Customer Reviews

Razer HP-1 Barracuda 8-Channel Gaming Headphones

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(21)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

This headset is built pretty well, and is pretty comfortable to wear for long periods. The fit is tighter than most other headphones, but I found that this did not lead to any discomfort even after a few hours.

This headset is able to go extremely loud. It has its own amplifier, and I recommend setting the volume knob quite low until you've balanced all your sound sources.

That being said, this headset is remarkably clear sounding, and the clarity remains the same even if you crank the volume way up.

I am using this headset with my motherboard's onboard SB Audigy, and it was pretty easy to switch to the "5.1 speakers" setting to get the surround sound working.

The positional sound works great for FPS games (I tried it out in Day of Defeat: Source), though after being used to stereo headphones it takes a bit to get used to hearing the sounds from different directions. The positional sound is much less useful in games like World of Warcraft where the camera and the character are in different locations. No matter which you pick as the center for the sound, the positional sound doesn't help as much as it does for the FPS games.

The microphone is not particularly sensitive. My old Plantronics headset picked up my voice very well, but the Razer is very quiet. I have to turn my microphone input up to full and crank the outbound volume in Ventrilo up to the max to be heard.

The bass response is also a bit on the low side. However, I find if you set the crossover point on your sound card's subwoofer control to be about 90 Hz and use an EQ to boost frequencies below 100 Hz (the SB Audigy can do both), the bass response is much improved.

Some other minor issues with this headset are found in the cord and volume control. The cord is only about seven feet long, so you better have your computer pretty close to where you sit. The volume control brick is about two feet down the cord from the headset, and is pretty heavy (it has an amplifier in it). For some reason, they made the clip point upwards, so if you want to clip it onto your shirt, you have to turn it 180 degrees, so the cord going to the headset comes out the bottom and the cord going to the computer comes out the top. The distance between the headset and the volume control brick isn't quite great enough to clip it onto your belt, either.

Also, and I am not sure why they did this, but the ear cups are suspended through their center axis by a half-circle yoke, so that they can swivel 180 degrees (some call this DJ style since you can rotate the earcup outward and listen without putting them on). This makes the headset harder to move around with one hand.

Pros:
- Comfortable
- Good positional sound
- Can go very loud without distortion
- High quality construction
- Easy to set up

Cons:
- Low microphone sensitivity
- Goofy volume control brick orientation
- Short cord
- Bass response less than expected at this price
- Expensive

If your primary usage is voice chat, you'd probably be better off going with a much cheaper Logitech internet chat headset. However, if you want a pretty good set of headphones for listening to music, and to have positional sound for FPS games, then one does the trick.

i purchase these mainly for gaming and music, ive use them at least 8 hours a day since i received them.

first set came with defective lights and the mic didnt work. i contacted Razer support via email after 12 emails in 4 days including an escalation to a supervisor they agree on sending me a new pair and i didnt even had to return the defective ones!!! i live in Costa Rica so returning something to the US is kind of expensive around $80 or more.

new set came in and its been working perfectly Lights work great same as the mic!! i used this thing to hear music play games and do conference calls with SoftPhone software Skype and some other my company uses.

if you are going to use these for music only!! get some other brand sennheiser would be my recomendation, music just sounds much better on sennheiser than on these.

for gaming these are the absolute BEST headphones outthere!! love the fact that you plug into a USB for power no need of an external adapter.

So, I bought this a couple months ago. At first, I was in love. Great sound quality, and the surround sound aspect works well in FPS games. Also VERY comfortable, much more so than any other 5.1 headphones I have owned. The initial favorable impression wore of pretty quickly, though.

First of all, the microphone *sucks*. I've seen better microphones on 20$ radio shack headphones. These are GAMING headphones, and expensive ones at that. You would think the microphone would be at least passable. It isn't.

Secondly, the build quality is pretty bad. Within a few weeks, the control brick started giving me problems. The sound would go off on one side or the other. A bit annoying. This only happens sporadically, and can be "fixed" by squeezing the sound controller. Not quite bad enough for me to seek a replacement, but annoying nonetheless.

I've also discovered that the headphones are assembled with screws - screws that aren't properly inserted, and they have a tendency that fall out. Now I have a washer flopping around inside the right headphone, and I can't find the tiny screw. So I'll have to either try and repair it myself, which means trying to find somewhere I can buy tiny rare screws, or have to send it in for repair. I might as well send it in for repair, because maybe they could also fix the volume controller...

