There’s a long-waged battle between audiophiles who tuck their ears smugly into Sennheiser earcups, and gamers who prefer enormous, foamy headsets with mic stalks protruding from them. Razer has boldly attempted to please both camps with their Electra headphones, but will this green monstrosity suit everybody, or nobody? Let’s find out.

Design and build quality

The Electra’s have a pretty bold colour scheme, with a bright green headband, green cable and a green splash inside the earcups, but they’ve actually pulled it off well. It’s just enough colour to make a statement without looking absurd, and I found myself growing more and more fond of it. However, it should be noted that the Electra is available in all black for the boring.

This is a pretty bulky set of headphones, with large leatherette-covered foam earcups protruding from sturdy plastic holders. This means that the cups themselves can pivot freely, allowing them to sit comfortably on your head without a lot of fiddling. They’re extremely comfortable too, and even after long sessions my ears didn’t feel sore or tender at all, which is a common problem for large headphones such as these.

The plastic parts of the earpieces are angular, with sharp edges and gradients, while the protruding earcups are a smooth, rounded shape. Razer manages to pull off the contrast well – this is a good-looking set of earphones if you don’t mind the size.
The Electra is bundled with nothing but two separate cables – one with an in-line microphone and one without. The microphone cable is a very basic thing, with no clips or in-line controls – it’s literally just a cable with a small mic in it. In spite of that, the green rubber is thick and feels like very good quality, so these are unlikely to split or wear out easily.

Audio quality

In game, the headphones were great. While they lacked the full “5.1 surround” effect offered by some of the competition, you could still track down approaching enemies by their footsteps. Gunfire was crisp and realistic, and ambient noise was clear and easy to detect. The impressive sound quality really upped the level of immersion in-game, and you couldn’t ask for a much better gaming performance from your headphones.
For more rigorous testing, the headphones were put through their paces on Audiocheck.net. These benchmarks reveal a lot about the quality of the headphones and the sound they produce – for a full explanation on each test, check out Audiocheck.net.

The test results are very impressive for a set of gaming headphones, and it would appear that Razer have done well in their attempt to please both audiophiles and gamers alike. While another set of headphones were forced to their knees by the Sennheisers, the Electras performed a fair bit better than the previously reviewed Razer Carcharias.

The most notable difference was in music, where Derrick Cramer awarded the Carcharias’ a middling score of 65, the Electras fared a lot better on this front, providing a very high quality music experience.

It bears repeating that these tests are not 100% objective, as hearing ability may differ from person to person. This makes the test results informative, but not definitive.

Conclusion

The Razer Electra headphones are a great pickup for gaming enthusiasts who put a lot of stock into audio quality.

The Electras come in at an RRP of R599, a full R200 cheaper than the Razer Carcharias. You’ll be giving up gaming features such as braided cables, in-line controls and a retractable stalk mic, but you’ll be getting better audio quality in the bargain.
It all comes down to what’s more important to you, but at R599 it’s difficult not to recommend these.

Pros
•    Great audio quality
•    Solid, sturdy and comfortable
•    Value for money

Cons
•    No 5.1 surround
•    No in-line controls
•    In-line mic only
•    May be a little bulky for some

Related Articles

Razer Megalodon review

CM Storm Sonuz gaming headphones review

Technology gamers don’t need

Hardware gamers do need

Razer Carcharias gaming headset review