Razer Leviathan V2: Multi-Driver PC Gaming Soundbar with Subwoofer – THX Spatial Audio – Compact Design – Chroma RGB – Bluetooth 5.2 – for Desktop/Laptop computer, Smartphones, Tablets & Nintendo Change

Easy Install, Great Sound
No hassle setting it up at all. Sound is very clear. Now I can annoy all my roommates by blasting Game Grumps at super clear, super high quality sound!Also, fits perfect under my monitor.

Mostly Positive
This is a day 1, hour 1 review.The replaced system:A ~13 year old speaker system from Creative that got zapped and crapped out. Dolby 4.1 with a subwoofer and 4 satellite speakers. Due to space constraints, the setup was subwoofer under the computer desk, left speakers roughly 15° from center, right speakers at roughly 30° and 90° from center. I originally purchased a Creative product similar to this, but returned it due to Creative’s packing being pre-opened and missing pieces.The delivery:The unit arrived in its manufacturer’s box, so your neighbors will know that they look forward to you regaling them with your new rainbow spectacled sound system. (Creative places their units in plain cardboard boxing.)The unpacking:Plastic waste: The plastic waste is lower than Creative, who uses styrofoam. Waste included two foam sleeves, one for each half of the unit, on plastic strip to secure cardboard packing to the subwoofer’s bottom, two plastic bags for two extra feet for the speaker unit (more on this below), and two rubber bands (which I guess could be reused). Creative used styrofoam compared to this unit’s preference towards cardboard.The instructions come in the form of a quick installation infographic, as well as a more elaborate instruction booklet. Creative packaged instructions on one of those gigantic map-fold printouts.The installtion:The old system possessed 5 wires (4 speakers, one volume controller) that were able to be fed from the top of the desk to the bottom, and the power fed to the subwoofer.The power to this unit is fed to the speaker system, and the wire had to be fed upwards from the subwoofer to the desktop unit. If power had to be fed from under the desk, I would have had to feed that one upwards, as well. There were, of course, fewer wires, but feeding upwards means more crawling under the desk and gravity working against you, rather than with you. The creative system that I had and would have had both had aux inputs, whereas this unit only has USB and bluetooth. I think I would have preferred an aux input since that remains an unused slot on my computer now, and my usb slots see frequent use and swapping, but I’ll make do. Maybe there will be other benefits. The old system was easier to install, though it used more wires. But I don’t necessarily disagree with the design decisions here.The hardware layout:Extra stuff:The desktop unit comes with two wide legs pre-installed to lift the unit roughly 3/4 inch off the desk. These can slip off to make the unit only sit roughly 1/4 inch off the desk. Also packaged are an extra set of “raised feet” which appear to allow you to angle the unit upwards or downwards – possibly to accommodate other monitor layouts, or if California lift or Texas lift to your speaker system. Since it’s unlikely you’ll be swapping regularly, that does mean 2-4 feet that you likely won’t ever use. Adjustable feet would have been preferable to me, but I recognize that these generally aren’t as reliable.In addition, it came with two power cord connections, one for US, the other I didn’t recognize. Creative’s came with 3. Make your own decision if this is a pro or con to you.The hardware:I thought it was weird for the wire for the subwoofer to come out the bottom, on the side of the speaker. If you face the subwoofer fowards (as opposed to the wall), that’s the side the wire comes out on. I expected this to come out the back of the unit, but after giving it thought, I prefer the wire to come out the bottom since it would seem that it would be impossible to bend the wire connection into the unit farther than it “should” be, compared to, say, shoving the unit against the wall and crimping the cables. As mentioned above, this isn’t a separate wire that you plug in after the fact, it comes out the bottom of the subwoofer.The power cable is a wire-block-wire, with the power cable detachable from the power transformer brick. This is an improvement from the old system, which had a massive brick plugged directly into the UPC, taking up whatever slots it wanted. (The Creative system that I would have had is similar to this setup.)The initial sound:The device requires a several hundred MB download to “properly” use (sigh… why?) and “offers” you spam options (ah… that’s why), as well as advanced… options… to sync with rainbow keyboards and games, and allows you different sound setups for different games. Guess I’m not interested in this, but if it’s your bag, that’s useful to you.The sound was initially jarring – it’s coming from “in front” of me, instead of “around.” This isn’t to lambast the system, but you may experience this, as well, and that’s why. The high notes in the system sounds felt louder than my older system. Firing up VLC and throwing in my music pile and I think I’m overall happier with the sound quality, and will just get over the directionality component.Upon opening my browser to write this review, I noticed that the sound settings for VLC dropped instantly, which was weird, since my browser wasn’t producing any sound. I’ll have to investigate the settings to prevent this, since I don’t like my computer making wrong decisions for what I want to hear.The software:The several hundred MB download I referenced earlier requests that you log in with an e-mail, but this appears to be optional, as there’s a “guest” login. I’m not sure what the use-case for connecting everything you own into the same sound system and having all units having access to the same sound profiles, but if that’s you, that’s what’s offered, here.After “logging in,” you will be greeted by a low-key advertisement for a Razer mouse that’s pervasive to “smart” electronics nowadays.The audio settings provides for a digital audio equalizer, which may help with the high pitched sounds I disliked earlier. In addition, there’s a setting to switch from “stereo” to “thx” quality. The thx instantly sounded better, so it’s weird to me that the unit defaults to stereo, but there’s probably a reason for that. However, the THX settings reduced the “front directionality” aspect I was complaining about, but the sound directionality is still prevalent, but may fade with time.There are “visualizer” sound settings – I’m not sure how much you’re going to fiddle with these beyond the initial setup. You’re probably either going to want solid colors, solid colors that cycle, a rainbow , or a rainbow that cycles. But if you want VLC to have this, your browser to have that, and this, that, and the other game to have the other, the other other, and the other other other setting, that’s there. Playing with the settings, I can definitely appreciate the plethora of options available, as the unit itself could easily contribute to eye fatigue.You might like this system if:You have ears.You want unique settings for all the things.You like reactive sound visualizations reminiscent of digital equalizers for winamp and the like.You might not like this system if:You’re not willing to do at least a little initial fiddling to get better settings than default.You want bass that drives your neighbors insane.You’re going from a true surround sound to an under-monitor layout, and that true surround is important to you.

