Razer Megalodon

*UPDATE* Photos and audio first-impressions on page 3

Just pre-ordered the headset... glad to see it's finally getting released!! I had a set of Barracudas that I loved but they finally died on me a few weeks ago. I've been waiting since September of last year for this new headset to come out.

Anybody else pre-order or considering it?



Product Page
http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-audio/razer-megalodon/

Youtube unboxing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyULldvNwb0

 

well now I know what i have to save my money for

I have thier copperhead mouse that came with the asus g50vt a1 free

 

You can buy a sennheiser hd555 for $98 and a hd595 for $176...

$150 for this is really overpriced

 

The sennheiser's are nice but I need a headset, not another set of headphones.

Considering the surround sound aspect of the Megalodons, I'll hold judgement on whether they are overpriced until I receive them and have tested them out.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Zalman-Microphone-Zm-Mic1-Sensitivity-Headphone/dp/B00029MTMQ

Done... You have a headset .

TBH megalodon isn't the first headphone to try virtual surround and every headphone failed and his specs aren't good...

BTW good luck with your megalodon

 

That Zalman Microphone looks really nice i might buy it thanks for the heads up BIGX

 

I've researched the Megalodon and similiar, and it's looking really good. For me, it's down to the G35 and Megalodon, and I really want to like the megalodon.

Waiting for it's release tomorrow, and the reviews that come with it. If alls good, I will get it for sure.

 

Just came across these on overclockers as i was looking at getting a Creative X-fi USB and a set of 555s to go with for better sound out the laptop, am i to understand the audio processor is a USB connection and is basically doing the work a creative x-fi usb would do?

 

Exactly!! The audio processor is in that box will the volume control so you only need one usb plug for it to work. In order to use my Razer Barracudas for surround sound I had to get the X-Fi expresscard and the surround sound cable adapter. That was a lot of extra bulk.

The control box on this headset also lets you switch between stereo and surround modes for better quality sound depending on what your doing.

 

I would wait until these are compared to some actual headphones.... some Sennheisers or AKG's.

You never know though. I remember reading about them a while ago and I was happy to see that they are actually using a single driver, not actual 5.1 surround sound in each side... because that's silly.

 

Intresting as it works out about the same either way then...as i simply don't have the space for speakers so was looking at better headphones which means a better soundcard.

Can't wait for your review, hope ya have plenty of games to test be curious to see how it stacks up against creatives EAX

 

That's nothing new... it's actually what basically every USB headphone does... this one just has some extra processing effects. We'll have to see how beneficial they are.

 

I'll post my thoughts on them when I get them. I've got a new camera that I've been wanting to try out so maybe I'll take some pics and a video as well if anyone wants that.

Was hoping it would ship today but I guess they really are waiting until tomorrow.

 

That'd be awesome if you could do that.

They've been released now, so all we do is we wait for reviewers and members to post thoughts.

 

Well, slight delay now:

I'd like to let you know that your Razer Megalodon is currently in the process
of being packed and shipped. We received a record number of pre-orders over the
past few days and the team here at the Razer Store is ecstatic over how much our
fans believe in us.

We know you're excited to get your hands on the Razer Megalodon. Everyone on the
team here LOVES it. However, due to amount of packages we had to ship today,
your order might only go out on the 1st or 2nd July. We've already put all our
warehouse guys on overtime and we want you to know that your order will be
prioritized, and we'll work to the bones to get it out to you as soon as
possible.

I can be contacted directly at email: ****@razerzone.com if you have any
questions you'd like answered.

Yours,
******.
The Razer Store
www.razerzone.com/store/

I paid for two day so hopefully it ships today so I can have it friday. I hate ordering new electronics and having to wait a weekend to receive them

 

Blastards!!!!

 

GAH, I have been checking every 1hr to see if a review has popped up! I guess this is why none have.

Hope you get your product soon Raziel

 

Finally got a shipping notice this morning and the tracking info just started working a bit ago.

Won't be here until Monday

I hate being impatient.

