Review of the Razer Nommo Chroma Computer Speakers

Why are we gamers? We game to escape our lives. We game to be entertained. We game to be challenged. We game to relieve our stress and to vent our anger. We game because it allows us to immerse ourselves into another world. Sometimes we just need to experience something outside of our own reality. And sometimes, we just need to shoot some bozo in the head with military-grade weaponry.

The immersive experience of gaming is what keeps bringing us back for more. In general, we are less likely to continue to play if we aren’t enthralled with our PC’s or console’s hardware. This is why having great graphical hardware is so important. We want to feel like we are part of the game’s universe. Every little graphical artifact, no matter how small, takes us outside of the immersive experience. The same applies to our audio hardware.

A great sound system can change the way you experience immersive gaming. Until you have a set of speakers that are up to the task, there is no way for you to realize just how much attention gaming companies devote to the sound quality of their software. The audio experience of gaming is just as important immersion as it is to television and movies, if not more so. When you game, you’re actually part of the story, not just emotionally invested in it.

First Impressions

Razer is one of the most popular gaming accessory brands in the world. They are known for producing equipment that not only improves the gaming experience, but looks awesome while doing it. With a futuristic design aesthetic, Razer is all about neon backlights and premium tech specs. There is an air of sci-fi that surrounds all of their products. The new Razer Nommo Chroma speakers combine the best elements of both worlds: immersive sound and amazing design. We were able to sit down with the new speakers and test out their impressive features, which includes 3-inch woven glass fiber drivers, rear-facing bass ports and Razer Chroma lighting.

Design

The first thing you’ll notice about the Nommo Chroma speakers is their unique design. Razer has designed these speakers with a focus on accuracy and quality. Their design looks similar to a police officer’s radar gun, but rounder and sleeker. You know what would be pretty funny? Take one of these speakers, sit in your car on the side of the road, and hold the Nommo Chroma out of the window. Watch how many people immediately slam on their breaks. Slow down, jerks! Don’t you know there are kids around here? We might not want them on our lawns, but we still care!

When you have the speakers all set up, they peer back at you like two gamer-fied eyes. This glowing gaze doesn’t feel uncomfortable though. It’s a refreshing change from the typical cheapo rectangular shaped speakers that come stock with new PCs. The cylindrical design isn’t just there for looks; its long shape helps improve the air flow for the rear facing bass ports. The wide base of each speaker provides a stable foundation, which means the sound won’t be distorted by any physical vibrations.

Speaker Drivers

Razer has incorporated some awesome hardware into the Nommo Chroma speakers. Their custom woven glass fiber 3-inch drivers are designed specifically for providing unparalleled clarity and sharpness. You might be asking yourself, “Why glass fiber? Does it really make a difference?”. The glass fiber drivers affect the way that the speakers vibrate. The result is a sharper sound that produces audio at higher frequencies. Because of the glass fiber, gamers are provided with better sound accuracy, distinct layers and the ability to hear increased detail. Therefore, the gaming experience becomes more immersive.

Each of the drivers are lined with rigid rubberized lines, which does a great job of driving mids and lows even deeper. The Nommo’s chipset is designed for providing clarity, and clarity is what makes these bad boys really shine. The strong building materials of the speakers guarantees that your speaker’s sound won’t rapidly degrade, which can happen with cheap speakers made of cruddy materials.

Bass

Both speakers also feature a hidden rear facing bass port. The added bass port provides increased bass output, resulting in richer and fuller sound. In all likelihood, gaming isn’t going to be the only media you listen to on these speakers. Razer has taken that into consideration. The bass ports are engineered to provide full and hardy sound across a variety of genres and medias. These speakers will sound just as good listening to EDM on Spotify as they do playing Overwatch. The bass ports fit inside two large chambers, which causes in an amplification of the low end sound spectrum. We found the bass to be well-balanced and deep. It never felt over-bearing, but never felt wimpy. The specialized ports resulted in a bass we could actually feel, rather than just hear.

