Razer Kraken 7.1 Chroma Review

Shedding new light on an old beast, the Razer Kraken 7.1 Chroma delivers an advanced virtual 7.1 surround sound experience which will grab the attention of many hardcore gamers.

Product on Review: Razer Kraken 7.1 Chroma
Manufacturer: RAZER
Street Price: £89.99 GBP

Razer are arguably one of the most established and recognisable gaming brands out there and through the symbolism of merging serpents forming the holy trinity, they have even managed to create a cult following. The Cult of Razer. Once you buy a Razer product you will then be indoctrinated into this cult where the promise of in-game performance improvment becomes abundant. Aside from reading a little too far into their brand image, it is hard to deny the innovative R & D that Razer has gone through for gamers and how it has shaped the current market today. You could even say that the responsibility for causing an entire generation of ‘rubberised plastic’ products lays with them too.

Each year sees an assortment of incremental updates and tweaking to their soild stable of peripherals and when they aren’t pushing the boundary into new ideas, they also like to keep up with latest trends like what we see here with the Kraken 7.1 Chroma. The Kraken 7.1 has been a fairly popular headset with many gamers, known for its powerful gaming audio and advanced virtual 7.1 surround, the Chroma comes in with that extra cherry on top with some customisable lighting.

Overview by Razer

Advanced 7.1 virtual surround sound engine
The Razer Kraken 7.1 Chroma comes equipped with an advanced 7.1 virtual surround sound engine that immerses you deeper into the game. The engine is capable of ultra-low latency audio processing and modulates the audio source to simulate a 360° surround sound experience that is usually achievable only by incorporating more than one positional driver in each ear cup.

Chroma lighting with 16.8 million customizable color options
Made to give you all the freedom you need to set yourself apart, your Razer Kraken 7.1 Chroma opens up a world of extreme personalization possibilities. From your own custom uniquely programmed palette of colors, to preloaded lighting effects, all set easily through Razer Synapse, the Razer Kraken 7.1 Chroma lets you express yourself in a way that’s unique only to you.

Specifications & Features

Headphones
Drivers: 40mm with Neodymium
Frequency response: 20Hz–20kHz
Impedance: 32 Ohm
Sensitivity @ 1kHz: 112dB
Output power: 30mW
Connector: Gold plated USB
Cable length: 2m/6.56ft braided USB cable
Approximate weight: 340g (including 2.0m cable)

Microphone
Frequency response: 100Hz–12kHz
Sensitivity @ 1kHz: -40dB ± 4dB
Signal-to-noise ratio: 63dB
Pick-up pattern: Unidirectional

System Requirements
PC / Mac with USB port ;PlayStation 4 (when plugged into PS 4 only spectrum cycling lighting effects is available)
Windows® 8 / Windows® 7 / Windows Vista® / Mac OS X (10.7-10.9)
Internet connection (for driver installation)
At least 100MB of free hard disk space

Features
– Razer Kraken 7.1 Chroma surround sound gaming headset
– Advanced 7.1 virtual surround sound engine
– Enhanced digital microphone
– Designed for extended gaming comfort
– Chroma lighting with 16.8 million customizable color options
– Razer Synapse enabled
– Powerful drivers for highest-quality gaming audio
– Closed ear cup design for optimal sound isolation
– Foldable ear cups for maximum portability

Packaging & First Look

Anyone familiar with Razer products will recognise the unequivocally distinguished and sleek packaging they use. Here we get quality slick black with a glossy image of the product without the design being overstated. The Chroma naming gives away the 16.8M LED lighting control while information about the primary features are listed.

At the back we get a diagram breaking down and explaining the features of the Kraken 7.1, at the side there is also note of the microphone technology used.

Opened up we see an acyrlic screen covering the product a message initiating you into the Cult of Razer.

Inside we get a quickstart guide, information about Razer as well as some reflective Razer case stickers.

The Kraken 7.1 Chroma headset.

Closer Look

The headband is coated with a fabric mesh and lined with a thin but squishy lining of cushion.

The headband is adjustable and should give enough length for the majority of people.

The earcups can rotate on the spot and are lined with a thick cushioning coated with a good quality leather/pleather, though the opening looks too small to be fully circumaural which is a shame as it looks as though it is intended to be as such.

It seems like the number of modular headsets is diminishing lately, and this is no exception, though the cable is braided and seems strong and good quality. The microphone is fully retractable.

The Kraken 7.1 Chroma can fold for storage, though no case is included and the earcups being as thick as they are, it doesn’t really do a good job at folding… though it may be handy for some.

The Kraken 7.1 Chroma gaming headset with microphone extended.

The microphone has a small button on the tip which mutes the microphone and turns on a red LED to indicated that the microphone has been muted.

