Razer NAILED IT - BlackShark V2 and V2 X Gaming Headset Review

hi good people i'm dmitry i have a bold claim to make i have never liked a razer gaming audio product until now on the review table today we have two new gaming headsets the razer black shark black shark shark black what is it the razer black shark v2 and the razer black shark v2 x the cheaper alternative 99.59 respectively this is a fantastic segment for razer to enter especially because they've done their homework in terms of community feedback in terms of trying to basically see what people need and people want in a proper esports gaming headset and deliver the really interesting part about black shark v2 is that the 99 price segment is fairly saturated we have the hyperx cloud 2 the gsp 300 which is one of my favorites the g pro from logitech the steelseries arctis 5 but i still feel like the black shark v2 is bringing some serious heat into that 99 price category and i'm actually a lot more excited about the v2x because at only 59 this is going to be i think the most popular 59 headset on the market for 10 cheaper the kraken x is absolutely not worth it the v2x baby so in this video let's talk about the build quality comfort sound quality microphone quality and the built-in features inside the usb sound card i hope you enjoy let's begin right after this the z490 phantom gaming itx from asrock is the perfect compact motherboard to pair with your intel 10gen cpu it features an aluminum alloy heatsink with an active fan thunderbolt 3 support and higher quality mosfets to favorite overclocking plus you get 2.5 g lan wi-fi 6 a robust m.2 heatsink and a high quality deck built-in check it out down below alright so first let's cover the design and the v2 obviously follows in the footsteps of the original black shark with the whole aviation theme helicopter headset look alike as you can see they look pretty fantastic on the head low profile design nothing is too wide and then sticking out cool there are a few physical differences between the two headsets and i actually prefer the look of the v2x the cheaper model just because the razer logo is no longer green it's black so we have this whole matte black design plus the v2x has a slightly more coarse texture on the ear cups therefore hiding any finger oils whereas on the v2 it is matte black and we have the razer green logo it looks cool but it does show finger marks easier they both have razor text on top of the headband but the fancy model has additional stitching on the sides they both have memory foam padding but the v2 has different fabric which is supposed to breathe more it's supposed to be this ultra soft fabric but it reminds me a little bit of like the lining of a bathing suit material so it's not exactly super smooth to the touch honestly i prefer the leather material on the cheaper model but because the ear cushions are slightly different it does accumulate heat more on the v2x the really interesting thing about this material is that it is breathable yet it has pretty decent passive noise isolation so it does but out all the background noise just as good as it does on the leather material the one advantage on the v2 aside from having more breathing room is that the lining on the inside is much thicker so if your ears do make contact with that internal wall it will be a lot more comfortable than the v2x which has very thin almost non-existent lining this is the v2x and you can feel the plastic over here now when it comes to build quality my first impressions were mixed first of all the headset is extremely lightweight which is a massive benefit for comfort i can wear this thing for six hours without introducing any pressure points anywhere the headset kind of disappears on your head it's fantastic the v2x is actually even lighter so they disappear even more just when it comes to feeling the build quality that's when it becomes a little bit disappointing not that it's like creaking anywhere but the ear cups are hollow on both models and i don't particularly like the size extension mechanism normally it extends from the headband but here you just kind of ride on these small metal rails on my v2 model the rail system is actually a bit stiff so you can't really have smooth adjustment whereas on the v2x they just feel so much better smooth glide on both sides also this motion on the earcups on my v2 model feels a lot more loose than what i have with the v2x so build quality and feel of this whole frame on the v2x feels much more premium unfortunately than the v2 i guess that's a good thing for the cheaper model but it does show you that there is a variation in build quality from one headset to the other the exposed green cable on each side adds additional razer character but i am worried that this might become the point of failure just because when you extend the headset to its maximum it almost stretches the cable with it i guess the build quality comes with its territory because this is the lightest gaming headset in the 99 space especially when you compare to the g pro the gsp 300 the arctis 5 and the hyperx cloud 2. honestly tell when it's on your head it is extremely comfortable so you might overlook the build quality downfalls let's say but i would be extra cautious and handling this thing over time whereas with my g pro my gsp 300 they've been through a lot and they still feel like they could take a hit both headsets have a volume dial on the right side that is both smooth and there's a midpoint