Razer Kraken Tournament Edition THX 7.1 Surround Sound Gaming Headset: Retractable Noise Cancelling Mic – USB DAC – For…

Console owners!!!(PS4 and Xbox One) Be advised, the THX function does not work for consoles. It is only for PC users. So if you were like me and were debating between these and the Pro v2’s, just get the v2’s. Other than that, these headphones are great. They almost sound as good as my Denon AHD2000 hi fi headphones. Highly recommend for those not needing wireless or 7.1

Only owned the headset for about 2 days. First day mic was working intermittently and would go out every couple minutes. Next day mic stopped working completely. THX spatial audio is nice in thought but doesn’t work in practice. Speakers and drivers are not large enough or powerful enough to make use of the THX spatial audio. Sound quality if fine if you don’t use the THX spatial audio but once turned on the quality and intensity drops considerably. Though it does work as intended to give the feel that the position the sound is coming from has changed. Headset was very comfortable and gel-infused ear cushions worked and felt nice. That is about the only good part of this headset. Razer products have let me down in the past. I thought I’d give them another try hoping their quality had improved over the years as I’m a big fan of THX products. However I was let down immensely and should not be surprised their product failed like than many I’ve owned in the past. Will not make this mistake again. Will never buy another Razer product. I should have known better. The only smart thing I did with this purchase was return it.

I can’t believe these have a 4 star rating on Amazon, especially for the price. They have the sound quality of headphones that come free with things. Seriously, I’m not exaggerating, it’s that bad. Do yourself a favor and get a Turtle Beach for half the price. If you really want to know what these sound like, pull your shirt over your head, put on any other headset and listen through your shirt. That’s what these sound like.

Because I’m usually listening to music on my phone when I’m out-and-about, I have a ton of earbuds, so this is the first set of headphones I’ve ever owned, and I can’t compare against other headphones, but I love these. I wanted to get one for my computer because I stay up late to work and need my music or movies and don’t want to wake my family.You do have to use the USB audio controller to get spatial audio by THX (where available). Otherwise , the 3.5mm jack directly inline is only going to give you stereo, so you wouldn’t get 360 audio plugging this into your phone, for example. I don’t think the spatial audio works on gaming consoles, just on your PC.Again, as I haven’t owned any other headsets, I don’t know how standard the comfort might be, but these are super comfortable. The ear cushions I’ve tried out a bunch in stores don’t fit my ears, and I don’t think I have large ears. I wasn’t sure about these since they’re round (usually oval ear cushions fit better), but they completely cover my ears. I’ve tried previous Krakens in store that didn’t fit me for some reason, so perhaps they changed something with the size of the cups here, not sure. I wear glasses, and the “clamp” of the headphone aren’t too tight, so I don’t feel the arms of my glasses pinching me. They are snug enough for desktop use, not enough for street use if you’re gonna be dancing wearing these or headbanging as they will slide forward or backward with moderate head tilt.The ear cushions do feel cool over extended use. I usually wear these for about 3-4 hours at night, and I don’t collect any sweat on them. The leatherette is super smooth and feels luxurious.They are not noise canceling or noise blocking. As stated above, they don’t fit so tightly that you can’t hear your environment when there’s no audio, but with a little bit of audio, any noise in your environment is easily drowned out.I like the convenient manual volume control on the cord so that I don’t have to keep adjusting volume on my computer for different applications or different media. I’m not a gamer, so I usually leave my mic off (again, convenient integrated off switch), but it’s nice for teleconferencing with work.Nope, these don’t light up like other Razer products.You can adjust the sensitivity of noise from the mic in the Razer Synapse 3 Configuration Tool, so you can tune out the keyboard clicking if desired. You can set audio equalizer, adjust mic volume, sensitivity, normalize volume, reduce ambient noise, clarify voice, etc.

UPDATE 4-14-19:I got my new set a couple days ago and finally hooked it up and installed all the drivers (very carefully) and o-m-g this set is everything I’d hoped for… The first was faulty but Razer sent me a new one via an RMA… Definitely worth the wait. Highly recommended! For a “budget” set this thing exceeds all expectations. I still stand by everything I said in my initial review… The comfort of these things is to die for. I don’t want to take them off.Also, they’re great if you wear glasses! I’m not constantly taking my glasses off, or the set, to take a break from the constant pressure on my temple. Finally a headset that my blind a** can enjoy.Sound quality plus comfort is way better than any set I’ve owned (and I’ve bought 3 more name brand sets since this one, while waiting for this set to make it to me). The Logitech set I own is incredibly uncomfortable and will be my backup now.Soooo happy with this headset! If you have issues with yours, read my initial review and go call Razer support.I’m adding the star back to make this review 5 stars just because this headset is THAT GOOD when working properly. Normally it’d remain 4 stars, but since I love it so much… I think the frustration and wait was totally worth it.Also… This set does not have any lighting! So if you want that distracting glow on your headset, these are not for you.–Initial review:I wrote out a really long, awesome review that I held off on until I messed with the drivers. An hour after taking the headset out of the package, it was broken. By broken I mean it didn’t play sound on my PC anymore… At least, not really.Before the drivers finished installing the sound was insanely good. The bass… omg… SO incredible. Not to mention the comfort of these things, man! But once the drivers installed, the sound was so quiet I could barely hear a thing. I turned the equalizers up all the way and could still barely hear a thing. I almost cried. I tried everything. I had the volume on my PC, the cable of the headset, and on the controller up at full volume. I reinstalled every driver associated with sound.Finally, I contacted Razer support and they were absolutely amazing. We finally came to the conclusion that it was, in fact, the hardware that was at fault, and he set up for me to receive a brand new set once they received my old one. I bought a used set from Amazon, not from them. And they were well aware of this.I didn’t want to just return this set, because they are actually amazing:1. The sound quality (before they stopped working) was incredible. I turned on Aesthetic Perfection, turned up the bass on the controller, and BOOM! I felt like I was playing a live industrial show again, standing between two amps. I mean, absolutely amazing! No idea how the drivers managed to cause them to stop working.2. The comfort is something I didn’t even know existed! I mean, no I’m not some hotshot gamer who buys every name brand gamer device but I have spent thousands of dollars on having a comfortable bed and environment… I’m a game modder (Skyrim, SSE, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dragons Dogma, TW3, FO4, etc) whose sole purpose is to give players an incredible, immersive, and realistic experience through hyper-realistic textures. Basically, quality and comfort are very important to me… So I may know a thing or two about the importance of good sound quality.3. The mic. Okay, this one I was expecting to be bad because of the reviews… And I didn’t care. I really don’t ever plan to use the mic, since I’m a solo player now (don’t have time or patience to deal with Beibers anymore, thanks for ruining MMO gaming btw!!! luvyewguyz). But anyways, the mic seemed to work fantastic. No issues that other people reported there, although I haven’t done extensive testing, since I don’t really keep friends. Definitely a lone wolf (by choice).I am upset that Amazon sent me a faulty device, however. I guess I can’t really blame them. This is my first time purchasing a used product/refurb from Amazon that didn’t work though.I am going to update this review once I receive the new one, even though I’m not getting it from here. The reviews on Amazon are for the product themselves and not the seller. The purpose of seller feedback is for you to rate the seller, and as far as I know… I did get the headset SUPER early (two days, actually. I have prime and get two-day shipping, but usually it takes four days for me to get anything I order… yet it took one day). So that’s pretty awesome. I’m sure Amazon simply checks to see if a product turns on, and didn’t think to plug up the controller and check whether it connects and works fine.I’m glad I contacted Razer though and got them to take it, so no one else would receive a faulty product.