 

Like so many other products from Razer; it looks really nice, but overpriced.

 

I agree, but I am a sucker for their products.

I'm eyeing their Mako speakers too now that they dropped $100 off the price.

 

honestly, ETA of Monday is terrible considering you pre ordered and asked for 2 day shipping.

... and further to that it's delaying what you say about it, and in turn delaying if I buy one. xD

 

Haha, the wait will make us all stronger! lol.

I'm thinking about calling them and asking for a refund of my shipping costs.

 

Ill be honest if i preorder something i expect it in my hands on the day of release, bit cheeky making us all wait for a review till after the weekend lol.

 

Honestly, I think you should. I agree with Jasp though, in past when I have preordered things they've arrived on the day, and that's how it should be.

None the less, you still havea a (hopefully) good product to look forward to.

 

Raziel66, Lang from the Razer Store here. Just our luck the shipping of the Razer Megalodons had to coincide with the Holidays. =(
Email me lang at razerzone.com and we'll work something out. =)

 

Thank you Lang! Email sent!

Also, just received my box here at work:


Sorry about the image quality... its from my iPhone. I have an awesome camera with me but I have no way to upload the photos from work.

Travel case is spiffy. Closest thing I can compare it to is a sunglass case, in this photo, my Oakley case. I think other brands do something similar. It hardened and seems like it could take a beating and has a woven-thread texture on the outside. The raised Razer logo on top is a nice touch, as is the Razer branded zipper pull.





The headset itself feels solidly built, more so than the Barracudas IMHO. The earcups are locked into place and don't rotate the way the Barracudas did, the microphone is not removable as it is integrated into the earcups design, but it DOES rotate all the way around to the other side (about 270 degrees of rotation). If I remember right some of the online reviews pointed out that the Cacharias only had 90 degrees of rotation.

The earcups have a metal weave over them, adding to my confidence that they will stand up to a beating if you are planning on travelling and moving them around a lot. The earcups are easily adjustable and extend smoothly to fit even a gargantuan sized head and are very soft and pleasant feeling. They lock around my ears and easily dampen the dull roar in the mall around me (at a customer service desk). I had posted in another thread that with my Barracudas my ears were actually resting on the "speakers" themselves, causing pain after a while of gaming. My worst fear with the Megalodons was that I would suffer the same discomfort but I'm happy to say that I don't. Razer has pushed the speakers back a bit so that all you feel is the padding around your ear. These definitely feel higher-end.





The control unit itself is very nice and reminds me of the monolith from 2001. It's black, shiny, and draws your attention immediately. The Maelstrom button on the top switches you from 2.0 mode into 7.1, illuminating the proper label and number of speakers being used. At the bottom we have the Mic Mute, Mic Sens, and Mic Level buttons, all of which illuminate in the center and have a satisfying click-feeling when you push them. The volume control itself is a wheel that illuminates the volume indicator to the left in much the same manner as the control pod on the Mako (although I realize that the Mako is touch sensitive). In the center of the wheel is another button with a Razer logo on it that acts as a channel selector to adjust the volume of each speaker individually. This is a nice touch as it eliminates the need for all of the little wheels the Barracuda had on it.




In 7.1 mode:



In stereo:



With mute mic on in red. Note that the other two buttons glow blue but only when that adjustment mode is active. The slight blue glow you see on the pics is a bleed from the other lights due to the angle I was taking the photo at.




As for sound quality... I can't test it
We can't play any audio here at work so I can only judge the Megalodon based on its looks until I get home from work.

I have a number of games and movies I can play around with to see how the headset checks out and will try to see if Razers claim that Maelstrom offloads work from the CPU is accurate.

 

Dude, I love you.

I'm going home to sleep, and hopefully you can get some tests in. Thanks so far man.

 

Ok, some quick first impressions on audio quality.

After trying a few games last night, I have to say its a mixed bag. 2.1 sounds GREAT on everything. On games the audio is crisp and clear and the isolation created by the earphones closing securely over your ears really helps to put you into the game and focus on what you are doing. On music, the sound is clear but the bass is a bit overpowering. Depending on the type of music being played that channel would need to be turned down a bit.