that has a bit of tactility so you kind of know when you are at 50 which is great both headsets have a mic mute switch at the back the cable is non-removable on either but they are different so on the v2 we have a speedflex cable the same found on their mice fantastic light cable that mutes out any cable noise and you can still hear it but it is almost not noticeable while the cable in the v2x is a standard rubber cable but i really like the green i think it ties in with the design nicely but it also has slightly louder cable noise like when it's brushing easter shirt for example the v2x also comes with a green extension cable for the headphone and microphone splitter while the v2 does not finally the microphone is removable on the v2 but it is not on the v2x one really clever element on the microphone is a little icon that's supposed to face your mouth just in case your microphone is rotated in a weird way and uh you're wondering why it doesn't sound good just make sure the microphone icon is facing the correct way so from a feature standpoint the v2 is obviously the more premium model especially because we have the usb sound card included while it is not included on the v2x what razer is trying to achieve here with the black shark v2 headsets is deliver best-in-class microphone quality and best-in-class audio quality as well but i guess they all say that i guess it's time to start talking about audio shall we as soon as i put on the black shark v2 it reminded me of the sound signature that i've gotten so accustomed to on the g pro x headset so very pure natural balanced sound signature which doesn't sound like razer at all i guess it's because i had lowered my expectations you know my other reference point for razer gaming audio is the kraken x that has a completely blown out wind range really harsh high-end and really muddy bass and they fixed all of that with the v2 and the v2x they actually share the same drivers the triforce 50 millimeter drivers but the v2 being the higher end model has titanium something in the drivers as well so there is actually an audible difference between the two headsets but they share the same foundation of being pretty balanced having different earcups on the v2x also makes a difference so the bass is slightly i would say richer or more emphasized on the v2x while the high end is more emphasized on the v2 so it does sound clearer on the treble side really impressive that at 100 volume my ears are not bleeding from harsh distortion from the treble so everything is kind of smooth it's very loud and with the usb sound card at 100 volume it's yeah it's loud i would normally go to about 80 percent to have a more comfortable listening experience and gaming too but i'm still very impressed what you get for 59 on the v2x sound wise i would 100 use this for competitive cs go for escape from tarkov for any environmental genres as well where you just want to be submerged into the audio atmosphere i don't think there's any particular like frequency or part of the sound curve that lacks behind other headsets in this price range so they do sound very similar to the g pro x which is a lot more expensive the gsp 300 has a slightly wider sound stage when you put them on it doesn't feel super closed off like they do expand the sound stage slightly but in terms of bass and the high notes they're pretty similar the sound stage is fairly closed off and that is one of the advantages of the black shark v2 because it has built-in thx spatial audio and actually isn't too bad like it's not your surround sound modes it's more like just slight sound stage expansion given the game's engines and there's like different profiles that you can select on just a few games that are currently available for spatial audio i don't think it detracts from the audio experience in fact i think the opposite it does add a little bit of extra like environmental expansion which doesn't destroy the original frequencies that are there but that is one of the value adds when you go for the higher end black shark v2 versus the v2x so now ladies and gentlemen let's see what this microphone can do and if the hype has been worth it all right let's begin with the black shark v2 this is what you're expected to hear when it's plugged into its own usb sound card with everything set to default it's not bad but you can hear the some compression happening on the higher end when i speak up unfortunately for razer the microphone capsule they're using here is actually really good but the usb sound card is almost a bottleneck for releasing releasing that's not a word unleashing its full potential because the microphone sounds better when it's plugged directly into my computer or a motherboard instead of the usb sound card so this is what the microphone sounds like on the black shark v2 plugged directly into my motherboard by passing the usb sound card all together and you can definitely tell there's more resolution there's better low end pickup and not as much compression happening on a high end so yes this microphone has a lot of potential now we're listening to the 59 black shark v2 x plugged into the same motherboard uh exactly the same settings as the other microphones so they do sound identical and uh yeah this is what you get for 59 another reason why this is a better value because the microphone has a lot of potential it's just not removable but whatever you can you know if if it's bothering you like this you can just go like that boom can't see it