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Razer Piranha on Game and Player
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Razer Piranha

Ed Kirchgessner  //  November 11, 2008


This PC headset doubles as a torture device.

F

or years, I've forced myself to sit on the sidelines of PC gaming. Although I'd spent much of my middle and high school years squeezing every last drop of performance from my family's meager desktop system, I was easily swayed to consoles by the time college rolled around — performance handicaps aside, there's a lot to be said for never having to tweak sound card drivers or video settings. Still, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 weren't doing much to fulfill my World of Warcraft craving. I finally listened to the cries for help my overheating MacBook had been emitting for the past year, and decided to put together a modest gaming rig.

The headset's frame gripped my larger-than-average head like a vise.Having selected a processor, case, graphics cards and countless other components, I had but one piece of gear left to purchase: a decent headset. I'd been hearing about peripheral maker Razer in various publications — their gaming mice had practically become the stuff of legend. I assumed that their other peripherals couldn't be far behind and decided to give their Piranha gaming headset a shot. Of course, we all know what "assuming" does.

Removing it from its flashy packaging, the Razer Piranha feels sturdy enough. The on-ear headphones sport luxuriously soft padding and relatively large drivers for a headset in this price range. Sadly, all the padding in the world wouldn't make the Piranha comfortable. Despite its adjustability, the set's frame gripped my larger-than-average head like a vise, painfully cutting off all circulation to my ears within minutes. To describe the experience as "fatiguing" would be the understatement of the century. No, this was downright "torturous."

For the short time you're able to bear wearing the Piranha, you might be impressed with its sound quality, but even here the device falls short of its $70 list price. While providing ample bass, treble and midrange were underwhelming, resulting in an aural muddiness that shone through while listening to music. Explosions were impressive, but in-game dialogue and natural sound seemed to be trapped behind a wall of cardboard. Perhaps the audiophile in me is being a bit too hard on the Piranha, but I've used $30 headphones that have sounded five times better.

This headset's microphone also has its share of problems. While it does an excellent job of filtering out room noise, it seems to accomplish this at the expense of sensitivity. Regardless of whether I used my soundcard's or motherboard's audio inputs, I was never able to achieve more than 25% of peak level when speaking at a reasonable volume. I appreciate Razer's attempts to protect the hearing of my teammates, but I fear they might have gone a bit too far. Can you hear me now? Didn't think so.

The list of caveats goes on and on: the mute switch is unlabeled; the USB-powered lighting effects make you look like a Borg in the midst of a fashion emergency; the microphone boom is neither adjustable or removable. Overall, there are competing products out there which perform better and cost a heck of a lot less. If you insist on purchasing a "gaming" headset, I'd recommend saving up for something far more substantial (and comfortable). As it stands, this mid-level enthusiast product is one of the worst investments I've ever made.





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