Razer Kraken 7.1 V2: 7.1 Surround Sound - Retractable Noise-Cancelling Mic review

Razer Kraken 7.1 V2: 7.1 Surround Sound - Retractable Noise-Cancelling Mic review

Razer Kraken 7.1 V2: 7.1 Surround Sound - Retractable Noise-Cancelling Mic review

Pros
Great gaming audio
Virtual surround works well
Comfortable
Excellent build quality

ConsNo spare earpads
No in-line controls
Not brilliant for most music
PC-centric features.

the Razer Kraken 7.1 B 2 gaming headset this is a headset that boasts some serious comfort as well as really great sounding audio and I want to put that to the test so let's go ahead and just take a look at this thing after taking the Kraken 7.1 V 2 out of the box I immediately notice that this headset feels really solid the 7.1 b-two has an aluminum frame that makes it really sturdy which is great in the headset because really how often do we take our headsets off and on have 

them fall on the floor or any number of things that snag the wire on the headset to have them come flying off so it's good to have something that feels like it can take a beating to offset some of the ruggedness the V 2 comes with some serious padding the ear cups come with really thick memory foam pads that kept my large ears from touching the inside of the speakers which is by far my most common complaint from a lot of headsets the headband is also fairly comfortable 

consisting of a lightly padded band wrapped in cloth there's also a Razer logo embossed in the faux leather on the topside well I didn't find the headband particularly unpleasant to where it does feel like it could use a little bit more padding especially with having that aluminum frame underneath Razer says on their website that one of their ideas behind the design philosophy on this headset was to decrease fatigue from wearing the headset which admittedly is what piqued 

my interest enough to do this review and I'm happy to say that Razer did actually succeed in eliminating a lot of the pressure points that would usually cause me fatigue the 7.1 v 2 is really comfortable overall especially around the ears and the large memory foam cups don't cause any discomfort when pressing on the frames and my glasses it did take me a few minutes to get used to the weight of the headset but once I did I pretty much forgot I was wearing it in terms of 

extras the Kraken 7.1 V 2 does have sixteen point eight million color RGB lighting in the Razer logo on the ear cups however you can only toggle between three custom preset static breathing and spectrum cycling the lighting for me is a little bit underwhelming but consider you can't actually see it when you're wearing it makes it seem silly that I even care here's where I would normally talk to you about the buttons and inline controls but unfortunately there just aren't any except for a simple mute button which is located on the tip of the microphone it is indicated 

by a red LED everything else on the headset is controlled via Razer synapse which is just kind of a dumb move in my opinion it just seems like a really careless omission to not even include a simple volume scroll wheel the ear cups do a great job at isolating you from your environment allowing you to really immerse yourself in the digital 7.1 surround sound after plugging in the headset and downloading synapse you will be prompted to do a quick calibration of the 

surround sound but then you're good to go from there there's also a plethora of settings for the speaker's mic and EQ settings the sound quality of the fifty millimeter drivers in the 7.1 V two is actually really good definitely a large improvement over the original Krakens the digital 7.1 surround sound works fantastic in games and saved my ass more than once from an enemy attempting to sneak up on me as is par for the course with Razer the headset has really nice 

deep low-end sound and the mids and highs are nice and crisp you may find yourself playing with the EQ settings and synapse to find your ideal mix but once you do you can achieve a really nice listening experience the b2 uses an active noise-cancelling uni-directional boom mic that pulls out from the left ear cup during use and can be pushed back in when you don't need it it's a pretty neat feature and I like that you can just hide the microwave rather than lifting it 

up and having it look ugly on the headset the mic is also bendable when it's extended and it holds its shape fairly well the pull out mechanism for the mic also functions a lot smoother than I thought it would and it makes me a lot less worried about how well the design will hold up over time alright so now I'm talking to you guys directly through the mic on the headset as you can hear it is a pretty clear good sounding microphone now that said it's not something that 

you're going to want to use to record high-quality voice over for say something like a youtube video like this one or if you're doing streaming I still recommend doing something like a high quality XLR microphone that you're going to run through an external sound interface anyway so you know obviously that's a much bigger investment in a headset like this but I think just for playing with friends online and things like that that this headset is going to be more than 

enough as far as microphone quality goes as much as I've enjoyed my time with the Kraken 7.1 v2 there are of course a few things that I would change if I could there's no inline controls which is a huge bummer because I like being able to adjust the volume on the fly and like I mentioned the headband could have a little bit more padding it wasn't enough to make it uncomfortable by any means but I think extra padding would make it a really great experience 

overall the Kraken 7.1 v2 is another step in the right direction for Razer recently Razer has been updating their tried-and-true products seemingly correcting a lot of the issues that we the consumers have had with the original at  the sound quality on the Kraken 7.1 v2 is good enough that I don't feel like I'm not getting my money's worth out of a USB headset and the comfortable ear cups make long gaming marathon sessions a lot less fatiguing than I've 

experienced with many other headsets if you're looking for a good quality USB headset that you can wear for a long time or if you have glasses that often give you headaches from being smashed into the side of your head the Kraken 7.1 B 2 is definitely worth taking a look at well that's it for the video guys let me know in the comments section down below if you think razors heading in the right direction with these revisions to the Kraken music dad Seth's got enough 

value in it to demand price point and also just let me know what you thought about the quality of the mic consider.


