Razer Kraken Tournament Edition Headphones Review

The Kraken Tournament Edition are almost identical to the previous Kraken Pro V2. They are decent-looking gaming headphones with a bulky design that won't be for everyone. They have large circular ear cups with a lot of padding, and a wide headband that's reinforced with a sturdy metal frame. This makes them look and feel very durable. They also have a retractable mic, but they're not versatile enough to use as casual headphones outdoors. If you're looking for more colorful gaming headphones, check out the Razer Kraken Ultimate. They have customizable RGB lighting around their ear cups that you can set with their companion software.

The Kraken Tournament Edition are as comfortable as the Kraken Pro V2. The build is very similar, but there are very slight differences in the padding of the ear cups. The pads are still thick and distribute pressure well. However, they’re a bit tight, and the lack of a proper swivel hinge means they don't always fit well around your ears, which can be a bit fatiguing over time. They won't be the best headphones to wear for long gaming sessions.

The Kraken Tournament have a typical gaming control scheme on their in-line remote, but they come with an additional dongle which offers more controls than the Pro V2 model. On the in-line remote, you get a two-sided volume dial and a mic on/off switch. On the dongle, you get physical buttons for volume up and down and a mic mute button. Additionally, on the sides of the dongle, you get a bass slider, a channel mixing slider, and a button to enable THX surround sound. All the controls are fairly easy to use, but when connected they are inverted, which means the ‘minus’ for volume and bass controls is actually on the top of the remote. This isn’t very intuitive. Also, there is no way of knowing which bass setting you're on.

Update 04/18/2019: We've updated the breathability score after noticing an error. The breathability picture and score should now reflect the most recent retest of the Kraken Tournament Edition.

The Razer Kraken Tournament will warm up your ears rather quickly if you use them while exercising. The closed-back ear cups and thick leather-like pads prevent a lot of airflow, which causes a noticeable temperature difference during extended listening or gaming sessions.

Like most gaming headphones, these are not very portable. They don’t fold or swivel to lay flat and their overall design is very bulky. The cups are very thick and the design takes up a lot of space. They also don’t come with a traveling case.

These headphones don’t come with a case or pouch.

The build of the Kraken Tournament is very similar to that of the Pro V2 model. The headband is reinforced with a wide and sturdy metal frame. The ear cups are dense enough that they won't break from accidental drops or impacts, and the padding material of the ear cups looks and feels high-end. It is still better-built than the Kraken Man O' War and Kraken USB.

These are barely stable headphones. They're a bit tight on the head so they don't move much during casual listening or gaming sessions. However, the large ear cups and bulky design sway a lot during physical activities, which means they won’t be the best option for sports or if you're often on the go. In this case, you may want to consider the more stable a Kraken X especially if you often use your gaming headsets with your phone.

• Razer Kraken Tournament Edition headphones
• 7-foot USB dongle
• Manuals

The Razer Kraken Tournament Edition have sub-par consistency performance. In the bass range, they have quite an inconsistent delivery across users, with a maximum variance of 15dB at 20Hz. They also seem especially prone to a drop in bass if the user is wearing glasses that break the air-tight seal between the headphones and the ear. Their performance in the treble range is more consistent with the maximum deviation below 10kHz of about 7dB, which will also be noticeable, but not as much as the bass inconsistencies.

The bass range performance is passable. Low-frequency extension (LFE) is at 38Hz, which is good, but low-bass is lacking by about 5dB. This means that these headphones are light on thump and rumble. Additionally, mid-bass and high-bass are quite flat but overemphasized by about 5dB, which results in excess punch and boominess. Overall, their bass is slightly too boomy and overpowering. You can also get extra bass thanks to the bass slider when using the dongle. However, it would be overdone for most people and there's no way of knowing on which bass setting you're on.

Also, their bass delivery varies significantly across users, and is sensitive to the quality of fit, seal, and whether you wear glasses. The response here represents the average bass response and your experience may vary.

The mid-range of the Razer Kraken Tournament Edition is mediocre. The response shows a 10dB tilt favoring the lower frequencies. This is actually the continuation of the high-bass bump, which is showing up in low-mid and mid-mid. The result will be a mix that sounds muddy and cluttered, and vocals/lead instruments that sound a bit thick. They will also lack some projection and intensity, relative to the bass instruments and kick drum.

