Engineered to up the atmosphere of your gaming, but do the Krakens succeed?

Not too long ago, gaming headphones were a niché product reserved for the hardcore gamers who spent hours playing online. This is no longer the case with iPhone, iPad and Mac being able to offer as good an experience as the home console, but while on the move. The Kraken Forged Edition headphones are the latest high end offering from Razer, who specialise in delivering perfect sound for your audio needs.

The price tag certainly suggests a premium product, and straight out of the box that’s the feeling that these phones convey. The Razers are hand-assembled from aluminium and come with plush leatherette on the ear cups for added comfort. There’s a reassuring weight to them in-hand too, yet this doesn’t translate to discomfort when you’re wearing them. On the contrary, the Krakens are very comfortable and the closed design of the ear cups minimises noise leakage.

Once on it’s all about the audio, and when in use with a range of games you can’t help but be impressed. The good frequency response means they can handle all manner and range of sound, and the bass is richly delivered. What these headphones are very good at doing is creating an atmosphere within the gaming world you have entered. Whether it’s a fast-paced racing game or a creepy puzzler, we found the sound effect translation and ambience to be excellent. When it comes to music, we found the effects to be reduced slightly, but with the multidimensional soundtracks and other effects that you get in games now gone, things just felt a little flatter generally.

In the box you get two audio cables, both 3.5mm to 2.5mm, with the only difference being that one comes with an inline microphone so you can interact with other gamers or answer calls when plugged into your iPhone. The price tag on these headphones means that they are quite a commitment, but they are impressively comfortable and deliver on the audio front when it comes to your Mac and iOS gaming. If that’s important to you then there isn’t anywhere else you should go.

Buy now?

Pros – Light, comfortable and impressive for gaming
Cons – Priced at the top end of the scale, so quite a commitment

Key features

3.5mm to 2.5mm audio cable
Inline microphone
20 – 20,000Hz frequency response

Learn more at razerzone.com