Three headphones for indoors: pros and cons of cans that bring music, movies and gaming to life, without annoying the neighbours
A US$999 pair you can plug straight into your smartphone, a US$200 pair meant for gamers that delivers home theatre sound to the ear cups, and a US$2,400 pair that are almost too good – unplug your speakers and put on the cans
Headphones are great for commuting or for exercising in the open air, but there are also models made especially for indoor use so you can enjoy the mind-blowing sounds of a home hi-fi, theatre or gaming system without rocking your – and your neighbour’s – flat.
Razer Tiamat 7.1
The Razer Tiamat 7.1 V2 is a unique pair of headphones billed as the pinnacle of gaming audio immersion. They promise pinpoint positional audio through 7.1 surround sound to give first-person shooter gamers an advantage over the competition.
For the rest of us, the 10 sound drivers that Razer engineered into the headphones – five in each ear cup – is what makes them so interesting. This is almost akin to squeezing your entire home theatre system into a single pair of headphones for unbeatable surround sound.
Hardware and performance
Setting up the Razer Tiamat entails plugging five 3.5mm stereo connectors into a supported sound card – the fifth plug is for the microphone. There is also a USB connector for power, though the combined braided cable thankfully makes the mass of plugs quite manageable.
