as efficiently, if not more, that the over-ear models. The ear pillows actually provide a very impressive amount of noise cancellation for a headset that doesn’t go over or in your ear. The headset is generally comfortable, yet fits rather snug on my massively large head.

The model I reviewed is the Guild Wars 2 branded headset, which features a red and white motif while rocking the Guild Wars 2 logo on the ear plates. This serves as an awesome example of the other great feature that the Flux features. The whole damn headset is modular, which allows me to change the audio cables, ear pads and ear plates to designs and colors of my choosing. This means, I can change the Guild Wars 2 ear plates to a solid white, black or something totally different… if I had additional plates to change them with. While not a make or break feature, I liked to see this since it really gives some flexibility for the aesthetic gamer. The other really awesome feature I thought was pretty original on the headset was the fact that an additional audio cable could be plugged into the earpiece that  did not elect to plug the audio cable into and carry the audio over to that source as well, meaning it functioned great for use outside of gaming as well.

So, how was the Flux headset when I was able to use it? Truthfully, I think I liked them better than any of the Siberia v2 headsets that I have used so far… in moderation. The audio itself sounded great but for some odd reason lacked in line controls, which seemed kind of odd and was a bit of a pain to deal with when used on my PC. I’d guess that this was a cost saving technique, since cables with in line controls would likely cost more and eliminate that portion of modular customization.  The mic itself is also built into the audio cable, which is features audio jacks instead of a USB connections and even though it lacks a boom extension, it still sounds great to those I played with.

To criticize the headset a bit, I did actually come across a few things I didn’t love about the headset either. The biggest culprit was that after extended use, I found that the headset would get slightly uncomfortable, making me feel a bit like my head was is a vice. This was likely due to the fact that the headset sits directly on top of my head, rather than ‘floating’ above it, as the Siberia models do. Fortunately, this only happened after 3 or 4 hours or constant use and even then, taking them off for a few minutes really helped. The other issue that I had was with the in line mic. Many times it got turned around and was facing my chest, which muffled my voice. This was something I found myself having to stay aware of, which provided a minor inconvenience. Finally, there was that slight issue with the volume. Most PC games were really loud, which meant that I had to go into my control panel to fix the levels. However, in other games it was kind of quiet, which meant I had to go back into the control panel to readjust the audio levels. Nothing was really a deal breaker, just small annoyances if anything at all.

Ultimately, if my experience with the Flux headset taught me anything, it was that a small mobile headset can deliver at an equal level with the full size models that many PC gamers use. The reduction of size comes at a price, as it isn’t as comfortable as a full size headset. With that knowledge though, it’s still easy to say that the Flux headset is still one of the best headsets I have had the pleasure of using.

4.75/5,  would review again.