no more here's what the gsp 300 sounds like this is 99 headset in terms of actual quality between this and what you just heard with the black shark v2 x they sound very similar nice low end pickup uh clear not as compressed as what you heard with the usb card from the v2 however the v2x microphone is slightly more sensitive than this one therefore you don't need to boost it and gain and uh yeah i would say the 59 microphone sounds actually better than this guy this is what the logitech g pro headset sounds like so this is the logitech pro x but i'm not using the usb dongle i'm going directly into my motherboard so you can expect the same quality if you choose to go with the 99 version of the g pro headset it is slightly more sensitive than the black shark v2 uh microphone but in terms of quality let me know which one sounded best to your ears so now the microphone test is done the usb sound card has many extra features for both microphone and the sound quality of the audio let's check it out so now that we're inside razer synapse let's see what settings we have for the usb sound card the first thing you'll notice is that there's action recommended and then it's because it wants to select the thx spatial audio as your default source instead of the usb sound card so this is something to keep in mind i keep it on the razer usb sound card when i want stereo and switch to spatial audio when i do one that's surround mode without needing to go back out and enter the razer snaps by itself so that's kind of handy let's go into the mic settings and here we have lots to play around with not only do we have microphone gain sensitivity if i want to lower it and then increase some some of the other settings we have microphone boost as well but microphone sensitivity so here this is basically your noise gate going to really low it will try to isolate all the background noise and will only pick up my voice if i'm loud enough we have volume normalization so if you're speaking quietly like here so speaking quietly and if i'm speaking really loud like i'm really angry at the monitor it should to try to normalize the balance vocal clarity this is what it sounds like at the 100 this is what sounds like at low i keep it disabled and we have ambient noise reduction so it does compress your voice a little bit but if i'm tapping on my desk for example right now you most likely won't be able to hear i do appreciate side tone which is in real time without any latency and you can control the volume for that and we have a bunch of microphone equalizer settings i like the broadcast quality we have the conference one we have a custom as well we can tinker with each setting if we go into enhancements so this is your sound profile you can increase the bass i find kind of weird that we have sound normalization and vocal clarity when it comes to the audio quality that's coming into your headset i guess if you're like listening to a conference call you want to hear the voices clearly and we also have different audio equalizers kind of basic stuff and you can create your own as well finally going into the mixer setting i keep everything on auto just because i find it to actually do a good job in terms of expanding the environment uh in the game mode or movie mode from like watching some youtube stuff but if you go into manual you can change which output goes into which application so like i mentioned earlier the whole thx spatial audio isn't a gimmick it's a better implementation or like a slightly less aggressive implementation of surround sound audio and the engineers at thx create specific profiles per game based on the materials based on the game world etc in my gaming it didn't take away from the experience which is a positive which normally happens when you enable surround sound when it's not properly implemented but with spatial audio it's like a slight expansion of your sound stage without destroying all the details so for my concluding thoughts i feel like razer is going to be very popular with the black shark v2 headsets with the v2 x more so just because it's 59 it has the same microphone basically the same audio quality and i would say even better build quality than the v2 the only reason to buy the v2 is that if you want that usb sound card dongle and all types of flexibility on the eq for the microphone and for the sound quality although to be honest i find the microphone quality to be worse when you use the usb dongle even though you have all types of presets and different ambient noise reductions and etc still for 99 i think the audio quality has met my expectations of what i was expecting for a brand new 2020 redesigned community feedback taken gaming headset from razer and i am completely blown away by the black shark v2x this is the budget headset to beat in the 2020s maybe even 21. we'll see all right guys i'm dimitri thanks so much for watching check out this other relevant content over here subscribe for more i'll talk to you in the next video

Channel: Hardware Canucks

Views: 510,998

Rating: 4.9459543 out of 5

Keywords: razer blackshark v2, razer, gaming headset 2020, best gaming headset 2020, razer blackshark review, best gaming headset under 100, razer headset, gaming headset, mic test, 7.1 surround sound headset, blackshark v2 x review, razer blackshark v2 x, best budget gaming headset 2020, hardwarecanucks, hardware canucks

Id: DUyT-V7hP_c

Length: 15min 30sec (930 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 30 2020