Features:

  • FULL AUDIO CONTROLS: Turn on THX Spatial Audio for increased immersion, control both volume and bass levels, and even configure the game/chat balance
  • THX SPATIAL AUDIO: Creating realistic depth by simulating positionally-accurate sound in a 360° sphere for a more natural and lifelike experience *Available with Razer Synapse
  • GAME/CHAT BALANCE: Tune between game and chat audio for the perfect mix of immersion and communication
  • CUSTOM-TUNED 50 MM DRIVERS: Provides a wide soundscape, from subtle footsteps sneaking up behind you to climactic explosions
  • COOLING GEL-INFUSED CUSHIONS: Reduce heat build-up, while a soft cloth and leatherette combination provides comfort and sound isolation so you can enjoy gaming for hours
Love the spatial audio

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.

Great headset

definitely recommended. It has great sound (even without the audio controller connected - explanation below) and it's very light weight, which I can appreciate after hours of continuous use. However if it's for a console, you cant use the audio controller that comes with it because it only has a USB connection. Just keep that in mind before purchasing.

Quality gaming headset

This is the first good gaming headset ive bought, the first were sum cheap $25 turtle beach headsets from gamestop, returned those the next day. Then i used my apple earphones until i did enough research and found these. I play call of duty black ops4 and other C.O.D games and its vital to have a good headset, you can hear foot steps directionally from where theyre coming from. Its really a must have for playing the game to your best potential. My K/D went up and overall all experience of the game feels brand new, i had the game 3 months before buying my headset and its a new experience. I recommend spending atleast $100 bux on a good headset and this is the one to get. It has a retractable mic and very good quality, i bought 2 and gave my homie one for christmas and his voice sounds the same in person as it does on the mic, its not high pitched or dry nasal sounding. I get startled everytime i get shot unexpectedly because the quality of sound depth is so good. If your shooting close quarters itll sound loud and if theres shooting in the distance youll be able to hear it just enough and locate it directionally. Also the headset looks pretty hard its all black, and they have cooling gel ear cup cushions that actually feel cool to the touch and very comfortable. The headset is overall very comfortable and has a volume and mute on the headset cord, havent used the THX spatial sound mode but i cant imagine the sound quality getting better honestly. You wont regret getting this headset guarenteed

A Fantastic and Underrated Headset

The Razer Kraken TE is only rated around 3.5 stars at the time that I am writing this review. Let me tell you right now that most of the reviews for this product that are under 4 stars complain about things that they just don't know how to use. For instance, the headset comes with an audio controller that you can mount using its adhesive back. This controller has multiple buttons on it, and one of them controls the THX Spatial Audio. I believe that many of the users who have complained about this feature not working have not done their research. You should never buy a product before doing your research. I hate seeing the ratings for products such as these go down because people don't know what they are doing. To get that THX Spatial Audio to work, you need to be using that audio controller, AND you need to have Razer Synapse 3 on your computer. You can still use the headphones without the audio controller, but you will NOT be able to use the THX Spatial Audio. Before you start complaining about how annoying that is, you should really consider what Razer is trying to accomplish here. It is obvious from both the marketing and device setup that they are using this THX Spatial Audio for an enhanced GAMING experience. This doesn't mean that they don't sound when listening to music or other uses, as I can assure you that they do, but it means that you won't need that spatial audio unless you are using it for gaming. You should understand the ins and outs of a product at this price point before you buy it, and it is NOT difficult to figure that out. If the pictures and descriptions aren't enough, then watch some reviews/unboxings on YouTube! Most, if not all of your questions will be answered, and you won't feel like you aren't getting what you paid for! The Razer Synapse 3 software is one of the many gems that makes this product stand out. Using this software, you can do all of the following with ease: - Fine tune specific audio settings to your liking. This includes enhancements such as Sound Normalization and Voice Clarity, and you can also use the EQ to adjust 10 individual frequencies. - Adjust/toggle microphone settings. This includes enhancements, sensitivity, volume, and even sidetone. Sidetone lets you listen to what your microphone is picking up with NO DELAY, so you can hear yourself and your real-life surroundings with the headset on. - Customize audio for specific applications using the Mixer. You can select if you would rather have Stereo or Surround Sound for each application specifically, and you can also calibrate and adjust the spatial audio if you hear things differently. - Manage/create multiple presets that contain all of the aforementioned settings to switch between on the fly. You can even assign these presets to applications, so your headset will automatically switch to them when a specific application is being used. It will switch right back to what you were on before when you stop using that application as well. The microphone sounds just as good as the other Razer Kraken headset microphones if not better, and as I have mentioned, can be customized using the Razer Synapse 3 software. The headset is extremely comfortable, and the cooling gel-infused ear cushions are amazing. They feel great and the headset is very light overall. For those wondering, the construction is made up plastic and what feels to be a lightweight aluminum. As advertised, the top cushion is definitely softer than previous Kraken iterations, and sometimes it almost feels as though I am not even wearing my headset! Good build quality and comfort. The audio controller takes the headphone input in the form of a 3.5 mm audio jack and outputs to your PC via USB. I know already wrote a bit about the audio controller earlier in the review, but here are its features as well: - Volume Up/Volume Down buttons - Toggle Microphone Mute button - Bass adjustment knob - Game/Chat balance knob - Toggle THX Spatial Audio button There is also a basic in-line audio controller on the cable of the headset, and it allows for the following: - Volume Adjustment knob - Toggle Microphone Mute switch The main thing that everyone wants to know is how do they sound? Well, I personally think that they sound great and are a clear upgrade from my previous Kraken 7.1 Chroma headset. I use the THX Spatial Audio for games, and it is actually crazy how easy it is to tell where things are in-game. It was one of the first things that I noticed when I used these for the first time when playing games. In conclusion, this headset is honestly insanely good, especially for the price. I felt that I needed to do it justice by writing such a lengthy review to go over most of the features and shed light on some misinformed/uninformed reviews. I've spent a decent amount of time writing this, and hopefully at least some of you found it helpful. Let me know if you have any questions, and have a nice day/night. - Matt P.S. Please excuse any spelling/grammar errors. If I made a big mistake in my writing then please let me know, and I will fix it.