the new Kraken tournament edition hits it from a razor that now features a th X a spatial audio so starting off with the pricing at first the kraken tournament Edition is retailing on Amazon now if you are familiar with the Kraken range of headsets then the design is not really going to be anything new to you really you still get the same adjustable headband with the mesh padding at the top of course the 

iconic razor style of plastic ear cups with the mesh style a closed back design and the eraser logo however on a D tournament Edition it is a not a backlit like the others not even green it's not backlit at all which usually isn't really a problem because it's on a headset and you hardly see the hits when it's on your head so that that's not really a problem the ear cups are still able to swivel a small amount to fit over your ears and then at the aluminum frame will be able to 

handle any reasonable amount of tension you apply to it comfort wise you get that awesome a large ear cups with the soft a gel infused cushions with a cloth and leather right combination that allows you to wear the headset for a longer period at a time without any issues I also had no issues with my ears scratching against the inside of the drivers which is usually a problem that I have so if you have the same thing then you don't have to worry about the cracking 

tournament dition it's really comfortable and as for the microphone you still get the same retractable mic that you get on pretty much all over the eraser it's it's currently I do have it plugged in into the THX control units which is USB and then I'm recording into stream labs Oviatt so this is how it sounds currently all of these settings is also just on normal or default in these and app software so this is how it's going sound I do have my mechanical which keyboard down here on my lap so it is everything going to pick that up but you do have a few other 

options that you can enhance on in the synapse software so it will be able to reduce that with the noise reduction you have voice clarity and then also noise sound normalization so you can play around with that and see what your gates so just for an example that volume normalization voice clarity and noise reduction is set on 50% in at the synapse software so you can hear how it sounds of course some of it is going to lower the quality but from my testing it 

actually doesn't sound too bad and I would definitely say that you can use this mic for all of your gaming without any issues of course if you wanted to record anything higher quality then you would want to get external condenser microphone just going to sound better but actually for these gaming microphones which usually is really bad this is actually pretty good so yeah moving on to the cable you get the same 1.3 ammeter nylon a braided cable with an inline 

controller that allows you to adjust the volume and a mute at the microphone at the end of the cable you get a 90 degree TRS combo Jack that will work on a PC console and other mobile devices allowing you to hear the audio and then also use the microphone now getting into the main difference between a determent Edition and the other Kraken headsets and that is the sound quality now you still get the same 50 millimeter driver with the neodymium magnets but 

now again you get at that thx spatial surround sound for a much better sound immersion in a games and then also in other applications before we get into how it sounds you will first need to connect the thx controller to your PC and it has its own set of controls as well you're gonna get a mic mute a button that lights up a radar winner muted you get an up-and-down of volume a button with 25 levels of a volume you also get on the left side a a base adjustment which if you 

want to have a bit more or less a base and then on at the right side you get a game and a chat a balance which which is always great to have especially when you're playing with somebody else then you get a D th X a button in the top or right aside with that a green LED to let you know if th X is enabled however before you enable anything just go check out the synapse software where you will need to select the program you would like to run in th X or just enormous 

around a sound and then you can use the button on a D th extra controller to enable of the surrounded goodness now it has been some time since I've lost reviewed a Krakken headset so trying it out again I was pleasantly surprised at how good the sound quality or was frequency range was a good all over with a no certain frequency range actually overpowering at the others which was good bass was also much more reasonable than what I remembered the Krakens are used to hear B so that was really good if you do want more bass you can use that thx a 

controller with the bass a switch to enhance it a bit more however it's only a small amount it's nothing really too crazy so if you are one of those crazy bass people then yeah it's not really that crazy anymore now of course I do understand that there's a lot of people don't really like the virtual surround sound of features they say it doesn't really sound as good and it kind of ruins the audio but for me honestly it sounds way better compared to some of the other virtual 7.1 

features and especially in more competitive games it can definitely give you an edge over your opponent and in more cinematic games like RPGs it just draws you deeper into the game world with that surround sounding audio now comparing abt HQ to standard virtual 7.1 that we get on a lot of other gaming headsets or Windows sonic surround which is built into Windows that is free thx just sounds much better the others a certain thing does kind of haunts us around a 

bit but thx just is that much further and really makes it sound alike these sounds are coming from all around you and gives you a much more depth to the sound as well you will also of course be able to use the Kraken tournament Edition and the thx watching movies and music but I did find that not all really sound as good for example most pop and dance music I found that stereo standard a lot of better the 7.1 kind of just made it not sound as clear however when 

it comes to orchestral music which I do love with the wider sound stage the thx really made it sound good when I was listening to the interstellar soundtrack and also the gladiator soundtrack I just made me feel more alive in the music which was awesome so that is pretty much it for my review of the Kraken termined edition with th X and now so it's always kind of hard to portray a sound quality and how it actually sounds can actually experience it yourself 

to your the difference but you guys can trust me the thx special surround sound so awesome and most likely it is the bass surround sound that I've kinda heard it's all date there are some other options that you get but I do think that the thx special surround sound does sound the bass .

