Wow, no HDMI, no Arc, no Optical, no 3.5mm what a wasted opportunity when considering the price, it's almost as if Razer are stuck in the 1990s. Hard pass for me

jono24776:

Wow, no HDMI, no Arc, no Optical, no 3.5mm what a wasted opportunity when considering the price, it's almost as if Razer are stuck in the 1990s. Hard pass for me

PC only product, for something more versatile there is the SB Katana V2.

I've been extremely out of the loop in regards to speakers as I've relied on my good old Z5500s for ~12+ years. In the eventuality that it will finally die some day (or that I'll upgrade), how do these soundbar setups compare to a good old 5.1? Alone from a convenience POV, I like the idea of not having to drill holes in the wall for the rear speakers and deal with all those cables etc. But what about sound quality and that "spatial" sound?

Solfaur:

I've been extremely out of the loop in regards to speakers as I've relied on my good old Z5500s for ~12+ years. In the eventuality that it will finally die some day (or that I'll upgrade), how do these soundbar setups compare to a good old 5.1? Alone from a convenience POV, I like the idea of not having to drill holes in the wall for the rear speakers and deal with all those cables etc. But what about sound quality and that "spatial" sound?

1) sound quality will be better overall on the Razer. newer DAC, newer (Class D) Amp which is more dynamic (and physically smaller). 2) "spatial" sound will suck compared to the Creative or Logitech 5.1 there is no discrete multi-channel surround, only matrix surround. think 1990's TV sound effect. for me there are a ton of applications for a good sounding (and looking) soundbar/sub @ $250 but only if a more traditional speaker won't fit. i seriously doubt this could beat an Audioengine/Kanto/Edifier speaker pair @ same price despite those not having a sub. OR the Monoprice DT-3 (<$100) PLUS a $150 sub.

Meh, still looks like the Creative Kitana V2 is what im buying on the 30th of this month, want a good 5.1 soundbar system that can use usb or hdmi, and since there similar priced the Creatve seems the best option

Solfaur:

I've been extremely out of the loop in regards to speakers as I've relied on my good old Z5500s for ~12+ years. In the eventuality that it will finally die some day (or that I'll upgrade), how do these soundbar setups compare to a good old 5.1? Alone from a convenience POV, I like the idea of not having to drill holes in the wall for the rear speakers and deal with all those cables etc. But what about sound quality and that "spatial" sound?

No. There is nothing better. Z5500s go for 1300 now for a reason. Ive tried everything regarding sound on PC. The best is Z5500 with DDL or DTS-connect. This soundbar is not even close to being in the same league. PS: Do not buy into the "spatial" sound crap either. There is no real time Dolby Atmos encoder. *The PC sound market is dead. Everybody is using motherboard sound with software audio solutions, and that is their only frame of reference nowadays. They buy software... for better sound. Think about that.

[QUOTE="TimmyP, post: 6027767, member: 58371 *The PC sound market is dead. Everybody is using motherboard sound with software audio solutions, and that is their only frame of reference nowadays. They buy software... for better sound. Think about that. nope, not at all. the PC sound market buys DACs, which are in every way superior to both mobo solutions and the ancient DAC and amplification that both Creative and logitech use. i totally agree the Z5500 wipes the floor in surround settings. music is different, but the Z5500 fits the use of a compact surround system for games and video. what i mean is if you spent the same dollars for a 2 channel or 2.1 vs the Z5500 you would hear the difference in music right away because you cannot make something from nothing...those other three channels have to split the freight. there are soundbars that tick "all of the above" and improve on the Z5500... but they start at 2x the price of this Razer Leviathan V2. and even then you have to choose style vs. substance. the very best soundbars for substance first are the Sony (5.1), JBL (9.1) and the Nakamichi (5.2) both have all the latest codec and actual Dolby Atmos which is the lord and master of "spatial sound" as it decodes from the soundtrack instead of a mix-down emulator. the very best soundbars for "ooo look at me now" living rooms don't have Dolby Atmos as they're for audiophiles with fat wallets...the effect channels (Atmos/rear) are hidden. the best soundbar for the money is the LG SP8YA market price under $400 (MSRP $799) it is true Atmos and DTS:X, has Dolby Vision /HDR pass-through on the HDMI, streams high res audio, and what makes it musical is that the DAC/amplification has been tuned by Meridian (who invented the DAC category). it's not ugly and would fit a compact space...it would improve on your Z5500 for anything you play on it. and by "improve" i mean greater channel separation, less noise, higher dynamic range, richer and fuller mid-range. the Z5500 may be a touch better in the deep bass but that comes at the expense of background noise. the LG is dead-silent in its amplification and has about 10X less distortion because of the higher quality modern amplification (class D)

