Gaming and General Audio Performance

Audio performance is always hard to measure unbiased. When it comes to sound there is no benchmark program, so the following is just my impression of the Razer Barracuda HP-1. Now my setup is quite normal, I have a Creative X-FI Extreme music.

During my tests the following features were turned on; CMSS-3D: Upmix Mode: Stereo Surround, Upmix: Auto, Stereo Envelopment: 50%; Speakers: 5.1 with Bass Redirection enabled.

In order to test the 5.1 capability of the headset I will be testing it in Counter Strike Source(CS:S) because it supports native 5.1 sound. I will also test it in Battlefield 2 (BF2) since it supports some of the emulation features such as EAX and some X-FI features.

CS:S

In CS:S sound is incredibly important because it enables you to track the movement of your enemies through walls and doors. CS:S supports 5.1 channels making a surround sound configuration extremely attractive because you get true directional sound input.

Now to test it I entered the sound options tab and enabled 5.1 sound and joined a server. The first thing that hit me was how accurate the reproduction of sound was, you could hear exactly where the enemy was within 10 degrees or so, it was unlike anything I had ever tried before, the definition of where an enemy was came in handy all time. Being able to judge not only from where the enemy was coming but also to know how far away he was really helped time your movements toward that enemy. This did improve my gameplay a lot.

I've tried benching the 5.1 sound reproduction of the Razer Barracuda HP-1 against my Altec Lansing 251 surround speaker set and to my disbelief the Barracuda performed even better when it came directional sound.

Battlefield 2

Because BF2 doesn't support 5.1 it is up to the soundcard to emulate that. Depending on the quality of the soundcard the performance will change. Creative's X-FI chip is really good at upmixing compared to most soundcards.

As with the performance in CS:S this headset performs really great in BF2, even though it doesn't support 5.1 sound. The overall sound quality really helps you locate enemies in BF2, although not as precisely as in CS:S.

MP3

The Barracuda HP-1 is really good when you are listening to MP3. The sound is rich and the bass is heavy, with enough power to deal with even techno and trance tunes. Because the headset is 5.1, a certain degree of upmixing is necessary in order for the music to sound good, which has a few downsides. You have to configure both the soundcard and the amplifier so that there isn't any echo. This was easy with my setup, but it can be a problem if your soundcard doesn't support all of the X-FI features. It would have been nice to try this headset with the Barracuda AC-1 soundcard because of the HD-DAI connection and then see how it compares sound quality wise to the X-FI.

Movies

I tested the surround capabilities of the headset with a movie because it is a nice way to determine if the sound dynamics of the headset are good. I must say that this headset performs extremely well in all circumstances. Because the headset has two sub woofers, the explosions and other effects have a powerful expression and sound just right. No doubt this headset is a great overall performer and it can handle anything you throw its way.

Comfort

Even though the headset has 8 audio drives it's still really light weight and has adequate padding around the earcups.



On the picture above you can see the rich padding around the earcups, this makes the headset really comfortable to wear even over an extended period of time. Another design feature of the Barracuda that increases comfort is the way the headband is constructed. Instead of being fixed to each earcup, the headband is suspended between the two cups providing a perfect fit. Even though the Barracuda has less padding than the SteelSound 5H v2 for instance it still is a very comfortable headset, because of its design.

Durability

The headset seems less durable than the SteelSound 5H v2 because of the rather special design. It's difficult for me to comment on the durability under normal circumstances because the design is brand new. The microphone seems to be a bit less durable than the rest of the headset, in part because it's externally mounted and made of hard plastic which means that it doesn't absorb the pressure if you drop it on the floor, for example.