Ozone Onda PRO Review

👤by Tony Le Bourne Comments 📅24-03-14
Performance Testing

Setup, Design & Observations
Setup is very easy, plug it into a free USB port and wait for the propriety drivers install, this however does mean that there is no supporting software. The comfort level was impressive indeed, very soft and comfortable in every aspect while being light in weight and clamp strength, even for those wearing glasses. Moving onto the in-line remote, it felt rather high up on the cable, so there is a noticeable extra weight hanging on the left-hand side, it felt clunky, unergonomic and annoying to use. Though the functions such as the volume control and the mute work as well as expected nethertheless.



Multimedia
Before starting the listening tests, I noticed buzzing and squealing noises coming from the headset, I thought this may have been my USB port, so I tried various others including a different system, but there was no change (considering I regularly use a number of USB headsets without problem). It could be caused by the DSP, however I was advised this was a localised issue by Ozone.

Listening to various go to music tracks, it became apparent that the sound quality was good. The bass was nice though not as deep or impactful as some may like, the mids were a dropped slightly but the crystal highs made up for that. Playing through Sidewalks and Skeletons latest album - Future Ghosts, the overall balance was good, though lacked a little depth, character and precision. Due to the Onda Pro following a 'plug and play' rule, there is no real way to change the equalisation, bit depth or sample rates and potentially suffers because of this, however, it is a gaming headset so maybe it is more tuned for that role.

Fighting through a round of Battlefield 4 was intense and the X-surround of the Onda Pro gave nice sounding spatial awareness, from explosions to flying bullets and footsteps, the level of clarity and enhancement was impressive. Playing a few rounds on DOTA 2 revealed similar experience and the enhanced sounds were noticeably clear and present whether it was someone using a salve or clarity just off screen or an inbound Ursa roaring after using Overpower. The Onda Pro certainly shines in gaming.

Microphone
The microphone was a tricky one, ranging from worst I have ever used to good and I can't help feeling that Ozone have overcomplicated things with the ENC and dual microphones. On entering a call, I received a barrage of complaints about the huge amount of noise, static, and interference. I had to turn the sensitivity down all the way to around 5% and suddenly, the microphone became rather good. Following the instructions for the optimal positioning of the microphone did little to cut out sounds of the mouse and keyboard when in use no matter what I tried, including positioning the awkwardly placed second microphone that is on the in-line remote in a more open space. There were some times where my voice would distort or the volume would dip which seemed to be the ENC trying to cut out my voice, admittedly this would only happen while trying to sing to my friends, but hey, this is microphone and anything that could potentially cut out your voice kinda defeats the object of its main function. Generally speaking, once set with the right level of sensitivity, it worked well.


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