Razer Kraken Chroma VS HyperX Cloud II - ~100$ Surround Headset Showdown

[MiniMoose1211]

So due to an accident on amazon.com and my clicky fingertips, I ordered both of these headsets over a month ago. Today I have used both for over 3 days and here is my results. Both of these are "flagship" headsets with mostly positive reviews online. 

 

The Razer Kraken 7.1 Chroma (89.99$ USD) 

Advertised Specifications: http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-audio/razer-kraken-71-chroma

Customize-able RGB LED lighting on earcups

Retractable Microphone w/ Mute button LED indicator

Single USB braided cable (2m Long)

Digital Microphone (Better Quality)

Razer Synapse Surround Volume Mixer

Digital 7.1 Surround

Foldable Design for Easier Traveling

Adjustable earcup-bars to fit any-sized head

Works with Peasant Station 4

 

The Pros:

Great Sound Quality (Without Bass Boost ofcourse)

 

Easy to use software, Easily configure the surround experience as well as colors for the earcups. 

 

TOGGLEABLE 7.1/5.1/STEREO Mixer, Probably my favorite feature. Listen to music and youtube in stereo 2.1 on one monitor, play anything else in surround. No more mushy audio while gaming for your Skype, Teamspeak, Mumble, or Music

 

Mute Button w/ LED indicator, A feature I used quite frequently while gaming alongside skype. Very useful, LED indicator helps too when you figure out you've been muted for 2/3 of a game.

 

Razer 1 Year Warranty, Read the Cons, it's #1

 

The Cons:

Guess what's Flimsy, Crackable, and makes up 80% or more of this headset? PLASTIC, This is a major con for me. I handle my electronics very carefully, but not everyone in the world will. The headset is almost entirely made of plastic. The headset band is literally 2 plastic bands with foam in the center surrounded by fake leather to give the appearance of it being "comfy". Unlike real headsets that have leather bands (Corsair Vengeance, HyperX Clouds, Steel Series etc.), the Razer Chroma uses a fake appearance with fake leather and some memory foam cushioning. Very very disappointing coming from a company that does not have this problem on many of it's other headsets like the BlackShark. 

 

Smallish Earcups, I have a fairly big head, but medium sized ears. The headset barely fit my ears, making it very uncomfortable in long gaming sessions. As an Over-The-Ear headset, they should've seen this coming. 

 

Uncomfortable after Long gaming Sessions. The Cheap rough material in the headband and tight earcups made this an overall uncomfortable experience. I was able to cope with it, but is still is a con. I've read 20 or so reviews about this product before hand and they all seem to say it's very comfortable on their heads. Personally, I think they would be if you have a smaller-medium sized head. I really wish they just made an XL version of the headset. 

 

No Inline Volume rocker, This is an optional feature for most headsets but I think it's a necessity if you're going to label your premium headset "gaming". Popups and surprise video advertisements are nothing short of the many reasons I like having one. Never knew when your game might launch with 100 volume on the windows mixer. 

 

Overall I would give this headset a 3.5 star rating. It's good, but not as good as it could've been. Many of the cons seem to run in the Razer family and probably could've been fixed for a few dollars more. If I'm paying 90$, it shouldn't be made of plastic and bend like my flexible ruler without trying.

 

HyperX Cloud II(99.99$ USD)

Advertised Specifications: http://www.kingston.com/us/hyperx/cloud#hscp

Solid Aluminum Construction

Removable microphone with "passive" noise cancellation 

Inline USB soundcard (Driverless, Echo Cancellation, Toggleable 7.1 surround, Volume and Microphone Level Rockers)

Digital Microphone (Better Quality)

Digital 7.1 Surround 

Adjustable earcup-bars to fit any-sized head

Swappable Leather and Felt ear-cups (Included in the box)

Compatible with both Peasant Stations and mobile

Comes in 3 colors. Gunmetal Grey and Black, Red and Black, and Limited Edition Pink *Coming out later this year*

 

The Pros:

Excellent Sound Quality, Little-less bass then the Chromas', Notably Crisper audio)

 

Great Microphone Quality, notably different then the Razer Chromas' but not in a bad way

 

Comfortable, large over the ear cups I would expect, soft bar cussion with a "fake-ish" leather. Feels light on the head, like a Cloud 

 

Build Quality I would expect from a Quality Headset, It feels and looks like a premium headset. All brushed aluminum and soft joins connecting the bar to the cups. 

