RAZER KRAKEN ULTIMATE
Some iconic cans get the luxury treatment—and they’re worth the extra outlay
THE LIME GREEN GLOW and marketing hyperbole of Razer’s peripherals have been around since the earth’s mantle first cooled and simple lifeforms began appearing. The Boomslang mouse was there at the turn of the millennium, when we first got interested in playing games againstother people, live, on the Internet, and it remains as iconic as it is preposterously named.
Since those early days in the gaming peripherals market, the competition’s heated up considerably, but Razer remains a big player thanks not just to quality mice, keyboards, and audio gear, but marketing and really, really fancy packaging. So, it’s no surprise to see the $180 Kraken Ultimate headset arrive in a box covered in spot UV treatment and pithy slogans such as “Make sound your weapon.” If anything, it’s slightly disappointing not to be welcomed to “the cult of Razer” by the inner packaging, as the pre-Ultimate iterations of its headsets used to do, but we’ll work past it. Its packaging is smartly presented; this is what we’re trying to say.
So, too, is the headset itself, resplendent with an underglow of RGB around both earcups and a bright RGB Razer logo in the center of each one. Good-quality artificial leather surrounds two very generous memory foam pads around the contact points, and while the memory foam is actually quite thin under the headband, it’s still very comfortable thanks to the band’s broad dimensions. A Razer logo lies imprinted on the top of the headband, also finished in artificial leather, while an aluminum frame holds the whole unit together. At 14oz, it’s not going for the featherweight category, but as silly as it may sound, it feels like a light 14oz when it’s on your head. The cushioning is ample for glasses-wearers to maintain their spectacles while playing, and although this reviewer still prefers SteelSeries’s ski-goggle headband design for long-term comfort, the Kraken is still up to the task when it comes to marathon sessions.
EXTRAS ORDINARY
For a model bearing the “Ultimate” nomenclature, it’s a relatively barebones package—one 2m braided cable connects the headset to your PC via USB, and with no inline remote, the only controls are a volume wheel on the rear of the left earcup and a toggle switch for surround sound (don’t bother) just above it. The mic mute switch is placed right on the mic itself, and a red light band clicks on when you do mute it. It’s here where our only real misgivings lie—this is an expensive headset, and it’s not working very hard to entice you with added extras. The cable’s a bit short for our liking, and we can’t get on with having to press the mic itself to mute it—often several times before we’re sure it’s actually muted. No, this is a headset that lives and dies on its comfort and sound quality alone.
Let’s get to the heart of the matter: These cans sound incredible. For a long time, “50mm drivers” was marketing talk for “too much bass,” but the customtuned neodymium 50mm monsters here have insane levels of clarity, which simply aren’t diminished by all the low end. It’s a brilliantly tuned tone, unsuitable for monitoring audio recording and the like—but that was never the point. Load up a game with explosions, crashes, gunfire, and/or raised voices, and there’s no way you’ll be disappointed.
What really stands out, though, is how well these headphones articulate music. There’s a vibrancy higher up the EQ that lets you pick out details that might have previously been inaudible on other equipment, such as pick scrapes and voice cracks. And if you dare introduce any EDM with sub-bass in the mix to your ears, you’ll hear just how meaty the lowend response is. And as much as Razer’s bloated software suite makes you want to lambast it, even the mic sounds fantastic on this model, so we’ve simply no recourse to its virtues.
Razer Kraken Ultimate
SQUIDS IN Booming low end; incredible clarity, smart design.
A RUM DO Short cable; awkward mic muting. $180, http://razer.com