Razer Kraken 7.1 V2: 7.1 Surround Sound - Retractable Noise-Cancelling Mic review

 the usual Razer black and green look alright so this review we actually get to skip the accessories like normally we start with accessories but there's absolutely none with this headset what you get is the headset itself it is not a detachable wire so that is already included it is a braided cable which i think is really nice it is a very thick cable it's also USB on the other end so you can use it straight into your PC straight into your ps4 that's really about it as far as looking 

at the headset itself it looks like your usual razor especially the new design the razer kraken version - the man-of-war they all have this new similar look which I really like the one thing I do want to point off right off the bat that I'm not crazy about there's no volume control like none it's not on the headset it's not on the cable like especially with most USB headsets you you expect there to be volume control on it because they're powered by themselves you should be 

able to have a lot of control on the headset so that's my one major gripe with these but as far as looks and build you see you know these flex and twist and turn they're not creaky like some of the other gaming headsets I really like the leather headband simply just has razors new logo at the top it has these metal very very sturdy extenders and as you can see there's numbers on them so that you can match up this side to this side and so you have a balanced look on your 

head but speaking of look on your head these things stick out like a long way I pointed that out in my other reviews but if you haven't seen those I definitely feel the need to point that out in the it looks kind of ridiculous the mic does pull out and as you can see is you push the button that's actually the mic itself it will mute and unmute the mic in fact when you have it muted the light on the very end of the microphone will turn red but speaking of the microphone let's go 

ahead and give it a listen here alright guys so here is a test of what the razer kraken 7.1 version 2 microphone sounds like i did notice that there is some hissing in the esses but overall the tone is very nice it is extremely clear as you know with most gaming headsets microphones are not that great and this is actually a really decent noise cancelling microphone alright so back on to the headphones themself the one thing i've pointed out in other headphones and headsets I'm 

not crazy about is the cable inside of the headset anything catches that anything pulls that there's really no replacing it I just think it makes it pretty vulnerable and it just always concerns me but as far as the frame again like I said it's metal I really like the metal mesh look here and it does have the chroma lighting and I have it set to match up with my keyboard and with my mouse pad so that they're all in sync at all times and for anybody that likes RGB 

lighting it's just a beautiful thing now the ear cups on these things are absolutely massive they are extremely deep the leather is really soft it is honestly one of the most comfortable headsets outside of HyperX that I always recommend if you're looking for comfort looking for something that you can wear all day that's what these are they are not open at all so they do get a little warm but again with gaming headset most of them are closed back you just kind of need 

to take a break at your head sweating back bad ok so right into sound if you're familiar with razer at all they're really for the most part a bass heavy headset they always have been the newer generation starting with a razer man-of-war starting with the version 2 of the kraken and the kraken 7.1 they haven't sold down the base but they pushed up the mids in the treble where it balances out a little better now bass is still really stream in these but the advantage with razor is you can download their software so that you have a lot more control over the 

headset itself and you also turn on the 7.1 surround sound that's available with these you can control the EQ you can control the lighting you can control the microphone it gives you a lot of control within the app but still overall you really can't tone back the bass as much as I'd like I think the bass is really up front which in most cases the mids kind of suffer from that now I think the treble in all treble is fine in these treble is actually really sparkly for the most part so treble and bass you would picture it to be up here and the mids just take a dive that I think if 

anything that I would change personally it would be that now with saying that these things shine with video games and honestly that's what you want them for they sound great on the ps4 they sound great on the PC but with music that's what I wouldn't necessarily recommend these for unless you just specifically like bass and don't really care about anything else these things with movies again because it kind of falls in line with gaming sounds great the treble is being 

pushed up vocals and movie sound of great vocals in games and little sounds and games you're able to pick up really well but because of the bass being so punchy explosion sound great you feel more impact than you do with most headsets and that's a huge plus and I think some headsets miss out on that so that's something razer really has going for them so overall do i recommend them these retail  and i think whenever you're looking at 

 you're in a LAN that you're competing with some pretty impressive headsets now i honestly would recommend the HyperX cloud to over these like by a longshot but again if bass is your main focus then yes I would definitely recommend these and as far as build quality it's really good you don't have anything to worry about so parents looking to buy their kids gaming headsets this is something you could buy and know that it's going to last a long time so that's really it that is my quick review of the these are kraken 7.1 version 2 it's a good 

buy if you really like bass and you're using them more for gaming and not for music but if you're looking for a headset to use for gaming and music definitely go with the HyperX cloud - but Razer has stepped up their game with their new a lot of headsets was it a big fan of the original 7.1 s wasn't a fan of the original Kraken and razer has come a long way .

Razer Kraken 7.1 V2: 7.1 Surround Sound - Retractable Noise-Cancelling Mic review

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