Founded in 2005 in Hong-Kong, and currently dual-headquartered in San Francisco and Singapore, Razer is a relatively unknown company in consumer electronics but a leading name in accessories for gamers. Backed by institutional investors such as Horizons Ventures, Digital Grid, Intel Capital, IDG-Accel and Temasek, the company has now a global footprint with 9 offices worldwide and apparently is determined to expand even more through acquisitions. Razer acquired THX at the end of 2016, gaining a strong foothold in several consumer electronics and entertainment markets.
Directly related to Razer's core business, the company just announced two new sophisticated headsets for gaming, combining sophisticated features and technology, enriched with the usual tetrahedral shapes and radioactive fluorescent green kitsch elements that apparently are attractive for people who play games. The new Razer headsets, Tiamat 7.1 V2 and Razer Tiamat 2.2 V2, are fine examples of those nausea-inducing aesthetic principles that Razer endorses, in an innovative audio product.
The flagship Razer Tiamat 7.1 V2 is an analog, true 7.1 surround sound PC gaming headset featuring 10 discrete drivers, five per ear cup, creating what the company describes as an "immersive soundstage, essential for pinpoint positional audio and deep gaming immersion." Each ear cup contains a 40 mm subwoofer, 30 mm front (L/R) and center drivers and 20 mm rear and side surround drivers, working together to create accurate directional audio. That's 10 discrete Neodymium magnet drivers on a single headset, with each ear cup containing a large 40 mm Titanium coated 16 ohm diaphragm, two 30 mm, and two 20 mm 32 ohm drivers!
Included with the Razer Tiamat 7.1 V2 is a completely new Audio Control Unit, which allows gamers to set the volume of each audio channel as well as toggle between true 7.1 surround sound and 2.0 stereo audio. The Audio Control Unit also has a pass-through feature, allowing users with external desktop speaker setups to switch between their Razer Tiamat 7.1 V2 and their speakers at the press of a button. The audio unit is USB powered and comes with a 3 m / 9.8 ft. braided fiber cable and features a 3.5 mm jack for microphone, and 8x 3.5 mm audio jacks for everything else.
For in-game communication, the Razer Tiamat 7.1 V2 is equipped with a unidirectional ECM boom microphone which rotates alongside the ear cup when not in use and is optimized for voice, something users will need to scream in the heat of battle or while navigating their starships through the galaxy.
"Today's games use positional audio extensively, so being able to hear which direction footsteps or shots are coming from is crucial to winning," says Min-Liang Tan, Razer co-founder and CEO. "With five drivers per ear-cup, the Razer Tiamat 7.1 V2 gives gamers pinpoint audio accuracy whether they're playing intense FPS matches or just want to lose themselves in massive soundscapes to bring their games to life."
According to Razer, the Razer Tiamat 7.1 V2 headset joins the ever-growing family of "Powered by Razer Chroma" devices, wich basically is a way to "uglify" even more these things with "16.8 million color options and effects", in this case available on the ear cups and Audio Control Unit. Owners of other Razer Chroma enabled devices can sync their Razer Tiamat 7.1 V2 with their existing setup or customize each product individually through Razer Synapse.
Together with the Razer Tiamat 7.1 V2 headset, the company also announced the new Razer Tiamat 2.2 V2 model, exclusively featuring four 50 mm titanium coated diaphragm drivers with neodymium magnets (32 and 16 ohm) - two full-range and two for bass reinforcement - providing gamers "maximum bass impact," and exclusively featuring black-plain non-uglyfied housings. Equipped with an adjustable digital boom microphone, and utilizing an in-line remote with extension/splitter cable for compatibility with multiple devices, the Razer Tiamat 2.2 V2 is described as a versatile cross-platform gaming headset for gamers on PC, Mac, console and mobile.
Both the Razer Tiamat 7.1 V2 and Razer Tiamat 2.2 V2 headsets are now available for everyone that doesn't know how to play a musical instrument or/and is still unable to engage in more rewarding activities with other people, via the company online store and major retailers worldwide for USD $199.99/ Euro 239.99, and USD $129.99/ Euro €139.99, respectively.
www.razerzone.com
