Razer Moray review: "The best in-ear headphones I've ever tested"

The Razer Moray in-ear monitors are no mere set of earbuds. These are the sorts of audio solutions your favorite rock band wears up on stage to drown out the noise of the crowd so they can hear the music they're playing.

Because of that, they're maybe some of the purest, most powerful earphones I've ever used. They sit far deeper in your ears than you may be used to, and hit way harder than typical headphones as a result. For that reason, you actually need to be careful with these things, because if you don't turn down the volume a bit, there's a real chance they'll damage those lugs of yours. Regardless, whether you're looking for the best gaming earbuds or you're trying to add to your loadout of Razer streaming gear, Razer's Morays are very worth buying.

At $129.99 / £129.99, these probably won't be for everyone. Indeed, if you're just looking for a gaming headset, just grab something more orthodox that has a microphone. For streamers and PC gamers, however - the folks who are always working with loads of audio sources at any one time, I can't recommend anything more strongly.

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Design

You might be wondering how exactly the Razer Morays differ from a regular set of earbuds. In essence, these have a far more ergonomic shape to them which means they don't just rest in your ear canal, they get a mortgage and fully move in. 

This design has been perfectly shaped by Razer to complement the anatomy of the human ear. They have subtle and rounded corners that help them achieve a level of comfort I haven't previously experienced in any other audio hardware. Razer's objective was to make these comfortable for longer gaming sessions, and besides adjusting their position from time to time, that goal has been achieved and then some.

Powering that audio is a dual-driver design. Each bud has an armature driver for accurate treble noises while a dynamic driver helps to give games and music the bassy oomph that so many wireless earbuds like the EarFun Air Pro 3 I just tested, can lack. 

The wiring attaches to each bud with OFC MMCX cabling, which allows for an adjustable fit while feeding through high-fidelity audio. The top of the braided cable uses a memory loop shape to hook back over your ears, meaning that nothing tugs at the buds and makes them less secure.

Features

You won't find many bells and whistles here. There's no wireless connectivity, there's no microphone, this product is for bringing a pure audio experience to a very specific set of gamers and content creators. 

There is some passive noise canceling at play here which is said to be capable of blocking up to 36 dB, but in all honesty, I think the deep fit of the Razer Moray in-ear monitors does a lot of that on its own. Meanwhile, Razer's standard THX-certified sound is back, ensuring that the noises you do hear are of the highest possible quality.

In the box, you'll get a tidy little pouch so you can take your Morays with you on the go. These hold various ear tips so you can find the fit that works best for you. The earphones connect to your platform of choice through a 3.5mm headphone jack, so they'll work with one of the best PC controllers, but not with a modern-day smartphone.

The standard ear tips you get out of the box are a spongy type of foam. They're not like Logitech's earbuds that mould to the shape of your inner ear, but they do feel bizarrely squishy in your ears. I can just tell that these will be an acquired taste, but luckily the other options you get with your purchase feel a bit more bog-standard.

Performance

In the comfort and sound departments, I have no complaints about the Razer Moray. For safety's sake, I will warn you once more that you should scale your volume back with them. These things are powerful, and you really don't need to crank the volume up to get the best experience with them.

Footsteps in HUNT: Showdown are as crunchy and detailed as I've ever heard them with these in tow, while the plosive sounds of shotguns tearing enemy players apart are conveyed with weighty force. Although I had reservations about how positional audio would work compared to one of the best PS5 headsets, I actually found it easier to triangulate gunshots than ever before. Even in a game with lesser sound mapping like The Finals, pinpointing enemy footsteps is easily done.

The twitchy combat of Atomic Heart really makes the Morays sing. While you're hacking into the head of a robot with a giant axe, there's often some soundtrack underpinning your battle. Whether it's Tchaikovsky's Waltz of the Flowers or a DOOM-like bit of Metal during a boss fight, these in-ear monitors never fail to convey umpteen different audio sources at a time. 

The same goes for general use too. My Razer Morays are connected to my PC through my Sennheiser microphone, and when I'm in video meetings these days I'll throw my monitors in so I can hear my own voice as clearly as everyone else. Don't tell my coworkers, but thanks to the way these earbuds balance different audio sources, I usually have some sort of background music on during calls. Where a lesser gaming headset may trip up here, the Morays do a fantastic job of keeping music detailed at lower volumes.

It's for that reason softer soundscapes are conveyed beautifully too. As my Spotify Wrapped reveals, there's barely a day that goes by where I don't listen to an orchestral video game soundtrack. Sometimes, headphones and earbuds can struggle to balance this type of music's mix of treble and bass tones. The Morays really impressed me here because detail didn't feel lacking at all. One of my favorite orchestral swells of all time is in John William's Yoda and the Force, and the Razer Morays passed this goosebump-inducing test with flying colors. 

I do have a few reservations though. I apologize for the mental image of what I'm about to say, but the out-of-the-box ear tips have a very sticky and spongy texture to them, which makes them a magnet for earwax. What's even worse is that these are really difficult to clean.

What's even worse though, is that after taking these off a few times to clean them or swap them out, I found that they had a tendency to come off more and more easily. This leads to a big problem where you try to take the earbuds out of your ears and the ear tips actually stay in your ear canal. This could honestly be quite a dangerous issue if it's more widespread. I'm not sure anybody wants to use a pair of tweezers to pinch a foreign object out of their ear. It seems like a lawsuit waiting to happen.

While I do like the braided cabling, it has a habit of getting tangled if you let it. This is hardly a big issue, but it can get annoying when a coil is created and it looks as though you're wearing a funny new necklace on a video call.

Should you buy the Razer Moray in-ear monitors?

Besides the fact these things border on being too powerful, I have no real reservations about recommending the Razer Moray in-ear monitors. Especially if you're a streamer dealing with lots of audio sources like a game, background music, discord, and alerts, these things will help you manage all of them like a pro. 

Even if you aren't creating content and you're looking for the absolute last word on in-ear gaming audio, you may have won a watch here. These are by far the best in-ear headphones I've ever tested for gaming, and their ability to stay comfortable for longer periods of time is the cherry on the cake. 

Had the out-of-the-box ear tips been a little better, this may have even been worth five stars. 

How we tested the Razer in-ear monitors

I used the Razer Moray in-ear monitors as my catch-all PC audio solution for work and play for a few months before this review was written. In that time the headphones were used for long gaming sessions, video editing, streaming, listening to music, video calls, and multitasking of all of the above. I tested them at higher and lower volumes, testing the clarity of the audio when forced to deal with multiple audio sources. 

To hear more about how we test the latest gaming hardware, check out our hardware policy. 

Want to keep on shopping around before you decide on something? Here are what we deem the best wireless gaming headsets, the best Razer headsets, and the best PC headset for gaming.