So, let’s dig into the detail!

The Package Appearance

Package Front

Package Back

Package Sides

The internal packaging
The black and red colour scheme is still covered in Mayan patterns, complemented by the ROG logo that can be seen everywhere

The design of the opposite door is still the flagship, with the product placed in the middle

The space in the middle of the headset body is made with a monument-like design, on which players are welcomed into the elite community, full of ceremony

The contents of the accessories – includes 2 x D-shape lightweight earmuffs, a 3.5mm detachable microphone, a Type-c extension cable, an instruction manual and a warranty card

The main body of ROG Theta 7.1
The overall design combines the previous flagship ROG Centurion and ROG Delta

Front of the headset with microphone

Two sides of the headset with microphone

The headset weighs 604g, about twice as much as the Delta and 1/3 as much as the Centurion

The Left and right symmetrical design

5-levels Headband expansion arm

The rotating structure of the headset and its extension length

The extra-soft headband inside is a padded foam mesh fabric similar to the ROG Hybrid ear cups, which breaths well

The famous ROG logo on the headband

The headset is complemented by a cooling grid on both sides

At the bottom of the right side of the headset, there is a slider for switching between PC and phone and a 2-in-1 microphone volume potentiometer

On the bottom left side of the headset, there is a separate microphone jack

The D-shape earmuffs have a ROG logo integrated

The ROG logo with RGB translucency design

Software Analysis

Asus has integrated their peripheral controls into the ROG Armoury II software, if users are using an Asus motherboard, they can also use the Armoury Crate directly to control.

The main page of the control panel
Users can utilise this software to adjust almost all functions including Sampling options, EQ adjustment, bass boost, sound selection, virtual surround, channel selection and microphone AI noise reduction options

The RGB settings of the headset can also be adjusted under the Lightning tab

The AURA Sync settings

Disassembling Analysis

The greatest selling point of these headphones is the true 7.1 + separate DAC design. To see what’s inside, we decided to take it apart

The headphone unit part has to be disassembled from the inside of the rotating structure

Snap-in construction of the headset section, locked by a Phillips screw

The headband part

The extra pair of lightweight D-shape earmuffs

The body of the headphones, with the 8 units clearly visible. These are 40mm front units, 30mm centre units, 30mm left and right units and 30mm rear surround units. As all units are independently driven, the subwoofer section could be simulated by an algorithm, meaning that it is also sounded by these units

Remove the headset casing to reveal the motherboard components. The headset is a semi-modular design with relatively neat internal routing

Disassembly of the right half part includes rotating structure, motherboard and housing

Disassembly of the left half part

The motherboard model name and version number

The AURA 82UA0 RGB controller chip

Potentiometers and diverter switches side

The SupremeFX CODECs S1220 conroller chip, Realtek ALC4042H QFN Audio CODEC IC and Wolfson WM8960G stereo audio codec driver chip

ESS Sabre 9601K amps

The Hearing Analysis

Test premise: EPIC PC does not compare the listening experience of PC peripheral headphones with Hi-Fi/Hi-End or Monitor-grade headphones. All comparative terms used in the test are comparisons between PC peripherals.

Compatability
This headset has excellent support and compatibility with the new generation of gaming consoles and mobile devices due to its Type-c interface.

On the Android platform, we tested with the ROG Phone 3. Because they are Asus’ own products, Theta 7.1 can be directly recognised by the ROG Phone 3 and automatically optimised to the game. Although PUBG Mobile does not support a 7.1 soundtrack, in-game footsteps are slightly amplified, making it easy to determine the location of enemies, and the reverberation of gunfire is great in terms of distance and proximity. And in ‘Genshin Impact’, players can enjoy the game’s high-quality music, vocals and effects. Theta 7.1 performs impeccably in both ‘Deemo’ and ‘Cytus II’, as well as ‘Lanota’.

The apple platform lives up to its nobility. To hear quality music on the iPhone with Theta 7.1, we not only need an expensive Hub with a Lightning connector that comes with a chip and has Apple certification, but we also need to purchase Apple’s hi-res lossless music service. With all these front-end items taken care of, we finally got a taste of the quality of these headphones on the iPhone, which actually doesn’t sound much different from the Android platform. Incidentally, the iPad Pro, which comes with a Type-c port, is also directly compatible with this headphone.

