Razer Barracuda Professional wi-fi gaming headset overview

Lastly, a gaming headset you will not be ashamed to put on outdoors

Desk of Contents
Desk of Contents

The Razer Barracuda Professional is the most recent and biggest addition to Razer’s gaming headset lineup, and like different producers, they’re having a go together with built-in beamforming microphones.

Built-in microphones permit headsets to shed their typical gaming silhouette in favor of a extra multifunctional and moveable form akin to the Sony WH-1000 noise-canceling headphones.

That is all properly and good, because it makes for a extra minimalist engaging design, however Razer has made a reputation for itself with high-performance, tournament-ready gaming peripherals, and we’ve had unhealthy experiences with beamforming mics previously.

Most notably, the Asus ROG Deltas S Wi-fi was a fantastic headset, sadly marred by built-in microphones that merely weren’t appropriate for gaming. So, let’s see if Razer has achieved a greater job with the Razer Barracuda Professional.

NOW READ: Asus ROG Deltas S Wi-fi gaming headset overview

Razer Barracuda Professional specs

Execs

• 
  
  
  Very snug
• 
  
  
  Wonderful seal for ANC
• 
  
  
  Nice construct high quality and included case

Cons

• 
  
  
  ANC kills the bass response
• 
  
  
  Too costly

USB Kind-C, 2.4GHz wi-fi, Bluetooth 5.2

Twin Built-in Beamforming Noise-Cancelling with omnidirectional pickup

What’s within the field & setup

Unboxing the Razer Barracuda Professional was an fulfilling expertise, similar to nearly all of Razer’s gaming peripherals, it felt like a deal with to be opening it up.

Often, we make an enormous deal out of the packaging, paying explicit consideration to the froth and the way protected the product is saved throughout supply, which is type of a non-issue with the Barracuda Professional.

It is because it comes with a protecting carrying case, and it’s shipped as a substitute mentioned case, which means that Razer might get away with very minimal packaging.

It is a good thought because it saves house, prevents pointless materials waste, and retains transport prices decrease than normal. And naturally, you get a carrying case too, which may be very uncommon for gaming headsets.

Earlier

Subsequent

The field may be very slim and after yanking the sleeve off, the field opens up, revealing the carrying case nestled in a form-fitting plastic insert. That is healed safe as there’s a skinny layer of froth on the bottom of the entrance of the field.

Between this foam, and the carrying case, it’s in all probability essentially the most safe packaging we’ve seen from Razer, so in case your supply individual is keen on launching packages over the fence from vary, you’ll nonetheless be OK.

The setup was primarily equivalent to most different gaming headsets: Slap the dongle right into a vacant USB port and maintain the on button till you hear a mysterious girl saying ‘linked’.

Because the Barracuda Professional is Bluetooth-enabled too, merely tapping the Smartswitch twin wi-fi button will swap it over to Bluetooth, the place it’ll enter pairing mode and you may join it to your system of alternative.

To be used with a PC, we’d advocate putting in Razer Synapse, because the out-of-the-box EQ is way too bassy, so some fiddling is required, particularly in the event you intend the Razer Barracuda Professional as your gaming headset.

NOW READ: Razer Synapse information

Design

The design of the Barracuda Professional is proof of Razer lastly rising up. There is no such thing as a RGB lighting, vivid inexperienced accents, or aggressive branding.

In truth, this gaming headset merely seems to be like every pair of noise-canceling headphones you’ve seen folks sporting on planes, trains, and cars, which hints at their true function, which isn’t gaming, however we’ll get to that later.

If you happen to’re acquainted with the Sony WH-1000XM4 or Bose QuietComfort 45, You’ll instantly understand simply how far Razer has gone to distinguish this product from their earlier headsets, because it’s nearly equivalent in form, weight, and match.

The Razer Barracuda Professional is underdesigned to such an extent, that there isn’t lots to write down, as they’re as commonplace because it will get for a set of over-ear wi-fi headphones, and our product pictures will do a greater job. What number of phrases is an image price once more?

