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Razer Piranha Gaming Headset
The Good
My first impression of the Razer Piranha Communicator was quite good. The aspect that impressed me the most about the Razer Piranha was how well constructed the it felt on my head. The entire structure of the Piranha was built out of very thick, but light impact resistant plastic. The ear covers are mounted on ball sockets with comfortable cloth-over-foam padding that provides a great balance between a secure fit and good breatheability. I also noticed that the foam padding attenuated the atmospheric noise in my room very well. As a result of this noise canceling trait, I have missed a few phone calls simply because the phone rang when I had the Piranha headset on. Another neat feature is the ability to adjust the position of the ear covers. This adjustment allows the headset to compensate for a variety of head sizes (real size, not ego) and increases the comfort of the wearer. Unlike other headsets, the Razer Piranha requires adjustment only once; the headset is designed so that when the ear covers are adjusted, they stay put, I don't find myself constantly readjusting them.
After I spent a few days playing games with the Razer Piranha headset, I began to realize how cleverly the microphone was designed. Personally, I really hate things getting into my field of vision while I am playing video games. At best, it distracts me from what I am doing and at worst it can cause me to look away from the game. It irks me to no end when I get fragged by someone simply because I was adjusting my headset. Fortunately, the Razer Piranha Communicator mic is deployed on a long swing bar on the left side of the headset, out of the way of my eyes while I play. The mic is sensitive enough to be placed outside of my field of view and still pick up my voice with very high fidelity.
The cord that runs from the headset to the computer is covered with a cloth mesh, which serves to remove the stiffness typical of your average microphone cord. The cord lies neatly in my lap and the adjustment dongle clips either to the bottom of my shirt or to my pants pocket. The additional feature of the clip keeps the cord from moving around and distracting me when I am playing.
A quick word about the sound quality. Over the years I have owned a lot of pretty expensive sets of headphones. While the Razer Piranha is not a studio quality audio system, I have found that it reproduces my music and voice chats quite well. During testing, I did not notice a single artifact in my music that I could attribute to these headphones... A statement that I would be loathe to say about some other products I have owned over the years!
The Bad
While I was playing a game of Day of Defeat: Source the other night, I noticed that my friends could no longer hear my voice in game. This was during a clan match and I really did not want to look away from the game to see what was wrong. When I got the time later, during a (infrequent) wait to respawn, I realized that through contact with my shirt the microphone mute button, located on the dongle that clips to my shirt, had slid into the muted position. During the time that I have been testing the Razer Piranha, this accidental muteing has happened several times and is quite disruptive every time it happens. It seems that the mute button does not have a very stiff contact with the on and off positions. The slider is prone to moving into a center position which turns off the microphone. My other gripe is along the same lines. While I am playing a game the volume knob will sometimes brush against my shirt and the volume of the game will either blast my ears off, or become silent. Not a pleasant experience with explosions happening all around you!
The Ugly
I have one more gripe with the Razer Piranha that is purely personal preference. In this instance, a great number of my readers may (and probably will) disagree with me). This headset, in order to keep up with recent trends in gaming equipment that mandate all gaming products come equipped with multiple blue LEDs, features three extremely bright blue LED lights. The light system is powered through an additional USB connection and could be (and in my case is) left unplugged at the expense of the additional awesomeness provided by having a glowing headset. My major issue with the LED lights is that they do not turn off when I turn my computer off at night. I take issue with bright lights in the room when I am trying to sleep. Apart from the cosmetic issue of the LED lights, I don't really have any major complaints about how the product looks and functions. As I said above, feel free to disagree with me on this single point.
Conclusion
The Razer Piranha Communicator has been yet another amazing product from Razer. It offers great sound and microphone fidelity in games, while being well constructed and easy to wear. I like this product so much that I have actually replaced my own personal headset that had served me well for several years before this review. In all seriousness, the Razer Piranha is a very good headset for the average gamer, and offers a few features that other headsets in its price category do not. The adjustment dongle, while a source of scorn in my gripe section of my review, is actually a pretty handy feature. At an average selling price of around $65 at the time of this writing, I am sure that this product will make a nice addition to your gaming experience!
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