Ozone Rage 7HX Headset Review
Overview
Hot on the heels of the Ozone Strike Pro keyboard we have the OZONE Rage 7HX
The Ozone Rage 7HX features twin 40mm Drivers with a frequency Response of 20Hz – 20KHz and connects via a single USB plug. The headset features a detachable, omni-directional microphone with advanced noise cancelling. There’s also an in-line control featuring volume control and mute as well as microphone control and mute.
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The Ozone Rage 7HX arrived at pcG well protected in a predominately black ‘n red box. The front and side of the box feature windows allowing you to clearly see the headset within.
The back of the box has an outline drawing of both the Rage 7HX headset and the in-line remote control, there’s also a description of the ‘Stunning 7.1 Surround Sound’. In addition to this there’s detail on the Clever Ergonomic Design, XL Cloth Padded Ear Cushions, Inline Remote Control and the Detachable Mic. There’s also some basic technical information regarding the Microphone and Speakers.
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In the box there’s a handful of accessories as well as a Driver CD and (obviously!) the headset itself.
As you can see from the image above right the headset sits safely and cable tied to its red plastic tray.
In the box, other than the headset there’s a Driver CD (which is unusual!), a rather crumpled looking Quick Guide, a User Manual and a detachable microphone.
At the time of review the Ozone Rage 7HX headset is retailing for approximately £50 on Amazon
Specifications/Features
courtesy of Ozone
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* Additional details available here
First Impressions
Unfortunately the Ozone Rage 7HX gets off to a bad start, as when you go to try the headset on for the first time it becomes apparent that the headset has a clamping force of a vice made from jelly! Strange as normally we find ourselves complaining that some headsets do have a real vice like grip, but this is the first that I have found to be the polar opposite! It also worries me that Ozone even knows about this and are selling it as a feature!? The back of the box does state: CLEVER ERGONOMIC DESIGN Thanks to its clever ergonomics you’re likely to forget you’re wearing a headset at all… Probably because it’s fallen off your head! 😉 To be fair though, the headset does actually look pretty cool and is covered in a pleasant soft touch material.
The low clamping force is made worse by the fact that the Rage 7HX also features no vertical or horizontal swivel; this is normally present on most headsets in an attempt to ensure a good flush fit against the side of the head. Both ear-cups feature an unusual, red Ozone design pattern as well as cut-outs in the plastic ear-cups with red inserts. These plastic cut-outs illuminate red when the headset is powered up via USB.
The left ear-cup features not only the main cable (attached permanently), it also features the microphone socket for the detachable microphone. Neither of the ear-cups have any other functionality to speak of…
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The flimsy headband is seemingly made from plastic and the top is covered in a plastic material with and embossed Ozone logo.
The inner section of the headband features a single large cushion that seems plenty big enough and deep enough to offer high levels of comfort, especially given the weight of the headset at just 245g (is there anything inside!?).
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The Ozone Rage 7HX are extendible and feature approximately 40mm of travel per side, there’s no doubt that the headset would fit the largest of heads…
Each ear-cup features a large size cushion with a good size opening, allowing your ear to fit within. The ear-cup cushions are covered in a breathable material, although it’s not really all that soft. The driver within each ear-cup is covered again with a similar material, this time (and it looks pretty cool) it’s red ‘n black.
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The uni-directional, detachable microphone simply plugs into the left ear-cup by way of a keyed 3.5mm plug. The boom of the microphone is of the pipe cleaner variety and is made from one of the best materials that I have come across. Yes, you guessed it; the microphone stays exactly where you bend it, nice one Ozone! At the tip of the microphone boom there’s a red LED indicator, that goes out when the microphone is muted.
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Approximately 55cm down from the headset (too close to the headset IMHO) we find an in-line control box (ILCB). The ILCB is a smart red ‘n black affair, with volume control buttons on the left and audio and microphone mute buttons on the right. The cut-outs in the plastic also illuminate red when the device is powered up. The cable itself is not braided, it’s 2.9m in length (wow that’s a long one!) and is seemingly made from rubber, meaning it has a tendency to get caught up rather often in the other things in and around your desk.
There’s a design problem here though (I think) with the ILCB in the fact that when you use the buttons on the side you tend to grasp both sides of the ILCB to do it. This means that you’ll end up inadvertently muting the microphone or audio when all you wanted to do was adjust the volume… 🙁
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Other than the extremely weak clamping force of the Ozone Rage 7HX there’s also some other issues that have me concerned. The lack of any movement to the ear-cups is likely to lead to discomfort and a lot of sound leakage and the in-line control box’s buttons are probably going to annoy, if I keep accidentally pressing the wrong ones. Let’s now take a look (or is that a listen) at how it sounds…
Hardware Installation
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The Ozone Rage 7HX simply connects by way of a single USB plug. This is to be found approximately 2.5m from the in-line control box that (itself) can be found around 0.5m from the headset. |
Testing Methodology/Setup
As the Ozone Rage 7HX headset requires software for full operation a new installation of Windows 7 Home Premium 64Bit (service pack 1) was carried out. The Rage 7HX software was then downloaded here and installed, version 2.0.01.14 was used throughout testing.
GAMES/BENCHMARKS USED IN TESTING:
- Survarium (BETA)
- Alien Isolation
- Dragon Age Inquisition
- Metro Last Light (benchmark)
- Unigine Heaven (benchmark)
- Unigine Valley (benchmark)
Hardware Performance
- Headset
The performance of a headset is predominately based upon what it sounds like, therefore what we have here is my opinion on what I think about the audio performance of the Ozone Rage 7HX headset; of course this is somewhat subjective…
The good news is that the Ozone Rage 7HX sounds pretty good (although it’s not great), better than I thought it would to be honest. The first thing you’ll likely notice is the bass, there’s plenty of it yet it doesn’t detract too much from the other sounds either. The next thing you’ll notice is the VOLUME!, there’s a ton of volume on offer, enough to leave you deaf to be honest; so if you like it loud… Of course what we must not confuse ourselves with, is that a high volume can sometimes be misinterpreted as better sound, this is obviously not true.
