Versatile Sound Bar for Gamers
As a gaming-focused company, Razer has always focused their audio offerings to headphones. They tried doing portable mini-speakers with the Razer Ferox but it didn’t really fly off the shelves. Razer did get a lot of attention though when they announced the Razer Leviathan 5.1 Channel Surround Sound Bar October last year. We’ve been waiting to get our hands on one and finally we were able to take one home last week when we spotted it for sale at DataBlitz in Greenhills (Php9,000 if you pay cash).
Razer Leviathan Spec Sheet
Sound bar specs
- Total power output : 30W (15W x 2RMS)
- Full range drivers : 2 x 2.5” / 63.5mm
- Tweeter drivers : 2 x 0.74” / 19 mm
- Impedance : 8?
- Frequency response rate : 180Hz – 20KHz
- Approximate weight : 4.4lbs / 2Kg
Subwoofer specs
- Type : Passive
- Total power output : 30W RMS
- Full range drivers : 5.25” / 133mm
- Impedance : 8?
- Frequency response rate : 20Hz – 180Hz
- Approximate weight : 5.1lbs / 2.35Kg
We’ll be doing a full review in a couple of weeks but for now we’d like to share with you guys our unboxing and initial impressions.
What’s Inside the Box?
The Razer Leviathan is the first product by Razer that ships in just a brown box. We were a bit underwhelmed considering how ridiculously epic and awesome the packaging was for the Razer Blade. Anyway, we took our trusty cutter, sliced through the adhesive tape at the top, and popped open the box. There were 4 main things inside it. There’s usual letter from the Razer CEO, the subwoofer, the actual sound bar, and a black rectangular carton box.
Inside the black box were the usual Razer extras: manuals and stickers. They also put two sets of stands for the Sound Bar which lets you tilt it in 3 ways (0?,15?,18?) for optimal sound output. It also came with optical and standard audio cables.
For the Sound Bar we got it in a black rectangular pouch. This is pretty nifty since you can store it and bring it out when you want to bring the Leviathan with you.
Stunning Hardware Design as Always
Through the years Razer has proven time and again that they know what gamers want. The Razer Leviathan is solid proof of that. The design of this thing screams “EPIC”. It’s slick, sezzy, and yet it still reeks of power. Up front we have the main speakers (4 finely tuned drivers) which is actually made by Dolby. These are Dolby’s award-winning virtual speakers. The technology here is pretty slick as it digitally converts audio from your source to full-range 5.1 true-to-life surround sound. This is actually perfect for gaming but I’ll get to that in a while.
In terms of size, the Leviathan is smaller compared to a lot of your typical home theater sound bars. From what we can tell, Razer really designed this more for desktop use more than in an home entertainment set-up. It can definitely work in your living room but there are better alternatives at the same price point from brands like JBL and Harman Kardon. Being smaller though has clear advantages. You can actually bring this with you if you want to. Good luck doing that with your usual gigantic sound bar.
The Razer logo is proudly emblazoned front and center. We love how the light bounces off it, hehe.
If you turn this around and look at the back we have the standard 3.5mm audio jack and the optical connection port. At the bottom we have the interchangeable stands which allows you to perfectly adjust the Sound Bar for the best audio experience. If you have sharp eyes you’ll also notice that Razer left a small space at the bottom just below the Razer logo. That’s so you can have a wire pass beneath it without it propping up the Sound Bar in an unbalanced manner.
At the top we have the control panel. This includes volume, connection, mute, sound equalizer settings, and bluetooth pairing. There are 3 preset sound settings that you can cycle through: gaming, movies, and music. The setting appears on a small screen beside the power button. There’s also an NFC plate on the upper right panel of the Sound Bar. You can just tap any NFC enabled phone to it to automatically pair via Bluetooth. Razer definitely went all out with the connectivity options with this one.
The subwoofer is pretty straight forward. It just has one cable coming out which connects to the back of the Sound Bar with the rest of the I/O ports.
Initial Impressions on Sound Quality
The Razer Leviathan is versatile because of the various connectivity options but it truly shines the best in gaming. The 5.1 digital surround sound together with the punchy bass of the subwoofer makes for intense and immersive gaming sessions. We’ve logged in around 15 hours already on Dragon Age: Inquisition and the Leviathan captures everything perfectly.
We’ll tackle this more in detail during the full review after we abuse this thoroughly, hehe.
Full Review Coming Soon!
As far as initial impressions go, we’re satisfied with the Razer Leviathan. We’ve been using it more for desktop gaming more than anything else but in our review we’ll also try it on our home theater set-up. We’ll also actually try to bring this with us just to test if it’s really portable (lol).
Check back in a few days for the full review.
If you guys can’t wait and you want to buy one already, Data Blitz is carrying them for Php9,000 (Cash). There was still 1 unit left at Data Blitz Greenhills. Not sure about the other branches anymore. You might want to check by calling before you make the trip just so you don’t waste gas/commute money, hehe.