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 Electronics : Razer Barracuda AC-1 Gaming Sound Card |
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Rating:  - Great soundcard, no signed driver for Vista 64 bit
The card has awesome sound. Hearing range extender should be considered a cheat and banned in multiplayer games (I still use it though, hehe)
The driver doesn't load in Vista unless I press F8 during boot and turn off Driver Signing Enforcement. I'd give the card 5 stars if they had it resolved.
Rating:  - No More Snap, Crackle, Pop...
I bought this card for my husband [gamer] because the crackling from his Audigy Platinum (if that's right) was driving me up the wall; but he was dealing with it. After he installed this Razer I don't think I've seen him happier and rarely a night has passed he didn't have his gaming headphones on (not the Razer brand supported by this card) playing his FEAR, Half-Life 2 and NWN2. I really pulled through on this purchase, he's so happy. We tried the new X-fi, but it too was crackling like mad too so I just couldn't bear it anymore. This card is perfect. He plays his music loud now and it sounds so much better without the snap, crackle, pop. He's even happy that it takes the work off of the processor, whatever that means. Either way, he's happy, I'm happy and I'm a big fan of Razer for taking the Audigy crackling out of my home. I can sit at my computer while he sits at his in peace now. I recommend this to any gamer or music fan because this card sounds great. I even use his computer while I clean the house and turn it up a good bit; it's crystal clear, has no distortion and really makes those speakers of his shine...no more Audigy in this house...period.
Rating:  - Razer - what's up with this card - ever heard of driver updates?
I own a Razer mouse, keyboard, headphones, a mouse pad and finally this audio card. I guess I just love the underdog, or maybe it is their cool product names. But unlike the headphones this card is not top notch. The card itself is fine and the potential for awesome 7.1 sound is there, but the software and drivers have given me nothing but grief. It won't save personal settings as it should, individual speakers settings can mysteriously lock on full high, even when the volume is turned down. The list goes on and on.
Of course I have called and e-mailed Razer and spoke to most of their tech' staff, and I have done the various driver/hardware un-re-installs. But still this card won't function properly in any of my computers. Bad unit? No, I rma'd it and the new unit is the same, a simple case of bad software.
So frankly, this particular Razer product just doesn't cut it. I guess it is back to Creative audio for me.
It is a shame really, because for gaming, the headphones are perhaps the best 7.1 surround sound 'phones that have ever graced my head. I just wish Razer would get of it's lazy butt and update the driver to solve some of these problems. It takes more than pretty lights and a cool logo to keep customers like me loyal. We want good products, reasonable service and killer performance. So if I were you, I would head to Creative, 'cause in this case the "big dawgs" win.
Rating: - The best sound card
Better than an X-Fi. Can't be beat for the price. X-Fi may claim to be the best, but unless you pay the premium for the Elite Pro, Creative slaps on some POS DACs that simply can't produce quality sound. DACs on this card (and the casing) make for much cleaner, higher quality, purer sound. Add the HP-1 headphones, you've got got the best gaming audio set available. The headphones even with the amp turned all the way up (which is loud enough to hear from across a room) have no distortion at all.
Rating: - OK Quality
I'm a gamer, and I listen to music infrequently. I purchased this sound card along with the barracuda Headphones. The sound card was ok quality(way better than my onboard sound for sure). The headphones were terrible though and ended up with 2 defective pairs before I gave up on them. That being the case, the card stinks, as you have to use a dongle off the back of it to use normal 1/8" jacks. The dongle projects out fairly far (about the distance of a monitor/lcd video cable. Because of that and the enclosure I have it in, the cable got a short in it. So I just returned the soundcard, and got a XI-FI Gamer, been happy ever since.
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