The treble range of the Kraken Tournament is okay. Low-treble, and mid-treble, up to 7KHz, are fairly flat but also underemphasized by about 5dB. This has a negative effect on the detail and presence of vocals and other lead instruments. The peak around 9kHz could make S and T sounds (sibilants) sharp-sounding on overly bright tracks. Overall, the treble lacks brightness, especially considering the hyped bass of these headphones.

The imaging performance is good. Weighted group delay is 0.42, which is within good limits. The graph also shows that the group delay doesn't cross the audibility threshold except for a tiny bit in low-bass. This indicates a tight bass and transparent treble reproduction. In terms of driver matching, the L/R drivers of our test unit were decently matched in amplitude and frequency response. However, they show a noticeable mismatch in phase both in the bass range and high-treble. The will have a negative effect on the coherency of the stereo image, but shouldn't have a big negative effect on placement and localization of objects like voice and footsteps. However, these results are only valid for our unit and yours may perform differently.

The soundstage of the Kraken Tournament Edition is decent. The PRTF graph shows a lot of activation and pinna interaction, but it isn’t very accurate. This results in a soundstage that is relatively large, but may sound unnatural. On the upside, there’s a good notch around the 10kHz region, which will help bring the soundstage in front of the listeners’ head instead of inside. However, their closed-back design won’t be as open-sounding as open-back headphones.

The isolation of the Razer Kraken Tournament Edition is poor. These headphones don't have active noise cancelling and do not isolate in the bass range, where the thump and rumble of airplane and bus engines sit. In the mid-range, important for blocking out speech, they achieve about 10dB of isolation which is okay. In the treble range, which is occupied by sharp S and T sounds and A/C systems, they are able to reduce ambient noise by about 29dB which is good.

The Kraken Tournament Edition are slightly leaky. The significant portion of leakage is spread from 300Hz to 2kHz, which is a narrow range. This means that their leakage will sound fuller than that of in-ears and earbuds, but not as bright and loud as open-back headphones. However, the overall level of leakage is not very loud. With the music at 100dB SPL, the leakage at 1 foot away averages at 42dB SPL and peaks at 56dB SPL, which is just about the noise floor of most offices. Overall, their leakage will be audible to people around you at moderately loud volumes.

The microphone has a very good recording quality. Low-frequency extension is at 153Hz, which is good, and the response is also flat up to 10kHz, which is good. The HFE of 11kHz means that speech recorded or transmitted with this mic will be full, natural, and easily understandable.

The boom mic of the Razer Kraken Tournament Edition has excellent noise handling. In our SpNR test, they achieved a speech-to-noise ratio of 44dB, meaning they should be able to separate speech from background noise even in very loud and noisy environments.

Note that this microphone has a noise gate, which seemed to be always on, even if we turned it off in the app.

These headphones are passive and don’t have a battery.

Update 06/04/2020: We had previously incorrectly listed the app to have room effects. The test result has been updated, but the overall App Support score didn't change.

The Razer Synapse app is a complete and very useful software. While you don’t have RGB lighting or controls over haptic feedback like the Nari Ultimate, there’s plenty of controls offered with the Kraken Tournament Edition. You can EQ the headphones, calibrate your surround sound, and you can also control your microphone level and noise gate. You can also create multiple profiles and easily switch between them inside the app.

These gaming headphones are not Bluetooth compatible. If you want a Bluetooth-capable gaming headset, check out the Turtle Beach Elite 800 or the SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless.

Since the Razer Kraken Tournament Edition headphones are wired, you practically don’t have any latency, which is great for gaming and watching video content.

Update 12/02/2020: We've updated the USB Audio results from 'Analog to USB Adapter' to 'USB Type-A' to improve clarity. These headphones can receive audio when connected to a PC or PS4 with a USB Type-A port. The scoring of this test hasn't changed.

The Razer Kraken Tournament can be used with or without their USB dongle, which adds to their latency to a greater degree than the HyperX Cloud Revolver + 7.1's USB adapter. With the normal 1/8” TRRS connector, they support audio and microphone on all platforms with the appropriate jack. With the USB dongle, they can be used on PC and PS4, but aren’t compatible with Xbox One.

The USB dongle on the Kraken Tournament Edition doesn’t have any inputs, but supports audio and microphone for PC and on PS4. However, to use this headset with an Xbox One, you’ll need to connect the 1/8” TRRS cable to the controller.