If we’re starting to sound a bit like a SteelSeries tribute website, then you’ve only got the company themselves to blame. It seems that the peripheral gurus are going through something of a purple patch at the moment, with everything they touch turning to gold, and the SteelSeries Flux headphones are no exception to that. Offering phenomenal build quality, fantastic sound and a generally gorgeous aesthetic (orange eyesore cables aside), there’s absolutely nothing else on the market that can come close to the Flux headphones at the sub $100 price point the product has launched at.
Usually in that price range you’ll be able to find something reasonably well made, if a little creaky under duress, with sound quality moderately higher than your average pair of in-ear headphones – that’s not the case here. With the SteelSeries Flux you instead get pure quality from top to bottom.
We’ll start by taking a look at the build of the headset. As soon as you have the Flux cans in your hand, you’ll realise that you’re holding a premium product, despite the price tag. There’s quite a hefty weight to them which is both satisfying and encouraging. On further inspection, you’ll realise just how versatile the headset is, capable of folding up to a fraction of its size without ever feeling like you’re on the brink of snapping anything. Quite simply, they’re just nice.
Once you actually place them on your head, you’ll really start to understand why we love the Flux so much. The ear cups, featuring SNDBlock acoustic material, while relatively small in comparison to some headphones, are perfectly snug fitting, and the padding feels fantastic, even when worn over long periods, while also offering excellent sound isolation properties for loud environments. The aforementioned orange eyesore cables included with our review model (apparently they’re also available in far less hideous black and white options) are fully removable, and you can use them on whichever side you like.
Available in both black and white variants, the Flux headset offers additional customisation by virtue of the removable cup plates. If you feel the need to swap out the rather sexy Flux branded ones that come attached, you can instead opt for the glossy solid black/white option also included (depending on the colour of the headphones you opted for), or go all out and customise the hell out of them on the SteelSeries website, which offers a wide range of different colours for cup plates, ear cushions and cables.
In terms of sound, and that’s what really matters here, the Flux kicks absolute lumps out of everything else in the price range – they even stand up admirably against headphones twice, or even three times, their price. The 40mm drivers utilised here offer a frequency response of 18-28,000 Hz with an impedance level of 29 Ohms and 118 dB dynamic range. The inline microphone, which again can be plugged into either side, has a frequency response of 50-16,000 Hz with -38dB sensitivity and an omni-directional pick up pattern.
Perhaps the most interesting feature of the Flux, however, is the fact that you’re able to daisy chain multiple headsets together in order to share audio with a friend (or twenty friends for that matter). It’s a system we’ve never seen before, and it’s definitely something that we can see quite a bit of use for, assuming both you and your friend have a set of the headphones. Long plane or bus journeys won’t seem quite as bad any more as both of you, armed with nothing more than a single smartphone, will be able to watch movies or play games without the need to distract those around you.
Whether you’re looking for a headset for gaming, VOIP calls or simply listening to music there’s nothing else out there that comes close for the price point. Yet another 5 star product from SteelSeries.