A step down from the original Leviathan in every aspect
Final Update: After over 7 weeks since opening the ticket and 10 days of silence from support, Razer has basically told me to shove it. They have “raised this concern” and have said “There is no ETA”. They have also closed my ticket. After more than a month of jumping through hoops and providing logs, there’s going to be no RMA, no refund, and no fix from Razer.Update 2: it’s now been 3 weeks, I’m still getting told by Razer support to repeat steps I’ve already said doesn’t work. They’ve now asked me to run test software and provide logs twice now, I guess I’m paying them to be their QA team.Update: it has now been 2 weeks since I reached out to support. They have asked me to repeat the exact same steps I reported to have no effect, and then promptly ghosted me when I pointed that out and asked for a RMA.Where do I even start. Everything from the build quality, sound quality, bugs, and support on this product has been awful. Not only is this a huge step down from the original Leviathan which I’ve owned since its release, it’s hands down the worse Razer product I’ve ever owned in almost a decade. What works on this sound bar stops working when you try to fix the things that don’t work, and the things that don’t work make this sound bar unusable.Build Quality:The v2 sound bar about the same width, shorter, and deeper when compare to the original. It’s also more rectangular in shape. The sub is also a bit larger than the original. At the same time, the v2 is somehow lighter than the original, which makes it feel a bit cheap. You only get a single USB C port on the back for connectivity, no aux, no optical, both of which were available on the original. You also get the same proprietary connector for the sub, with no extension available from either Razer or 3rd parties.Sound Quality:It’s bad, it’s really freaking bad. Out of the box it sounds worse than every other speaker, headphone, and earbud that I have (Leviathan v1, Samsung HW-R450, Bose QC35II, Bose NC700, Sony XM3, XM4, XM5 headphones, Sony XM4 earbuds, Echo Buds, Powerbeats Pro, and Beats Buds). A lot of these are provided through my work as a mobile developer. Worst part is that I figured out the sound quality is trash because Synapse is enabled, the very software the sound bar is designed to work with. Killing Synapse immediately improves the audio quality immensely, but also disables the features I need for the other Razer peripherals I have. Even after fidgeting with the equalizer settings in Synapse for over an hour I cannot get the sound quality to improve to the level of the v1 or with Synapse disabled. The bass is weak and the mids are muddled, and enabling Spatial Audio and/or Center Focus does little to improve the quality.Bugs:Synapse causing awful sound quality isn’t even the worse bug. The firmware/driver for this thing causes awful buzzing and interference for recording and streaming. If you’ve got the Leviathan set as the primary audio output, any audio/video you capture is accompanied by a deafening buzzing sound. This makes the sound bar entirely unusable if you ever intend to record or stream. I’m almost certain it is caused by firmware/driver because it persists regardless of whether Synapse is running or not, and regardless of whether the THX drivers are installed or not. I’ve also been able to reproduce this issue on two Windows machines. The only thing that fixes this issue is to disable Signal Enhancements in the Speaker Properties through Windows’ sound settings, which also disables the Spatial Audio, Center Focus, and Equalizer settings within Synapse.Support:At the time of this writing, I’ve been going back and forth with Razer support a full week now. I’ve provided screen shots, videos, and have had to repeat the issues I’ve experienced multiple times. Support has confused my ticket with one made for a Razer Blade, and has twice asked me to try troubleshooting steps I’ve already tried and reported to not be successful. They are even trying to gaslight me into thinking that disabling Signal Enhancement fixes the issue as if it doesn’t disable ALL of the software features they’re advertising.I would just return the v2, but I no longer have the original packaging since it took me several days to put together my set up after moving. I’ve got the original sitting on my desk, waiting for support to sort out the problems with the v2. Looking around online, there are multiple reports from people facing the same issue as me, so it’s not an isolated problem. If you have no intention of installing Synapse and don’t plan on ever streaming, I think you would avoid most of the issues I’ve ran into, but barring that, this thing has been nothing but a nightmare.

