The Razer Kraken X is the third £50 / $50 gaming headset I’ve attempted in practically as a lot of weeks, and by jolly is it a really hard a single to judge. Compared to the similarly priced Steelseries Arctis 1, it has a a lot clearer, much more detailed sound when playing games, but even its ultralight, 250g frame can not beat the supreme weightlessness of its Arctis rival. It is, having said that, a lot comfier than the head-pinching Logitech G432, but its mic and audio top quality nevertheless have a lengthy way to go prior to they can match peerless brilliance of Logitech’s spending budget wonder. Is there any hope for the £50 / $50 headset purchaser? Here’s wot I feel.
1 of the greatest quibbles I have with the Razer Kraken X is that its balance just appears to be terribly, terribly off. No matter what I was playing, it consistently felt like it was providing me audio whiplash each time I changed path, as if my brain was getting twisted and strung out like a wet tea towel in opposite directions. Or, to place it yet another way, the volume and common density of its audio felt a lot louder and heavier on the proper hand side of the Kraken X than it did on the left, resulting in what I can only describe as a mild head-frying by the time I’d completed testing it.
The most annoying issue about the Kraken X, even though, is that regardless of this slow-burn mulching going on inside my grey matter, its general soundscape is essentially quite damn detailed – a lot much more so than the muted, rather damp sound of the Steelseries Arctis 1. In Doom, for instance, my Super Shotgun blasts had a amazing sense of weight to them, and the squelching of imp blood and cracking of demon skulls couldn’t be improved. I was also in a position to pinpoint exactly where most enemies had been coming from thanks to their throaty, rasping shrieks and battle cries, and that was regardless of the complete, ‘everything sounds like it is coming out of my proper ear’ sensation.
The similar goes for Hellblade, also. All of the voices inside Senua’s head had been beautifully clear and quite organic sounding, and I nevertheless got the sense that they had been coming from all about me regardless of a single ear cup sounding louder than the other. The orchestral incidental music from Final Fantasy XV sounded good as effectively, and every single instrument had a warmth and vibrancy to them that the Arctis 1 just can not match. It is just a shame that almost everything feels like it is pulling to the proper all the time.
Do not get me began on its bundled 7.1 virtual surround sound software program, either. Significantly like the Logitech G432, the Kraken X is yet another low-finish gaming headset that proclaims it has 7.1 surround sound help, but in reality it just tends to make almost everything sound even worse than it did prior to. At initial, it provides the impression of a wider, a lot much more open sort of soundscape than prior to, but the rest of its effects sound like they’re coming from underwater. The Super Shotgun lost all its influence, although the stomp of Noctis and co’s boots up and down the hills of Duscae sounded like they had been coming from an absolute mile away.
This sense of detachment from what’s going on carried more than to when I attempted making use of the Kraken X as a normal pair of headphones, also. Even without the need of surround sound enabled, the rock and pop tracks I listened to in iTunes felt like they had been coming from the subsequent area rather of amongst my ears, and at no point did I really feel like tapping my toes or bopping my head along in time with the beat. Similarly, the melodies in my Octopath Traveller and Final Fantasy XV soundtracks seriously struggled to hold their personal against their respective bass lines, generating almost everything sound unbalanced and disappointingly underwhelming.
Its detachable microphone was essentially quite okay, generating a clear, crisp sound that did a good job of cutting out any extraneous noise about my workplace, but that is of small consolation when I had such a rough time with the headset general.
As a outcome, even even though the Razer Kraken X is a lot much less head-pinching than the Logitech G432, I’m going to have to go with the Logitech as my new £50 / $50 gaming headset of selection rather of this or the Steelseries Arctis 1. There seriously is no beating the G432 when it comes to general audio top quality at this sort of cost, which for me is adequate to place up with its mildly uncomfortable headband. Possibly a single day I’ll uncover a headset that manages to hit large on each the sound and comfort scale, but for now, these hunting for the finest gaming headset in this distinct cost variety really should get straight on the £53 / $50 Logitech G432.