Anyway, branding right here could be an excessive amount of, however none of it’s coloured so Razer can get away with massive logos on every earcup, and alongside the highest of the headscarf, however that’s about it.

That is excellent news for these of you who need only one set of headphones for all purposes, as you may put on these about and about, with out trying like a gaming goblin who’s escaped his pit for the afternoon, which is as amusing as it’s uncommon.

The floor end is generally clean to the contact matte black, and there are accents of shiny plastic right here and there that add a extra premium contact.

It’s all plastic although, with no metallic to be discovered on the outside in any respect. We’d have most well-liked to see some metallic on the yolks and different pivoting sections, however the construct high quality stays premium, regardless of the symphony of plastics. Talking of which:

Construct high quality

It’s truly superb, outdoing most Razer headsets we’ve tried beforehand. When subjected to an aggressive twist check, the headscarf has a number of flex however returns to regular with no issues.

Moreover, the plastic, although ubiquitous, feels nice, with no hole and brittle feeling to it, although we fear it’s scratch very simply in the event you select to not use the included carrying case.

There may be one factor we seen, nevertheless, the amount wheel rubs towards the principle housing, which each feels a bit grim and makes a noticeably loud noise when sporting the headset. Maybe Razer stands to enhance their manufacturing tolerances a bit going forwards, cheers, boys.

A standout right here is the ear cushions. There is no such thing as a doubt that they’re fake leather-based, however the softness of each the upholstery and the underlying foam is totally prime tier.

The froth isn’t too tender both, which usually results in the ear cushions flattening out solely, which then adversely impacts consolation.

These stroll an ideal line between tender and resistive, which is the best place to be, each when it comes to longevity, and noise-cancelation.

The carrying case

It is a improbable case, which is spectacular as carrying instances aren’t what you count on from a Razer product, however regardless of their relative inexperience, they’ve managed to make a case that feels nice and works even higher.

The inside is a tender non-scratchy materials that has sufficient padding to guard the Barracuda Professional towards even essentially the most egregious of drops. It in all probability received’t survive a automotive operating over it, but when that’s a key consideration for you, perhaps it’s best to spend much less cash on headphones and extra on driving classes.

Moreover, the zips are gaurded with a type of rubber gasket factor that leads us to imagine that the case may be very water resisitant. Most likely not completely watertight, however you’ll be okay within the rain.

One final thing we like in regards to the case is the little pocket inside, which is the place the cables and dongle have been hiding.

It’s received a magnetic clasp that pops open and closed with a satisfying snap, and the magnet power is about proper too, needing a good, however not overly robust yank to open. This implies it’ll keep closed when the casing is bouncing round in a bag so the cables received’t escape.

Sound high quality & noise cancelation

Earlier on this overview, we alluded to how this gaming headset appears to be designed extra as a general-use set of noise-canceling headphones versus a gaming headset and the audio high quality helps this assertion.

We aren’t precisely certain what causes it, however the Razer Barracuda Professional’s soundscape is way extra suited to music, films, and common content material consumption than it’s for gaming.

We talked about the bassy EQ earlier, it’s one thing it’s best to alter for certain, however after altering it, the headset simply didn’t sound preferrred for gaming, with gunshots and explosions falling a bit flat.

Primarily, if you alter the headset to sound higher, it doesn’t carry out that properly in video games. That is unlucky, as we love the non-gamer look of the Barracuda Professional, and have been cautiously optimistic that it could possibly be a fantastic all-rounder.

The THX audio works positive for positional audio, which is essential for gaming, and most well-liked for watching TV or films. This combines with the improbable seal across the ears for a super-immersive audio expertise.

Total, this headset sounds actually good, and the noise cancellation is fairly efficient as properly, thanks in no small half to the seal, however right here is the place a difficulty presents itself.

Noise cancelation works by listening to your atmosphere, and rebroadcasting the alternative frequencies of what it deems undesirable again by the drivers. (That is very oversimplified, however a ok definition to make our level.)