I just want to know what the last line of the article means - Hilbert, LOAD"*",8,1. Is that a coded message? lol Error: Hilbert.dll was not found

JOHN30011887:

Meh, still looks like the Creative Kitana V2 is what im buying on the 30th of this month, want a good 5.1 soundbar system that can use usb or hdmi, and since there similar priced the Creatve seems the best option

Katana V2 costs slightly more, the V1 is on pair but has less connections. I would rather buy a good soundbar with Dolby Atmos encoder, but those cost way more and often require additional speakers to deliver propper directional sound.

I've had my Harman Kardon Soundsticks III for over 7 years and they still sound as good as the day i bought them secondhand on ebay for £85... no reason to change.

I owned the original Leviathan and gave it away after a while. It had a fatal flaw - uncontrollable auto power-off. After 15, or was it 20, minutes of inactivity or no sound, it would power off and you would have to manually power it back on. For a while, because I was using my PC's alarm, I would play a 1hz sound file which you could barely hear to keep it on for my alarms to go off on PC. There was no way to configure this time or disable auto power off. This single, fatal flaw is why the original failed despite the awesome sound and form factor. I couldn't find anything about this in the review or see any setting for it in the screenshots. Hilbert, did you happen to know if this condition exists with v2?

here's what I say to anyone who says is interested in a "pc" speaker system DON'T I wasted 10 years with a logitech 2.1 setup and slowly but surely stop listening to it in favor of my headphones, and then I saw someone talk about "studio monitors" me : "what now ? monitors ? googles quickly....oh damn they never show up on tech webshops because they are in the pro-audio category" bought Rokit RP5 G4 after listening to youtube videos (with my good headphones connected to a soundblaster Zxr pcie card) installation was a pain had to buy many cables/adapters + a noise destroyer Behringer HD400 otherwise your analog outputs are useless on a powerful gaming rig (300+ watts gpus radiate noise like crazy) and the equalizer didn't work on my current motherboard back then so I had to download an open software one (which rocks and can do much more like use advanced sound processing plugins) it's called equalizerapo for it to work you should use the configurator -> troubleshooting -> install as sfx experimental (windows also keeps breaking it with automated updates so you'll have to redo this sometimes) I used equalizer apo to tweak the sound to my liking (low frequ boost and a bump around 4000Hz) and.... I spent two days eyes closed just listening to everything I could every style existing pc speakers are cheap gadgets...don't do like me, if you like music but aren't listening to it all day long...it's because the sound quality isn't good enough studio monitors will fix that I'm pissed I wasted so many years with garbage sound as a house deejay but also a movie scores collector edit : they sound great for games, better than any 2.1 system and I also tried them on my TV..the intro of the 1st lost boys movie gave me shivers 😳 but since I watch tv mostly at night it was too loud.,..still for the what 350$ I paid the pair still sound 10x better than soundbars what do I mean by sounding better ? 1st stereo image waaay better than pc speaker and 2nd it sounds like the band or orchestra is behind my 27" monitor and you could swear the singer is just behind it, completely different league

true atmos takes 4.7Gbs per audio track...no thanks and if you buy an atmos soundbar hoping to have more true atmos content online see my 1st line, not happening

kakiharaFRS:

true atmos takes 4.7Gbs per audio track...no thanks and if you buy an atmos soundbar hoping to have more true atmos content online see my 1st line, not happening

Still think that a Sonos or alike bar might sound better than those gaming bars. Plenty of music available in DA too, even true can be compressed.

