Razer Carcharias Gaming Headphones and Mic (Refurbished)
Our Take
- USB-powered
- Ideal for Xbox 360
- Good for high-end gaming PC setups with properly shielded USB ports or nice sound cards
- Great as a listening headset with Mac; to also use the mic, you’ll need an adapter
- Lousy for cheap PCs, whose insufficient shielding will make them buzz
- Model: RZ04-00900100
Not recommended for cheap PCs.
We’ve never seen a product with such polarized Amazon reviews: 30% 5-star, 30% 1-star. Not even Fifty Shades of Grey is that divisive. What’s going on there?
Bottom line: if you use a cheap PC, you’re going to have to pay more for headphones.
It seems all the one-star reviews mention a persistent hiss or static. Not the kind of “BUZZ” you want in a tech product LOL!! But anyway, the official Razer Carcharias FAQ confirms that this USB-powered headset can suffer from interference when used with insufficiently shielded USB ports, especially the front-facing USB ports on many low-end PCs.
We tried to check out this buzz for ourselves, but it turns out nobody around here has a cheap PC. The Razer Carcharias actually sounds great on our Macs (although the mic isn’t supported for Mac - you’ll need an adapter like this to use it). And of course it works flawlessly with its natural mate, the Xbox 360. That’s where all those five-star reviews come from.
So, to sum up: because some PC makers are too cheap to spend a few extra cents properly shielding their USB ports, you Mac and Xbox 360 users get a pretty high-end gaming headset for next to nothing. The free market has a funny idea of justice sometimes, huh?
