Razer Kraken USB Over Ear PC and Music Headset - Black

This is a preliminary review consisting mostly of first impressions and preliminary use. Proceed with that in mind.This review will be broken down into two main sections: First Impressions and Preliminary Use.FIRST IMPRESSIONS1) The BoxI opened the box containing the headset, and was immediately pleased with the stylish box it came in. I love boxes, especially product boxes, and would keep every single box I ever got if I had the space. Nothing about the product box is displeasing. It's not overly glossy and it isn't cheap. It's definitely a fancy box. Of course, from Razer, I would expect nothing less. Razer isn't a toss-away brand like a $20 Logitech headset. The box has Velcro attached for easy resealability of the headset's box.2) Ease of AccessSome headsets I've bought have been somewhat difficult to remove from the packaging. They use stiff, clunky plastic to keep the headset in place, and sometimes use stiff twist ties to hold things in place. The Razer Kraken 7.1 Chroma is the opposite of this. The headset is held in place by nice little rubber ties, something I had never seen before. It was a pleasant surprise. I didn't have to remove the headset's in-box mount to remove it from the packaging.3) Looks of the HeadsetThe headset is sleek and black. It's smaller than I expected, and smaller than my Corsair Vengeance 2000. It's lighter to hold than my Vengeance 2000, as well. It doesn't look or feel like cheaply made crap. The build quality is quite decent, and far beyond acceptable.PRELIMINARY USE1) Plug In and Go!As soon as I plugged the headset in, Windows 8.1 began installing the drivers. Shortly after, the Razer Synapse installation came up automatically, and did its thing. I didn't have to go find drivers to download, and I didn't have to fiddle with a cheap, outdated driver disc. I just plugged it in and was good to go from there. After the restart following the Razer Synapse installation, I was able to put this headset to the test.2) Sounds Good!In August and September, I ordered three different headsets. The first one was a Sentey Harmoniq Pro I got at a discount with a Sentey mouse and keyboard. Much to my dismay, the bass for the Harmoniq Pro was nonexistant. I returned it as soon as I could for a full refund. The next headset was the Roccat Kave 5.1 XTD. It was fancy and light, but that's where the good ended. The bass was, again, subpar and very poor. On top of this, the mic didn't work at all. I returned it for a full refund, as well. The third and final headset was an Asus ROG headset. Once again, same story: subpar bass, flashy headset, sounded rather tinny. Requested RMA from Newegg and had it returned for a full refund. Fed up, I gave up trying to replace my Vengeance 2000, as every headset I had tried was blasted out of the water by my Vengeance 2000 in every possible category.Now, three months later, I put in a purchase for this headset. I went into this wanting so badly for the headset to have been worth the $79.99 + tax + $3.99 next-day shipping. Boy, was I every so pleased! The sound is crisp, it's clean, it's clear. The bass is wonderful, much better than my Vengeance 2000! It's almost as good as the Cooler Master CM Storm Sirus I had with the full-sized hockey puck of a mixing console, before the wire got a short in it near the ear cup. In fact, I would say the bass is comparable.This was a preliminary review focusing on the first impressions and preliminary use of the headset. I may come back at a later date and add more if necessary.

I switched to this headset after using two different Turtle Beach headsets, (the X12's, and the PX4's.) In my opinion, these are far superior and a smaller cost compared to the PX4's at the time of purchase. These come with Leatherette ear cushions, so while they might get a bit warm after extended use, they are still really comfortable regardless. The changing colors on this are cool. You could keep it static if you'd like, but you probably won't see it much while its on your head as the light does show up on the ear cups after all.Oh, these are USB powered, so there are no 3.5 jacks, or anything like that. It's just plug and play, my friends.**UPDATE: I got these to work for my PS4. Took some tinkering, but the following should get these working, go to Settings>Devices>Audio Devices. Then change "Output to Headphones" to list "All Audio."**The mic is retractable, which is pretty rad, and can be pulled out to any length you chose to up to its furthest stretch of about 4 inches or so; which is great if you plan on eating and gaming at the same time. It's nice not getting your mic in your cereal by accident. So, with that said, If you prefer your mic to be out exactly 3.5 inches or 2.7, or any other increment up to about 4 inches you'll be golden. The tip of the mic also lights up when it's muted. Yay for mute light!These do a great job at noise isolation! Blocks out a great deal of noise without listening to anything, and its pretty much impossible to hear someone next to you speaking at normal voice level if you are. Bass can be a bit boomy on this though, and is MORE suitable for game audio BUT can be changed to suit great for music (more on that in a bit.) Note: If you leave the "Sound Normalization" setting off, (which is the default setting,) it's more bass producing. A bass test video on youtube with these on default settings was able to make my eyeballs vibrate a little. However, thanks to the Synapse app from Razer, you can easily adjust the sound from a decent amount of presets to a custom EQ. It also has a mixer in the app, so you can make the audio louder for one application and softer in another all from the Synapse app, which is nice. You can also change each of the audio outputs to 7.1 surround sound or 2.0 stereo if that's your thing.Overall, I think these headsets are the bee's knees and would recommend them to anyone.By far the best i've used out of my own headsets and my friends various headsets.