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    Review: Razer Megalodon

    posted @ 7/28/2009 07:24:00 PM by Alex J. Avriette
    Razer has a new-ish set of gaming cans, called, menacingly, the Megalodon. For those of you not knowing what a Megalodon is, it's a really, really, really big shark. Like, it could eat our entire budget deficit. It's that big. But, did I buy them for gaming? Naw. I bought them for some biiiiiig pimpin'.



    Pyramid head knows his cans. You know he does.

    I did not buy them to play Crysis and hear the 7.1ch sound. Rather, I'm using them on a MacBook Air, which has at best pretty pathetic sound. It has a single 1/8din preamp output, recessed at that, making it maddening to use with any cans of decent quality.

    No, I bought them ($160, mind) because my $25 DA40 Plantronics headset had sort of failed its reliability test. I spend as much as 20-30 hours a month on phone conferences, and I do it all – yes, all of it – on Skype and Google Voice. I occasionally use iChat, but with its "special" requirements for firewalls and direct connections, that's only ever at best hit or miss. The Plantronics unit, while having exceptional sound (but no amp) broke. The part that broke was essentially the earpiece, and this made it even harder to hear (audio through a USB DSP is hard to hear without an amplifier because the signal is rather low, so placement of the earpiece of the Plantronics DA40 units is crucial.

    So I bought the Megalodon because it had the USB DSP (I couldn't tell whether the Characarodon did), and I knew that I was unhappy with Plantronics products. There was a Logitec G-35 or something as well, for a little less money, but I'm glad I got the Megalodon in terms of product quality. It came in a hard carrying case, which I had to buy separately for my Sennheisers, which cost three times as much! (the price has since come down from near $600 to under $400). It also came with what seems to be an amp, but might just be a channel muxer (look it up; if you don't know it, you probably shouldn't be reading this anyways) and DSP.

    The sound is pretty good. Part of the problem is finding a multichannel stereo sound source on the Mac that isn't gaming. When you do, however, there's no question that the design of the semi-closed cans (they're not quite open, they're not quite closed, but I don't think the gamers really care; what they aren't is sealed, and that leaves me perplexed in the land of lan parties). I found that Blu-Ray rips of movies were fantastic, and had real nice, directional sound. There were also great results from two-channel music, as simple as Mechanical Animals or The Pink Floyd Floydhead (yeah, I roll like that. Don't be a douche). If you wanted to go quadraphonic and had the material, the cans kept up. There's a so-so primer on open/closed cans at Crutchfield, but you're not going to get much better without spending thousands and thousands of dollars on cans and amps. Sorry, it's just the way it is. This review is either going to be useful to you because you know who Poinz is, or you were going to buy them anyways because of the blue LEDs, or you're going to be lost like one of those creepy little Silent Hill burn victims. Damned to an eternity of cheap cans.

    The resolution of the sound (that is, the ability of the cans to produce the sound with high fidelity, accurately, with good simulation of location, and so on) is remarkable for a set of cans that didn't cost $300. I haven't tried the new Sennheiser 850, and I'll reckon that if I could afford the amp for that monster that the Übersenn would HULKSMASH the Megalodon, but a) it would cost me over $3,000 for the pleasure and b) it still ain't got a mike boom, which is the next part of this review.

    I spent three hours, almost four, on teleconferences today, using that boom mike, and it didn't let me down once. I also spent all day listening to the cans. Once, the DSP/Amp overheated, and that pissed me off. The sound went all SQEEEEEEK and wanted to be smashed, but, unplugged from USB, plug back in, and it was worky. The mike is great. Everyone thought I was on a land line. So let there be no confusion. These are terrific for you corporate whores, like me, who gotta maintain a job for the man.

    Now, a brotha did get let down when he installed these fine cans. I am not stupid, but then I am also not one to read instructions. Upon installation, I checked that all my "preferences" were set properly (with a USB DSP and Amp you don't need drivers; this is 100% win). I checked that all the channels – front, sides, rear, bass, satellite  – were set to medium volume so as to not clobber my ears. I switched from 2 to 7.1 ch and back, and no dice.

    It wasn't until after fucking about with the machine for a good half hour I realized that it has AN ADDITIONAL master volume switch. Folks this thing has so many fucking lights on it, it could lose a heat tile on re-entry and you just wouldn't fucking know. After dialing in the master volume, setting the mike sensitivity (another bonus: on-amp mike mute button. good show, razer), and so on, everything Just Worked.

    I tested it with Skype, iChat, iTunes, X-Plane, VLC, DVD Player, and so on. You may notice there aren't any games there. Hint: I don't play a lot of games. The good news is that Razer are a bunch of pussies and basically didn't even bother to test them on the Mac other than to say they "should work." Well, folks, they do. Just like every other Razer product. They make expensive shit that works real good, and it costs a bunch of money. This is common in the market, though. Witness Alienware PC's and Saitek controls.

