Gadgetory

the razor siren what could be so exciting about a microphone you might ask well I wasn't sure either in fact when the press release first hit my inbox I completely ignored it and it wasn't until I received numerous tweets asking when I was going to review it that I went ahead and sent over a sample request so I could evaluate razors expansion into an entirely new category microphones that actually sound good by the way this is the part where I would normally tease an upcoming video but I can't this time and I guess that's all I can really say cooler masters casemod world series is your opportunity to show off your modding skills and win great prizes entries close February 7th 2015 click now to learn more so let's open with the packaging something that I rarely do these days but in this case I feel like it's warranted first in the box we've got some stickers a very long braided mini USB cable and a QuickStart guide which I've asked them to revise since it makes absolutely no mention of installing synapse on the page that appears to have all of the steps and if you don't install synapse then windows seems to install a driver but the microphone just doesn't work a frustrating issue the good news is that if you don't care about adjusting the grand total of two parameters within the software you can uninstall it and use the mic like any other USB audio input next is some of the finest packing foam ever a nice dense soft foam that feels like it would be as much at home in a carrying case as a product box a really nice touch if you're someone like a game broadcaster who might actually travel with it now Razer could have taken this one step further and made the box a carrying case but not this time although who knows maybe siren v2 Razer which leads us to the microphone itself and these guys are good at taking the most mundane things like keyboards mice and now microphones and turning them into industrial artwork I mean what's next webcams actually I better not give them any ideas the surprisingly well-built aluminum stand has a foam covered base and two arms that have large thumb bolts running through them to hold the mic in place but that also allow it a degree of movement to compensate for the height of the user I feel like Razer missed an opportunity to use rubber instead of plastic here for better resistance to desk vibrations but for folks who really care about the best sound quality to go along with the optional pop filter which reduces plosives they've got an optional suspension mounted seseri that'll work with third-party stands alright so Linus you mentioned sound quality are you gonna talk about that at some point yes yes I will it's coming but first let me finish up with the mic body on the bottom you'll find the mini B USB input a threaded socket for third-party stands or the optional pop filter a headphone jack that offers zero latency monitoring something that's great for live broadcasters and a toggle for the eliminated Razer logo on the back on the back under that logo are two dials one for the microphone gain control and the other to alter the pickup pattern of the three fourteen millimeter condenser capsules hidden under the mesh at the top of the mic the options are bi-directional cardioid omnidirectional and stereo and if you're not familiar with any of that terminology razer includes a handy little glossary in their manual that tells you the best pickup pattern for some of the most common applications on the front of the mic is a mute button the monitoring output volume control dial and an OLED screen that displays volume and gain levels according to whatever has been most recently adjusted but now that we've talked for four minutes about what the siren is supposed to be and the box it comes in it's time to answer the real question is it actually any good the answer is yes it's good really good even ah but I was expecting a little bit better not because the siren is until well built and likely very worthy upgrade to the audio recording solution you're using now but because of the design philosophy of this product razer aimed to create a jack-of-all-trades mic here with the adjustable pickup patterns and while its versatility is outstanding i feel like most of the use cases they present for anything but the cardioid configuration are unlikely uses for this product i mean no one will be using it for instrumental recording conference calls and events I mean what does that even mean why would I want a microphone picking up literally everything around it in the middle of an event and if you're conducting interviews you need to mic up each person rather than relying on one mic to capture everything if you want to do things even remotely properly so because of that I wish that Razer had delivered a more specialized product the best cardioid mic baked could build for streaming and voice recording rather than a do everything product because I think it might have been a little better at what I think most people are going to use it for in that case now I don't have a ton of quality microphones to compare it against unfortunately so I could only really compare directly to the editors Keys SL 300 a very similarly priced cardioid only mic but I personally think sounds significantly better close up with that great AM radio sound and from a distance with much better background noise isolation and I guess I can also compare it to the built-in mic on my audio technica ath AG ones it's not a desktop microphone but it's the best on headset mic I've yet encountered and for game streamers anyway it's certainly a viable option so you guys can hear test recordings of a bunch of different configurations in the SoundCloud link below but for the time being here's a couple recordings of the siren at least all razer siren test recordings were done with the cardioid pickup pattern unless otherwise noted my first recording here is a best-case scenario with the siren between my keyboard and body with a double layer pop filter note the significant background noise from other computers in the office and the sound level of typing on the keyboard that's directly behind the computer for reference here's a recording of the siren without the pop filter in the same position this recording was done with the SL 300 microphone in the same configuration basically a best-case scenario for this mic background noise is lower if you listen and here is what background typing sounds like and finally here's the siren positioned off to the side of my monitor less ideal for audio quality but perhaps more convenient for folks who don't want their microphone in the way and now for fun I'm going to switch modes here's omnidirectional with all the background noise in the room and it's full glory and here's stereo with me leaning a little bit to the left and now a little bit to the right so in conclusion while I've rag Don Racer a little bit for the sound of the mic I do have to give credit where credit is due it's a lot better than what most people are using and the versatility is better than both of the other two products that I was able to compare it against while the SL 300 has a minus 10 DB switch and a low-pass filter it doesn't come with on mic control knobs a stand or much more importantly a zero latency real-time monitoring jack and the a tha g1 headset mic is well aside from being expensive attached to a headset something that not everyone wants to be stuck with so I guess at the end of all this the siren ekes out a recommendation not because razors naming scheme is getting any better I mean really guys it looks like you just misspelled the product name but because the mic looks like a solid bet to me right now but then again who knows how I'll feel when blue sends over their competitor so stay tuned for that review but before we can do any of that a word from our one of our most fun sponsors cheero now normal Ichiro is promoting some kind of awesome deal on one of their portable battery banks or something like that but you guys have bought so many of these so far that they figured they'd offer an adorable accessory to go with what you've already got this time this is the danboard USB cable the concept here not exactly groundbreaking you use it to charge or sync your Android phone or tablet or anything else that uses a microUSB connector but the difference is that it's got an adorable little Dan board themed design that includes light-up eyes on the a type connector end and the pricing is very reasonable for a designer USB cable at around 10 bucks for up to a 3-foot length a neat little gift idea and they didn't send us a of these unfortunately ger but their five pack of flexible magnetic cable clips are a solid little add-on for any cable management enthusiast and can be used to store money or other loose papers as well so thanks cheerio for sponsoring today's episode and oh yeah I guess I should also probably mention we have links in the video description to Amazon where you can check out Giro's danboard cables thanks to you guys for watching don't forget to like this video if you liked it dislike it if you thought it totally sucked leave a comment letting us know if your feelings are more complicated than this and as always you can check out the other link in the video description just support us you can give us a monthly contribution buy a cool t-shirt like this one or change your amazon bookmark to one with our affiliate code so whenever you buy you know sweet adorable USB cables or whatever else it is you buy on Amazon we get a small kickback that kind of thing helps us out a lot thanks again for watching and as always don't forget to subscribe