Gadgetory

so today we'll be unboxing the laser Banshee I've received a ton of requests to unbox this particular gaming headset this is part of their Starcraft 2 branded line of products thus there's something about calling down the Thunder which is good I suppose when you have a headset thunder would mean bass I guess okay so let's have a look at what Razer has to say for themselves about the features on the back of the box and as always razors boxes are excellent and this one is no exception looks outstanding alright here we go so you've got eight preset EQ settings we've got a PM lighting system which means the more actions per minute the lights change so that's pretty neat we have a circumaural design which just means that they sit around your ears and we have a braided fiber cable which is pretty typical for high-end gaming headsets these days you can control your mic using this here you can use okay extended comfort circumaural design okay that we've covered already you got volume control APM lighting system true-to-life gaming audio which is to be expected for me true to life gaming headset detachable microphone boom as well as a seven-foot lightweight non tangle cord alright I think that's pretty much this is just the same stuff again and it is a USB headset so that's something that I was not aware of looking at the product initially so what that means is that you won't be reliant on the performance of your sound card in order to get the best possible performance out of the banshee so the whole USB headset thing is a bit of a double-edged sword because if you do have a great sound card then you're probably not doing yourself a favor using the USB sound card that's integrated with it but if you don't like if you're gaming on a laptop then it is a huge advantage versus using a lower quality onboard sound system so here we go we've got the product itself we've got some accessories here comes in kind of a neat shaped box which has this in it that's it they accessories so we've got a quick start guide some laser stickers a master guide that's it that's it that's that's easy alright now we take the front of the packaging off we can get out our tangle free cord here and now we have removed the Banshee headset from its packaging so the first thing I like to do with any headset product is put it on see how it feels okay so what stands out to me about this right off the bat is the fact that it is not only circumaural it is circumaural even if you've got huge ears so this should be comfortable and not press on the top of your ears even if you have big ears so you know what what you're seeing here isn't even the full extent of the space inside because you can see even in here so if the talk of your year like right around here is is up in that pocket then it's gonna be quite comfortable so even wearing my earrings I I don't notice any any discomfort from this particular headset it is a little on the heavy side although part of that could be the fact that I do have the 7 foot cord hanging off of it right now there's the gold plated USB connection remember gold plating doesn't help the performance but what it does help is the longevity you'll always have a good connection because gold does allow you to have a better more clean contact surface due to its anti corrosion properties so that's a good thing about gold so let's go through the headset and have a look at what we've got in terms of controls on this guy so first things first let's attach the optional blue mic and figure out where it even attaches here okay so on this side we take off that rubber stopper which now fell and we can go ahead and plug in our boom mic which can be pushed up to the top or it can be pushed down to the bottom it can actually go almost all the way around so that looks like about 270 degrees so I wouldn't recommend using it facing this way because then your left channel is going to be in your and you're right channels gonna be in your left ear and that's not really ideal for gaming especially if you want decent directionality but there that is how it is generally intended to be used you can adjust the positioning of it a little bit so it can sit further or closer to your mouth all right and let's have a look at what we've got in terms of controls on here so we've got lights here lights here lights here lots of lights all over this headset so you'll definitely look pretty cool at whatever LAN you're at playing with your headset and then you got mic volume that's a really cool feature so your mic volume can be adjusted here or muted using the buttons behind your left ear then your headphone volume can be adjusted here or muted using the buttons behind your right ear so personally I find that to be a very cool feature most headsets don't have mic volume control they only have mute so this way you have a quick way if you're in game you don't have to alt tab out go to mumble live and trillo or whatever you're using adjust your mic settings no you can just set it to something relatively high and then adjust as needed according to what the other people who have to listen to you are asking you to do so that's a pretty neat little feature so let's just get a couple shots of what the Banshee looks like when it's installed on the user and last but not least it is of course adjustable so I just want to show you guys the increments that it is adjustable in nice firm clicks here and when I extend it to its full size you can see that it would fit ahead that's quite a bit larger than my own without any difficulty thanks for checking out my unboxing of the Razer Banshee don't forget to subscribe to Linus tech tips from on boxing's reviews and other computer videos