Software & Lighting

The software was more of a pain than most others to get through as it isn’t simply a case of ‘install-done’. Instead it was install> sign in (requiring me to reset my password as I had forgotten my previous details)> download another driver> install> restart> calibrate the virtual surround. The the driver wants to micro-manage each individual app setting. The headset by default stays on the virtual 7.1 setting, meaning you need to open the software (as it cannot be done via windows) and select the application running, then set it to stereo should you wish the change the rendering mode.

In the audio tab, there are various functions which help create different audio signatures, though after playing around with them all it felt like none were needed. There are various controls for the microphone as well as an equaliser allowing for further adjustment. Lastly there are controls to customise the headsets colour. On the Kraken, only the Razer logo lights up, which honestly looks very cool. It isn’t just pointless lighting or colours and makes you appreciate the colour and design a lot more. To add to this, the colour gradients are some of the most accurate, and vivid colours I have seen on a headset. Yellow looks yellow, turquoise looks turquoise and magenta looks like magenta.

Performance Testing

Setup, Design & Observations
Other than the driver installation process, setting up a USB headset tends to be fairly straight forward. The cable length is 2m, which is enough for most and as previously touched upon, its a shame it isn’t modular. The contruction is good quality plastics, very robust and oozes quality. Upon wearing the headset, my fear of the earcups not being large enough real, resulting in a not quite circum-aural (over ear) not quite supra-aural (on ear) experience. The clamp strength and the super plush cushioning is comfortable and feels great, but that only delayed the inevitable fatigue brought about by the somewhat questionable earcup size induced ear crush, though this was over a long period of several hours and up until then, they do remain reasonably comfortable.

To touch on the lighting again, the effect created is actually impressive, I love those tiny colourful serpents.

Multimedia
It only took a fraction of playing music to realise that this is first, and foremost a gaming headset in its archaic sense. Thick heavy mushy bass like treacle gurgling out of a whales blow hole. This headset is very bass heavy and considering that the max volume is very loud, the booming WOMMM is the kind that makes your nose run on a sunny day. Not for listening to music. I attempted to balance the audio a little using the equaliser but honestly, it couldn’t be done, below is the closest I could get to ‘acceptable’. The result was pleasing but the mids and highs were ‘tonally’ different to what I am used to, with the mids and highs tending to be fairly loose.

In games, the booming audio helps bring shooters alive and the 7.1 surround is pretty decent too. Though finer details were often lost in the muddy tonal range. If you love feeling explosions and excitement, these do the trick, though if you want to hear footsteps, movement and other subtle effects, they will mostly be drowned out in any action going on at the time. In DOTA2, the Kraken 7.1 didn’t bring out the glory of the game, with muffled sounds and the virtual 7.1 straining to really give any real clarity to the audio.

Microphone
The microphone is strange, in that it is actually very natural and warm sounding and does a great job of blocking background noises, though there tended to be a pickup lag which resulted in fast said words not being transmitted at all. I played around with the various microphone settings, and there didn’t seem to be an option to fix this. It ‘mostly’ wasn’t an issue particularly with sustained words and conversations, but if you are one to say short sharp words like ‘yo’, yeh’, ‘nah’ and ‘ok’, you will want to expand your vocabulary to include ‘affirmative’, ‘negatory’ and ‘copy that’ instead, otherwise you may find that noone actually recieved your response.

Conclusion

The Razer Kraken 7.1 for many will be a love or hate affair, the thick and heavy bass packs a huge punch when it comes to action FPSs and likely for racing games too while the virtual 7.1 surround sound gives a good sense of direction. The construction and build quality is typically excellent, as expected from Razer, though we could argue that there are various missed opportunites.

The Kraken 7.1 Chroma is not modular and while the retractable microphone is a tried and tested favourite for many people, having a removable main line certainly does have its advantages over a fixed hardline. Another point is, no matter how comfortable the earpadding is, if you do not design your earcups to definitely be ‘over ear’ or ‘on ear’ you will end up with a headset that doesn’t quite live up to expectation in regards to comfort. There are other minor niggles with the Kraken 7.1 too, the long winded software setup, the microphone lag/pickup and for some, considering the cost (£89.99), the excessive use of plastic. Though none of this really causes this headset to topple as it is ultimately a sexy looking rock solid, bass heavy, gaming headset and if that is what you are looking for, look no further.

The customisable lighting brought to the Kraken 7.1 Chroma adds a touch of class to a quality gaming headset, if you like powerful, booming bass prepare to be initiated into the Cult of Razer

Pros.
+ Good virtual 7.1 surround
+ Attractive aesthetic
+ Quality construction
+ Customisable lighting effect
+ Good gaming audio

Mediocre
+- Razer Software
+- Earcups not quite true circum-aural
+- Some may find the bass overbearing
+- Good microphone offset by pickup lag

Cons.
– Price
– Not great for music