BitFenix Flo PC Gaming Headset Review

Performance

This headset is designed to be your one stop solution for personal audio and that’s exactly what we wanted to test, everything! Being a music fan it was important to me that this headset can handle a wide range of music, everything from electronic beats to death metal has to sound their best. First impressions were pretty good, clear high tones offer up a lot of detail to the sound, bass was relatively thick and detailed too without sounding too muddy, but it lacked a little extra punch that I would have expected from drivers of this size. The mid ranges have a nice warmth to them that gives a very pleasant tone to music that many headsets don’t offer, and it goes a long way to thickening out the sound. Volume certainly isn’t an issue here, the drivers are damn loud and you’ll often find yourself staying well clear of the maximum output. A dab of EQ to boost the low and high ranges, with a small drop on the mids tweaked gave a little extra depth to the bass, but that really is just a matter of preference.

Music sounds great, but gaming sound much better. Most modern games tend to push bass frequencies to the max while ramping up the high frequencies for dialogue and ambient effects. This often leaves many headsets sounding muddy and distorted at higher volumes. The Flo headset will rattle your teeth when playing Battlefield 4 and it’s here that I realised just how much bass the headset can actually push, it’s not overly heavy but there is definitely a lot of presence to the sound that keeps much of the finer details that can benefit multi-player gaming, such as hearing opponents footsteps coming behind you, without loosing that cinematic quality.

Chat is a joy, the microphone is really clear while gaming and chatting on Skype. Having a master mute on the controller is a big advantage too, but using push-to-talk while gaming is more convenient as I often found I would accidentally adjust the in-line volume slider while trying to use the mute switch. The clear highs leave voice chat cutting through the game audio with ease, but you may need to balance the audio from Windows sound manager first as there are no independent controls for game and chat audio on the headset.

The fit is quite firm, I found it to be a little uncomfortable at first as the ear cups are practically clamped to your head. The soft padding will take a little while to mould to you, but the tight fit does wonders for blocking out external noise and it helps keep the drivers in the right postilion to offer a powerful sound. A little tweaking of the headband (see; bending it) made them more comfortable and after a few hours wear they started to become a much better fit.