Razer Kraken Pro Review

I just recently managed to acquire this Razer Kraken Pro (V1) pre-used gaming headset on the auction site, and it was cheap because the cable at the jack plug end needed repair. Since these headphones have a microphone built-in, it uses a 4-pole jack plug, which I have, been meaning to study. Replacement jack plugs are readily and cheaply available at auction sites and it is just a matter of intelligence and ability in changing them, which I am sure my readers have in abundance! I should mention that my interest in these headphones is purely from a sound quality perspective, as I just wanted to see if they were any good for music listening. I have never actually played any games nor had any inclination to shoot aliens :-).

With strong neodymium magnets in the 40 mm drivers, they achieve a good sensitivity figure of 110 dB ±4 dB. The stated maximum power handling capability is 50 mW, and for the Kraken Pro V2 it is even lower at 30 mW. This indicates that the newer design is using a much thinner voice coil, which reduces the overall weight of the coil assembly, and consequently the diaphragm vibrates faster. Hence the high end of the frequency range goes up to a staggering 28 kHz (on the V2), which is high-end quality. From these figures, I suspect that they are very likely using copper-clad aluminium wire (CCAW) technology, which accounts for the extremely good sound quality that both headsets demonstrate.

Comparison wise, if you had the classic Sony V55 pair for music listening, then you would notice that the Kraken Pro has slightly higher treble, significantly better bass, and they are a little louder for the same input signal. However, all this changes with the Kraken Pro V2, because with the larger 50 mm drivers, the bass and treble responses are a quantum leap forward. In short, they kick ass. With games now having low frequency effects (LFE), you get to hear that satisfying thud when the thing you shoot falls over. Explosions will also sound more real, and consequently gamers usually flog their old headsets on eBay and buy the new V2 model, probably on eBay as well as they also sell new ones.

One obvious down side of these headphones is that the cord/cable is not very long. Both models have 1.3 m long cables, and come with a 2 m splitter-adapter cable doodad. Considering little brats "gaming aficionados", my apologies, will be jumping around whilst wearing these, the cable needs to be much longer, thicker, with a robust jack plug. There must be someone out there providing a cable repair service, perhaps with a wire upgrade option to change the whole wire for a longer high-end cable. If you are poverty-stricken like me, and have a headset that needs a new jack plug then the following pages in this multi-page article might help with disassembly and soldering a new jack plug.

I loved the extendable microphone feature, and as soon as I extended it I had the sudden urge to start ordering people around and quoting vector figures, and saying things like Romeo, Alfa, Zulu, Echo, Romeo – Kilo, Romeo, Alpha, Kilo, Echo, November... Hey, I must have good upbringing I guess!

The ear pads/cushions are extremely comfortable as they are large enough to cover your whole ear, instead of pressing on them. Due to this feature, the sound isolation is very good, and that improves the bass response too.

Price/eBay

With everyone moving on to the improved version V2, there should be many pre-used V1 models for sale. The price can vary a lot depending upon condition. A worn-out old pair with a broken wire and torn ear pads/cushions would not be worth much, however ones in reasonably good condition, can fetch a nice tidy sum that you could use towards buying the V2. Obviously, the price of a pre-used one would have to be significantly lower than a new pair, because otherwise why would anyone buy a pre-used one when they can buy new for a few pounds more. If it has a broken jack plug/cable then you can pick up a bargain if you know how to repair it.

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