Setup & Software
Getting the BlackShark V2 setup is quite easy, just plug the included USB sound card into an open USB port in your system and plug the 3.5mm audio cable from the headset into it. Windows will automatically detect the sound card and you’ll be good to go. You will also be prompted to install Razer’s Synapse software which you will need to enable some of the features of the headset. Before we get into that the USB sound card will create two audio device in your system (THX Spatial Audio & Razer USB Sound Card), you are going to want to select THX Spatial Audio for your output device and Razer USB Sound Card for your input device if you plan to use the microphone on the headset.
Now if you plan on recording your gameplay with any type of recording software you would think you would select the THX Spatial Audio as your audio source, but you actually select the Razer USB Sound card, even though you have THX Spatial Audio selected as your default audio device. I figured this out when my recordings with Apex Legends did not have any sound in them when I had THX Spatial Audio selected.
Opening up Razer Synapse you should see the Razer USB Sound Card listed in your devices. Clicking into it the first tab is Sound. Here you can mute the headset, change the volume, and set a device to fall back to when the headset is not connected.
The next tab is Mixer. Here you can turn THX Spatial Audio on and off. You have the ability to set THX to auto or manual. The software will detect games and applications you have installed and will let you know if they support THX modes. For each game / application you can select Stereo, Game or Movie modes. If the game supports THX you’ll also be able to select THX Competitive Mode and THX Environmental Mode. You can also preview the different THX modes or create one all your own.
Up next we have Enhancement. Here you can adjust the bass boost, sound normalization, and voice clarity. There is also a full audio equalizer that offers a default, game, movie, music, and custom modes.
The final tab is Mic. Here we can adjust the microphone volume, toggle Mic boost on and off, set a voice gate, preview your microphone, turn volume normalization, vocal clarity, and ambient noise reduction on and off, turn side tone on and off and adjust the sidetone volume, and then finally there is a full microphone equalizer.
