Razer Barracuda HP-1 Surround Headphones

Reviews: Multimedia

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Mark Korff
Kurtis
Razer
Nov. 15, 2006

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Testing

Even though the Barracuda headphones are primarily meant for gaming I started off by listening to some music in order to get a feel for the quality of normal two channel audio before getting into the surround sound gaming. I can't help but say that I was really disappointed at first. I wasn't expecting complete and utter musical bliss, but the bass response was so pitiful compared to just about any of the other headphones I've used or reviewed, that I almost thought something was wrong with my review product. I tried adjusting the volume of the bass on the control unit, but the difference between "max" and "min" was so slight it was almost unperceivable. Before I wrote off the bass entirely, I figured I'd better try playing some games to see if it was a problem with just two channel audio, or something that would plague surround sound gaming as well.

I fired up three of the games I'm most familiar with: Half-Life 2 Episode 1, Counter Strike Source, and World of Warcraft. Unfortunately, the bass response in all three games was just as subdued as before, so I tried to ignore that problem for a while and focus instead on the positional audio. Counter Strike Source is a perfect example of a game that benefits greatly from precise audio cues when you're trying to hunt down the opposing team, and since this was exactly the type of game the Barracuda was designed for, I was very interested to see if it would give me a true edge over my normal two channel headphones.

Unfortunately for the Barracuda, while I certainly can't say that the positional audio was worse, I honestly can't say that it was significantly better either. The very fact that I had to keep swapping headphones back and forth in the middle of a match to try and figure out which one helped me locate the baddies more easily should tell you something. I also did tests in Half-Life 2 Episode 1, and World of Warcraft where I would position myself next to a static audio source and spin my character around so I could see how accurate the positioning was with the Barracuda compared to two channel headphones, and once again the results were the same.

Just to clarify about my setup here for a minute, I was using an Audigy 2 ZS soundcard, and the Barracuda was connected to it with all of the analog connectors available to me. In Windows and in the Audigy software my speaker setting was set to "5.1 Surround Sound." I also made sure my connections were working properly by going to the Audigy's "channel test" and every channel came through clearly. I also adjusted the bass volume under the "advanced" tab in Windows volume control, and that did add a little more bass to the Barracuda, but still nothing that would really compete with any decent two channel headphones that you can buy for less than half the price.

After checking all my settings and connections again, I still didn't see any huge difference in-game. I adjusted the volume of each channel using the control unit, and it was evident that I truly was experiencing all five channels, yet it just wasn't making much of a difference compared to normal two channel headphones. Why is that you ask? Well I'm no audio engineer, but my best guess is that simply cramming multiple drivers into each earphone of a pair of headphones isn't enough to truly simulate quality surround sound speakers. Yes you can get separate channels that way, but since your "front" channel drivers are separated by mere millimeters from your "rear" channel drivers, the difference in what you actually hear is going to be subtle at best. The drivers we're talking about are simply too close together for your ear (or my ear at the very least) to perceive sounds as coming from different directions significantly better than a simple two channel approach. The other downside with all these smaller drivers is that none of them are large enough to produce bass response that can compete with quality two channel headphones that have one large driver per ear.

As for the Barracuda microphone, I tested it both in-game while playing Counter Strike, as well as in Ventrilo. The mic seemed to work well in both instances, and compared to my standalone mic, the Barracuda's quality seemed to be slightly better. The nicest thing about the mic is that its small size keeps it out of your face and behind your mouth so those deep breathers among us won't be blowing directly into the mic and annoying the crap out of their friends on voice chat.

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: First Impressions
Page 3: Testing
Page 4: Conclusion

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4 User Comments

1 - Posted by Jorricane on May 15, 2007 - 5:11 pm

Don't get me wrong, I don't intend to flame or attack your review in any way, but I just wanted to say that the poor bass response does have a workaround in these headphones depending on your soundcard drivers and capabilities. At first, I had the same experience with poor bass response on the Barracuda headphones, especially in comparison with the Sony studio models I am used to. However, using the included software with the SoundBlaster X-Fi Gamer card, primarily the THX bass redirection feature, combined with using Foobar player in 4 channel upmix mode (I had horrible sound with the included Soundblaster upmix function), I managed to get very powerful bass response from the Barracudas. I know the redirection and detailed settings on the X-Fi are not really common in onboard audio systems, so its not for everybody, but if you have a decent audio card and a lot of patience to really tweak the settings, these headphones are not a total waste. I do agree however that the surround functionality is nearly useless in gaming compared to a decent speaker setup.

2 - Posted by Kurtis on May 15, 2007 - 5:42 pm

But why get headphones that you will have to tweak a lot to get them to sound decent?

3 - Posted by dkeene on August 15, 2007 - 2:11 pm

I agree with the bass problem, and i purchased them too. Why would this product have a Frequency response: 50~20,000Hz
when the others in the market have 15-20 Hz? Stupid, in my opinion. My Sony headphones sound better. I am disappointed. What others have you all tried?

4 - Posted by Kurtis on August 15, 2007 - 3:33 pm

These aren't headsets... but I like my Sennheiser HD497 headphones. And the Ultrasone ProLine 650s we reviewed a while back were the nicest headphones I've ever had the opportunity to listen to. That was some sweet, sweet sound.

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