Razer Kraken Forged Edition Performance
 

 Generally with Razer products I tend to spend the majority of my time testing headsets by playing games however, with the Forged Edition I decided the best way to test these headphones was to do some critical listening with a variety of different music. By including a 3.5mm to 1/4″ adapter and not including a 3.5mm to dual 3.5mm headphone/3.5mm microphone jack, Razer is definitely marketing the Kraken Forged Edition to audio enthusiasts and DJs.
 

 That said, I started off testing with a variety of different music including hip hop, top 40’s, EDM, soundtrack, and even country. After spending a considerable amount of time listening to the Kraken Forged Edition, it was extremely obvious that Razer has really, really tuned these things to really, really favor a lot of bass. Whereas hip top/EDM tracks such as Bingo Players ft. Far East Movement’s Get Up sound extremely good with the Kraken Forged Edition, other music genres such as classical, vocals and soundtrack sound quite poor. With music that really favors the highs and the mids, the Kraken Forged Edition artificially gives them a boost in the lows, which distorts and muddies the audio especially when compared side by side to headphones or speakers that are more neutral.
 

 For movie testing, I watched a number of scenes from the newly released Red 2. Red 2 packs an incredible Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track along with a near flawless DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 audio track, which was actually very well suited for the Kraken Forged Edition. Although voices sounded slightly distorted due to the higher than usual bass response artificially added by the Kraken Forged Edition, the enhanced bass characteristics of the headphones really excelled in the rest of the movie. With the number of explosions that occurred in the movie, the headphones were able to create a level of immersion that you simply can’t find on most other, more neutral oriented headphones that simply play bass as a low end sound rather than a physical, skull rumbling feeling.

 Of course as usual, I also spent a good amount of time playing some games – namely the newly released Battlefield 4 on the Kraken Forged Edition and to be honest I think the Kraken Forged Edition is best suited here. Whereas other headphones and headsets simply create the sound of a vehicle exploding nearby or the sound of a cannon firing, the Kraken Forged Edition is able to get that nice rumble that really immerses you into the game. Additionally, the Kraken Forged Edition works quite well with Razer’s Surround software, which already has preset profiles for the similar Kraken Pro. Too bad there’s no integrated microphone or any way of connecting that in-line microphone to the PC. Could be a great gaming headset.

 Finally, I also tested the microphone’s performance on Skype and overall I was told that the audio quality is decent for a VoIP or conversation microphone. It’s definitely not at the level of quality you’d find on a condenser microphone such as the Audio Technica AT2020 I generally use for voice recording, but the sound was clean and there was very little static. That said, I was only able to test the microphone on my iPhone 5 as Razer does not include any sort of adapter that would allow the use of a microphone on a PC without the microphone/headphone combo ports.

 Razer Kraken Forged Edition Conclusions
 

 Alright, so first things first. I definitely wanted to say that the Kraken Forged Edition is possibly the best looking pair of headphones on the market. There simply aren’t that many products quite like it, even from companies that generally sell high end, audiophile grade audio products. The fit and finish is bar none and the entire unit feels 100% solid. Unfortunately it’s not something we see every day from Razer and it’s great to see that they’ll go way above and beyond… for a price.

 Audio quality on the Kraken Forged Edition unfortunately seems to come directly from Dr. Dre’s playbook. For some it could be an awesome thing and for others, well not so much. The bass response on the Kraken Forged Edition is extremely powerful and on some genres of music, is way overpowering. Those predominantly listening to hip hop or EDM will probably enjoy these headphones while those who predominantly enjoy vocal heavy music with light instruments will find that the Kraken Forged Edition is way too heavy handed on the bass. In movies and gaming, the Kraken Forged Edition performs quite well, especially for those who enjoy the action, battle and war games/movies. Despite the headphones being a 2.0 pair of headphones, the Kraken Forged Edition sound and feel almost a bit like the Tiamat 2.2’s – and those actually had separate drivers for the subwoofer.

 As for comfort, the Razer Kraken Forged Edition is quite comfortable for short periods of time, but those who want to wear the headphones for longer periods of time may feel some discomfort. The earpads are made of very thick leatherette, which allows your ears to fit inside quite easily and it provides a ton of cushion between your head and the cold hard aluminum. Also since the earpads are sufficiently thick, those with glasses won’t have any issues, which is good. However, all of the ultra durable materials used on the headphones does come at a cost of weight with the Kraken Forged Edition coming in at nearly 0.86 lbs. Because of this, the headphones feel extremely heavy on your head and does tire out your neck after several hours of use.

 It’s pretty obvious that the Razer Kraken Forged Edition is a premium pair of headphones and as such, it commands a very premium pricetag of $299.99. Razer is obviously trying to get into that ultra premium consumer headphones market created by the Beats by Dre line of headphones and I think the Kraken Forged Edition is a decent entry although sound quality is a huge miss at this pricepoint. Those looking for pristine, unaltered audio quality will easily, easily do better with a similarly (or even much lower) priced pair of Beyerdynamics, Sennheisers,or Audio Technicas, but if you’re a Razer fan it’s not everyday you get a chance to get a pair of headphones constructed almost completely of aluminum. If ultra heavy bass, awesome looks and amazing build quality appeals to you and you’re prepared to drop $300 without a second thought, then the Kraken Forged Edition might just be what you’ve looking for.