Hardware Razer Carcharias Review

Headphones are not comparable to headsets. They are two totally different products, one is for listening and the other is for communicating. If you are a gamer who wishes to communicate with his teammates then it doesn't matter how great your headphones sound, they fundamentally do not meet the requirements.

Get into any competitive level of gameplay and you will be hard-pressed to play without a headset. You'll need decent vocal communication, something hard to get with standalone mics.

 

I find in matches with PC gaming for the microphone to be the most important piece of kit with headsets and could not agree more with the above statement.

Hence I went for these although not as good as all these above mentioned headphone the reviews they have had with them is that it's a good all rounder

 

You honestly think that stand alone mics are going to be inherently worse than ones attached to headphones?

So are you saying since the two products are different, or in different markets, that it's ok for one to be inherently worse than the other? These headsets are really bad in comparison.

How hard is it to attach a quality microphone to a quality headphone?

Only company I've seen with a good headset is beyedynamic.

http://north-america.beyerdynamic.com/shop/hah/headphones-and-headsets/multimedia/mmx-300.html#

 

ONE PAGE IS NOT A REVIEW!

k... Im done.

 

Not terribly hard at all! There are some nifty ones that just clip right on.

But keep in mind that you are now buying two products, and you're mentioning two quality products. Your cost for both has to comparable to the headset, or else you're getting into a whole new kettle of incomparable fish.

For example, I have no doubt that Beyedynamic headset is amazing, but it'd have to be three times as amazing as my Soundblaster Arena to be equal value, let alone better.

 

I had this set of headphones, and like my last set from Razer they broke, they were not abused in any way shape or form but decided to stop working 1 week after the warranty ran out

I personally wouldnt give them such a high rating but they do a good job

My new stereo headset is way better though for half the price, and the only thing i didnt get was a mic, but they cost very little

I wouldnt buy this again

 

Just wanted to say, the sales director mentioned who said it's pronounced with a soft Ch is a fool.

It's the scientific name for this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcharias

It's pronounced how I posted earlier.

Edit: Sorry for being so abrupt, but it annoys the hell out of me as a writer when things are mispronounced No offence intended.

 

I use a desktop mic i got from argos for a few quid. It works fine, I use it pretty much daily for BFBC2. I also have a clip-on mic that came with a webcam I bought years ago, which sounds even better (I've used it to record acoustic guitar, for example). The only reason I use the desktop one is because it has a convenient mute button on it. It's not like the audio quality has to be particularly high for communicating in game. So long as it's good enough to be heard and not irritate people with huge levels of hiss (omnidirectional laptop mics do this) then all is well.

Buying "consumer" products is the quickest way to waste your money on overpriced tat, IMO. They're designed to make tons of cash from people who don't really know what they're buying; for example PC gamers tend to know relatively little about audio. I've wanted to see a comparison of headphones vs headsets for ages, because they ARE comparable. An extra £5 for a microphone of similar quality isn't an enormous sum.

 

I got these from KustomPC after having repeat trouble with the Steelseries 5Hv2 (thanks again!). Only problem I have with them is one earphone slides very easily when I removed them from my head, meaning I have to slide it back whenever I put it back on. But since it doesn't move when I'm wearing them I'm not fussed, probably nothing a quick unscrew and tighten won't fix.

 

I have this headset for about a couple of months, and I gotta agree it lacks booming bass but I can live w/ that. Its very comfy to use. Not the best out there but certainly a lil bit above average...

 

Doubt they beat my lovely Grado SR-80i

 

http://translate.google.co.uk/?clie...zilla:en-GB:official&hl=en&tab=wT#en|el|shark
Click listen for pronunciation.

 

You are totally wrong. There are plenty of great stand-alone mics. I have a high-quality solution on my webcam, in fact, which, while not great for say, recording, works phenomenally for voice, even if I'm a couple of metres away from it. It does tend to pick up a lot of keyboard noise, but that can be solved with using push-to-talk. And this mic is garbage by any vaguely professional standards as well - a cheap SM57 clone is well beyond anything marketed as a consumer product, and not even significantly more expensive.

The only thing impeding attaching a decent microphone to a good pair of headphones is cost - and most people, it really needs to be said, know ****-all about audio equipment; having been raised to accept terrible audio playback (thanks for that, Apple) as acceptable, it's surprisingly hard to find someone who's willing to shell out even a modest sum for some decent speakers or headphones, especially ones that don't have SKULLCANDY or KANYE WEST written on them.

 

How to pronounce:
http://www.forvo.com/word/καρχαρίας/

It's the Greek name for shark

 

I just sold my Roccat Kave headphones last week. They are nicely constructed and the volume/mixer box is good. The surround is totally bogus though. It just doesn't work. In tests I made there was no discernible difference when sounds came at me from the front or behind. Everything sounds like it's coming at you from behind or to the side. This is true of all so-called surround headphones and the CMSS-3d feature of XFI. These systems can't project sound in front of you. This is more of a problem than it sounds because if there is no noticeable difference in a sound in front or behind then there is no real positional audio.

In terms of audio quality the Roccat Kave are high frequency deficient. Resulting in somewhat muffled sound. The good news is that using soundcard EQ to boost some of the high frequencies can make them sound quite good even with music. Ultimately there is no reason to buy the Roccat Kave though because they would be primarily purchased for their 5.1 feature and that is fake as fake can be. The Kave's have 3 drivers in each ear and when you see the arrangement of the 3 drivers it's no surprising the 3d doesn't work.

If anyone is looking for convincing 3d audio I suggest biting the virtual bullet and buying Logitech X-540. They kill even the most expensive fake surround headphones (Psyko 5.1).

If I have to use headphones late at night for gaming then I use my Sennheiser HD 595. Even with the CMSS-3d gimmick you won't get real positional audio even with the best headphones.

 

I've had one of these for a few months now. I think it's a great product. Build quality is very good and I'm happy with the value for money they offer. I know there are a lot of people saying the are not "audiophile" grade, but that's utterly meaningless and I wouldn't pay any attention to those comments. I find the sound to be excellent. Games meet expectation with deep hitting bass and the ability to hear everything being output, although the latter is something to be expected from headphones over speakers. The only criticism I could possible have is that with some music, bass can be underwhelming, but I believe that is down to the recording (FLAC files through a Xonar DG) rather than the headphones.

I liked these so much I bought the version without a microphone for my MP3 player.

 

I'm pretty happy with this setup.

- Sennheiser HD-555
http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-HD...TVDQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1295886353&sr=8-1

Zalman clip on mic

http://www.amazon.com/Zalman-Microp...y-Headphone/dp/B00029MTMQ/ref=pd_bxgy_e_img_b

Theres a simple mod you can do to these headphones to turn them into the more expensive HD-595

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvQ8PzBrHXE

 

I've had the Carcharias for about a week and they don't seem to bother my glasses like my Plantronics - GameCom 377 did. the padding around the ear peces are pretty comfy. So top points for comfort for me.

My only complaint is that the bass response isn't as good as the Plantronics set was. Poor Pliantronics set had the plastic molding on one side brake Otherwise the audio quality is good on the Razer IMHO.

 

Razer just installed my new sound card and put these Razer headset on and damn they are comfy. Music wise just love it absolute awesome but I do miss the 7.1 surround sound of the G35 headset.

But I really like these Razer's especially with the amount of time I spend gaming, I see a all night session this evening and then I am on holiday from from friday some serious gaming ahead

 

Just a question here can I use the audigy sound card but in 5.1 surround with this headset