The Razer Kraken X is the third £50 / $50 gaming headset I’ve tried in nearly as many weeks, and by jolly is it a tough one to guage. Compared to the equally priced Steelseries Arctis 1, it has a a lot clearer, extra detailed sound when enjoying games, however even its ultralight, 250g body can’t beat the supreme weightlessness of its Arctis rival. It is, nevertheless, lots comfier than the head-pinching Logitech G432, however its mic and audio high quality nonetheless have a protracted technique to go earlier than they’ll match peerless brilliance of Logitech’s finances surprise. Is there any hope for the £50 / $50 headset purchaser? Here’s wot I believe.
One of the most important quibbles I’ve with the Razer Kraken X is that its stability simply appears to be terribly, terribly off. No matter what I used to be enjoying, it always felt prefer it was giving me audio whiplash each time I modified path, as if my mind was being twisted and strung out like a moist tea towel in reverse instructions. Or, to place it one other manner, the quantity and normal density of its audio felt a lot louder and heavier on the suitable hand aspect of the Kraken X than it did on the left, leading to what I can solely describe as a gentle head-frying by the point I’d completed testing it.
The most annoying factor in regards to the Kraken X, although, is that regardless of this slow-burn mulching occurring inside my gray matter, its general soundscape is definitely fairly rattling detailed – far more so than the muted, relatively damp sound of the Steelseries Arctis 1. In Doom, as an example, my Super Shotgun blasts had an exquisite sense of weight to them, and the squelching of imp blood and cracking of demon skulls couldn’t be higher. I used to be additionally capable of pinpoint the place most enemies had been coming from because of their throaty, rasping shrieks and battle cries, and that was regardless of the entire, ‘everything sounds like it’s popping out of my proper ear’ sensation.
The identical goes for Hellblade, too. All of the voices inside Senua’s head had been fantastically clear and really pure sounding, and I nonetheless received the sense that they had been coming from throughout me regardless of one ear cup sounding louder than the opposite. The orchestral incidental music from Final Fantasy XV sounded nice as properly, and every instrument had a heat and vibrancy to them that the Arctis 1 simply can’t match. It’s only a disgrace that every little thing feels prefer it’s pulling to the suitable on a regular basis.
Don’t get me began on its bundled 7.1 digital encompass sound software program, both. Much just like the Logitech G432, the Kraken X is one other low-end gaming headset that proclaims it has 7.1 encompass sound assist, however in actuality it simply makes every little thing sound even worse than it did earlier than. At first, it gives the look of a wider, far more open sort of soundscape than earlier than, however the remainder of its results sound like they’re coming from underwater. The Super Shotgun misplaced all its impression, whereas the stomp of Noctis and co’s boots up and down the hills of Duscae appeared like they had been coming from an absolute mile away.
This sense of detachment from what’s occurring carried over to after I tried utilizing the Kraken X as an everyday pair of headphones, too. Even with out encompass sound enabled, the rock and pop tracks I listened to in iTunes felt like they had been coming from the subsequent room as a substitute of between my ears, and at no level did I really feel like tapping my toes or bopping my head alongside in time with the beat. Similarly, the melodies in my Octopath Traveller and Final Fantasy XV soundtracks actually struggled to carry their very own in opposition to their respective bass traces, making every little thing sound unbalanced and disappointingly underwhelming.
Its removable microphone was truly fairly okay, producing a transparent, crisp sound that did an excellent job of reducing out any extraneous noise round my workplace, however that’s of little comfort after I had such a tough time with the headset general.
As a outcome, regardless that the Razer Kraken X is lots much less head-pinching than the Logitech G432, I’m going to should go along with the Logitech as my new £50 / $50 gaming headset of selection as a substitute of this or the Steelseries Arctis 1. There actually is not any beating the G432 relating to general audio high quality at this type of worth, which for me is sufficient to put up with its mildly uncomfortable headband. Perhaps sooner or later I’ll discover a headset that manages to hit large on each the sound and luxury scale, however for now, these in search of the best gaming headset on this specific worth vary ought to get straight on the £53 / $50 Logitech G432.
