Home : Hardware : Reviews : Razer Mako 2.1 Advanced Desktop Audio System
The Mako's red/white RCA connectors and standard 3.5mm mini-jack (suitable for an MP3 player hookup) allow it compatibility with a television, DVD or Blu-ray player and gaming console in addition to the PC, and we put the system to the test with each. Music playback proved a particular strong suit each time - queueing up Ratatat's "Classics" along with the Foo Fighters, LCD Soundsystem, Kanye West, Chopin and Portishead impressed with every track. Fresh midrange allowed a rich, even tone for any genre; even at its highest setting the steady subwoofer's punctuation rarely blankets the room with too much bass. Our only complaint might be the drop-off of treble and percussion sounds over a distance, but this is mild.
Dropping in the timeless THX-tester benchmark, The Matrix, the Mako did well with movies, too. The system captures crescendos with subtlety, and we'd rank the richness on par with a 5.1 system. Better again, the flexible, relatively mobile three-piece set transitions nicely between your equipment, making the Mako suitable for use during a party or movie-showing regardless of your room's size or shape. Still, sans three other speakers to articulate directional sound, the Mako may not be the preferred platform for games that rely on a direct, intuitive connection with audio to be played, like many first-person shooters. The even distribution of audio allows for a robust, full spectrum of sound for most outputs, but in titles like Call of Duty 4 or Unreal Tournament III, we found the Mako to be less ideal than a comparable gaming headset.
Tracking approaching footsteps, noting the distance and angle of a rocket buzzing by, or the clink of a cooked grenade against the concrete are examples of fine details that infrequently escape Razer's hardware. It's not something we necessarily expect from a binary setup, but it's a point of acknowledgment for gamers that demand speakers that render a combat environment with pinpoint fidelity in order to improve their performance in-game. Outside of PC, the Mako brought Rock Band to life, helping us dust off songs that we thought we'd grown tired of. Grand Theft Auto IV, BioShock, Mass Effect, and NHL 08 were each easier to enjoy on PS3 and the Xbox 360, reinforcing our feelings of the Mako as a versatile device.
