Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Excellent audio by way of the bass, mid and excessive tones
- THX Spatial Audio is a deal with in video games
- Lightweight and cozy design
Cons
- No growth mic means the mic audio suffers considerably
- ANC works however may very well be higher
Our Verdict
The Razer Barracuda Pro gaming headset sounds terrific and delivers a spatial audio expertise second to none. And, because of twin wi-fi and wired connectivity, you need to use it with nearly all of your units. The headset lacks a devoted growth mic, however the upside is the Barracuda Pro passes as a pair of premium headphones once you’re not gaming.
Price When Reviewed
249.99
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$249.99
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The Razer Barracuda Pro delivers nice audio in a modest, light-weight and cozy design. It backs all this up with strong connectivity choices, together with 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB-A and USB-C (wired), permitting you to hook up with nearly all of your units straight away.
Gamers will love the Barracuda Pro’s THX Spatial Audio assist, which elevates gaming audio to a wealthy and satisfying surround-sound expertise. And, whereas the absence of a growth mic doesn’t do wonders for voice chats and recordings, it does imply the Barracuda Pro can go for a convincing premium headphone set—a pleasant silver lining that provides to the gadget’s overwhelming enchantment.
Barracuda Pro design and construct
Like its predecessor, the Razer Barracuda X, the Barracuda Pro’s general aesthetic is modest, consisting of rounded black cups and a plastic headband. There’s a noticeable absence of RGB lighting such as you see in Razer’s Kraken line-up, or in rivals just like the flashy Logitech G733. Instead, two shiny black Razer snake logos seem on the surface of every ear-cup, and the phrase “Razer” sits atop the headset’s band on the highest level.
The controls are stealthily completed in black, apart from the mute mic button, which exhibits up inexperienced when within the off place. The modest design and hidden detailing means the Barracuda Pro scrubs up remarkably nicely as a conventional high-end headphone set once you’re not gaming.
The Barracuda Pro delivers a bevy of options that maintain your ears and head cosy and cozy. The most blatant is its light-weight physique, which eschews metallic for plastic, decreasing whole weight. This may invite sturdiness issues for some players, however on the upside it nearly eliminates any horizontal and vertical strain.
Dominic Bayley
The earpads are equally designed for feel-good consolation. They’re each very tender and coated in a tactile faux leatherette materials that’s neither too coarse nor too slippery in opposition to your ears. The foam beneath is particularly light and squishes down effortlessly, permitting the cups to all however soften into the perimeters of your head, thereby diminishing any discomfort to your ears.
Razer’s largest change relative to the Barracuda X design is the absence of a protruding microphone on the Pro mannequin. In its place are two innocuous slots that sit on the underside entrance edges of the cups. Apart from this large change, the remainder of the Barracuda Pro’s controls are much like what you’d discover in every other premium gaming headset. Below the mute button on the left ear-cup you’ll discover a quantity wheel and energy button in addition to an influence port for charging.
The Barracuda Pro comes with a big hardtop carrying case with well-defined headphone grooves. This does an honest job in stopping the telephones from bumping round inside your satchel or backpack.
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In the middle of the case is a pouch with a magnetic clasp that homes all of the supporting paraphernalia: the USB-C-to-USB-A charging cable and USB-A-to-USB-C extender. A miniscule second pouch inside the larger one holds the Barracuda Pro’s USB-C dongle—a pleasant contact that makes shedding it slightly tougher.
Barracuda Pro connectivity choices
Regrettably, the Barracuda Pro lacks a 3.5mm jack for wired connectivity. This denies it the flexibility of the Barracuda X or rivals just like the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless. Still, these headphones do supply quick 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, in addition to the most recent Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity, and you’ll swap between these modes straight away.
The headset can also be suitable with nearly all of your units, together with your PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation consoles, and Android units, saving you the trouble and price of buying a number of headsets. Switching between my PC and Nintendo Switch was a cinch with the provided USB-C-to USB-A adapter. I by no means needed to undergo the rigmarole of checking ports.
Setting up the Barracuda Pro on my PC in Wi-Fi Mode was additionally utterly easy. Once you plug within the dongle, you simply activate the headset and your PC does the remainder. Pairing by way of Bluetooth was equally easy, with the entire course of taking lower than only one minute.
Once related, two faucets of the button on the precise ear-cup switched the gadget between the Razer Hyperspeed Wi-Fi and Bluetooth sign, and this modification was introduced by a useful voice affirmation, so I used to be by no means left questioning.
