Ozone Spark Review

Intro

The first look I gave to this headset made me dubious on the quality. The headset had a decent packaging and the design was well within my scale in terms of good looks factor. I must say that I was pretty much impressed by the looks when I first saw this. My concern mainly was the price. I was curious to see if Ozone could back up their claims of good quality and excellent price tags.

We will see in this review if their claims back up their product.

Packaging

The Spark Headset comes in a simple mid-sized box. In front it has a transparent cover which gives a view of the headset. On the front of the box, is the name and an illustartions of the features available.

On the back there are detailed technical specifications in 5 different languages and a detailed view of the headset.

Unpacked the Spark Headset is placed firmly in a plastic molding to prevent damages. Although there are no instructions and drivers cd, I managed to easily find my way around pluging the headset in the pc, since it is stereo no drivers are needed, the remaining info can be found on the Ozone Gaming website (http://www.ozonegaming.com/).

Technical Specifications

Technical Specifications:

Microphone
Mic Dimensions: ø6.0 x 5.0mm
Directivity: Omnidirectional
Impedance: ≤2.2KΩ
SPL: -45dB±3dB

Headphones
Driver Dimensions: ø50mm
Impedance: 32Ω
Frequency Response; 20~20kHz
Sensitivity (SPL): 100dB±3dB

General
Cord Length: 2.5m
Plug: 3.5mm jack x2 (headphones + mic)
Net Weight: 342g

Features

* Comfort earcups
* Adjustable headband
* Revolution mic
* In-line controller
* Stereo Sound
* Foldable Design

Compatible with Microsoft® Windows® XP / Vista / 7
Mac OS X

The Headset

What I really appreciated about this headset was it's foldable design which makes it quite durable and flxible and I can carry it around without problems in small bags.

The Earcups are extremely comfortable and are made of a type of synthetic leather like material. The spark logo is printed on the right earcup, and on the left there's the mic and a small design.

I found the adjustable headband to be very confortable and with 8 levels of adjustment on both -left and right side it fitted like a charm. It is so confortable that sometimes I don't feel it. Another must feature in a headset is the length and strength of the cable. The spark caters for this with a 2.5m long cable and braided sleeving and it has an in-line volume control along with on-off switch for mic. I found this to be more than what I needed to be honest but the more is better than less in this case.

Speaking of the mic, it is fixed and can be adjusted only up or down. The design of the mic looks really cool but since it is not flexible some might see this as a negative. From my end I found the mic to be sensitive enough even though it was not directly situated in front of my mouth.

The Spark Headset buildwise is excellent and very sturdy, also it's well put together and there are no signs of any squeaking noises or ill fittings. This makes the spark extremely good looking.

Testing it Out

Testing Setup:

Processor: Intel Core i7
Motherboard: Asus P6T Deluxe
Memory: 6GB Ram
Video Card: Nvidia GTX 470
HDD: 1TB
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64

Call of Duty MW 2: has a wide range of explosions ,firing ,bombing and various other battlefield sounds which are really helpful to test the performance of a gaming headphone under intense situations.

The sparks really didn't disappoint when it came to continuous firing shots,bombing or instructions by other fellow soldiers. The sound is quite accurate and gives you a intense feeling of being in the game.

You need to crank up the volume to about 60-70% to actually have a nerve racking gaming experience. With lower volume, you miss out on that airy virtual surround sound which keeps you in the game.

Music:

Although the Spark headset is not the best headset for music, it isn't bad either. We found this gaming headset to perform in the average level. So whilst it does not compare with headsets made for music, one must not forget this headset is built for gaming. Gamers will find that average expectations are welll covered by the Spark headset.

Conclusion

The Cost

The Cost of this headset is quite superb. Selling at Euro28.00.

Conclusion

Initially in my introduction I was concerned that this product would not perform as well as claimed since the price tag was quite reasonable. That concern was misplaced since you get so much for your money here. The product is high in comfort, has a great sound quality, good microphone and is robust in make. Also it's flexibility allows you to take it anywhere, since folded it takes half of the space it would usually take.

Pros and Cons

Value for money.	Could perform better in Music.
Comfortable and Light.	Mid range hollow at times.
Well built.
Foldable design.
Microphone, Inline volume control.

Overall

We gave this Headset the Hackers Gold Tag, for the great quality and the excellent price tag it provides.

Our thanks go to Ozone for providing us with the sample for this review.