 

Removable Microphone, It detaches and a small cover is included. Yes losing the cover is pretty easy, but even without the cover they still are going to be fine. They detach from the soundcard into a standard combined aux jack. Excellent for movie watching or casual music on my phone/tablet. (unlike the Chroma, which requires as OTG cable from usb->microusb, a 8$ 3rd party add in)

 

The Cons:

Volume and Microphone rockers seem a bit stiff, You have to use actual force to change the volume/mic volume.

 

Lengthy Cord, with the positioning of the soundcard(w/ Rocker) a good 2 and half feet down from the headset, even with the clip, it was hard to reach on the fly. Even with the clip on the back.

 

Overall I would give this headset a 5 star rating.It's just what I was expecting for this price range, includes 7.1 digital surround and lives up to it's reputation. I originally bought these and second guessed my purchase after hearing about their "Crappy" 7.1 surround. After testing both headsets side by side, there is literally no difference in surround quality. I think the Cloud II might have better surround but not by much. I think the person who said the above statement just hates virtual surround. Personally, I like it and is fine for what I'm going to be using these for.

 

I feel like the Cloud II's won the showdown. The razer chromas' have the features of a 90-100$ headset, but not the build quality. It looks like razer cut their kraken series down to meet margins. I would have bought their headset either way. If the price was 120$ and it was made out of real metal and had an inline volume rocker, it would be the best headset on the market. It has a feature that pretty much no other 7.1 virtual surround headset has. A surround mixer. All I can say is that they DID create something amazing for 7.1 surround headset market. If only their materials and quality department stepped up their game. Both products have an excellent unboxing experience and plug and play usability. I like that the Cloud II came with both a felt and leather earcup. Both had 7.1 virtual surround that was toggleable. I do not think it's useful to list of the entire headphone specifications because, being honest, not everyone is going to be looking for how much khz each earcup is capable of. I will still be keeping both headsets, one as a backup (guess which one!?), and one to use as my daily driver for my gaming rig.

 

 

Do you guys want sound comparisons? Photos? Should I add my Corsair Vengeance 1500v2 7.1 Digital Surround headset into the mix as a more reasonably priced option? Tell me what you guys think/like/dislike about my review. :]

 

[Thebman712]

features on a headset are gimics

[MiniMoose1211]

features on a headset are gimics

Well I mean, they aren't advertised as "High Quality, large audio space music headphones".. They clearly have the big buzz word in their titles. "Gaming", aka they will have "features" that some people like me would use. Inline volume rocker etc. are features that would matter to anyone buying a headset they would knowingly be stuck with for a long time. Just because they bundle in some flair-ish features that some people might not use, doesn't mean it's a gimmick. One person might not care about RGB lighting on their earcups, but a 13 year old might love the feature to color-match his setup. Would really wish you would've read the whole review instead of posting a narrow minded comment when the thread clearly says this is not an audiophile comparison.

[jakjakattack]

7.1 is a gimmick. Any quality pair of headphones will blow either of these out of the water for slightly more. Although I have heard the the clouds are a lesser evil and are the best headsets out there.

[MattLantis]

Razer audio products... heheh

[CurlyCucumber]

Don't get the Kraken. If anything, I LOVE my Logitech G430. 

I exchanged my Kraken for the G430. The Kraken was the most uncomfortable, bad sounding crap.... eeeugh.

[Decon]

I recommended a kraken 7.1 to a friend once when I was a razor fanboy ( >.> ) and they bought it...

 

I fell terrible to this day

[alphaproject]

The Cloud version 1 is actually a very nice set of cans.

 

It's a clone of Takstar pro 80/Gemini HSR 1000 - the cloud 2...is actually more gimmick than the first version.

 

These things sound "excellent" and not just for the money.

 

They are far better than the Senn HD280 Pro, which are very mid-range heavy.

 

And... they are much more upfront in vocals and soundstage then the far more expensive DT 770's from Beyerdynamic. I have all 3.

[Gigamegabyte]

For me the headsets doesn't really have difference except their quality and how long it last and its in game Mic quality. Tell that to my Siberia V2 which last almost 7 years and still using it.