Today we`ll be looking at the Razer Carcharias, a self-proclaimed “Professional Gaming Headset”. We all know Razer for their gaming mice, but recently they have also began making audio related products, of which the humble gaming headset can’t be left out.
The box claims that these headsets deliver “True-to-Life Gaming Audio, Superior clarity and deep, thumping bass”. Lets see if they can live up to this claim.
As expected, the package department did a fine job creating a nice display box. This overall black box is decorated with the Razer logo in fashionable green and a nice silver/holographic logo, also the clear plastic insert allows you to see the product you are buying. All in all a display box that stands out. Obviously we are more concerned about the goodies inside!
Let’s have a little look on the specs side of life…
Headphones
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Microphone
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I’m skeptical about the frequency responses. 20 to 20K HZ is the range of a Compact Disk but the gross of the headphones cant even reproduce those ranges, or can’t produce them in a proper fashion. This usually comes back as lacking volume in lower end bass or just distortion, and also gives you a more “itchy sound” (or that’s how I would describe it) as the highs are usually amplified or just sound too hard (it gets that metallic sound).
Now I’ll be fair here and say that I have tested this headphone against a range of other headsets, including those marketed towards high-end professional audio. The reason I do this is so I can truly contrast how well the Razer headset reproduces sound.
“The Razer Carcharias is a circumaural gaming audio headset designed for extended hours of gameplay with superior gaming audio, clarity and bass. The Razer Carcharias is a complete and comfortable gaming communications package that gamers can wear for hours on end.”
I can say that the comfort of the Razer Carcharias is beyond what most headsets provide. It uses nice big soft cushioned pads. However the pressure these clamp the head is a little too much for my personal taste so I end up fiddling with it every now and then. I looked over for the specifications but couldn’t find the clamping pressure. I know my Seinheisser 595 has a pressure of 3,5N (Newton) but perhaps it’s just because I got a brand new headset and this needs some wearing in. Then again this is just my personal opinion, still you get a nice soft headphone that is comfortable to wear even for a longer period.
Cable Length
Some people don’t like long cables but I love the length on headphones. Nothing is more annoying than having to put off your headphones every time you want to grab something or just stand up, or have a quick peek at the monitor of your LAN buddy, or just are a lazy bloke like me and want to grab a nice whiskey from the top shelf.
Razer has braided the cable with a nice soft fiber braid (probably polyester) the same idea as the Logitech and Steelseries mice (Razer hasn’t braided their mice yet, though).
Nice touch here is the interlink on the cable which has a small volume control and an on/off switch for the microphone, and has a clip so you can attach it you your shirt / cap / pants / underwear (pick one you like). It’s a nice touch but the volume control wasn’t necessary as the more things you put inline of the cable the less sound quality you`ll have at the end, I like my signal to come out the way it went in, on a gaming standpoint this can be handy to quickly turn down the sound for whatever reason. I just use the mute button on my keyboard for that purpose =]
Microphone
For the microphone I can only say one thing: I know jack about them, but I found a good way of testing. People that I play with or talk to on msn/skype all know I have a desktop standing mic, which works wonders at home but sucks ballz on a LAN, however the people who I talked to all asked if I got a new mic as I was better to understand and they couldn’t hear so much background noise anymore. So I think it does what its supposed to ;)
The overall feel of the microphone is great, its nice and sturdy and looks like it could take a beating (read falling off your desk). That too is a great advantage for a LAN, as I usually chuck something on the floor in excitement. :P (Also the reason I changed from wireless mice to wired as I’d smack out the batteries every now and then)
As far as sound quality, I’ll be real plain here and explain it. As a gaming headset its great it provides loud crisp clear highs, but does not deliver so much musically. Most gamers really won’t know what they’re missing, though.
I`ve given the Razer Carcharias a good listen session to some music, everything from rap, rock, to classical and techno. What I noticed straight away is that the high tones are elevated, for some this might be confused as clarity (but it’s not). The highs these headphones deliver is a little over-powering and can be annoying. This might be a good thing in a gaming session tough, at a noisy LAN you’re still able to hear your guns go ratatatatata. With this in mind, one could say it has a clear high but I think it hurts… I`ve had a few runs of COD and CS:S only to find myself turning down the volume when people started shooting as it was to pungent.
Then again if you’re looking for the high pitched shots to be in a real life setting then go ahead and turn up the volume, however do note that you are damaging your ears rather quickly this way, but the Razer Carcharias does provide clarity and highs on a frigging high volume.
Volume-wise this headset is great. It can push out an astounding amount of decibels before distorting, and even if it does distort somewhat at higher volume you probably won’t notice due to the other sounds from the game. Distortion can be heard in the form of rumble bass and high freq drives that get to much low frequencies driven into them.
The lows you get with this headset is better than most of the headphones out there. However I think it’s seriously lacking in sound quality for the low frequency. The bass can be best described as a middle range speaker trying to produce subwoofer lows. If you haveever tried that you’ll know exactly what I mean.
You should be able to “feel” bass. I’m not saying the bass is horrible, but this headset just isn’t suited to serious music-listening. The headset seemed to like Techno and Hardstyle tunes with fast pulsing bass. For gaming I don’t think you’ll notice as you’re too busy hunting enemies rather than worrying about music. Do bear in mind I`m writing this with a musical pair of ears.
So in retrospect I’ll look at the Razer Carcharias one more time in a gamers mind et, in this I will also grade it.
The thing that puzzled me is: if this is supposed to be a game’rs headset, then why did they opt for a open design? A closed headset will provide natural noise reduction and won’t give off as much sound/noise to the surrounding, as an open system will provide a better sound quality. Those who say that closed headphones suck just haven’t heard a good one yet. An open design also allows your neighbor to listen in on your music…
But if you need a headset with an overall good quality sound, excellent build quality that will last, and a good microphone in one set, then the Carcharias that you can take with you on LAN parties then this is the headset for you. It will provide you with enough distortion-free volume to last you, but please do mind your ears; it’s easy to damage them with the high volumes this headset can provide.
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2 Comment
I bought tow Razer Carcharias Professional Gaming Headphones 10 months ago. The sound quality and comfort were good, the mic was good. After 10 months the mic started to pop in and out, I had to hold the wires on either side of the volume control disc just so, but then if I'm holding wires, how am I supposed to use the keyboard and mouse? Then the sound started getting fuzzy and popping like there was a bad connection. Now there is no sound and no mic. The same thing happened on the other set which was a gift to a friend. Neither of us abuse our equipment. To Razer's credit, the head phones are still under warranty so they will exchange them. Hope the replacements are more durable. I loved the head phones while they lasted…haven't found anything more comfortable and with better sound and voice quality.
These are NOT open back