Bass and Gain Control

The speakers also feature a designated bass knob, which provided instant and easy EQ access. During our testing, the bass knob really came in handy during night time play. We were able to lower the bass with almost zero effort, which means the rest of our family wasn’t interrupted by boom-dropping bass bombs. The Nommo Chroma’s automated gain control ensures that the bass always remains undistorted, so you don’t have to go screw with the levels after using the bass knob. Usually, the gain is something you would have to modify yourself if you were playing around with the EQ controls, but the addition of the automatic gain control eliminates those extra steps.

USB Connectivity

The Razer Nommo Chroma’s USB connectivity is a nice touch and which will cause relief for some people. We like how the speakers don’t rely on your motherboard’s hardware to handle the digital processing. We also like how we don’t have to worry about wireless features not delivering adequate sound. Like it or not, USB connectivity is a the most consistent form of audio processing if you don’t have crazy expensive hardware. Not everyone can afford top of the line internals. That’s why speakers like the Nommo Chroma are so important to us. They provide professional sound without the necessity of Richie Rich hardware.

Spatial Depth

Conventional speakers don’t really offer anything in the way of directional or positional audio. They just sort of blabber sound into an omni-focused muddy mess. This is why so many stock speakers sound so distorted. Everything just echoes off each other. When you’re dealing with speakers that are already delivering tinny sound to begin with, the result is an absolute mess.

The Razer Nommo Chroma speakers are designed for spatial depth. They provide an almost 3D audio-like experience. Audio positional accuracy is such an important element of gaming. If you’ve never had a quality sound system than you really don’t know how important positional accuracy can be. Suddenly you are provided with a 3D world, with enemies creeping up from behind actually sounding like they are behind you. During are review process, we were able to test out the awesome spatial depth of the Nommo speakers. The positional audio of the Nommo’s sounds awesome and it right on par, if not better than other competing speakers, such as the Bose Companion 3 series.

Lighting Effect

One of the coolest features of Razer brand products is the use of lighting and neon colors to give their gadgets a unique, futuristic design. The Chroma in the Razer Nommo Chroma product name should give you a good indication of how confident Razer is of their Chroma lighting system. Chroma lighting allows you to choose from a library of 16.8 million colors to create your very own gaming light show. Pre-set lighting effects allow you to amplify your gaming experience. The Chroma system also lets you set up an ambient lighting effect that reacts to your in-game activity. We thought that the active light effects might have been a little distracting, but we were proven wrong when we took Chroma for a test ride. We absolutely loved the ambient reactionary lighting effect. Not only was it not distracting, but it helped immerse us even further. Razer knows what they are doing.

Final Thoughts

The Razer Nommo Chroma speakers are one of the most versatile pair of speakers on the market. They are great for the immersive gaming experience, but they are also phenomenal for watching movies and listening to music. While they might be on the pricier side, we wouldn’t say they are expensive. They are certainly worth every penny. Speakers that sound great with a variety of different sound sources are hard to find. Some are geared towards bass-heavy music, some are geared towards cinematic film experiences, but the Nommo Chroma speakers provided great sound quality for every medium we could throw at it. Barry Manilow sounded just as good as Cradle of Filth.

As far as we’re concerned, the Razer Nommo Chroma speakers are a no-brainer. Their combination of hardware and smart design create a spectacularly immersive audio experience across multiple activities. While Razer is clearly a brand focused on gaming, they’ve branched out a bit with these speakers. Much how their headphones are also good for listening to music or talking on the phone, their success outside of gaming is a result of their focus on great sound, rather than an effort to draw more people in to their product line.

If you’re serious about gaming and don’t have good gaming speakers, you’re doing yourself a major disservice. You’re missing half of the game. What might feel like an immersive experience now can only become more immersive. You’ll be wondering why you waited so long to invest in speakers that equaled the quality of your PCs graphics performance. Trust us, it’s going to make a bigger difference than you think. Not to mention that the Chroma lighting system makes your gaming set-up look like something out of the TRON universe. The Razer Nommo Chroma speakers are a home-run. Go for it. You’ll be happy you made the change.