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Razer Megalodon 7.1 Headset

I think that it should be called MegaDump instead. Razer makes cheaper crap than creative and that is saying something lol.
 
I'm really interested to see how the Maelstrom sound engine turns out, and how well it performs HRTF translation of 3d sound sources in games.

This will most likely work as the X-Fi's CMSS3d does now with taking the 4/5.1/7.1 sound channel information from the game and using it's own API/hardware to do the HRTF lookup then output to the headphones.

The real question is how well their HRTF DSP performns, but they're in a better position by being able to package a single spec of headphone with the engine, so they can customize the filter output to suite the position/size/frequency response of that particular driver... The X-Fi can only do a good approximation due to users using many different types of headphones.

This could potentially be a good product, since we can all but completely give up on game developers writing their sound engine code to use HRTF and headphones, or even specifically output positional cues to the HRTF hardware/software...
 
Woah! spaceman, you must really hate this product or Razer. I wouldn't say that they make worse products than creative since they only have about 2 or 3 computer audio products? The rest (or most) of their products are input devices which seem to be very well done. I own a razer copperhead and I'm thoroughly happy with it. Now what I do hate about Razer is their damned website. It's almost completely made of flash! grrr... I detest websites made completely of flash or whose usefulness/functionality rests on flash. Additionally, web developers are either getting lazy or arrogant because fewer and fewer websites will (or can) fallback to plain html.
oops! I'm sorry about my rant.

So this new mega-thing seems to be a usb audio card with headphones eh?
 
as long as its not more old c-media usb driver crap like every other usb headphone out there.
i liked razers sound card- but it- along with the xonar and pretty much everything non-creative labs- still, un effin believably , rely on a 6 yr old sensaura 3d sound engine underneath the dolby headphone , extended perception, gs3d, blah blah etc etc

i looked at the white paper- and it seems that this is something new and hardware accelerated. if this is truly something new and the old sensaura crap is dead and buried finally- then i applaud razer!


p.s. the razer barracuda headset sucked butt :p
 
It looks like an AKG headphone... what I'm wondering is if they stuffed tiny drivers in there or if they actually have a truly dynamic and open headphone that may not sound half-bad. Unfortunately, even if it IS something decent, Razer is going to charge 5x what it's worth and make it completely ridiculous to buy. *shrug*

LOL, their white paper is nothing more than the same advertisement on their website, they just add a little bit of history of "sound" to it and use fancy words. gg
 
razer might make good mice, BUT

they have no CLUE with the headphones. build quality alone is terrible. I will not tolerate overpriced crap. Simply wrong to rip people off like that.

I do hope that somebody comes up with a better sound engine. I highly doubt these guys will but you never know where the genius hides.
 
man here's a better idea... how about improving and fine tuning the existing product line. like the barracuda soundcard before putting out more sound items.
 
ourfpshero said:
how is that supposed to make more money? sheesh...
Click to expand...

making one half assed product that many people know is half assed, then making another isn't going to make you much money either. standing behind a product will get you more future sales than what they are doing now outside of their mouse portion of the company.
 
looks pretty nice, but as the above posters have mentioned, it will probably cost up the ying yang

I'll wait until I get them during w00t off
 
I really, really, wish that a company would come strong with a sound card/ headset combo that kicks ass AND is affordable or at least priced within reason. Azuntech is trying but still has that creative anchor around their necks. These guys, well, they are all marketing and no substance. That combination just pisses me off.
 
There is that astro gamer but it fails in the headset dept.

My real hope is that Sennheiser finally does something b/c they are the only ones who have actually done a surround sound headspeaker thing that kind of worked. It was an around the neck worn 4 speaker thing with a bass shaker built in and actually worked but was so stupid looking and lightly/cheaply built that it never took off.

7.1 in headphones is just a JOKE. No way in hell will that work with what effort razer will put into the engineering portion of this product. Maybe you could make a 4 speaker headset that would do well with positional audio but it would still have to be almost twice the normal size to work right. No getting around that.

There is a reason why I promote real headphones with true stereo sources. Surround in headphones is still just a gimmick. A good stereo headphone gives you a really good "surround effect" as anyone with an X-Fi and a pair of SB40s will tell you.
 
spaceman said:
A good stereo headphone gives you a really good "surround effect" as anyone with an X-Fi and a pair of SB40s will tell you.
Click to expand...

QFT
but i still hope for competition and innovation. the more companies push 3d sound the better future for the genre. i appreciate that razer is trying. i dont appreciate the super high price and lousy construction of their audio parts so far

their ac-1 sound card is an eax2 part 'only' -but- they did the best job at it that i've heard. also their 5.1 headphones sounded like poop and were built the same -but- they did a good job at discernable 3d sound. so heres hoping
 
the sound coding is the only part of this to have any hope for. I know that the headset will suck. To make a 7.1 headset, well, it would be like having a pair of basketballs strapped to your noggin. My neck isn't that strong lol.
 
the white paper only shows 1 driver for this headphone.... so who knows, maybe it has a chance....
 
Not sure if anyone noticed but it will retail for $149.99.
 
Citizen86 said:
the white paper only shows 1 driver for this headphone.... so who knows, maybe it has a chance....
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Might. Like I said, I want it to work but based on past experience.....

At least they appear to be learning. Still, how the F can they call it a 7.1 with 2 speakers? Hmmmm. Marketing.
 
I completely agree, I'm not going to be running out to buy these based on Razer's past history.

Maybe they say "true" 7.1 because of their whole sound processing doohickey. You'd think that TRUE 7.1 speaker setup (what is that, at least 8 drivers on each ear?) is pretty ridiculous.

I'm surprised they made it look so much like an AKG headphone. Maybe it's rebadged K601?? haha! Razer has re-badged some of their audio stuff, like their earbuds, which I still maintain sound decent enough :p
 
They really do look like 601s. Those headphones actually do surround pretty effectively. Seriously doubt it but who knows?
 
Dragging this old thread up as the release date has been announced for the 30th.

Anybody looking at getting these? I'm going to hold off until some trusted reviews come out first. Plus I really hope the headset can be removed and you can use your own cans.
 
It's just a USB version of the X-Fi's CMSS-3D. Wait, don't they make USB X-Fis?

Yeah, not the "World's First True" anything. Marketing hype is full of lies and bad data. :p
 
Actually their technical whitepaper (while lacking exact details) is pretty much right on the money with HRTF and solutions to date and where their deficiencies are.

I really don't know whether the Maelstrom engine is using an XF-I chip, do you have a source to back up that bit of info? From what I can see, it's quite a lot less processing power than the XF-I, but then again, it's not trying to apply reverb effects and other crap, it's just doing hardware accelerated HRTF translations.

If it actually does what the whitepaper says was the goal of the design (mainly the audio engine, not the headphones themselves), then they will definitely have a "World's First" for a properly integrated HRTF based positional 3d audio device.

CMSS3D in XF-I works quite well in this regard, but these days it's only really convincing on openal titles which are few and far between with a lot of developers using software tools like Fmod or in house developments.
 
Caillins13 said:
I really don't know whether the Maelstrom engine is using an XF-I chip, do you have a source to back up that bit of info?
Click to expand...

Seeing as I never said that, no, I don't have any sources saying that it uses an X-Fi chip.
 
Bugger... was hoping to track down some more info on it, as facts are a little thin on the ground.

It may end up being a steaming pile of shit, but I'm not going to jump to any conclusions until we get a bit more info/reviews.
 
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