Razer Kraken Tournament Edition

A gaming headset for ours and yours

It seems to us that a good gaming headset doesn't have to look like a tuned sports car and shine like a Christmas tree. First of all, it should sound good and not put pressure on your head while playing, and design is already a matter of taste. From this belfry, the Razer Kraken TE makes the most of it, with a great built-in microphone, powerful bass sound with an eye for gaming, and a solid yet lightweight design with an aluminium frame and padded shell. Well, the design here is such that it suits both ours and yours. The acid green coloring is sure to appeal to fans of colorful gaming gadgets, while the black coloring of the headset is easy to confuse with professional headphones. Given that the microphone is almost completely hidden in one of the cups, Kraken TE can be used outdoors with a player or smartphone.

Powerful bass-focused sound

As for $110 headphones, the Razer Kraken TE delivers high-quality sound. The 50mm drivers, which reproduce frequencies from 12 to 28,000 Hz, sound surprisingly clear, crisp and powerful. To a large extent, the advanced DAC built into the headphone controller is responsible for this. If you listen to music, they play brightly and powerfully, but not too versatile. There is a clear emphasis on low frequencies, while the middle ones, on the contrary, lack brightness and detail. In bass genres like techno and hip-hop, this is more of an advantage. But with more subtle and complex compositions like jazz music Kraken TE handles not in the best way. Although, if necessary, you can always resort to using the built-in equalizer.

Quality DAC with 3D THX Spatial Audio

But in games, everything changes dramatically. The fact is that instead of the usual virtualization, the DAC supports THX Spatial Audio technology, which creates a full 360-degree sound, comparable only to what is in models with Dolby Atmos. In shooters like COD and Battlefield, where the developers responsibly approached the implementation of multi-channel sound, you can even hear the noise of stones under the feet of opponents. And when a grenade or an enemy shell explodes behind your back, you bounce in your chair out of habit. You certainly need to feel it yourself, verbal epithets do not convey even half of the delight. I also liked that the sound card has a separate low-frequency control, which allows you to pile on the right amount of bass in games and movies without resorting to the software equalizer in the Razer Synapse utility.