Listening experience
The audition tracks include popular male/female voices, rock music, small compilation strings, and large-scale symphonies. All Hi-Res quality 88200Hz 24bit, around 4kbps. This headphone is very well tuned to music, the high frequencies are not sharp and harsh but slightly softer, the sense of transparency is perfect, no EQ adjustment, the mid-range is rich and the resolution is very strong; the low frequencies are simulated but surprisingly thick and layered, good sinking, and no sense of passage and fading. Without EQ on, the vocals are relatively forward and the nasal resonance is very well reproduced; for pop songs, the vocals are slightly overshadowed by the instruments and seem underpowered; in classical music, the beautiful vocal performance in opera is outstanding, especially in the baritone, tenor and florid soprano, and in Mozart’s “der höllerache”(from “die zauberflöte” K. 620 II), Diana Damrau’s florid part brought me goosebumps, very stunning!

On Desktop/Laptop during gaming
To know that the ROG Centurion is already outstanding. Keep in mind that the ROG Centurion was already very good, while the Theta 7.1 upgraded the rear and side speakers to 30mm, but neutered the original 40mm subwoofer and changed it to a virtual approach, making the bass, while present, underpowered by its shorter duration. In the FPS genre, the headset reinforces the weighting of footsteps and players can reinforce their judgement with the ability to adjust the position of the surround points in the software, while the AI noise-cancelled microphone does filter out the noise of keyboard taps to ensure efficient communication between players. This is equally suitable for RTS and MOBA games. In theory, larger units can improve the quality of fine sound, but in games, it actually has very little impact, as the sound is calculated by simulation and is a collaboration between several units, the difference is actually minimal when distributed evenly. To sum up, if you already have a true 7.1 headset like the ROG Centurion or Razer Tiamat, the relative improvement of the Theta 7.1 is considerably limited.

Overall

Overall, Theta 7.1 doesn’t bring a quantum leap in the gaming experience because its predecessor, the ROG Delta, was already quite good and because most current competitive games don’t support 7.1 surround sound. Since Virtual 7.1 was already at the top of its game a few years ago, the upgrade to Theta 7.1’s DAC is only icing on the cake. The relatively heavy weight also reduces the player’s immersion, increases fatigue, and puts pressure on the cervical spine. It also means that Theta 7.1 will not be chosen by true gaming players at all.

When it comes to the price, the AU$549 “price tag” will dissuade the majority of consumers, and perhaps the quality of this extreme material build-up will be perfectly unleashed in a AAA gaming masterpiece. Even though Theta 7.1 has great compatibility and can be used across multiple platforms, it is still a wired product. As the quality of this headset is already top of the line in the PC peripheral world, with luxurious materials, multiple device support, a high price tag and ROG’s faith added, limiting the users to high-end gamers with deep wallets. Asus has rarely innovated in terms of peripherals anymore, will such a ROG series continue to capture the hearts of all gamers or will it gradually fall by the wayside with the brand premium? It’s up to the gamer to choose in the future.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 92/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC DESIGN AWARD, EXTREME POWER AWARD

 
 
 

ASUS ROG THETA 7.1 OFFICIAL WEBSITE: HERE

Razer has sent us the Nari headset to test, it has earmuffs available in sizes from 56mm x 67mm inside, while the oval full-cover design uses the Cooling Gel-Infused cushions and supported by a 50mm neodymium magnet drive unit.

The Package Appearance

Package Front

Package Back

Package Sides

Opening the box

The headset main body and the accessories

Audio cable and USB charging/data cable

The instruction menu and sticker

The main body of Razer NARI
The Razer Nari has a leather design on the outside. The material inside the earmuffs is officially described as a gel material, and the design of the fabric material can ensure a higher gas permeability, which means that heat will not be accumulated in the earmuffs for a long time, keeping players ears dry and cool.