The purpose being, that ANC or Lively noise cancellation all the time has an inherent hostile impact on the sound, notably bass, and we’re unhappy to say that that is positively the case right here.

ANC all however murders the bass response of the Razer Barracuda Professional. You may compensate for this by upping the bass within the EQ settings, however this leads to weirdly synthetic additional bass, which can then turn out to be an excessive amount of if you flip ANC off.

So sure, the audio high quality is sweet, nice, in truth, nevertheless it simply doesn’t work properly with the noise cancelation, which is unlucky as noise cancelation might be one of many causes for the excessively excessive value.

This value will get even tougher to swallow if you examine it to headphones just like the Sony WH-1000XM4s, that are priced identically however have superior sound high quality and ANC.

Built-in beamforming mics

We have been pleasantly shocked right here. After our crummy expertise with the Delta S Wi-fi, we have been anticipating equally crap noise isolation and interference,

So once we subjected the Barracuda Professional to some testing, we have been very impressed because it managed to filter out all however essentially the most aggressive of keystrokes, clicks, and different such background noise.

That is the primary time we’ve skilled built-in beamforming mics that really work as meant. And the result’s nearly excellent. We’d favor somewhat extra pickup quantity as your voice can be heard very quietly however that’s simple sufficient to regulate in settings.

So, Razer has succeeded with its inside mics. It’s not fairly tournament-grade as correctly aggressive execs will need somewhat extra readability and quantity, however for the final on-line gamer, the Razer barracuda Professional is greater than ok.

Consolation

Razer does very, very properly right here, with one caveat that places a slight damper on the expertise, however not everybody within the workplace seen it, so your mileage might fluctuate.

The luxuriously tender ear cushions match a really feel wonderful on the facet of your head and may have no drawback completely encompassing your ears, until you’re large, inexperienced, and have a mule for a greatest good friend.

the 340g/0.75 lbs weight, whereas fairly substantial, appears to soften away if you put the Razer Barracuda Professional on and you may scarcely really feel the headset after just a few seconds.

The match is sweet too, with the earcups having sufficient tilt and swivel to adapt to totally different head shapes whereas retaining that nice seal.

The headscarf adjustment is sweet too, offering for a wide variety of head sizes. It additionally retains its size very properly, which isn’t all the time the case as some headsets have headbands that fly open and closed on the lightest contact. We’re taking a look at you, Asus TUF H3 Wi-fi.

NOW READ: Asus TUF H3 Wi-fi gaming headset overview

Now comes the unhealthy information, or inconsequential information in accordance with a number of the folks within the WePC workplaces, and it’s hidden inside the headband.

Razer has added a rib of metallic operating perpendicular to the underside of the headscarf. This presumably reinforces the headscarf and prevents it from bending out of form.

Nonetheless, we discovered that you may really feel it as a degree of stress on the highest of the pinnacle, some within the workplace didn’t discover it, and a few did.

However the truth that a few of us did discover it made us marvel why it’s there within the first place, wouldn’t it not reach its reinforcement duties positioned on the highest of the headscarf? The place it’s out of the best way and received’t trigger points?

As we mentioned, you won’t take into account this a difficulty, and even discover it, nevertheless it’s price noting it anyway, because it’s the one sticking level in an in any other case flawlessly snug headset.

Razer Barracuda Professional – Last Verdict

We end this overview shocked and impressed. Our hesitance in regards to the beamforming mics turned out to be unfounded because the Razer Barracuda is essentially the most complete headset they’ve ever made.

It’s not excellent, after all, the value is somewhat ridiculous and the problem with the headscarf has left a barely bitter style in our mouth. Moreover, the ANC killing the audio high quality is annoying.

If you happen to’re available in the market for an all-in-one gaming and common audio resolution, we do advocate the Razer Barracuda Professional, because it’s very simple to change it from gaming to common use and again once more.

The value continues to be a difficulty for us, as you may get much better headphones for a similar value or generally barely much less, nevertheless, in the event you simply need one set of headphones for every thing, It’s a fantastic choice.