Usage & Sound Quality
I have been using the Kraken Tournament Edition for a few weeks now as my main headset, so not only has it been put through its paces in gaming, but also general usage, listening to music, watching YouTube videos and more.
Let’s first talk about comfort because no matter how good a headsets sounds if it is not comfortable you are not going to wear it for an extended period of time. The first time I put on the headset I was presently surprised at how comfortable it was. When initially checking out the headset I was a bit concerned at how thin the layer of memory foam was on the headband, but now after using it, it feels just right. Many companies use thick memory foam on their gaming headsets headbands and while this is great for short session it actually becomes very uncomfortable after longer gaming sessions. Also the ear cups on this headset are awesome, they completely cover my ears giving me more sound isolation and the cooling jel inside of them kept everything nice and cool. It was surprised after playing Apex Legends for 5 hours I did not have any strain on the top of my head or ears.
Moving on to sound quality it is quite good. It is very clear and crisp and the bass was not overdone either, although you can increase or decrease the bass using the USB audio controller. I would suggest using the specific EQ modes depending on what you might be doing. If you are gaming obviously use the “Game” preset, but if you are watching a movie use the “Movie” preset.
As we mentioned this is the first headset to use THX’s Spatial Audio technology. Spatial sound virtualizes sounds in a panoramic motion by using integrated object and scene-based audio to create an audio sphere all around you. With THX enabled be sure to make sure you set your game to Surround and you should notice a difference. I tested this mostly in Apex Legends, Fortnite, and Battlefield V. For me it seemed I could hear enemies more easily and I knew were they were or where they were coming from. I’ve heard reports this tech not working on certain games, but it our testing it definitely made a difference and we felt it gave us a competitive edge.
Like most gaming headsets the microphone quality is not the best. Here is an unedited recording we made using Adobe Audition.
While the microphone is nothing to write home about it will get the job done. On Discord voice chat with friends they all said they could hear me clearly, but they did note the microphone did not sound as good as the normal studio microphone I typically use.