Sonido
Es increíble los bajos , este aparato es brutal

head tracking is amazing. you can feel it

To get a better PC speaker you would need to spend 30% more. As for the complaint about the base. Back firing speakers make the base. Closer to the wall, the bigger the base.I windows go under your audio settings and turn off enhanced audio. You will get better sound quality.Music: It great with things like EDM, Hip Hop and the like. It plays music well at best. It can get muddy on some tracks.Movies: This is an area it shines. Dialog come out clear and easy to hear. Explosions and gun fire sound great. This is an area this sound bar shines for its price range. You would really need to spend 30% more to do better.Video Games: Right in the same range of movies. This speaker shines for all the reasons I listed in movies. Om top of that, it does an ok job of giving you directionallity. I have picked up players moving from left to right. Picking up slight sounds like people sneaking.But there is more: Light immersion for the games supported is a nice touch. The list of games this works with is not huge but it’s a nice touch that I love.Pros:1. For the price you won’t find a better package. If you can spend more, why are you here?2. Nice range and good base but not so deep that it can’t fit apartment living.3. RGB if you love this kind of thing, this is for you.4. Clean build. One wire.5. One button press to switch between last used audio devices. So switching between the sound bar and your headset is easy.6. The app for your phone is really Awsome and that’s a big deal because of the cons below.7. Compact little unit that sounds bigger then it looks.8. Price and value.Cons1. No way to turn off things like the sounds it makes when it turns on and off. There should be some customization.2. Chroma Windows app is a mess. This list of things that makes it suck is a long list. You don’t need it, phone app controls everything from EQ to RGB lights. Just don’t install Chroma.3. Sometimes the mids can get a littlr muddy. Not completely.Conslusion: It’s worth the price point for the quality. It has a fail rate that can happen a year in. Buy the 2 year Amazon warranty. It’s worth the $10. I’m happy with it and after full testing. I’m keeping as part of my gaming rig. Would buy again.