Razer Barracuda - any good?

V

Val

Limp Gawd
Joined
Nov 1, 2005
Messages
299
I was going to get Auzentech Prelude, but its arriving too late for me and looks like XFi + Vista = big trouble.

So i was thinking of this:

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Any good? I use my PC for gaming, hi-end music and hi-def cinema.
 
I enjoy mine for gaming even without eax3+ in fact I dont use eax2 either, but you might want to get the Xmerdian for the change able opamps. I did mod drivers for the Razer card to work in vista32/64.

But you get your money worth if you went for a X-Merdian instead. but both is still good cards.
 
Yep, just read some reviews... Seems like Meridian is a total kick arse card for my use.
 
Eh, the Razer is probably even worse for vista considering they haven't released any drivers for it yet and have had over 5 months to do so. I'm fortunate enough that the vendor I purchased this card from is allowing me to return it, after owning it for 3 months, entirely because Razer has lied over and over again about the driver release date. Razer sucks outside of anything but their gaming mice. Even the mods over at Razerblueprints.net are telling people to avoid this sound card.

BTW, I use the hacked drivers in vista but they're really buggy and don't sound as good as the stock drivers in XP. DTS connect sounds terrible in Vista. The card only sounds good in PCM and that defeats the purpose of owning the card entirely. Get the Auzentech X-meridian or a different budget C-media DTS card instead of this one.
 
get a x-fi, creative, although slow with driver releases do a great job at opting for new os's. With XP it was great and fast, although I didn't get my middle speaker to work cept in games I think until about a year or two later, and by that time I was already moving to someplace I couldn't use 5.1s. I recently bought an x-fi gamer for 39...mib though, claps w/the card, but my damn creative mouse is stuck at 500hz and it isn't flat on my pad...and it's creative's third gaming mouse I reckon 7600, but anyway I guess I'm saying everything's got its hitches...vista + games + cough = enough of a nuisence to me
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peacetilence said:
Eh, the Razer is probably even worse for vista considering they haven't released any drivers for it yet and have had over 5 months to do so. I'm fortunate enough that the vendor I purchased this card from is allowing me to return it, after owning it for 3 months, entirely because Razer has lied over and over again about the driver release date. Razer sucks outside of anything but their gaming mice. Even the mods over at Razerblueprints.net are telling people to avoid this sound card.

BTW, I use the hacked drivers in vista but they're really buggy and don't sound as good as the stock drivers in XP. DTS connect sounds terrible in Vista. The card only sounds good in PCM and that defeats the purpose of owning the card entirely. Get the Auzentech X-meridian or a different budget C-media DTS card instead of this one.
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I didnt have any of your problems. and then again I modded the latest driver from auzentech. and on my computer they sound better then the drivers in XP. I am dual booted and I switch back and fore.

and DTS and DD live modes worked for me. it just some games that dont see the speaker settings that diddnt. but most of my games worked in 5.1 while using DDlive and DTS modes. The only thing that dont work for me is my headsets thru the HDAI so in vista I either have to use the adaptor that came with the headsets and the sound card adaptor. Since I cant I use just dolby Headphone mode til then.

Razer said there done with there drivers but are working on getting ther interface to work this there first sound card, I not gonna be hard on them but. They do need to improve in speed which they create drivers.

But things do happen they prolly wanna wait til they get the drivers perfect before they put them out.
 
Forget about it guys... Stupid thread.

Razer is a pretty avarage card. Its good only for gaming with razers headset.

Will go for Meridian. It has it all - no XFi, awsome sound quality, all the DTS you want for cinema, Vistra drivers, etc etc
 
That would be my suggestion as well but I'm a bit apprehensive since they don't mention any support for DTS connect with the Prelude. I might just stick with my $15 Chaintek Envy 24 card...
 
Just because it isn't mentioned doesn't mean they won't add it to the drivers down the road.

I run a dual card setup and I have full hardware support for EAX 1,2,3,4 and OpenAL and I have the sound quality and output options of the X-Meridian 7.1. A dual card setup may be a suggestion if you need certain features. Most go with the X-Meridian for the amazing analog quality, a trait I hope will extend to the newest member of the Auzen family.
 
AdmiralFlameberg said:
I didnt have any of your problems. and then again I modded the latest driver from auzentech. and on my computer they sound better then the drivers in XP. I am dual booted and I switch back and fore.

and DTS and DD live modes worked for me. it just some games that dont see the speaker settings that diddnt. but most of my games worked in 5.1 while using DDlive and DTS modes. The only thing that dont work for me is my headsets thru the HDAI so in vista I either have to use the adaptor that came with the headsets and the sound card adaptor. Since I cant I use just dolby Headphone mode til then.

Razer said there done with there drivers but are working on getting ther interface to work this there first sound card, I not gonna be hard on them but. They do need to improve in speed which they create drivers.

But things do happen they prolly wanna wait til they get the drivers perfect before they put them out.
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Thats strange. I'm also using the latest drivers. The problem I have is that when I select DTS connect, the sound is distorted using any sample rate (in vista sound options) under 96khz. If I select 96khz and use DTS connect the sound is overly shrill, too spacial sounding etc, it sounds entirely different than DTS connect under XP. The volume is also lower in Vista (it's turned up to 100% in sound options) and doesn't sound as though it's driving my receiver and speakers properly. I'm using Foobar 2000 and .flac files via optical SPDIF to a panasonic XR-55 attached to Axiom M3ti bookshelves for reference. I notice that games sound a bit better in Vista, just because they don't have that lame Razer sound enhancement that allows you to hear footsteps through walls and from 1000 feet away. The bass crossover function and EQ don't work in vista either so I can only assume the drivers aren't playing properly with the Razer card and that's why it doesn't sound as good to me. I'm switching back to my $15 chaintek envy 24 card until the prelude comes out and the Razer is being shipped back.
 
peacetilence said:
Thats strange. I'm also using the latest drivers. The problem I have is that when I select DTS connect, the sound is distorted using any sample rate (in vista sound options) under 96khz. If I select 96khz and use DTS connect the sound is overly shrill, too spacial sounding etc, it sounds entirely different than DTS connect under XP. The volume is also lower in Vista (it's turned up to 100% in sound options) and doesn't sound as though it's driving my receiver and speakers properly. I'm using Foobar 2000 and .flac files via optical SPDIF to a panasonic XR-55 attached to Axiom M3ti bookshelves for reference. I notice that games sound a bit better in Vista, just because they don't have that lame Razer sound enhancement that allows you to hear footsteps through walls and from 1000 feet away. The bass crossover function and EQ don't work in vista either so I can only assume the drivers aren't playing properly with the Razer card and that's why it doesn't sound as good to me. I'm switching back to my $15 chaintek envy 24 card until the prelude comes out and the Razer is being shipped back.
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The Cross out worked for me for my headsets, but not my digital but my speakers has there own cross over. I didnt get distort at any of those setting either. i have my vol on 67% on my vol controll.

Yea the Razer ESP when maxed out is annoying, in my Xp boot I config it so it isnt way too much. I have it in the middle with a tad pass the middle line. I used to just use it at max but I got tired of it. plus it be nice if the settings saved for it .

too bad it had to act a fool and give you problems. Hopely when you get the auzentech XFI when it comes out,you dont have problems.
 
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