Razer Nari – The Ultimate Wireless Headset For Gamers

With wireless gaming becoming more and more popular having a good wireless headset is essential for long gaming sessions and great audio quality. Razer is not new to wireless gaming headsets with their previous Man-o-War and Thresher wireless headset delivering good sound quality and comfort but that was not goodenough. Well now after some time Razer has released their new wireless gaming headset range the Nari and these are nice.

So Razer sent over the Nari for me to take a look at which is the middle one of the 3 available Nari headsets. You get the Nari Essential which is the basic none flacy version with a bit downgrade driver but is going for $100. Then the Nari with better drivers, onboard audio controls and RGB which is going for around R2600 on RebelTech here in South Africa or $150. Then lastly the big one the Nari Ultimate which is pretty much the same as the Nari but has Razer’s HyperSense which adds haptic feedback to your audio so you actually feel the sound. Now I dont have these so can’t say exactly how they sound or feel but they will be going for $200. But pretty much everything between the Nari and Nari Ultimate is the same so this can give you the same info about the headsets.

Design

Now straight away you will notice that these are massive headsets, they’re perfect for home use but outside, maybe if you want to look like an astronaut or something. But even being this big they are not too heavy, they weigh around 420 grams which is around 120 grams more than HyperX Clouds. But it is a large wireless headset so I can understand that. The headband resembles the Threasers free form headband adjustment and the aluminum frame. The aluminum frame adds durability for drops and bending and twisting which the Man-O-War did not have. The free form headband does a great job of spreading the weight of the headset over your head and still being soft and comfortable. Clamping force was not bad at all making a good seal around your ears without too much pressure. But  with the headband being free form, you can not adjust the height of the earcups, there not being more clamping force, and because they are large and heavy this did cause the headset to sag a bit lower after a while of use and was very easy to fall off. 

But even though it was a bit too loose for me they were still one of the most comfortable gaming headsets that i have used even after more than 5 hours of gaming.

Comfort

Now as for the earcups they are made from plastic and is able to swivel more than 90 degrees and tilt around 15 degrees. This allows you to rest them comfortably on your neck and still be able to move your head around freely without any obstruction. 

As for the padding the Nari uses thich and large leatherette and cloth foam padding which is coated in a Cooling-Gel Layer that helps keep the cushions cooler, not cold, but so that I didn’t start sweating in this hot african summer. Also being so thich my ears never scratched against the inside of the drivers which made it 10 times more comfortable than most other gaming headsets to me.

Controls

Now as for the onboard controls on the right earcup you get the volume wheel and and the wireless 2.4ghz usb receiver. Then on the left you get the mic mute button, game and chat balance wheel, the power button, the micro USB charging port and finally a 3.5mm jack so you can use the Nari in wired mode. FOr the volume wheel it does lower the volume but does not mute it, for that you will need to do it on your keyboard or in windows or by lowering the balance wheel all the way down, which is a bit dumb.

Sound Quality

Now getting into how this wireless Nari headset sound and honestly its really good. Just like the Ultimate it uses a 50mm driver with Neodymium magnets that delivers a plenty of volume and a good frequency response. Of Course It’s not meant for any high quality sound correction work but for gaming and music it was really good. It is a bit more bass focused like other Razer headsets and you can even add bass boost in the software which is a bit much for me but its an option. But the mid-range and high-end  still comes through nicely. 

The entire Nari Range also features THX Spatial audio that simulates surround sound and does a good job at it. But it’s up to you if you like virtual 7.1 in games, I personally did use it and worked well to hear more sounds around me.

For sounds bleed it wasn’t too bad but if somebody is very close they will be able to hear what you are listening. Sound isolation was also pretty good, you would most likely not hear your mom or wife yelling at you to take out the trash when your gaming.

Now being wireless it does sound really good, perfect for anything you want to use but does sound a bit fuller when running wired, this is most likely because of some compression over wifi. But it is still very good and also with a connection range of around 12 meters depending on the walls between. Like I was able to go outside the room with a double thick brick wall between and it was still sounding good. Just make sure the receiver is not hidden away because then you will drop connection easier.

As for battery life I was able to get around 1 to 2 days of heavy use with the lighting turned off and your possible looking at around a day of heavy use with the lighting on.

Microphone

Getting to the microphone just like most other Razer headsets you get a retractable bendable mic which is great that again you can mute with the mic mute button behind the left ear cup. Sound quality wise its not the greatest but usable. It still has that nasally sound but not as bad as most gaming headset. You can watch the video review to hear exactly how it sounds.. You do also get some enhancements in the software like SideTone so you can hear yourself, mic sensitivity, volume Normalization, ambient noise reduction and vocal clarity.

Finally for the software you can select which applications should use standard stereo or THX surround, enhance the sound with bass boost, sound Normalization and incoming voice clarity. You are also able to apply an EQ, adjust the microphone settings and then lighting wise you can select between Spectrem Cycle, static and breathing. Also you can sync all your Chroma products together for a insync lighting show.

Now the Software does not show battery percentage instead just a few levels and beeps to let you know its getting lower. You are able to adjust the automatic shutdown time between 15-60min when your not using it to save battery

The cool thing also about the Nari is that you can use it with PC of course but also with PS4 and then other consoles and devices but with cables or adaptors.

So finally in conclusion after using the Nari for a few weeks what do I think of it. Well its not perfect but it is really good. Sound quality, comfort, build quality all was good and enjoyed every minute gaming with these. But they are not perfect, like mentioned the free from headband is an issue, if they could just have added a bit of adjustment it would have been a lot better. As for the loose sit im not sure what they could do for that because it might not make it as comfortable if they tighten it up but again it does fall off your head very easily.