The world of spatial in games may come to PCs through a single speaker, but it seems you’re not getting everything in 3D sound.
Sound bars have become the logical place for TV owners to quickly upgrade their sound, mostly because it’s so easy to do. Grab a soundbar, plug it in and your TV will often get a better soundstage to work with, which depending on the feature set can sound like there’s more going on around you.
It hasn’t always been this way in the world of computers, but soundbars are gradually starting to paint a different picture there too.
Many will tolerate the sound of their computer, although depending on the computer you have, it may not be necessary to “endure” anything. The speakers on many a desktop and laptop are great, and you only need to look at the sound on the M1 iMac to see what we’re talking about.
But not everyone has that, and if your computer’s sound isn’t great and you usually plug in headphones to make things better, a soundbar can help. Just like in the world of TVs, it’s one speaker that can be added to make everything easier and better, and it can even give you a burst of 3D sound depending on the feature.
In Razer’s latest desktop soundbar, that seems to be pretty much the focus, with the Leviathan V2 packing in the technology to amplify the sound on the desktop, while offering a little more.
A sequel to the original, the V2 Leviathan brings a good seven speakers, with two full-range drivers, two tweeters, two passive radiators and a downward-firing subwoofer, but packed into a small design.
There’s the option to send to a wired subwoofer if needed, but overall the Leviathan V2 is built to be compact, sitting under a screen, with a combination of technology resulting in a 7.1-style speaker with a degree of spatial sound, thanks to Razer’s purchase of THX years ago.
Razer already has a THX 3D sound driver, but it’s only for Windows, and this is no different, with the company confirming to Pickr that the Leviathan V2’s spatial sound is built for Windows only – sorry Mac users – although other controls systems can use the speaker without being spatial.
It means things like Apple Music playback will miss Atmos spatially when used with a Mac, while Windows has yet to support the functionality. Razer has confirmed that Netflix in Windows can even output spatial audio from the web browser, although the Synapse software emulates spatial audio instead of using the original Atmos feed. That will be some measure of 3D sound, even if the real soundtrack has a real 3D soundtrack.
Out of space, Windows and Mac can be connected to the speaker system via USB for stereo sound, turning the Leviathan V2 into a sound system for your computer, while other devices can transmit their audio wirelessly via Bluetooth, including phones, tablets and even a Nintendo Switch.
Like other Razer devices, you’ll also find more of that colorful RGB lighting that can be controlled with an app, otherwise you should be able to just turn it off if you don’t need extra bright lights on your otherwise clean desk.
We’re not sure what it sounds like. Our guess is that the 3D sound offered by THX in the Leviathan will likely be a psychoacoustic sound, not unlike the experience offered by other small soundbars without upward firing speakers, such as the Sonos Beam Gen 2, something we actually use as a desktop soundbar. However, the idea of packing a 7.1 system into such a small device is intriguing and we’d love to play around with it.
Those interested in it will find the Razer Leviathan V2 in select stores later this year, arriving in Australia for a suggested retail price of $409.95.
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