The head beam angle of the earphone has a maximum steering angle of 90°, and the horizontal rotation has no friction pressure. The beam part is made by an integrated aluminum frame, with the adaptive head beam and the rotating earmuffs, which can fully adapt to the head types of different users. In addition, players with larger head sizes should gain added comfort from the stretchable frame of these headphones. The connection of the girders is engraved with the letters R&L. Although it is very concealed, if you have used other Razer headphones, it will be easy to judge the left and right side according to the position of the microphone.

All operational switches of Razer NARI are concentrated on the bottom of the headphones
The volume adjustment button, in-game background music, and vocal balance adjustment button, microphone mute button, power and Bluetooth indicator, power button, micro USB charging interface and 3.5mm interface

Razer NARI supports fine-tuning between game volume and voice volume. It allows you to achieve better immersive in-game and clear team communication

The wireless receiver is a 2.4G type

The total weight of Razer NARI is 417g without the stand

The Product Disassembling
The Razer Nari has used a pair of 50mm Neodymium magnets drivers which has a 20 Hz – 20 kHz frequency response, 32Ω at 1 kHz impedance and Sensitivity at 1khz is 107 ± 3 dB

There are 4 screws, 2 of them are hiding under stickers

The 50mm unit

The main circuit board with 3 modular I/O connector boards

Disassembling the modular boards

The audio jack board

The micro USB charging board

The volume regulator board

The microphone slot

The microphone internal pipeline

The microphone hinge

The main motherboard
The Razer NARI has implemented the Avnera AV6302 solution which is the same as Steelseries H wireless, Arctis pro wireless, Logitech G933, and Corsair Void RGB etc.
The AV6302 chipset is optimized for building wireless gaming headsets and point to multi-point audio distribution solutions such as rear speakers and subwoofers in home theatre systems

The RGB Razer logo panel
The circus board is made by TCX

The battery pack and wireless dongle side

The battery details
3.7V 1200mAh, 4.44Wh

The wireless dongle slot

This headset has ‘custom tuned for gaming fidelity by Razer’

The RGB lightning effect

Software Analysis
The headset could be found inside the RAZER SYNAPSE software

The SOUND menu
Users can choose Profile from this page

The MIXER menu
Users can enable the THX surrounding sound effect and do the calibration here

The ENHANCEMENT menu
Users can adjust the sound enhancement function to fit their needs

The EQ menu
Users can customise their listening style here

The MIC menu
Users can customise their microphone sound effect here

The LIGHTNING menu
Users can customise their CHROMA RGB effects here

Under PROFILES tab, users can customise different sound settings and choose from this menu

The Hearing Analysis

MUSIC MODE
MIXER
Turning off THX SPATIAL AUDIO and keeping the headphone under stereo mode. Enable this function will force the music into THX sound and auto balance the tracks such as auto fade in or fade off for over-leveled frequency levels. However, for some classical music, turn on this function and switch the output to Surround Sound will enhance the feeling and soundstage of music.

ENHANCEMENT
Turn on the BASS BOOST will increase the background bass effect to the front and ruin the music.

Turn on the VOICE CLARITY function will sharp the high frequency of the soundtrack, sometimes it will bring back the human voice to the front but it’s definitely not suitable for classical music.

Turn off the SOUND NORMALIZATION function if you want to enjoy the music. This function will force all tracks into the balance situation, and do auto fade-in or fade-out for some frequency levels to make the music a little elasticity.

EQ
Please turn the EQUALIZER to MUSIC mode and pull up the 16kHz to equal or a bit higher than the 8kHz if you want to listen to vocals more than instruments. For ACG music, 16kHz can be turned to 5 to support the higher frequency voices.

MIC
TURN OFF ALL THE SETTINGS TO ENJOY THE MUSIC

GAMING MODE
About equalizer, tuning, THX SPATIAL AUDIO. It is not very good to enable these functions in games directly. We select the balanced curve feature in regular game sbecause we don’t want to do a special fine-tuning for specific games, the reason is simple because each user wants a different voice when playing different games.

THX SPATIAL AUDIO could be tuned according to players’ daily listening habits, it’s totally different after the adjustment, the sound effect such as car climbing, the tire on the desert track in rainy days are sharped and so easy to recognise. In order to get the most suitable effect, this part needs to be adjusted for a long time. Everyone has their different listening habits including footsteps, gunshots, car engines, etc.

