The Razer ManO'State of war originally hit the marketplace in 2022 as a premium wireless headset for gamers, consummate with LED lighting and virtual 7.ane environs sound. This year, Razer has released a new version of the ManO'War that ditches wireless connectivity bringing the aforementioned technology down to a lower cost indicate.

At $120, the ManO'War Wired sits in the same price bracket equally other top-tier wired headsets such as the HyperX Deject Revolver and the Logitech G633. If you don't require wireless connectivity, which adds an extra $50 to the price, this could be a great choice to consider, though it does face stiff competition in the gaming headset market place.

The ManO'State of war wired edition uses largely the aforementioned blueprint as the wireless version. The book controls and mic mute buttons take moved from the earcups themselves, to a small dongle on the wire, making them easy to reach during your gaming sessions. The volume control wheel is slick and the control dongle is small and less cumbersome than some competing headsets.

The ManO'State of war wired likewise ditches RGB lighting on each earcup. Instead, the Razer logo is an understated black outline on the matte plastic earcups, which keeps the headset from looking outlandish. At that place'southward besides a "limited edition" light-green variant that swaps out the black logo for Razer'due south signature acid light-green.

I'one thousand not a fan of the ManO'War'southward full general design. This headset is enormous, particularly the huge circular earcups with copious padding and big plastic surrounds. It's approaching the point of being too cumbersome, and information technology'south certainly much larger than more neatly-designed headsets like the Cloud Revolver.

At times, it felt a bit ridiculous to wear something this large on my caput, however I imagine some gamers will appreciate the massive, round pattern used here. In fact 2 other TechSpot writers specially liked the circular padded design of the Razer, go figure.

Aside from the padded sections, essentially all of the ManO'War is constructed from plastic. Some areas are matte, some areas are glossy, and there's fifty-fifty a faux-leather textured expanse, but all are blackness plastic. This doesn't make the ManO'War feel peculiarly premium, especially upwardly against other headsets that apply some metal segments.

The ManO'War features iii areas of articulation. The headset frame loops around each earcup and attaches in two points, assuasive the earcups to rotate up and down slightly to fit better on your ears. Each earcup mount is summit adjustable and rotates in a horizontal axis equally well, all of which makes the headset fit reasonably well to a wide multifariousness of heads.

One thing I worry virtually with the all-plastic construction is the rigidity of these articulation points and the headset as a whole. The head strap is very flexible and some of these adjustable points don't feel particularly solid. The padding department on the headband, which is the main signal of contact to your head, is only fastened to the rest of the headset with iv small plastic elements. Judging past reports from people who've purchased both the wired and wireless versions of the ManO'War through Amazon, some of these sections are prone to breaking, which is disappointing on a headset that costs more than than $100.

The padding on the ManO'War consists of a small amount of foam on the headband, and a massive corporeality of foam effectually the earcups, each covered with leather-like material. The ManO'War is reasonably comfortable, but I'd like to see a lot more padding around the headband to requite it more comfortable back up.

The HyperX Deject Revolver, for case, uses a ton of padding effectually the headband likewise every bit a intermission system that makes it more comfortable to wear for extended periods.

With that said, using the ManO'State of war for a long gaming session didn't lead to any head fatigue, though the meaning amount of padding effectually the ears did brand it somewhat warm to wear. Sound isolation provided by the over ear design is okay, but if you're using the headset in a loud environs, the foam padding is unlikely to cake out everything unless you're blasting audio yourself. This is typical of most over ear headsets that lack active noise cancellation, a feature practically never seen at this price point.

While I wasn't hugely impressed with the build of the ManO'State of war, the sound quality is very skillful. I wouldn't class myself as an 'audiophile', simply I did appreciate the balanced audio provided past this headset. No single area of the sound profile seemed overpowering, and I appreciated the amount of bass. Some gaming headsets push button the bass upwardly to the maximum for ridiculous explosions, but this isn't an issue with the ManO'War.

One of the better aspects to the ManO'War's audio quality is the lack of painful distortions at loftier volumes. Some headsets push accentuated vocals or piercing high tones when yous crank the volume to the maximum, merely this is less prevalent than usual with the ManO'State of war. There are still some distortions when you crank upward the volume, though the headset performs very well in general here.

Audio quality seems slightly ameliorate than the HyperX Cloud Revolver, though both headsets provide great audio. Razer likewise provides an equalizer in their Synapse software that makes it very easy to tune the audio profile to your liking, and with some minor tweaks you lot can make this headset sound even ameliorate than its 'apartment' contour out of the box.

One of the headlining features of the ManO'War is its virtual seven.1 surround sound, provided by the included USB dongle. Normally the headset connects to your PC or device through a standard iii.5mm TRRS connector, just this connector tin can be inserted into the USB dongle for surround back up. After the dongle is attached to your PC, the ManO'War appears as an eight-channel sound device to games and applications.

Razer's vii.ane surround sound implementation is superior to a number of other solutions I've tried, particularly after you calibrate the headset using the utility in Synapse. When each channel is properly tuned for the best directionality, the ManO'War provides a surprisingly good surround sound experience for a pair of headphones.

Sounds moving from the sides to the front end are excellent, and although rear audio channels all the same feel similar they are higher up my caput rather than behind at times, overall I was impressed with the headset in this regard.

One of the great benefits of Razer'due south solution is that audio quality isn't degraded when you movement from a stereo to surround audio output. This means you lot don't need to constantly switch the environment sound mode on and off, which tin become annoying on other headsets as the 'environment mode' tends to make music audio like garbage.

In fact, there'due south no surroundings mode on the ManO'State of war: when the USB dongle is used, the headset is primed for surroundings audio, and you tin can't disable whatever surround sound processing. Every bit this headset sounds great in all weather condition with environs processing enabled, this isn't a trouble, and for those that really desire to disable the feature, y'all can connect the headset to your PC through the iii.5mm plug.

The microphone included with the ManO'War is retractable, so you tin neatly constrict information technology away inside the headset when you don't demand it. The quality of the microphone is great, providing crisp and articulate vocals, though it's merely suited to in-game chat and video calls. If you were planning to employ the headset for podcasting or a similar job, the strong noise reduction, compression and lack of low stop reproduction may not produce the high-quality audio y'all're after.

Audio quality is where the Razer ManO'War wired edition shines, and it's nice that you lot tin can get the aforementioned sound experience equally the wireless variant for less.

Even the virtual 7.1 surround audio is decent, which is surprising considering what I've seen in the by. However, the build quality of the headset is questionable, and the massive design definitely isn't for everyone.

Shopping shortcuts:

  • Razer ManO'War vii.1 Wired Edition on Amazon
  • Razer ManO'War 7.1 (Wireless) on Amazon

If nifty sound quality is your only desire, the ManO'War is a decent choice at $120. Only if y'all want a more than rounded, comfortable bundle, I'd perhaps steer towards the HyperX Cloud Revolver instead.

Pros: Great audio quality. Surprisingly decent virtual seven.1 surround sound, with a handy calibration utility. Crisp, clear microphone. Wired saves you $50.

Cons: The headset is massive and of questionable build quality: I want something more sturdy and 'premium' for the price.