Razer Nari Ultimate Wireless Headphones Review

The Razer Nari Ultimate have a sleek and polished look, though they're very bulky headphones. They have large, circular ear cups with thick, dense padding. They have a similar design to the Razer Man O’ War Wireless but look a little more premium overall. They have an all-black design with gunmetal accents and feature the Razer logo with dynamic RGB lighting on the ear cups.

The Razer Nari Ultimate are comfortable headphones for most people. They have large, soft ear cups with lots of thick padding that fit well around the ears. The headband is coated in a more breathable mesh material and has less padding than the ear cups, but is still comfortable. Although they clamp down quite a bit and start to feel tight and heavy after a while, they should be comfortable enough for long gaming sessions. These headphones feature Razer's HyperSense haptic feedback system, which creates vibrations to immerse you in your games. This may get tiring and uncomfortable during long sessions, though it can be easily turned off.

The Razer Nari have disappointing controls, with physical buttons and scroll wheels on each ear cup. The control scheme is easy enough to use once you get the hang of it, but the power and mic muting buttons are very small and a bit challenging to locate at first. The volume and channel mixing dials are easy-to-use and fairly responsive, especially since the channel mixing dial has a notch in the middle to signal when the game and chat audio are at 50/50.

The Razer Nari Ultimate have poor breathability and make your ears warm after wearing them for a while. They're a bit less breathable than typical closed-back over-ear headphones since they fit quite tightly on the head and have thick leatherette pads that block a lot of airflow. This means you may need to take some breaks now and then during long gaming sessions, and they aren't the best option to wear while exercising.

The Razer Nari aren’t very portable headphones and are designed to leave at home with your gaming setup. They're among the largest headphones we have measured so far and while their ear cups swivel, they don't come with a carrying case. Although they don't support Bluetooth and require their transmitter to be used wirelessly, they can be used wired with the included audio cable.

These headphones don't come with a carrying case.

The Razer Nari Ultimate are well-built gaming headphones. They feel much better built than the Razer Man O’ War Wireless. They’re mostly made of dense and good quality plastic, with a metal headband frame that feels solid. However, they’re not very flexible, and the joint where the ear cups rotate feels like a potential weak point. They’re also quite heavy and might break if you drop them. The exposed audio cable shouldn’t be a problem but could see some damage over time.

The Razer Nari Ultimate have poor stability. They have an auto-adjusting headband that is quite comfortable but doesn’t provide enough stability for the headphones to rest securely on your head as it'll readjust itself while you move. The headphones move around a lot when turning or tilting your head, even minimally. Unfortunately, this can be disruptive while gaming since you need to stop what you’re doing to readjust the headphones quite often.

• Razer Nari Ultimate headphones
• Micro-USB charging cable
• 1/8" TRRS cable
• USB dongle (inside headset)
• Manuals

The Razer Nari Ultimate Wireless have a bass-heavy sound profile. It's worth noting that these headphones have poor frequency response consistency and people with glasses or long hair will likely experience their bass response very differently. Therefore, our results are an average of various reseats, and your experience may vary. That being said, they have quite a bit of extra punch on average, though the rest of the ranges are quite well-balanced. This makes these headphones best suited to bass-heavy genres like hip-hop and EDM, or to help bring out explosions and gunshots in video games.

The frequency response consistency of the Razer Nari Ultimate is poor. Their bass delivery is quite inconsistent across our different people, with some people experiencing more bass and others experiencing less. If you have a lot of hair between the headphones and your ear or wear glasses, you may experience a noticeable drop in bass. There’s also a fair amount of inconsistency in the treble range, depending on the position of the headphones. This means that your treble response may change as the headset moves around on your head.

The Razer Nari Ultimate have disappointing bass accuracy. Most of the range is quite over-emphasized which will provide a lot of extra thump and boominess. While this will help bring some warmth and body to gunshots and explosions in video games, it may make some music sound muddy.

It's worth noting that their bass delivery varies noticeably across users, and is sensitive to the quality of fit, seal, and whether you wear glasses. The response here represents the average bass response and your experience may vary.

The mid-range accuracy of these headphones is very good. It follows our target curve quite well while, though the over-emphasized low-mid range may cause some music to sound muddy and cluttered.

