As someone who sits in front of their PC the whole day, whether playing games, writing content or playing games pretending to write content, wearing my headphones for at least 6 hours a day Monday to Friday is just too much.
For one, it’s probably not very healthy for my ears, and secondly, it just gets a little too uncomfortable.
That’s why I’ve been on the hunt for a set of speakers, or a small soundbar, or just anything that I can use to give my ears a break. Luckily, one of my monitors has a set of built-in speakers that I’ve been using in the meantime, but they’re just not great for gaming.
Then, I saw the new Razer Clio Wireless Speaker Head Cushion at rAge last year, and my ears immediately perked.
The Razer Clio is a wireless speaker with near-field speakers that hangs on the back of your chair, providing an audio experience on par with a good set of headphones.
Or so they claim.
With integrated THX Spatial audio, two 43mm drivers, and both wireless and Bluetooth connection options, the Razer Clio sounds like a promising piece of equipment on paper, but paper doesn’t always equal reality.
When the Clio was being used at rAge, it blew my mind how, without a pair of headphones on, I was still able to hear everything going on in Borderlands 4, even with the amount of noise pollution being spat out by the rest of the expo. Yes, even over the massive bangers that were turning Fourways Mall back into a nightclub. (Just how Young-Cody remembers it.)
It’s simple, two-strap attachment method worked well with the Razer Iskur chair, and the speakers instantly connected via the USB-C dongle that comes with the device. I was also able to quickly connect the Clio to my phone via Bluetooth for a quick on-site test, and I was pretty much head over heels with how it performed.
Still delivering a great audio experience amidst all the chaos had me sold.
So, I stole the Clio to take it back to the office for a full review. (Sorry, Amerin.)
Excited to test the thing out, I instantly strapped it to my Cougar gaming chair, which, again, worked flawlessly with the simple straps. Razer states that the Clio will attach to most high-back gaming chairs; however, I have seen many complaints about the speaker system struggling with wider chairs. 240mm seems to be around the maximum size the Clio can comfortably strap on to.
With Razer Synapse installed, I plugged the Clio into my PC and jumped right into a game.
This is the part where I would’ve explained that I felt the Razer Clio was just a little too soft for my liking, but after fiddling with audio-boosting software like FXSound and using the Clio for well over a few months now, my opinion has slightly changed.
Thanks to the near-field speakers built into the Razer Clio, the audio is designed to be sent to a target pretty much nestled inside the cushion. When my head is on the cushion, it sounds great, but initially, when I leaned forward, it got a little too soft. I countered this with FXSound at first, but I slowly started to turn that down, and have since stopped using it, and I now find the sound a little better.
It’s nowhere near what I would get from a pair of headphones, and if I am jumping onto anything sweaty, like a ranked game in LoL or Marathon, you’ll more than likely see me switching back to headphones.
While the sound is a massive improvement over my monitor speakers, it still feels a little off to me that I need to keep a pair of headphones around.
Since the Clio is a completely wireless device, another issue arises: the need to keep recharging it. While a pair of headphones can just be popped close to your PC for charging, the bigger speaker is not as ideal for charging. Luckily, I have a 3m USB-C cable connected to my PC to keep all my devices topped up when needed, but not everyone has this, or even wants it, for that matter. Which means you’ll need to remove it from your chair, find a space to charge it, and then pop it back on again.
Razer says one can expect around 14 hours of sound time per charge, and I suppose I got pretty close to this number. Having the speaker on for around 6 hours a day, I would need to charge it overnight after the second day, or expect to be annoyed by the low battery alert over and over again before I’d had my first cup of coffee on day three.
The Clio also has a neat feature that lets it slot in as the rear speaker in a 7.1 surround sound setup, which worked well with my monitor speakers, but there have been reports that Synapse won’t detect any audio device. So, that too seems like a bit of a gamble.
THX support is also there, but it requires a subscription, and I don’t feel like THX audio adds enough of an impact for me to cough up an extra $20 (R330) a month. Not in this economy.
The speaker itself will also set you back R4,999, which is a pretty penny to spend on a set of speakers that just doesn’t feel like it’s ticking all the boxes. If headphones aren’t your vibe, you could invest in a sound bar or something similar with fewer grievances.
I can probably see the Clio work for sim racing setups, where your head is glued to the back of the chair as you experience all the “G-forces” with an easy-to-install audio setup, but outside of that, it becomes pretty hard to recommend considering its price tag and shortcomings.
Have I enjoyed using them? Abso-frikkin’-lutely, and they’ve become an integral part of my gaming setup, with daily use as my headphones gather more and more dust while falling lower down the ranks. However, there’s still space in my setup for a speaker system that’ll really blow me away.