I'm going to try Iron Man, 300, and Dark Knight tonight in both 2.1 and 7.1 modes to see how they work out.

Games are where the mixed bag comes into play. I tried Oblivion first and was impressed, but not blow away, by the surround sound performance. When walking through a dungeon you can certainly hear enemies whispering around the corner or hear arrows fly past your head, but others sounds get muddled in the process. The sounds your character makes, like jumping and swinging your sword, sound a bit muffled as though they are getting spread out too "thinly" across multiple channels.

I noticed the same thing in Modern Warfare. Starting a new single player game, I was found 2.1 to be amazing in its clarity. Switching to 7.1, I was blown away by the sound of gunfire and my how I was definitely able to tell what direction it was coming from. Had this been an online game, I would have looked like a fool spinning in circles in the middle of the cargo ship! Voices are again, another story. They sound slightly muffled and seem to almost be coming through a radio (note: I realize that some voices in the game DO come over a radio, but this is when the character are talking directly to you as you move through the hallways and secure the paperwork on the nuke, and even on the mission briefings). Multiplayer brought the same thing, directional audio is superb, voices (UAV is online!) sound weird. Granted its the bullets that you want to hear the most, but I'm just pointing out everything I noticed.

I then tried Fallout. HOLY MOTHER OF ***********************. This was epic. Being born on the game was an eye opening experience with these headphones on. The mother really sounded like she was on my left and the dad truly felt like he was standing in front of me. THIS is what surround sound should be like on headphones and is the closest I've heard to a real setup. Walking through the wasteland brings the clear sound of the wind blowing, characters yelling at you from a distance, and the ability to pick out exactly where the raiders are shooting at you from. I noticed NO distortion or muffling in this game, leading me to believe that some games work better than others or that my channel settings need to be tweaked on a case-by-case basis.

The Razer manual that comes with the game says to check your Windows sound settings and enable 5.1/7.1 output (which it seemed to do automatically, unless I am overlooking something), and to select that option in the game settings, or use 2.1 for older games. Oblivion and Fallout did not let me choose what sound mode I wanted to use, just the volume levels, and we can see how difference the performance was there. Modern Warfare gave me the option to choose 5.1 or Windows Default (which was 7.1), and again, we saw some muffled voices there.

I don't regret buying these thus far as I am still impressed by the performance and feel that they outperform Razers previous offerings (Barracuda). I think a list of games that fully utilize the 7.1 mode ought to be composed so that people can see if the investment is worth it, or maybe people could put together ideal sound levels for individual games. I'll have to try some more games to see how the performance is in different genre's and action, but theres my thoughts so far.

Any game recommendations? If I don't have it, I can buy or borrow it to try it out. I'm thinking Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood (I think thats the title?), Prototype, and Left 4 Dead.

Hmm... that actually doesn't seem to be a wide range of genre's now that I look at it


Tried the headphones with Iron Man on Blu-Ray played through Arcsoft Total Media Theater. The results were great in stereo, clear, explosive, very engaging audio. But as the disc only outputs in 5.1 you again wind up with muddled voices that I noticed in some of my games.

 

Counter-strike Source is a game that people definitely appreciate sound cues and directional awareness.

Thanks for the mini-review. BTW, does it say anywhere on the package or in the manual if these headphones are like regular headphones, with 1 speaker per ear? Or is it like some older "gaming" headphones with multiple tiny drivers placed in each side. From the sounds of it, it's only 2 drivers, which is definitely a good thing...

 

Thanks so much for the info Raziel66! Would you say it's worth getting the megalodon over some decent quality cans?

 

The Megalodon is just two drivers, and I agree, it's a good thing. The control box has their Maelstrom audio processor to adjust the audio into virtual surround sound. I think this makes them better suited for a variety of uses rather than pidgeonholding them in one. The Barracudas had multiple drivers which always made music a little funky to me. You could turn down the surround channels but it never felt the same as stereo.

