RAZER NARI ULTIMATE
When music moves you—literally
WHAT WE PERCEIVE as “normal” is something society instills in us from a very early age. We can comprehend a table as being a table because that’s what we’re told it is. It is, essentially, just four sticks of wood at the corners, with a flat piece on top. It could be a chair, bed, toilet, statue, art, but we’ve been taught from childhood to recognize it as a table. Using it as anything else would be odd. The problem with that notion is that it stifles creativity. It doesn’t allow for thinking outside the box.
All design seems to stem from that principle. You take something we know, and change it to make it better, but only so far as it doesn’t exceed the original parameters of its classification. It might be a round table, with better hinges, and a nice finish, but it’s still a table.
This is why innovation is such a slow process. Due to the way a capitalist market works, companies tend to hedge their bets. It’s far better to lie on the side of caution with predictable profit growth than venture out into the unknown with a product that might not sell because it tries something different. Think about it: All the big innovations over the years have typically come from small start-ups with massive ideas.
It’s a particular problem in the world of peripheral design. Because no one is willing to challenge what a peripheral can be, all changes are typically iterative. Slight alterations in style, improvements in technology, lighter, thinner—you get the picture. Small companies pioneer a new design, it catches on, becomes successful, then the big companies follow suit two or three years later. RGB LEDs, optical sensors, mechanical switches, USB C, wireless charging….
Why this massive preamble? Because of what Razer has done here—what we’re trying to say is: “You need to give them a chance before you judge them.” The Razer Nari Ultimates are a pair of headphones with haptic feedback built into each earcup. Powered by Lofelt, the vibration motors dynamically adjust depending on the amount of bass being pumped through the drivers. It works seamlessly across multiple devices, via USB, analog, and wirelessly, and without any proprietary software.
LOBETROTTERS
It’s certainly different. It’s quite strange to have your ears vibrated. Depending on the size of your lobes, you may find it vibrates around them, too. In game, it’s a welcome touch—the sound of your spells ricocheting off mobs, or bullets firing from your rifle as you lay into some zombies, makes for a surreal experience.
Music and entertainment are in a similar boat—although, more dependent on the song in question, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, sometimes it’s just annoying. Overall, sound quality is solid and the soundstage is rich, with plenty of mids and just enough highs to keep things well rounded, and the bottom end isn’t too overly saturated either.
We love what Razer is doing here; trying to innovate in this market is difficult and definitely risky. The vibration drivers are interesting and fun at first—however, we’re concerned that those vibrations may become a nuisance over time, rather than something you enjoy, and with no way of turning them off (Razer Synapse option, please), it does make us wonder whether the $200 investment is worth it in the long run.
The Nari Ultimates are well rounded, clean, comfortable, and impressive, so far as innovation goes. However, the biggest limiting factor is those vibration drivers. We understand the desire to just have them work, without any proprietary software control, but the inclusion of even just an on-device button to enable and disable them would’ve been welcome. Razer, we like what you’re doing here—it’s an intriguing concept— but we need iteration two before we can really recommend it.