I bought the Razer Tiamat headset a few months ago based on a recommendation from Maximum PC. Before buying them I read all of the comments on Amazon. There were many negative comments and many mentioning configuration changes. I decided to buy them anyway, and I am glad I did. They are expensive at $180, they do require some configuration, but they sound great.
The two things about them I want to go through are my configuration and the issue with hearing buzzing. The buzzing comes from the fact that it uses USB for power. When I plugged it into my PC, I heard definite buzzing when there was no sound. But after I moved them to a powered USB hub, the buzzing was not noticeable. Others have plugged them into a wall jack through USB to eliminate the buzzing.
I have a Sound Blaster X-Fi card so it has all the analog jacks I needed for 7.1 surround sound. The first thing to check before buying these is that you have a 7.1 sound card or sound on the motherboard with all of the jacks you need (front, side, rear, center). Using the Creative Console, I have the following settings:
[Speakers] – 7.1, Bass Settings – Enabled, Crossover Frequency 50 Hz, Subwoofer Gain Enabled.
[EAX Effects] – Enabled, -20 dB, Theater.
[X-Fi CMSS-3D] – Enabled, Surround – Stereo Xpand.
[X-Fi Crystalizer] – Disabled
[Graphic Equalizer] – Disabled
I followed some of the Amazon review settings in the beginning and things sounded good but weird. With my current settings, everything sounds normal and great. I also plugged my 4.1 speakers through the headset, but did run into a problem in one game where I couldn’t hear the dialog. I think it is because I have the sound set to 7.1 and I don’t have the center channel with the speakers. So be careful if you use speakers and they are not 7.1.
Razer also has a lot of information on their Tiamat FAQ page. Use that and Amazon reviewers in case you have problems (and don’t forget my info above). This is the first really expensive headset I have purchased and they sound good and are very comfortable. They actually fit over your ears and I have not had any problems with this. If you have the money and want a nice headset, the Razer Tiamat is worth checking out. Just remember you may need to do a little configuration before they sound great.