Razer Barracuda carry case with dongle and USB-C to USB-A adapter
Dominic Bayley
Razer’s Synapse software program
The Barracuda Pro advantages from Razer’s well-polished and easy-to-navigate Synapse app that offers you good management of your headset’s audio output by way of presets. You may also personalize EQ presets, spatial audio profiles, quantity, and mic settings, and swap the Active Noise Cancellation on or off.
Serious players and audiophiles have 4 EQ presets to play with, every one optimized for varied leisure eventualities. There’s one for video games, motion pictures and music, plus a default that does an honest job in all classes. A fifth possibility helps you to tweak as much as 10 EQ bands to create customized profiles for particular video games, tracks or motion pictures.
No pro-grade headset is full with out audio enhancement settings, which Synapse additionally gives. Under the “Enhancement” sub-menu, you possibly can enhance the bass, tweak voice readability, and normalize the audio by utilizing handy slider bars.
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The gadget’s {surround} sound comes courtesy of THX Spatial Audio. In Synapse you have got two choices: an Auto Mode enabling the app to pick out one of the best profile to your media, or a Manual Mode the place you possibly can personally assign your individual profiles. The neatest thing about these profiles is they arrive visually represented as round diagrams wherein you progress dots round to resolve on the directionality of sound.
Razer’s Audio app for Android and iOS places you answerable for the identical EQ presets because the Razer Synapse app, however provides a low-latency Gaming Mode and Do-not-disturb Mode that blocks calls in an effort to maintain enjoying it doesn’t matter what. It’s additionally equally easy to make use of.
Barracuda Pro audio efficiency
The Barracuda X’s 40mm drivers have been changed by bigger 50mm Triforce Bio-cellulose drivers, and so they actually pack a punch. Tones at frequencies beneath 400Hz sounded deep and commanding, particularly in pitch transitions had been the thump of a bass drum kicked in or the beat dropped particularly low.
The headset additionally delivered spectacular mids and highs. These tones had been clear and outlined, filling up my eardrums with a clean timbre, particularly in video games with expressive vocals or guitar, akin to Diablo II: Resurrected or Valheim.
Playing round with the generic media presets proved them to be properly optimized for every media sort. The Game EQ preset cranks up amplitudes within the 250Hz to 8Khz vary so the mids and highs aren’t drowned out by heavy bass notes. The Music EQ preset delivers amplitude peaks for mids and highs in addition to the bass, thereby delivering a richer sound.
Fans of first-person shooters will revel within the THX Spatial Audio Game Mode preset, which works exceptionally nicely, delivering sturdy directionality in FPS titles like Fortnite, Call of Duty: Global Offensive and Battlefield I. This preset emphasizes sounds positioned within the entrance and sides of your participant character, as indicated by dots in an accompanying graphic.
Feeling adventurous in my playtesting, I moved two of the dots to the underside of the spatial diagram to see (nicely, to listen to) what occurred. Back in sport with my new profile lively, the directionality of the sport sound coming from behind my participant character was enhanced in order that I might higher hear footfalls and be extra simply alerted after I was being outflanked.
Dominic Bayley
All in all, THX Spatial Audio was unbelievable, however the Barracuda Pros’s noise-cancellation was considerably much less spectacular. That’s to not say it doesn’t work—on the entire it does an affordable job in retaining out distractions like site visitors noise. Nonetheless, it struggled to forestall higher-pitched seems like voices and birds chirps from leaking in.
Considering the Barracuda Pro’s $249.99 worth level, its ANC isolation ought to have been higher. Still, until you’re truly testing for these sounds, it’s seemingly you gained’t discover an excessive amount of ambient room noise when the gaming will get frantic.
Barracuda Pro microphone efficiency
The Barracuda Pro makes a daring assertion with two beamforming auditory slots as an alternative of an over-the-mouth growth mic, which is a defining characteristic in most gaming headsets as of late. From one viewpoint, this uncommon design makes some sense in that it decreases visible distraction and makes for a compact, ergonomic unit to pack down.
However, the mics’ sound high quality didn’t fairly dwell as much as expectations in recordings, sounding slightly faint and a bit muffled. That’s to not say they gained’t do an honest job on readability. They’re simply not so good as the Barracuda Pro’s predecessor, the Razer Barracuda X.
The backside line
Razer’s $249.99 Barracuda Pro gaming headset sounds terrific in video games and delivers a spatial audio expertise second to none. It additionally comes with twin wi-fi and wired connectivity and a handy USB adapter so that you’re by no means left struggling to attach. However, the absence of a growth mic feels a bit odd in video games and compromises the mics’ sound, and its ANC doesn’t fairly have the stopping energy of some rivals.