Razer BlackShark V2 HyperSpeed Wireless  Headphones Review

The Razer BlackShark V2 HyperSpeed are gaming headphones and aren't really designed with sports and fitness in mind. They're bulky, and their boom mic can't be detached for a more streamlined design, making it easy to jostle them off your head during a tough run or workout. They also lack an IP rating for water resistance, though that's to be expected from over-ear gaming headphones.

The Razer BlackShark V2 HyperSpeed are okay for commuting and travel, and have a few drawbacks inherent to their design. They have a bulky design, especially due to their non-detachable boom microphone, and they lack a carrying case to protect them on the go. They also don't block out bass-range noise like the rumble of bus and plane engines, so you'll hear a lot of your environment. On the upside, they have a comfortable fit suitable for long listening sessions, and their continuous battery life is pretty long, so you don't need to worry about recharging them often. While their Bluetooth connection is handy, they don't work via analog, making them incompatible with most in-flight entertainment systems.

The Razer BlackShark V2 HyperSpeed are decent for office use. They come with a wireless USB dongle that you can use with your PC, and they support Bluetooth, allowing you to stay connected to your smartphone simultaneously. Their comfortable design allows you to wear them for extended sessions, and their boom mic is great for making calls. They don't leak much audio at high volumes, but they can't isolate you from sounds like chatty coworkers well, so it's easy to be distracted by the world around you. Luckily, their continuous battery life is long enough that you won't need to charge it every day or every other day.

The Razer BlackShark V2 HyperSpeed are good for wired gaming. You'll have full audio and mic compatibility with PCs and PlayStation consoles using their USB cable. Their boom mic is the stand-out for gaming, though. It ensures your voice is clear and easy to follow, even in noisy environments, although it still allows some background noise to pass through, albeit quietly. Although their frequency response is quite bright, making dialogue and instruments sound harsh, you can adjust their sound using their companion software's graphic EQ and presets. That said, if your hair is thick or if you wear glasses, these can cause the already underemphasized bass to sound even weaker by breaking the headset's over-ear seal.

The Razer BlackShark V2 HyperSpeed have very good audio reproduction accuracy. They perform great in objective metrics like harmonic distortion and stereo mismatch, rendering audio without timbral coloration and positionally accurate. Regardless, the headphones' bright sound signature departs from typical gaming headsets as they have a relatively underemphasized bass response, which can lead to explosions sounding anemic and unimpactful. Meanwhile, peaky fluctuations in the treble may render dialogue or metallic effects harsh or piercing. Although the headphones' over-ear design also allows for pinna interaction, they don't produce the same spatial cues as our benchmark speaker setup.

The Razer BlackShark V2 HyperSpeed have disappointing noise isolation performance. While they're closed-back headphones, they lack an ANC system and don't do much against low-frequency noise like the rumble of thunder on a stormy night. On the bright side, they don't leak much audio at higher volumes, so you likely won't distract someone sitting nearby with your game audio.

The Razer BlackShark V2 HyperSpeed have a great mic system. Your voice captured by the microphone sounds natural and comprehensible while remaining audible above even loud sustained noise. However, the mic doesn't remove background noise from what it captures; people on call with you will simply hear a quieter version of what's happening in your vicinity.

The Razer BlackShark V2 HyperSpeed have poor frequency response consistency in some cases. Most individuals can expect their listening experience to align with our frequency response measurements, even between wearings. However, if you wear glasses or have physical features that interrupt the headphones' earpad seal, your listening experience will lack thump and rumble due to significantly reduced low-frequency audio delivery.