Will try out Counter Strike tonight!

Not a problem at all! Glad I finally have something to contribute to the forums here. If you are going to be using the headphones for various things and not just music, or just gaming, then yes, so far I think that they are worth buying. As I said with Fallout, the surround sound is pretty spectacular when you find a compatible game. The ability to switch over to 2.1 when needed is pretty convenient and is an added value in my mind, and the built in mic is great and stays out of the way when not in use. The fact that Razer kept the headset down to one USB cable for power and sound is nice and keeps you from getting tangled in multiple cords. The recommendation from others to get a regular headset with a clip-on mic is fine, but I want an all in one headset for gaming and overall convenience. I have other headphones if I am just looking for music quality.

Bottomline, these are a jack-of-all-trades and so far they are the best I've used.

The only challenge to figure out now is why the surround sound varies. I'm going to assume that maybe the engine that the game uses would affect this so maybe if one Source game sounds good in 7.1, the rest would too.

 

Exactly! That's what I've kept saying to people, one USB cable is so much easier to handle then having to carry a mini-amp, numerous 3.5 jacks, AND a USB.


I guess I'll grab a pair aswell, hopefully they're as great as you say. Thanks heaps!

 

Sure thing! Don't forget that Razer has a 30-day return policy in the event that you don't like them. The only other thing that I've found that is comparable is the Astro Gaming A40, but it's another $100 for the whole set with the mixamp. If something happens that changes my mind about the Megalodon in the next week or so that's probably what I'll get.

 

I am a huge Razer fan and I can't decide between the Megalodon or Astro's A40. I like the idea but the detachable mic for the A40 but 7.1 for the Megalodon is awesome. But in your mini review I saw that you said some things were muffled so then maybe it would be better to go with a 5.1 headset over a 7.1?

 

My apologies for not responding sooner!! I've been sick and trying to keep up with my new classes. Have had a lot of reading to do in a short amount of time!

I can't really comment too much on the A40's as I've still not had a chance to test one in person. I've read a few reviews, for the most part favorable, that say the sound is excellent and worth every penny. My understanding is that they are virtual surround sound as well (anyone, please correct me if I am wrong) and should be subject to the same limitations as the Razer's, with non-surround games coming off a bit muddled.

The difference in my mind though would be simple:
5.1 means that the voices are going to be spread out across less channels and should in theory be clearer.

The deciding factor for anyone is going to be price though. $200 only gets you the headphones and my understanding is that they only do stereo out of the box. In this case the Razer's win hands-down price, performance, and feature wise. Throw in the Mixamp and now you are paying a lot more money for 5.1 instead of 7.1, and you still might notice the same muddled sounds.

The true value of the A40's comes from their compatibility with game consoles, again, requiring the mixamp.

So if you are looking for a multi-use headset for your whole setup, then the A40's are the way to go. If you are focused on PC gaming, then the Megalodon's win hands down.

 

Cool thanks! I am going to be doing mostly PC gaming so then I think Razer's Megalodon would be perfect. Thanks for the info!

 

Sure thing! Let me know what you think of them when you get them!

 

anyone read any reviews comparing these to the logitech g35s?

 

The only review I've seen so far is on Ign :/

I actually emailed Logitech and a couple of other companies about getting some headphones to compare with the Razer's... just waiting to hear back.

 

I would like to see a review of megalodon against AD900 or some sennheiser HD555/595.

TBH i tested almost every gaming headset out there and every1 failed in having a better soundstage, if megalodon can do this i would buy one

 

BIGX333, out of curiosity, which headsets have you tried? Always looking for opinions...

Well, I haven't heard back from any of the companies I wrote to about getting test headset so I'll assume they aren't interested (hint hint for any of them that are reading this).

I'm thinking of returning the Razer's, not because they are bad by any means, but because, like everyone else, I'm really curious now about how a 5.1 (the Astro's mainly) headset would compare. Both companies offer a 30-day return period so I think I'll take advantage of that opportunity to "audition" them.




