A good pair of gaming headphones are key for the ultimate experience, as they are with music and movies. Razer, makers of PC gaming peripherals like mice and keyboards, have released the Razer Moray, a pair of in-hear head phones for games, music and portable devices such as the DS and PSP. While Razer touts it the Moray to deliver “immersive gaming audio or music”, we found it to do anything but.

Razer Moray retails at $40, or $60 with a few adapters. For $40, we expected some decent quality, but we were disappointed right off the beat. While the Moray provides quite a few DBs more than regular head phones (i.e. it’s louder), the sound is extremely hollow. The “extended bass” Razer advertises is nowhere to be found (read: heard). We did some testing with a pair of pretty worn-out Sony head phones, which look a lot like the Razer, and the sound was remarkably better. Only problem is that the Sony head phones retail for $20. In fact, I went as far as comparing the Razer against a pair of cheap Chinese head phones which I bought in Shanghai for $2.50 — and the Razer Moray barely beat them in quality. That’s a big issue for a pair of $40 headphones, no matter how you cut it.

We tried to contact Razer to see whether we had a defective part, but we got no reply from them. For good measure, I went to Best Buy and got an identical pair of Razer Moray’s, to see if the sound was any better, as I might have gotten a pair of defective ones. But no, the sound was just as awful. Luckily I could return the second pair to Best Buy the same day. Whether I tried listening to my iPod, or playing games on it, or gaming on my PC, the sound was just plain awful compared to the $20 Sony head phones, or even the standard ear buds Apple ships with iPods.

The Razer Moray is just a poor product, and to make matters worse, it’s got some of the most frustrating packaging for a product like this. While Razer includes a small carry pouch, interchangable ear-bud sizes and a small adapter, we’d wish they’d leave that stuff out and focus on making a better product. Instead, we recommend using the iPod headphones (they usually retail at $30), which offer a far better sound, despite no noise canceling capabilities. Or the pair of Sony buds we compared with, which you can find here ($20).

The Good:
Includes accessories

The Bad:
Awful sound
Cord is rubbery and will stick to clothes etc.
Feels cheap
Frustrating packaging
Way too expensive for what it delivers

Overall score: 1/10

To contact the author of this article, write to jamexshyde@gmail.com