    • Product: Razer Megalodon
    • Price: $150 (street)
    • Rating: Great, great boom mike. Very good sound for semi-open cans, especially at the price. Electronics that will occasionally overheat and make their manufacturer look stupider than a barrel of irradiated weasels. Mac Compatible. Too many damn LED's. Comfortable, even for all-day conference calls or gaming or video sex. You know Jenna Jameson and that pink Master Chief hate an echo on the line.

    update, 3 days later after a few days of 4-6 hours of listening to music and taking calls, there's considerable static in the cans. Note that the amp/DSP brick they come with has a linear slider that goes from "blue" to "red", and as a connoisseur of nice cans, I don't listen to them loud to begin with, this is very disappointing. I'll use them for calls because of the boom mike, but for listening to music, it'll be back to the senns. So, so, so disappointed. Razer, you really shit the bed on this one.


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    Tiny Tech Panda Presents: The Razer Piranha!

    posted @ 5/14/2008 12:34:00 PM by Pandalicious
    "COMPUTER!"
    "RAM!"
    "MUSIC!" "SOUND!" "IMAGE!" "GO PANDA!!!!"

    Panda: With your geekdom combined I AM TINY TECH PANDA!

    Pandalicious here donning the "techie" hat to become TINY TECH PANDA! Now what could I possibly have up my tiny tech panda sleeve to share from Gadgetville in the land of ESH? This is simple ladies and gentlemen. Today I have a review of the one and only Razer Piranha!

    Now I know what you all are thinking...and yes I dig snakes, but this isn't a snake! It is a headset of awesomeness and extreme comfort! On the rating scale I give this headset a 4 out of 5.

    *~Panda Testimonial~*
    ::Cues spotlight, violins and light snowfall::
    When I was a young panda before the days of Machood and true gamer l33tn33z, the only way I could hear other people was to actually have them in my house...or.... they would record themselves via WAV and send them through e-mails [I know what you are thinking! who would do such a thing?!]

    However now I have gone through technology puberty and have HUGE tracks of pwn33z! Also I have the ability to access hearing more than just the sounds in the games I play. I can now listen to the people that I play with! Granted, those who have had XBOXes long before me have been using microphones for a while, but when they switch to their PC games what do they don their heads with? If these gamers were smart they would check out the Razer Piranha.

    Da Pros
    +Comfortable on the head
    + Big cushy earmuffs
    + Cool Stylish Logo instead of word labels
    + Nifty Volume control for easy access
    + long cord for moving around [and the grabbing of the snackage!!]
    Da Cons
    - Adjusting headset is a little difficult
    - Mute button is sadistic and hates you!
    - For Mac users you will need an iMic attachment to use it since it is designed for uncool Computers that aren't Macs!

    Overall Tiny Tech Panda wasn't upset about the death of her third Logitech headset because of this divine piece of sweet head....gear!

    To see more than what I mentioned here go to www.razerone.com, and feel free to tell me what you think!

    This is Pandalicious and don't you dare say I don't know a thing about gadgets!

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    NEWs From CES 2: Attack of the Tradeshow

    posted @ 1/09/2007 03:51:00 AM by Ninjasistah
    Ok, I've pulled myself back from the brink of drunkitude once again to bring you the highlights of my day on the CES trade show floor, and by far I have to tell you Razer really got my attention today folks.

    To be fair, it was a split between Razer and the Frag Dolls... but I only got a few seconds with the dolls and about an hour with Razer so they "won" the competition.

    In case you didn't know, Razer does high end gaming peripherals... and I do mean high end. Everything I saw today had the best response times, well thought out components and features that a gamer could want or need. The Tarantula keyboard has extra banks of keys on both the left and right side [L1-L5 and R1-R5] that you the user can program all yer favorite macros into. You can play with the delay so that you space effects out over a second or fraction there of. No longer must you search or hunt for your shaman's totems... program em' and be done with it, because it's game time!

    The most impressive thing that I saw today actually wasn't functioning. Razer has been hard at work on a new speaker system that [once you have a unit not missing the power cable] may damn near eliminate the speaker sound bounce problem without sacrificing look or audio quality. The Mako speaker system may just be a dynamo in pimps clothing if it actually provides the kind of audio quality that Razer president Robert Krakoff seemed genuinely sad not to be able to show me. The satellites [I use the term loosely because I have nothing else that I can call them for now] feature downward firing sound to a circular opening and plate. Sound flows out in 360 degrees so you don't have to. No more pointing speakers directly at yourself, the sound will fill up around you making games sound a little more real and intense. Hopefully I can swing by Razer's booth again tomorrow to actually test them out because I may need me some new speakers!

    The last thing that I looked at from Razer today was their new 1800dpi infrared mouse. This thing looks and feels the balls. I should have one in for review shortly, so I'll hold off my final verdict until I've put the thing through it's paces... but the silicone/rubbery membrane type texture of mouse "buttons" alone made me want to get all freaky deaky on some PC games... and y'all know how I don't do that.

    All in all my time with Razer today made me realize that they aren't bullshitting when they say "by gamers. for gamers." And for that reason alone they will always get my full attention from now on.

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