Edit: Also, what's a good video host website? I had promised higher quality photos and a video and I want to make good on said promise. My camera does 720p with stereo audio... what site would be best for that? I've never uploaded anything to Youtube or Vimeo or anything like that before.

 

Hey Raziel,

A friend of mine is a semi-professional gamer and he has a set of the Astro a40s MLG edition. All I have to say is wow! The sound quality was amazing! They are by far the best headphones I have ever tried. I purchased (and returned) a set of Megalodons because even though they have great sound quality (and are a lot cheaper than the a40's) I noticed that the sound quality was very uneven. In some games the quality was amazing and in other games okay and sometimes very muffled, something that I am sure you noticed in your review. I believe this is due to the fact that not all games support 7.1 yet and perhaps in the feature there will be a better need for headphones with 7.1 surround. I am interested in getting a set of the a40s even though they have a huge price tag.

Also you may want to keep your eye on the company Roccat. They are a UK/Eurpeon company and they are the makers of the award-winning Roccat Kone mouse. Next mouth they are releasing an impressive looking set of headphones called the Roccat Kave. Here is a link, you should check them out.

http://www.roccat.org/Products/Gaming-Sound/ROCCAT-Kave/

Right now they do not ship to the U.S. however, I asked them how to get their products and they informed me that online stores in the UK often ship to the U.S.

 

Jack, thanks for the great response! The sound variations were my main con with the Megalodons. I stopped testing different games and movies once I realized what was going and that it wasn't a glitch or anything like that. I agree about future games providing better 7.1 support. I can understand incompatibility issues but I don't want to have to watch and play everything in Stereo since that's not what I bought these for.

With that said, there are definitely going to be some gamers that have no issues with these at all. Build was top notch, they are extremely comfortable, and the one cable connection was great. Once I use the Astro's I'll which is a better fit overall and then stick with it.

Thanks for the Roccat link! I had never heard of them before but that Kave headset looks very nice! I'll have to do some digging on pricing info to see how feasible it would be to import a pair.

 

Ok, as promised a video and some higher res photos. I apologize for the video though as I am neither photogenic or good at making these vids

Vid link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNfb_HJ1kls

 

Awesome review and photos Raziel66! + Rep. I am thinking of getting these, not too concerned about the lack of 5.1. Do you think that future games will have 7.1?

 

Ok so people keep telling me Surround sound is BS... I want to get the Razer 5.1 surround, becuase they look fantastic... however I can get a cheaper Audio-Technica ATH-A700 Closed-back Dynamic Audiophile Headphones

http://go.notebookreview.com/?id=52...m_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=ATHA700&sku=ATHA700 which is supposed to be fantastic but only 2.1

 

Yes, I definitely do think that there will be better support for 7.1! After I check out the Astro's I might go back to the Razer's... I really do like them that much.

MrButterBiscuits, I'm not sure why people say that... If you find a good headset and tweak it a bit the sound can rival a real surround sound setup. I have 5.1 in my room for my consoles that I can plug my computer into, but on Fallout, the headset really did rival the speakers. Plus I didn't have to worry about waking anyone up if I cranked the volume! There have been some bad surround sound headsets in the past but a lot of the recent ones are top notch.

 

Oh, what's this? I seem to have received a box in the mail:



More on that soon.

 

Let me see...

Steelsound 3H
Steelsound 4H
Steelsound 5HV1
Steelsound 5HV2

Icemat Siberia
Icemat Siberia Neckband

Razer Barracuda
Razer Piranha

Sennheiser PC-161
Sennheiser PC-166
Sennheiser PC-350

Zalman - I don't remember the model but is the 5.1.

Philips - Don't remember the model either... But was the unique headset .

I already tried lots of headsets because of lan events .

I'm pretty experienced with headphones too because of studio recordings .

I'm wondering who they re-branded this time... Razer M100 was very good since they was re-branded Sennheiser CX300.

 

I actually decided on the A700, with a Zalman clip on high quality mike

http://www.buydig.com/shop/product....mpaign=ATHA700&utm_source=Froogle&sku=ATHA700