The treble accuracy of these headphones is very good. Low treble follows our target curve well, though after that most of the range is recessed, which causes sounds to appear lifeless, dull, and lacking in brightness.

The peaks and dips performance of these headphones are decent. The large peak in high-bass that then falls to be recessed in mid-mids will cause your music to sound very cluttered and muddy. The large peak in mid-treble may make some frequencies sound sharp and piercing.

The imaging performance of the Razer Nari Ultimate is great. The GD graph shows that the entire group delay response is below the audibility threshold, ensuring a tight bass and a transparent treble. Additionally, the left and right drivers of our test unit are well-matched in amplitude, frequency, and phase. This is important for the accurate localization and placement of objects (voices, instruments, video game effects) in the stereo field. However, it's worth noting that these results are only valid for our unit, and yours may perform differently.

The passive soundstage of the Razer Nari Ultimate is mediocre. The PRTF graph shows a decent amount of activation and interaction with the pinna. Due to their closed-back design, their soundstage appears to be located inside the listener's head, rather than being very speaker-like.

These headphones have a virtual surround feature, though we don't currently test the effectiveness of this. If you're looking for a pair of Razer headphones with a little more customization in this department, the Razer Kraken Ultimate also have a virtual surround feature, but you can adjust its speaker modeling.

The weighted harmonic distortion of these headphones is decent.Even at higher volumes, you shouldn't notice any distortion or compression artifacts.

These are the settings used to test these headphones. Therefore, our results are only valid when using the headphones with these settings.

The Razer Nari Ultimate have poor noise isolation performance. They don’t have active noise cancellation (ANC) and don't produce a tight enough seal to isolate at all in the bass range. This means they will let in all the rumble of airplane and bus engines. They're only passable at reducing background speech and chatter, so they may not be the best option to keep you concentrated in the office. On the upside, they do a great job at reducing the treble range, responsible for sharp “S” and “T” sounds and fan noises like A/C systems.

The Razer Nari Ultimate have mediocre leakage performance. The leakage is relatively full-sounding compared to that of in-ears and earbuds. The overall level of the leakage is just above the noise level of most offices, so those right next to you may hear some of your music at louder volumes.

These gaming headphones have a retractable boom microphone.

The recording quality of the microphone is decent. When using the mic, your voice is detailed and understandable, though it sounds relatively thin, and lacks a bit of airiness and brilliance.

The Razer Nari Ultimate’s boom microphone has great noise handling. Even in noisy environments, your teammates should be able to hear you fairly clearly.

The Razer Nari Ultimate have disappointing battery performance. With haptic feedback set at 50% and RGB lighting on, the headphones last slightly over 5 hours, which is far less than the 8 hours of battery life advertised by Razer. Though we expect better performance with the haptic feedback and RGB lighting disabled. They take nearly three hours to charge, which is sub-par, but fortunately, the Nari provide audio while charging.

The Razer Nari Ultimate are compatible with Razer's excellent Synapse software, which offers many customization features. You can adjust the level of haptic feedback, customize the sound of the headphones with a graphic EQ or through various presets, set the Chroma lighting, and more. The only downside is you need to create an account and register with Razer to use their software.

The Razer Nari Ultimate aren't Bluetooth compatible. If you want a gaming headset with Bluetooth support, check out the SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless or the Turtle Beach Stealth 700.

The Razer Nari Ultimate only have 23ms of latency when used with their USB receiver, which is excellent. This makes them a suitable option for gaming and watching movies since latency below 50ms is barely noticeable for most users.

The Razer Nari Ultimate can be used wired with the included TRRS audio cable; however, they need to be powered on to work. Unfortunately, they don't have USB audio.

These headphones are fully compatible with both PC and PS4. They can be used wirelessly with their USB dongle or wired by plugging them into your PS4 controller or directly into your PC with the included TRRS cable.

These headphones can be used with Xbox One by plugging them directly into your controller with the included TRRS cable.

The Razer Nari Ultimate come with a small USB dongle that has no additional input options and does not charge the headphones. The dongle is compatible with PCs and the PS4 but not the Xbox One. If you’re looking for a gaming headset with a charging dock that’s compatible with the Xbox One, check out the Astro A50.