I love headphones, but I’ve been using the same Edelkrone bookshelf speakers on my desk for years since they get the job done and nothing feels compelling enough to warrant swapping them out. That changed with Razer’s Nommo V2 Pro speakers, and this marks a point where I feel as if Razer is really ahead when it comes to audio.
I’ve loved Razer’s THX Spatial Audio in the past, but the Nommo V2 Pros took it to another level that turned me into a true believer.
These are easily the best Razer speakers I’ve ever tested, and if they can get past the $450 asking price, they tick so many boxes that I think both PC gamers and those who just enjoy a nice sound system at their desk will find a lot to love.
Razer Nommo V2 Pro – Design and build quality
Razer has always had an “aesthetic” in their products and the Nommo V2 Pro is no exception. While they’re not ostentatious, they sure feel like overtly modern over a desktop or bookshelf speaker.
Each speaker features a 3.2-inch full-range driver with aluminum phase jacks that Razer says reduce sound reflections inside the speaker, resulting in clearer sound. It can get quite noisy, and Razer says that at max output it’s equivalent to the sound of a train approaching a subway platform. We’ll get to sound quality in the section below, but suffice it to say that I can confirm that these speakers get incredibly loud—louder than you’ll likely need.
Each spoke cylinder is angled and cannot be adjusted from its slightly upward firing direction. That’s fine for me, because the direction they face has them essentially pointed at your ears from the expected position of sitting or standing at a desk; If you can type comfortably, these headphones are ideal.
The right speaker is basically the driving point for the whole setup. The left speaker has a non-removable wire-coiled cable that then connects to the right speaker next to the power input and the USB-C to USB-A cable that runs to your computer (the USB-A side is what plugs into your computer). Razer has done the best it can with the cables but isn’t breaking any new ground with the amount you’ll have to manage; Three cables total on a desktop surface is kind of a lot, but I can’t think of any other way Razer could have handled it.
Nommo V2 Pro comes with a wireless subwoofer. Armed with a 5.5-inch shooting driver that can pump out some serious bass (which we’ll get to later), it pairs instantly with the two main speakers without ever having to configure them. It’s literally plug and play.
As a note, the subwoofer should be located fairly close to the two main speakers; You can’t expect her to stay attached across the room, so be prepared for her to sit on the floor under your desk.
While it’s wireless in the sense that it doesn’t have a cable that connects to any of the main speakers, it does require power, so it does have a power cable that you’ll need to manage. Altogether, that’s a total of three speakers with four cables total. Fortunately, to manage it, Razer provides what it calls a Wireless Controller Pod.
Control in the palm of your hand
This disc dial is about the size of the palm of my hand, about two inches high, and is the speaker’s control center. While you could technically manage the Nommo V2 Pro speakers through your computer’s audio interface or through Razer’s Synapse software, a control pod (powered by two AAA batteries) would be the best and most convenient way to do it.
Rotating the dial (which is basically the top two-thirds of the control pod) controls volume, pressing either once, twice, or three times down on the top of the pod mutes/unmutes, plays/pauses, and skips to a track Next, respectively. A small button on the side of the pod lets you switch between PC mode and Bluetooth mode, or switch between EQ options.
Seeing the light
The Nommo V2 Pro’s speakers are bigger than I expected, but not in a bad way. This means not only are the drivers larger, but there’s also more room for RGB lighting on the back of both speakers.
It wouldn’t be a Razer product without RGB and over the last few headphone products I’ve tested from the company, the Nommo V2 Pro goes above and beyond when it comes to delivering noticeable color lighting. The Leviathan V2 Pro did a good job of lighting up your desk, but the Nommo V2 Pro actually provides some ambient lighting effects that have a noticeable impact on your gaming room.
The rear-facing LEDs get so bright—brighter than any LEDs on any other Razer audio product I’ve tested to date—that they actually bounce off nearby walls and add a nice, subtle glow to a room. As someone who has a lot of RGB in my office, they are a perfect fit.
You can manually adjust what the LED displays display using the quick panel in Razer Synapse or you can get a little more specific in Razer Chroma. The speakers also support Razer’s Ambient Awareness Mode which will adjust the LED lights to match whatever is on your screen. This also has to be controlled through the Razer Chroma, which means it only works when paired with a PC. You can control the visuals your “ambient awareness” simulates on a “planar plane” meaning left, right, above, or below what’s on your screen, or you can customize an area of the screen that you want to track.
Razer Nommo V2 Pro – Sound quality
While the Nommo V2 Pro looks good, it just gets better. Out of the box, the profile is a little heavy, but with a little tweaking in Razer Synapse, I was able to get them to a place I was very happy with.
I would describe the Nommo V2 Pro’s sound profile as warm with an emphasis on mids and lows. They don’t have a lot of clarity and don’t quite deliver clear highs, but they sound pretty good and will likely satisfy the majority of listeners. They also lack detail in the highs and highs, but most won’t miss much.
