Closer Examination

The AceZone A-Rise is a gaming headset based off the e-sports version A-Live, except with more user-friendly features and not having the organizer/team broadcasting and monitoring aspect. It's a heavy duty product that reminds me more of aviation headsets in terms of how well it's built. You will notice immediately that it's quite heavy at 550 g and feels extremely sturdy with plenty of aluminium all around. The aesthetics are simple with black on the leather used on the headband assembly and ear pads in addition to the microphone and ear cups. The aluminium retains its natural color although it seems to have been passivated for longevity. The ear cups can fold down to allow the A-Rise to be flat-packed too but there's no denying this is larger and heavier than pretty much any other headset I have used—it's also heavier than most headphones on the market too, including planar magnetic ones with lots of magnets inside. The headband uses sheep leather on the outside which is well-stitched and has a foam lining split into two long sections on the underside. This helps with comfort when wearing the headset while also preventing hot spots on the top of the head. I would have preferred a more plush headband but, as we will soon see, the weight distribution will be more on the side rather than the top of the head. The headband meets the yokes on either side which is assembled via screws and has an industrial design throughout.


Vertical headband sizing is done via the headband moving up or down the yokes on either side via nine discrete points. They click in place and do not slide in either direction by accident, so you can set it to your desired size and let it remain there. The numbered steps also makes it easy to get both sides matched exactly and I'd say there is enough room here to allow the AceZone A-Rise to be used with small or large heads alike. Those with small and narrow heads may have some issues getting this to remain in place securely though.


There are articulating points where the yokes meet the ear cups allowing for a good amount of cup swivel on the A-Rise in either direction, and then some more in one to allow for the cups to lay flat as seen before. This is enough to accommodate ear positioning on the side of your head and is accompanied by further rotation up or down to where there is good flexibility on all three axes. As such, the AceZone A-Rise offers one of the more customizable fit options for end users.


The A-Rise, as with pretty much every other gaming headset, is closed-back for increased isolation from the ambient surroundings. AceZone has gone with glass fiber reinforced plastic ear cups that has a matte finish to prevent dust and fingerprints/finger oils from getting on the surface. There is also a small logo on either side which gets backlit when turned on—the LEDs can be turned off if you prefer it so. Note also the vents above for the dynamic driver inside, this should not affect isolation. There is also a cable which goes from one ear cup to another through the headband to allow for a single connector on one of the ear cups for power and data alike. The left cup also has the integrated microphone in place which can be rotated easily up or down using the swivel point. The mic arm is also flexible so you can position it close to the corner of your mouth for best performance. There is a foam cover on the directional noise-canceling microphone and you can rotate the arm to automatically mute it too. Once set up into the specific position, it makes use of two AceZone speech enhancer algorithms designed for optimal performance in noisy environments. In particular, it uses microphones in the ear cups to get a measure of the external noise which is then canceled out in favor of your voice—very cool!


After all testing was finished, I decided to take a closer look inside the A-Rise headset. The ear pads are easy enough to remove and re-install thanks to the use of five magnets at the top and bottom on each side. These also ensure you can't accidentally install the pads upside down, thus ensuring a good fit. There is no mesh screen on the pads although we see one on top of the driver itself. My eyes were then drawn to the foam insert poking its way into the ear cup enclosure via holes deliberately cut in the sides. These can help absorb unwanted resonances while also minimizing sound leaks through the ear cup assembly. There are L/R markings on the inside to help identify the left and right channels, respectively. Several screws hold the ear cup assembly together and I have to discourage people to taking it apart since it isn't easy to put back together. The right side has the 1100 mAh battery inside in addition to a PCB for the onboard controls; I did not take off the sticker on top of the Bluetooth transceiver since it had a lot of tiny wires just above it. Solder quality was quite good and I noticed the various ribbon cables had tape to keep them securely in place too. I did go further on the left side so you can see how exactly that foam piece works in the puzzle. This side has the primary electronics, including the STMicroelectronics STM32H743 32-bit Arm Cortex-M7 microcontroller. Interestingly, the actual dynamic drivers seem to be fully enclosed, thus making it hard to get a peek at them.


The stock pads adopt a hybrid design in that the contact surface is perforated leather and then the rest is sealed leather. These are also sculpted to where they are thicker at the bottom and the back than the top and front, thus increasing the potential for a better fit around the ears for most people—you have a bigger gap behind your ears, as you will no doubt realize now having read this. That said, these do seem quite specifically made for the A-Rise so I am not sure if/when AceZone plans to make them available separately for when the stock pads are worn out.


On the ear cups of the AceZone A-Rise is where we find the various onboard controls. The left cup has most of the action going on, including a power button that also tells you the current battery level via voice prompt. There is an LED next to it which shows the current connection as well as battery level if you prefer that route. Alongside is the headset mode button that allows you to toggle between the operating modes—Pro Gaming, Gaming & Music, Gaming & Music ANC Off. This button also helps reset any Bluetooth pairing done, as described in the manual. A cutout by the bottom has the expected Type-C port for charging the battery as well as using the A-Rise in USB mode. There's also the analog input here but you really should not bother since it still uses the built-in DAC but doesn't have enough power for full bass extension as we will soon see. The use case for analog input would be consoles that don't have a USB port, and then Bluetooth would be for more casual applications. The right side has volume and media playback controls which also help with incoming phone calls.