kakiharaFRS:

here's what I say to anyone who says is interested in a "pc" speaker system DON'T I wasted 10 years with a logitech 2.1 setup and slowly but surely stop listening to it in favor of my headphones, and then I saw someone talk about "studio monitors" me : "what now ? monitors ? googles quickly....oh damn they never show up on tech webshops because they are in the pro-audio category" bought Rokit RP5 G4 after listening to youtube videos (with my good headphones connected to a soundblaster Zxr pcie card) installation was a pain had to buy many cables/adapters + a noise destroyer Behringer HD400 otherwise your analog outputs are useless on a powerful gaming rig (300+ watts gpus radiate noise like crazy) and the equalizer didn't work on my current motherboard back then so I had to download an open software one (which rocks and can do much more like use advanced sound processing plugins) it's called equalizerapo for it to work you should use the configurator -> troubleshooting -> install as sfx experimental (windows also keeps breaking it with automated updates so you'll have to redo this sometimes) I used equalizer apo to tweak the sound to my liking (low frequ boost and a bump around 4000Hz) and.... I spent two days eyes closed just listening to everything I could every style existing pc speakers are cheap gadgets...don't do like me, if you like music but aren't listening to it all day long...it's because the sound quality isn't good enough studio monitors will fix that I'm pissed I wasted so many years with garbage sound as a house deejay but also a movie scores collector edit : they sound great for games, better than any 2.1 system and I also tried them on my TV..the intro of the 1st lost boys movie gave me shivers 😳 but since I watch tv mostly at night it was too loud.,..still for the what 350$ I paid the pair still sound 10x better than soundbars what do I mean by sounding better ? 1st stereo image waaay better than pc speaker and 2nd it sounds like the band or orchestra is behind my 27" monitor and you could swear the singer is just behind it, completely different league

testify! i use studio monitors for each of my systems incl. my den where i'm going 7.2 but it does cost more. but even a lower end product like the Audioengine or Edifier is way beyond "pc speakers".

Gurus, I've been rocking my LGSN9YG soundbar and rears with this PC since 2020. My audio experience has been masterful!!! My Onkyo TX-RZ50 gives a much better experience of course but for portability and a quick setup, LG has delivered the goods. Dolby Atmos, DTS-X, Google Assistant and Alexa in 7.1.2 has been awesome. I was skeptical of soundbars at first but this one and the SN11RG made me a believer. The SN11RG is just so darn long LOL! Both are loud, articulate and powerful. They pair wonderfully with their OLEDS. The Z5500's are indeed legendary. Logitech, Creative and Klipsch has so much history with the PC community. They will always be welcomed to have a place in my home. In regards to the Leviathan, I can see the casual market enjoying this. Soundbars are great if you purchase the right product. A full system still dominates, hands down.

For all those arguing about this stuff, couldn't you just buy a real soundbar? As in, one that's not "GAMING" or made by a mouse manufacturer? Those can come with wireless rear speakers as well. I guess they cost the same as a 3090Ti though, but that's fine? I have one in my living room - it works fine and was easier and less power during use than setting up an amp and speakers and wires and so on. The sub for it is wireless and sits in a corner and sounds fine.

"The Razer Leviathan V2 is a tiny and stylish soundbar" - nuff said PS I miss clicked on this thread, thinking it was "GRAB FOR FREE" 😀 I mean why would any1 buy audio gear made by a gaming gear company is beyond me.

tunejunky:

testify! i use studio monitors for each of my systems incl. my den where i'm going 7.2 but it does cost more. but even a lower end product like the Audioengine or Edifier is way beyond "pc speakers".

Same here, I use a set of Yamaha HS7's with a rack unit audio interface for everything with my PC, no real surround though, only spatial/virtual for gaming. In my living room I got a full surround setup with some really large speakers.

The Goose:

I've had my Harman Kardon Soundsticks III for over 7 years and they still sound as good as the day i bought them secondhand on ebay for £85... no reason to change.

Go listen to a decent 7.1 home theater system + AV receiver and you will want that sound for your PC. 😉