The sound itself, other than the aforementioned bass is good, the midrange is present and correct and the treble is there but it’s a little lacking. The thing is, when you do turn that volume up it slowly by surely starts to get a little messy! That is to say that the individual sounds start to blur into one another. Turning on the 7.1 Virtual Surround sound via the software doesn’t help either. This does indeed add some form of spatial effect and a little more immersion, but stereo imaging is lost and so is some of the definition. This, to be fair is a common problem with Virtual Surround Sound headsets, something I’m not really a fan of. Don’t think that just because you can hear a difference when you turn on 7.1 surround sound that it IS surround sound, it’s just a different sound (usually consisting of echo and reverb). You only need two ears and two Speakers to hear surround sound, if you don’t believe me it’s worth checking out the following video. 😉
- Comfort
Oh dear, this is where the Ozone Rage 7HX really trips up; the headband is so loose even on its smallest setting, the headset almost falls of your head when you lean forward. Why this hasn’t been picked up by Ozone I’m not to sure, but judging by a statement on the back of the box (CLEVER ERGONOMIC DESIGN Thanks to its clever ergonomics you’re likely to forget you’re wearing a headset at all… ), they may even believe it’s a feature!? Unfortunately the problem is made worse by the fact that the ear-cups have no horizontal or vertical swivel, meaning that due to this and the no-existent clamping force the ear-cups don’t even sit around your ears properly. This results in a lot of the sound being lost out through the sides (and that wont please anyone nearby) and results in discomfort, as you keep wanting to reposition the headphones on your ears. 🙁
- Microphone
The omni-directional microphone worked very well with our VOIP program of choice (Razer Comms), so no complaints here. Unfortunately (again!) there’s an issue in the fact that while the in-line control box looks great, the button for microphone mute is on the side, and volume buttons are on the other side. This means that when you try to mute the microphone you end up adjusting the volume at the same time, argh!
Software
The Ozone Rage 7HX software (download here) is also a mixed bag, it does indeed work but it looks like it was developed in the year 2000 and it’s not very intuitive to use either.
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I must admit that I really struggled with this first tab (Main Setting), as I had no idea what it was all about, but I think I have it sussed now. By default the Virtual 7.1 surround sound is off, to turn it on you click the blue coloured box on the left that moves it into position on the right!? The System Input and Analog Output also confused me, as surely the software must know what input it has as it’s only connects by USB and surely the output will always be Headphone. Besides if I have to come to this software every time I change what I’m listening to it’s going drive me mad…
The Mixer tab is nothing more than a clone of the Windows functions for Volume Control and Microphone Levels.
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The Effect tab allows you to mess with a ten band Graphic Equalizer and also provides various effects and room configurations to play with, best leave all of this on it’s default setting if you ask me. 😉
The Karaoke/Magic Voice tab allows you to mess with the outgoing voice, you can add echo and even become a monster or have a cartoon voice by enabling Magic Voice. Great fun, for 5 minutes…
The final tab (Information) simply provides basic Driver information etc.
Final Thoughts
I have to admit to being pretty disappointed by the OZONE Rage 7HX
The Ozone Rage 7HX came well packaged in a smart black ‘n red box with side windows allowing you to see the good looking headset within. Once out of the box, it’s apparent that the headset is extremely lightweight (at just 250g) and feels relatively well made it’s also covered in a nice soft touch coating. The design is quite striking and is one I rather like, helped by knowing how much better it looks when powered up thanks to that red lighting.
During the First Impressions it was noted how flimsy the headband was and the fact that the ear-cups have no horizontal or vertical swivel. This did indeed prove to be a problem as the Rage 7HX is, unfortunately the most ill fitting headset that I have ever tested. In fact if you lean forward the headset is likely to slip off your head. As this is when it’s new, I hate to think how ill fitting it may be come over time. The bottom line is that the poor fitment of the headset just let’s the whole package down in a big way. Which is a shame as some of the other aspects of the headset are actually very good.
The sound produced by the twin 40mm Drivers is good, there’s plenty of bass, without being too over powering. There’s lots of power too, turn up the volume on the Rage 7HX and you’re likely to lose your head not just your hearing! Turning the volume up though does mean that quality does go south, but this tends to only be at the higher volumes. The 7.1 surround sound option in the software is off by default, when turned on there is indeed more immersion, courtesy of more echo and reverb, but it’s not really surround sound it’s just different…
The microphone proved its worth also, when using our VOIP program of choice I ran into no issues, and there were no complaints from my online friends, that was until I started to mess with the Magic Voice section of the software of course. 😉
The in-line control, while looking good (especially when illuminated) is a little cumbersome to use as it has buttons on both sides, this means that when you go to alter the volume you’re likely to mute the volume or the microphone at the same time.
The software is also a little archaic, looking like a handful of old Windows tabs cobbled together, there’s certainly no sign of any Ozone branding that’s for sure. While the software features plenty of options most of them are just sound altering features, most of which should probably be left well alone.
So the Ozone Rage 7HX isn’t without its issues, the worst offender being the lack of any headband clamping force and the ill fitting ear-cups, there’s numerous other smaller issues too (see main review), which really lets the overall product down, especially when you consider the £50 asking price. Unfortunately the Ozone Rage 7HX just misses out on an award this time…
Verdict
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Where possible we always use Amazon’s price for Value… |
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Many thanks to Ozone for providing this sample for review