Overall
In the Razer product line, the NARI headset should be the best choice in audio. Whether it is for PC or PS4, NARI can be perfectly integrated into the environment, 2.4G wireless allows players to completely get rid of the shackles, THX surrounding sound effects with equalizer can really bring the best out of specific game genres such as FPS, STG, RPG or MOBA.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE: 91/100

EPIC REWARD: EPIC RECOMMENDED, EDITOR’S CHOICE & DESIGN AWARD

RAZER NARI OFFICIAL WEBSITE: https://www.razer.com/gaming-audio/razer-nari

The headset has implemented the audiophile-grade ESS Saber 9018 DAC and ESS 9601 amplifier. The DAC has high SNR and can output 24-bit/96kHz lossless playback. The Fusion 700 supports enhanced sound settings in conjunction with a 50mm ASUS Essence driver and improves on the material around the ear. The headset is also plug and play and can quickly switch to 7.1 virtual surround sound, developed in conjunction with Bongiovi Acoustics. The Fusion 700 supports Bluetooth version 4.2 to allow players to connect their headset to any device including phones or PCs, even allowing you to answer incoming calls by using the intuitive touch controls.

The Package Appearance
The whole package design for the Fusion 700 is nearly the same as their previous version for the Fusion 500
Package Front

Package Back

Package Sides

Package bottom contains ROG Logo with orange background

The inside package, The Mayan-inspired totem is printed on the inside of the box

Opening the box

The package has a very unique way of opening

On the top of the case, like Razer, Asus provides a thick greeting card

The main body of the Fusion 700

Under the headset body, there is another pair of normal earpads

ASUS has included a soft string bag, it has a similar feel to the bag provided inside the corsair power supply

The contents of the box

Micro USB connection cable

Product Analysis
The left and right ear shells are done in a plasma copper colour, and the mirror-finished surface treatment looks stunning. The RGB Aura sync adds to the appearance of the headset. In addition, memory form is added to the contact between the head bridge and the head support, and the outer layer is covered with a breathable material to reduce the burden over long periods of gameplay.

The Headband has ROG elements printed on

Front view and side view

The RGB lighting area

The built-in High-quality Microphone

The Bluetooth pairing and surround button

Micro USB socket

The telescopic headband is designed with Mayan-inspited totem line in the classic ROG style.

The gesture control. The user can slide up and down, left and right to control the volume, play/pause, next/previous song

‘Left’ and ‘Right’ signs are written on the inside of the headband

Taking out the ear foam, we can see the 50mm speaker unit

In the lighting effect software, ASUS Aura has been integrated and supports not only Windows but also Android and IOS

Usability Test
For headsets with built-in DACs, nearly all of them are plug-and-play. After the PS4 host is connected, it will switch to the headset module directly. By this stage, the gesture control can also be used. Personally, it is a convenient function for console controls.

With the long-lasting battery life, this headset will stay alive around 12 hours during our continuous gaming test.

In the gaming test, the surround sound function impressed us. In PUBG, the positioning is accurate, especially with the simulation of footsteps. In Tomb Raider, the echo of water drops and the wind effects in the cave create amazing atmosphere. In Nintendo Switch games, the performance of this headset excels in games such as Zelda or Stardew Valley, with sound effects presenting themselves as crisp and detailed.

Overall
We tested dozens of lossless music including different styles by using Foobar2000, the analysis of instruments layers is clear; the vocal part is just acceptable, HF(High frequency) is slightly flat, IF(Intermediate Frequency) is average, but sometimes the bass seems too thin, it’s more like a studio monitor, than a gaming headset. Overall, the presentation of the sound is a bit cold.

As an e-sport headset, Fusion 700 is superb, but the weight might not be for some, the headband is bit hard and the clamping force is tight.

EPIC PC RATE SCORE : 80/100

ASUS ROG STRIX FUSION 700 OFFICIAL WEBSITE: https://www.asus.com/Headphones-Headsets/ROG-Strix-Fusion-700/