Unprecedented audio for gamers from Razer
Razer, the undisputed king of the gaming mouse and mouse mat is now set to bring its passion for gaming excellence to your ears, too.
We sat down with Robert Krakoff, President of Razer and Razer’s ‘Razerguy’ to talk about the Razer Barracuda Integrated Audio System.
The Razer Barracuda is a brand new sound system consisting of the AC-1 gaming sound card and HP-1 gaming headset. Razer claims this combination delivers an unparalleled sound quality giving gamers everything they need from a sound card without all the associated fluff that comes with many other leading brands.
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for larger imageThe Razer Barracuda AC-1 card features an audio chipset powered by Razer Fidelity - said to give it an unprecedented 117dB signal-to-noise ratio that's only surpassed by specialist cards at twice the price. You also get 24-bit/7.1 audio output, giving sensational sound quality.
Using the latest audio algorithms, Razer says, means that the AC-1 and HP-1 bring you patented positional audio, allowing you to hear exactly where you opponents are. Titled Razer Enhanced Sonic Perception, (ESP) the expanded sound stage gives the gamer cracking positional audio and increased audio range… and I know because I’ve tried it. The Razer 3D 720 degree positional audio engine let’s you know exactly what’s going on and where. It delivers the best positional audio I’ve heard through a headset yet.
Robert took us through the sound demo and immediately it was clear that Razer has something a bit special on its hands. Even though there was masses going on up on the screen and sounds were coming from all directions, it was always clear what sounds were coming from where. To be honest, it was almost like being in a fully kitted Dolby THX theatre… except the sound was crisper, clearer and seemed sharper.
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for larger imageThat big metal casing you can see over the top of the card is the Passive Electromagnetic Interference Shield (EMI), which is said to prevent a deterioration in sound quality caused by interference from other PC components… graphics card makers do it, so why not on a sound card? This is said to mean that even soft in-game noises, ones that might be masked or eroded by EMI within your PC, will come through crystal clear.
Finally, see that funny looking socket on the backplane of the card? That’s the Razer High Definition-Dedicated Audio Interface (HD-DAI) and is used to interface with the HP-1 headset. It's a proprietary connector and said to allow the AC-1’s superior sound quality and features to hit your ears with as much positional accuracy and as little loss of sound quality as possible.
The Razer Barracuda system will be supplied with a set of breakout cables to allow you to connect conventional audio equipment to the system, but this will mean the loss of the enhanced audio from the Razer HD-DAI interface.
The Razer Barracuda isn’t far off either, being anticipated to hit the UK this summer.
