While attending a local LAN party, I’ve noticed one brand of gaming gear that dominates among the hard-core: and that brand is Razer. They make gaming mice, keyboards, and headsets with features that PC gamers are looking for with a high degree of quality and a decent price point. A good gaming headset is a necessity when playing online, not only to hear the critical audio cues that help keep you alive, but to communicate with your teammates for coordination (and taunt your victims, of course).
Razer has followed up on their Barracuda gaming headset with their new Piranha gaming headset, which claims to offer the same high quality audio and delivers an anti-noise microphone to make voice communication clearer. Razer has also designed this new headset with the same “l33t” flair that they’re known for, along with comfortable earpieces, long cord, and easy-to-grasp inline remote.
Does the new Piranha trump the competition, including its previous bretheren?
Product Description
The Razer Piranha is engineered from the ground up to blend performance, long hours of comfort and functionality, to deliver realistic in-game audio that will satisfy the needs of the most demanding gamer – You.
From the legendary Razer Boomslang™ to the Razer DeathAdder™ and now the Razer Piranha™… you are now Razer™.
Now go forth and conquer.
Features
- True-to-life audio quality with superior clarity and bass
- Adjustable, noise-filtering microphone for clearer in-game communication
- Comfortable, ergonomic and adjustable earphones suitable for prolonged use.
- In-line remote control with convenient volume and microphone muting adjustments
- Single-sided cable for hassle-free usage
- Durable braided fiber cable protection
- Internet telephony compatible
- Compatible with most major operating systems
- Usable with CD, DVD and digital audio players (via 3.5mm minijack)
Razer Pirahna Specifications
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The Razer Piranha headphones look like a pretty standard headset at first glance. It has two foam earcups wrapped in fabric, a thick but flexible plastic housing, and a single braided cord coming from the left earpiece that splits into seperate audio, microphone, and USB plugs. The 3.5mm stereo jack is colored a standard sea-green color, and the 3.5mm microphone jack is a pinkish-red color. A flexible plastic bar is also attached to the left earcup, which can be swiveled down and bent towards your mouth.
The single cable is sleeved with black braided fiber to make it more slick and durable, which also resists dragging against your clothing. Sitting inline is the wired remote control, which has a volume knob and microphone mute switch. The hub of the remote is circular, and has the “Razer snake trio” logo on it, which is illuminated by a blue LED (the LEDs only come on when the USB plug is inserted).
The remote is easy to locate thanks to its blue beacon, and is also easily grasped. When grasped, the thumb naturally rests on the volume knob, which is on one side of the circular hub. On the other side of the hub is the Mic mute switch, which feels rather cheap and is actually too easy to move. There is no visual indicator of which position the mute switch is currently in, which is troublesome in the dark.
The cables of many headphones are too short for PC gaming, as most gamers have to reach the back of their PCs. Razer has heard your pleas, and has equipped the Pirahna with a forgiving 9-foot cable! If you’re standing up, then there is enough slack that the cable drops to the ground and even leaves a little pile. Because of this enormous length, this set isn’t suitable for your iPod or MP3 player as you’d be tripping over it all the time.
Connecting the headphones is easy enough, thanks to its standard color-coding. At first I was confused about the USB plug, thinking that the headphones had a built-in soundcard as some 5.1 headsets do, but the USB only powers the headset’s 3 blue LEDs (one in the remote, and one in each earpiece). The headphones will function perfectly fine without the USB cable, but you won’t look as cool. The LEDs remain steady on, instead of fading in and out as Razer’s mice do.
The microphone is completely adjustable. You can move it up and out of the way to be parallel with the headphone band, or you can pull it down to be around a 60-degree angle (slightly lower than right in front of your mouth). The microphone arm is bendable, and retains the shape it’s molded in. The noise-cancelling technology of the microphone is very good at filtering out room noise, so people hear your voice and not everything else around you.
The headphones are actually very comfortable with extended wear. The earcups are smaller than a typical “around-the-ear” design, so they rest directly on your ear (which may pinch those who wear glasses). The headband is made of flexible plastic and provide decent pressure, which can be lessened by pulling the earpieces out. The earcups are foam and covered with black fabric, which feel a little rough for my tastes. The breathable fabric wicks up sweat, which makes them more comfortable, but you probably won’t want to share your DNA-soaked sponges with just anyone.
The headphones sound good when gaming, as long as you don’t compare it to an audiophile-quality set beforehand. Compared to our “low-end” audiophile JBL 510-reference headphones (which were purchased for the same price as the Razer), the Pirahna sounds much less dynamic. The volume seems lower (even with the volume knob cranked up), the highs don’t seem as bright, and the bass is nowhere near what the JBL delivers (which have smaller drivers).
The good thing to note about the Pirahna’s sound is that it had absolutely no noise and zero distortion, even with the PC’s mixer turned all the way up. I don’t want to disrespect what these phones deliver: they sound way better than other gaming headsets (which tend to sound flat), but don’t compare with the fidelity of audiophile sets. Razer’s headsets were made for PC gaming, and because of that I expect much deeper and roomier bass.
The Razer Pirahna Gaming headset is engineered for gamers. From its lengthy 9′ braided cord, clip-on inline remote, flippable microphone and comfortable earcups, this headset builds on the successes (and failures) of other headsets vyying for the gamer’s greasy cranium.
The earpieces are rather comfortable, but soak up sweat, so this isn’t something you want to share with your friends. While the audio quality is very good, it doesn’t have the same deep bass found in audiophile headsets. It is surprising that the bass isn’t punchier, as gamers will be experiencing deep explosions and gunfire. Since many gamers find themselves at LAN parties, I don’t understand why noise-cancelling technology isn’t commonplace in gaming headsets.
The JBL 510 Reference headphones we tested several months ago (review here) are about the same price but deliver much better audio for music. Because of it’s extra-long cable, you won’t be hooking this up to your iPod anyway: its length is suitable only for PC gaming.
If you resign yourself to the fact that you need seperate headphones for your iPod, then you’ll realize that PC gaming headsets work best for PC gaming. While the Razer Pirahna isn’t the best sounding headset around, it is compact, relatively inexpensive, has an excellent microphone and good stereo sound.
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1 Comment
westchezzetcookerFebruary 20, 2012 Bought this headset, had to take it back, too much bass distirtoon in the right speaker, clicking and crackling sounds at times, even with default setting, I couldn’t play Battlefield 3 with it like that. Only buy turning the bass almost off would it fix the problem. I’m a fan of Logitech but not this headset.