Really kind of disappointing for supposedly "premium" gaming headphones. The microphone is bad enough to almost make it worthless for ventrillo or TS. And the problems with build quality are really unacceptable for headphones of this price. I bought some 5.1 headphones for 40$ a few years back... they only lasted a year, but they had none of the issues that the Razer has. Kind of sad that a cheap Chinese imitation is actually of better quality than this expensive crap.

I have had these for roughly a year now.

Pros: They sound pretty good but not fantastic, but you'll expect that from a headphone in this price range. Comfortable to wear for extended periods. Microphone is detachable.

Cons: 1.The volume control brick is just that a BRICK, way too big and obtrusive. In addition, the wire going in and out of it is oriented wrong when clipped to your belt or pants. This is a huge design flew.

2. The microphone only sticks out about 2 inches. It picks up a lot of static and doesnt do a great job of picking up on your voice. So called noise cancelling mic feature does not work. It also easily falls off.

3. Sound adjustment. There are 5 sound adjustment dials on the volume brick. Front, rear, center, bass, and master volume (big one). The center and bass dials does absolutely nothing. First I thought I had my plugs connected wrong but it wasnt that. It just does not adjust anything. May be a defeat.

4. Terrible customer support. "For Gamers by gamers" guess their customer support is too busy playing games to help customers. Good luck getting hold of one.

Conclusion: Buy something else, they now sit on my shelf and I no longer use them. Would highly recommend getting a good quality stereo headphone instead like Steelpad 5H or going with a Sennheiser.

Very rarely will a product frustrate me enough to need me to review it. The Razer Barracuda headset is one of these rare products.

The first headset I recieved broke within a week. I returned it to where I purchased it, and got it replaced. The second one broke the same way less than a month later. The store refused to replace it a second time, so I took matters into my own hands and fixed it myself. Several months later, half of the headset simply snapped off for no apparent reason. Tape was able to manage that, but the last straw was when the right ear of the headset simply stopped functioning in it's entirety.

Do NOT buy this product. Customer support won't answer my e-mails and keeps hanging up before they even talk to me. I won't be purchasing anything manufactured by this company ever again. And I've never made a statement like that before. But this is honestly very frustrating.

Hopefully I'll find a surround sound headset that WON'T break on me soon.

Unfortunately, I'm now down about $120 that I'll never get back.

These headphones had nice sound and were comfortable while they worked (I went through two pair in four months). My first pair broke in about a month (volume control module ceased to function as did all the channels and lighting). My second pair ceased to function in about two months (crackling sounds and then the left channel (rear) went out).

My headphones did not have exposed wiring, as others have noted, but the cords on both sets had gooey/flaking areas where it was obvious that the wiring was just barely encased. The QQ on these is pretty much abysmal; I expected more from a company such as Razer considering all the intial hype/online reviews about these headphones. I purchased a pair of LTB 5.1 MG-AC97 headphones (not the USB model) and they have been GREAT.

Also, if you don't purchase these from Razer then there is no warranty; Razer did not even bother to respond to my email inquiry asking if the warranty situation was some sort of misprint on their website; very bad customer service/practice IMHO. Luckily, I purchased a warranty so I wasn't totally out of luck and I eventually got a full refund (bought my LTB's with the $). Sorry Razer, I won't be purchasing your products again...

Unfortunately I have to agree with some of the negative comments made by others. My Barracudas arrived with the same sort of flaking insulation on the cord, including a small patch of bare wire. As this was easily covered by a little electrical tape I thought nothing of it, until the headphones died entirely after maybe three hours of use. Amazon was great, gave me a full refund; I also e-mailed Razer to let them know about the issue, they did not seem very concerned (or surprised). So, buyer beware, the production control on these is apparently pretty uneven and you may get a lemon.

... but I'll be returning the third set in a month. First set headband broke two days in. Second, microphone didn't exist (as in, literally removed that tiny cap on the tip of the extension, and there was no little mic inside) and the main volume control knob started going crackly, where you have to pinch and squeeze and torque it to get all channels working. Third set, microphone existed, but the sound quality is wretched, just utterly wretched. And yep, the volume control is now giving out just like the first two. During the brief periods that it's actually functioned properly, the sound was quite positional and fun for gaming, of pleasantly acceptable (but not audiophile) sound quality. Not to be confused with product quality, which this puppy comes up short on after even the third try.