UPDATED 4-14: best headset ever once Razer helped me!

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.

Great upgrade from PX series turtle beach - Keep the PX Amp!

Overall & TL;DR For the prices: I love the hardware, super comfy. Even with a big head/ears it's comfy. The cuff arms are metal.. I'm liking this a lot. I hated the software and ditched the Razer Kraken usb amp. I modded my turtle beach px22 amp and it sounds/feels great! Software/Razer Synapse were Ick The audio controls for this software is a pitfall for this product!! I tried for a couple hours to get the audio to sound like it wasn't muffled. It was overly super bassy, not enough treble, and the EQ settings didn't help. It hit the ear drums uncomfortably just enough to rattle, like a babies cry. The Razer Kraken AMP - I didn't like the button press over wheel based adjustments. 3rd Party Amp/Turtle Beach Px22 Previously owned Turtle Beaches and sound was great. The hardware aside of the spears sucked on it though, it was the cheaper turtle beaches in all fairness. The turtle beaches weren't comfy on the ears until after a few days. A small drop on the PX headsets and the plastic arms broke. I also didn't want to pay $300+ for the decent headset and the new amplifier for the Turtle Beach Pro's. The Amplifier though from the previous PX22 I had, I kept even with the PX24. (didn't like the PX24 buttons either) I couldn't fit this headset because the barrel/opening on the PX22 amp had a 1cm depth before the jack. So I modded the amp plastic chassis a bit, cut open the top and bottom parts, smoothed it out a little bit with Dremel rotary sanding and grinding bits. I was able to fit it in and the audio is perfect. (Picture attached)

Great sound all around

First of all, I am in no means a "professional", "extreme", or "hard core" gamer. I don't go for MMORPGs or FPS games, with the exception of the classic "Wolfenstein 3D", but only for nostalgia's sake. The majority of the games I play are either hidden object games or first-person point-and-click puzzle games. Think of "Myst" or "Riven", or if you're like me, "Shivers". Maybe more recently, "The Eyes of Ara". That said, I wanted three things in a set of headphones or headset for my computer: 1. Great stereo sound 2. Comfort 3. Durability I have tried numerous headphones on just about every computer I've owned. Granted, how well a computer's sound depends on the sound card, but that's only halfway there. Saying a computer's sound depends solely on the quality of the sound card is like saying a car is only as good as the tires mounted on it. You have to meet it halfway there, and you need a good input/output. Like I've said, I've used numerous different headphones. I've used some $20-30 Sony headphones. I've used a pair of BioWorld headphones that featured DJ P0n-3 (back when I was into "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic"). I've used a pair of $60 Skullcandy headphones. I also used a $25 Logitech headset. None of them seemed to work properly. They might have worked for a short while, but then they'd get uncomfortable, they would break, or the sound would become "tinny" or just not clear enough. I've had to mess with the computer's volume several times on one of the Sony headphones. The Razer Kraken Tournament Edition headset has everything I could ever ask for in a headset. Its framework is durable. The cushioned headband is very wide, so it doesn't feel like it's pinching any hairs or skin. The microphone is not only retractable, which was an issue I had with the Logitech headset, but can actually be turned off. Like I said, I don't play any games that would require the microphone, but it's there if I need it. But the sound! The sound is amazing! I read some of the complaints here, and the thing is, yes, you do have to install the driver and software for the headset. It instructs you to turn up the volume all the way. You may have to tweak it, depending on your system's hardware. There are several presets for different scenarios, and depending on the quality of your system's hardware, you may need to do some serious tweaking. After being stunned by how well the couple of games I was actively playing sounded, I put the headset to the ultimate test. Music. I tried it on a couple of rap songs. The bass seemed to be pretty good. I also tried it on a couple of classic rock (my main favorite genre of music) and the headset worked great. Now for the ultimate test. Pink Floyd. Any die-hard fan or anyone who's very familiar with Pink Floyd's discography will know that they used a lot of backmasking and layered tracks on their songs. Not only did you hear the actual lyrics and the instruments, but on albums like "The Wall" and "Dark Side of the Moon", there were underlying layers, mostly speech. "I've been mad for f***ing years!" "He's cruisin' for a bruisin'!" "Is it safe to travel at night?" I immediately put on Pink Floyd. I was familiar with what was said in the background, but this headset made it two or three times clearer than ever before. All I could do was sit there with my jaw on the floor. So far I am very satisfied with this headset.

Love This Headset

My husband bought this headset at Best Buy, and I bought the next step down of the same brand. Once I tried his and used the remote, I was sold. Best Buy was out of stock, so I came to Amazon. The mic retracts into the headset when not in use, which is great to help prevent damage. It sits very comfortably on my head and ears. Some gaming headsets hurt your head after awhile, but after a 3 hour raid, I felt no discomfort. The sound is excellent, and my guildies said my voice came over perfectly. Very happy with this product!

Very comfortable

I've been using these since April after my Xbox brand broke. These are comfortable not too heavy. Ears stay relatively cool, and they fit over my ears with no pressure point even during extended gaming sessions. Microphone is clear to others on the other end while playing. I like the fact that there is a 90 degree plug. It keeps the wire from being bent and in turn being broken..

Exactly what I wanted.

I was looking for an affordable pair of headphones for my new PC and WOW are these Razer Kraken Tournament Edition headphones PERFECT! They sound great and were easy to get setup.

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