Fully Adjustable Microphone

Apparently companies such as Razer and Logitech are under the impression that as long as the microphone can move up and down it deserves the term “adjustable.” All it really means is that the microphone can go from “I can’t hear you.” to “Bach’s Nose Symphony #3.” The Razor Barracuda HP-1, the most expensive example, has the most useless microphone of the lot, which doesn’t so much adjust as it does swivel on the jack. The Sonar 5.1 has flexible microphone that is fully adjustable, and if it were any more adjustable it would move in and out of space and time.

In-Line Volume and Mute Control

Here the ball either gets dropped or lost altogether. Gamers need to be able to adjust the volume and mute the microphone. In-game volume levels vary from game-to-game and the only other option is to adjust the system volume, which requires alt-tabbing out of the game and is often a giant system-seizing nightmare.

The only people who don’t need a mute button on their microphone either A: Have no one they need to call “poky” or “sweetums” to when playing with twenty vengefully sarcastic men, B: Never eat when playing (a.k.a Vivaldi’s Crunch, Crunch Fantastico in E Minor), or C: Don’t care if their guild hears the frustrated tide of expletives that occurs when someone pooches the raid straight to hell. In other words, we need a mute button. The Razer Barracuda HP-1 has no mute button, the Logitech Precision mute button is too easily hit causing whole conversations to not actually take place.

The Razer Piranha has a volume dial (which we all know dials are prone to breakage) and a mute switch that doesn’t lock in securely, and the Steelseries 3H doesn’t have in-line control whatsoever. The Sonar 5.1 features an all-button, fully labeled (a feat Razer has yet to master), in-line control that affects the system sound settings rather than throttling analog sound.

Control includes volume up/down, microphone mute, and the unprecedented sound mute which is something I have not hitherto seen in any other product (it may exist, but the fact that I haven’t seen it until now makes it, at the very least, rare).

The mute button also has an indicator light to let you know when you are muted. The power light also blinks when the audio is being engaged by a program. I’m not quite sure how that’s useful, but it doesn’t detract from the package. The clip which attaches the in-line controls to say, your shirt or pants, is very secure via alligator –like teeth which are very appreciated seeing that others in the field have opted for a soft or “useless” clip.

Sound

Sound quality is more-or-less in direct proportion to price. The Razer Barracuda HP-1 and the Sonar 5.1 are in a class of their own in our list of examples. The barracuda does have superior sound quality, but not by a margin that excuses the nearly doubled price. The average ear isn’t going to notice the difference, but for the discerning listener who actually knows what “Impedance” means here is the specifications comparison:

Both feature 5.1 surround support and it functions equally as far as I can tell. The Sonar 5.1 is USB unlike the Barracuda which is HD-DAI or analog depending on whether or not you have the Barracuda AC-1 sound card. As far as the other headsets go, they don’t have a subwoofer.

Seriously, that subwoofer is essential.

I’m not one to say “once you’ve tried blank, you won’t go without it” but I defy you to play Bioshock without the bass and still say “it is equally affable to dabble in Rapture without crazy awesome bass rattling my skull with every stomp of the Big Daddy.” While the subwoofer in both the Barracuda and the Sonar 5.1 are rated the same, the Sonar 5.1 makes it very simple to vibrate the teeth right out of your skull which suffice it to say, is awesome.