Let me start off by saying like some others out there, Theses seemed like a dream come true. Got my First PAIR( yes i said first) and used them with my existing motherboard soundcard. They sounded about the same as my old ones but that was to be expected. I was saving in the meantime for the AC-1 soundcard that goes w/ the head phones. One day i come home and go to play a game and no sound is coming out of the left ear and one of the lights on the vol control is dead. DOuble check with oter PC's and verify bad headset. OK no problem amazon was great with the exchange. got my 2nd pair in a week. I decided to wait til i got the soundcard to hook the headphones back up. got the card for my B-day and went to town and set every thing up only to find that the left rear channel was not working but if i pushed on th cord a little you could here a small sound. Plus one of my 3 dvd roms now did not work on account of a IRQ conflict i believe. O' Well just bad luck i guess. Sent it back, again amazon very good about it. Soundcard sound ok with my old headphone but does not have EAX or X-fi which alot of games use. Today i got an email saying that Amazon realizes there is a problem with the headpones and will not send me a replacement but will refund me my money and will take back the sundcard as well. so there you have it. Razer seems to have issues with it's production, thats what you get for outsorcing manufacturing. Amazon was great and I'm Happy they didn't just ship me another POS.

I have been using these headphones everyday over the course of over one and a half years, and since I will be retiring these headphones in favor of a new set that will perhaps fit my needs better, I have decided to give my thoughts on these headphones...

I had bought these headphones for a couple of reasons, one was that my old pair of $50 RadioShack headphones were falling apart on me, and the Koss 4AA Pro Titaniums that I had replaced them with were skull-crushingly heavy at 21 ounces, so I wanted something that was light. I also wanted a pair of headphones that would give me my own personal 5.1 space, so I would not need to crank up the speakers to hear 5.1 audio. However, since I am not that much of a gamer the novelty of 5.1 wore off pretty quickly, so I will focus mainly on the sound quality, the build quality, and the quirks and annoyances of these headphones.

First off, these headphones will only work properly only in very specific setups. Do not plan to hook these headphones up to an MP3 player or anywhere you cannot get a USB port... The amp on these headphones requires a USB port (or Razor's proprietary interface) to power them. Also if you do not have the audio jacks for subwoofer/center and rear do not expect them to reach their fullest potential... The subwoofer driver on the headphones will not work if there is not anything coming from the subwoofer/center line, so do not expect to hear bass if that is not plugged in. If you do not have anything coming from the rear speaker or the center speaker on the lines, turning the rear speakers and center speaker all the way down on the volume controls will cause the front to play the front and rear drivers, so you do not have that 'hollowness' that results from only having the 'front' drivers playing, fortunately.

The headphones are quite light and fit my head well, so they are quite comfortable to wear for the long periods (4+ hours) of time I listen to them. However, the top of one of my ears gets bent which makes them hurt after a few hours, but since not many headphones have cushions on them with a greater diameter it may be more of a problem with my particular anatomy.

The volume control / amplifier brick is pretty annoying on these headphones. Although it provides a great degree of control over the headphones, it is way too close to headphones on the cable, which needlessly weighs down the left side of the headphones. It has a clip on it, but the cable from it to the headphones is simply way too short, so you will have to place it in your lap at all times. The main volume control on the headphones has been a bit static-y from day one, and if you turn it up too loud will cause the audio to lean towards the right side, causing problems if you are trying to play from relatively quiet sources.

The bass feature of these headphones is worth talking about on its own: the bass drivers are weighed down, a feature that I have found are unique to these headphones. This causes the bass frequencies to vibrate the headphones, adding extra depth to certain games and music that trigger those frequencies. This will be very annoying at first in a ticklish sense, but you will quickly get used to it. However, it seems to vibrate at times when the driver cannot actually be heard, seemingly giving you the idea that there is a lot more missing aurally than from what can be 'felt.' It seems to give you the illusion of having bass without actually giving it to you. I have experienced headphones that do not vibrate that give you much better bass than these headphones at around the $70-$90 range.

The biggest reason why I am giving these headphones a two (I would rather give a two and a half) is because of the build quality. The subwoofer drivers will start to rattle after using them for awhile, which can only be relieved by letting them rest for a day. Also, the amplifier/volume control brick will cause structural problems with the headphones. After a year, the plastic holding the left speaker snapped due to weight from the volume control brick, which I fixed by using superglue. Just recently, though, the entire piece holding the left speaker together started crumbling apart and only the wire was holding it together. I then had to superglue on all the crumbled plastic parts and tape it up with duct tape. I guess I just go through a lot of headphones, but it is disappointing that something this expensive would fall apart so quickly.

Anyway, there is no doubt that you will enjoy these headphones when you first get them, assuming you have a 5.1 sound card! However these headphones have many shortcomings, and I can *only* recommend them for the use for which it is advertised: 5.1 audio for gaming. There is lots of room for improvement for a future model, however, and if Razor can address these issues with a future model it will definitely be worth looking into.