When listening to music on the Razer Nommo V2 Pro, I can definitely tell that some aspects of the vocals, especially the female vocalists, are absent. There are tones from Taylor Swift and Dua Lipa that I don’t hear particularly well on the Nommov V2 Pro speakers even when I try to elicit them with the EQ adjustments. However, what I’m hearing doesn’t sound bad in any way.
Based on what I’ve heard of Razer’s other audio products, I can understand why the company goes with a bass-forward profile: Most people really like it. I’m in the minority as someone who enjoys highs almost excruciatingly because most people don’t feel good listening to them. Razer’s approach is warmer and therefore more approachable, and I’m totally fine with that.
One area that could use improvement is how the speakers can deliver at lower volumes. They handle blaring high-mids well – it’s one of Razer’s talking points and one area the company is particularly proud of is free from distortion – but down near the last quarter of their volume, the lows really overwhelm the mids and the highs to the point I can’t tell what I’m listening to truly. Basically you have to lower the volume by a third to get those details back.
Where these headphones really shine is when THX Spatial Audio is enabled. The Razer Leviathan V2 Pros had this feature and while I could tell they were trying to give me some sense of digital surround sound, since it was a single forward-facing unit, what it could do was limited. It was definitely the best situation, but it wasn’t a huge leap different.
It’s a huge leap different with the Nommo V2 Pro speakers. Since we have real left and right screens here, the spatial audio has a lot to work with and the result is nothing short of incredible. The spatial audio sounds so much better than standard stereo that I was literally blown away by how well it fooled my ears into thinking there were more than two actual speakers. My wife has tried it and was equally impressed. If you’re using Razer Nommo V2 Pros, you should use THX Spatial Audio as the default, or you’ll miss out on the best possible listening experience.
With sound quality in mind, I need to break my opinion of how it looks for gaming into two parts: using it on a PC and using it on a PlayStation 5.
On a computer with spatial audio, these speakers are empowered to really shine. The direction is great, and while I still prefer the headset for competitive gaming, single-player adventure games or even single-player shooters sounded great.
But as good as it is on PC, it’s only okay on PS5. While it connects easily and gets working right away, the THX Spatial Audio requires Razer Synapse in order to be active, so you don’t get this feature when using it with a PlayStation. As you might expect, this also means that you don’t get spatial audio when used with Bluetooth connected devices, either.
Don’t get me wrong, I love that using them with the PlayStation is easy and smooth, they just lack detail and direction – the latter isn’t an uncommon problem with soundbars, for what it’s worth. So while it works seamlessly with PlayStation and looks good, the experience is noticeably less when compared to using on PC.
Razer Nommo V2 Pro – Ease of use
If you want to customize your audio experience like I do, Razer’s Synapse software offers a fair amount of options. While I wish I could supply more than one custom EQ, you have instant access to Razer’s four preset EQs and then one custom EQ that you can adjust to your taste. You can switch between them at any time from Synapse or by double-clicking the button on the side of the controller.
Even better, you can pre-program the sound profile you want different games to automatically switch to when you play them. Called Game Profiles, your preferred THX Spatial Audio or EQ will automatically load when a game is in the foreground, adding and adjusting these selections is simple and can be done from Synapse’s Speakers home page. This same page gives you access to other controls as well, like volume and subwoofer levels.
Customizing your LED experience is quite detailed and can be overwhelming, but Synapse gives you a decent tutorial when you first dig into it and once you get the hang of it, what you can do with a bunch of connected RGB devices is really impressive.
As mentioned, you don’t get spatial audio with Bluetooth connected devices, but the option to use Bluetooth is always appreciated. It doesn’t really support Razer Mac (Synapse 2 is technically an option I didn’t get to work and Synapse 3 isn’t supported at all) so it should come as no surprise that the best parts of this software-based headset don’t work on a Mac.
Even without Synapse you can toggle various EQ options on the Mac by double-clicking the button on the side of the pod, but you have no way of knowing which one you’re currently using and since the speakers don’t seem to have any memory of their own, none of the LED lighting settings travel that you choose when connecting to a computer to any other experience. I have no reason to believe the custom EQ works either.
The same can be said about connecting to a PlayStation 5 or using a Bluetooth connection with a Switch. While both are supported, you can’t adjust what the LEDs do when connected to either of these devices—they end up blinking to music in different colors or cycle through all the RGB colors when no sound is playing. It would have been nice to have some way to switch the LEDs through the control pod, even if it was a simple on/off operation.
One downside to using a battery-powered wireless disk as the main control point and relying on USB rather than a 3.5mm headphone jack is that at some point, the speakers go to sleep if they’re not being actively used.
On a PC you can extend this to 45 minutes through Synapse but on any other device that doesn’t have Synapse access you can’t change its settings and it sleeps at the default 15 minutes. I’d really prefer some way to keep them awake the whole time, even if it meant giving up the ability to use a control pod. A simple connection to a 3.5mm jack with control through the connected device would have been a great option.
#Razer #Nommo #Pro #review #IGN