Razer Barracuda HP-1 Surround Headphones - Articles / Reviews

Reviews: Multimedia

Razer Barracuda HP-1 Surround Headphones

Author:
Editor:
Sponsor:
Published:

Mark Korff
Kurtis
Razer
Nov. 15, 2006

<< Home

Next >>

Introduction

Unlike console gamers, PC gamers that strive to compete at the highest level not only have to develop in-game skills, but they must also keep up with the latest gaming hardware in order to play with the "best of the best." The best gamers are always looking for an edge in terms of graphical performance, input precision, and positional audio to help them come out on top.

The company who's product we'll be reviewing today has been dedicated to providing the "tools of the trade" to PC gamers since 1998 when they introduced the Boomslang, which was the highest precision mouse available at that time. I'm sure that mouse and the company that created it are both familiar to most of you, but if you're still in the dark, the company is Razer, and today we'll be taking a look at their latest gaming product, the Razer Barracuda HP-1 Gaming Surround Headphones.

While Razer is well known for their gaming mice and related accessories, they are just now beginning to diversify their product line, while still remaining true to their motto, "for gamers, by gamers." The Barracuda is the first product by Razer that isn't a mouse or mouse accessory so it's definitely new territory for them. These headphones are actually only one half of the audio solution that Razer hopes gamers will buy into. The other half, the Barracuda AC-1 soundcard, was not available for testing at the time this article was written. According to Razer, the headphones are supposed to work just fine with any 5.1/7.1 soundcard though, so we tested them with an Audigy 2 ZS to see if that's the case.

<< Home

Page 1 of 4

Next >>

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

Subscribe to Headphones [more info]

Add Comment

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.

Add Comment

To add a comment without being a member, you may omit the password field, but you must enter your name (or nickname) along with your comment. * Denotes required fields.