Razer Kraken BT Kitty Headphones Review: Nekomimi Meets RGB
Retail Price: $99.99
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Headphones are something that I, and many others, use on a day-to-day basis. Up until now, I’ve always used relatively cheap headphones costing no more than $50 that tend to break after a year. Now, I get the chance to test out the Razer Kraken BT Kitty headphones which retail for $99.99 on Razer’s website. They certainly look sleek and have attractive marketing, so let’s see if these headphones are worth splurging for.
Comfort Out of the Box
I need to make it known that I am very picky when it comes to how headphones feel on my head and ears. Apparently, I have a small head; lots of headphones hang too low. I need the earcups to fit just right because otherwise, they will hurt my ears. Whenever I buy new headphones, I often return three or four pairs before finally settling on something I like. I was happy to find that the Kraken BT Kitty headphones are comfortable from the get-go. They aren’t too tight on my head at all. A lot of headphones start off quite tight and you just have to suffer through them loosening up. These did not start off that way, which I appreciated. At the same time, it’s not like they’re hanging off my head, either.
While I find them to be close-fitting without being tight, they would not be a good choice for activities like running. No, they are not made for running; they are made for gaming, but they’re headphones and we’re going to use them for other purposes than just chatting with friends in Discord and listening to game audio. Though they’re close-fitting, they do slip a little on my head if I bend over. I’ve done lots of chores wearing these — laundry, sweeping, mopping, dishes — and I’ve definitely had them slip forward, though they’ve never fallen off. Still, the fact that they slip at all makes me feel that they wouldn’t be a good option for more strenuous activities.
I personally can’t wear headphones for more than a few hours without getting tired of them, and sadly, these are no exception. While the earcups are cushy and soft and the band isn’t too tight, I can still feel them on my head and eventually just want them off. This doesn’t lower my opinion of the headphones, though, since I’m pretty sure that’s just a me thing, and I don’t believe any amount of money could buy me a pair of headphones I wouldn’t get tired of wearing. Maybe someday I’ll be proven wrong.
A Sleek Design
One thing I won’t get tired of is the design of these headphones. Despite playing a Mi’qote in FFXIV, I’ve never really been into the whole cat ears trend (referred to as nekomimi). I chose the cat race in Final Fantasy because I felt it had the best face models, not because I wanted my character to have kitty ears and a tail. But, having said all that, I actually adore the design of the Razer Kraken Kitty BTs, including the cat ears.
First of all, I love the shade of pink Razer used for these headphones. It is their signature “quartz” color that is uniform across all of their pink products and will, of course, match perfectly if you have other pink Razer tech. The earcups and comfort strip on the headband provide grey accents. Though I wonder if an all-pink design wouldn’t be better (or would it be too much?), I do appreciate the choice of grey over something like white which would be more likely to get dirty. The grey also matches my quartz Blackwidow V3 keyboard, which has a silver volume wheel.
These headphones do not fold which makes them less portable, but I do wonder if that makes them more sturdy. All of the cheap, folding headphones I have had usually broke after about a year. While I have no way of knowing if these Razer headphones will break, they certainly feel more sturdy than past headphones I’ve owned and I feel like the headband probably won’t randomly snap as I’m taking them off (because that’s what always happens).
RGB is Everything
As with all Razer products, it’s the RGB that takes the design to the next level. On both earpieces is the Razer logo through which RGB lights shine. Then, of course, we have the kitty ears themselves which light up. As far as RGB goes, you can’t actually do that much with the effects as compared to a Razer keyboard, which is to be expected. While I’m not surprised that you can’t layer lighting effects, it would be nice if you could adjust the speed of the effects or be able to choose a group of custom colors for the headphones to cycle through. As it stands, your choices are to apply a preset rainbow or one single color to a certain effect.
Speaking of those effects, there are four options: static, breathing, spectrum cycling, and audio meter. My favorite is spectrum cycling because I’ve always loved Razer’s rainbow effects and it doesn’t go dark before lighting up again like breathing does. The static color option is also nice as the RGB is very vibrant. I love to match the color of the headband by choosing pink or complement it with bright turquoise.
The audio meter effect should be awesome because it matches the lights to both the melody and volume of the audio (the lights get dimmer as the song gets quieter and vice versa), but I don’t particularly like it. Half of the time, it just looks like a lightbulb that’s flickering before it finally burns out. With songs that are especially gentle or quiet, some notes won’t even register with the RGB. You hear them, but the headphones don’t light up for it. It looks cooler with faster, busier songs, but it’s still a bit spastic-looking.
The Companion Applications Are Just Ok
Since we’re talking about RGB, it’s important to mention the apps that are used in tandem with these headphones. There are two apps you can get on your phone: Razer Chroma and Razer Audio; the former lets you control the lighting while the latter lets you customize the audio settings.
I’ve not had any issues with the Audio app, but the Chroma app isn’t the best. As with other Razer products, the color picker allows you to choose seemingly any shade under the sun. You can then add them to a pool of colors to select from later. The thing is, you can’t actually select them later. The next time you open the app, they’ll be gone. This is kind of annoying since it can be difficult to get the exact shade you had before unless you happen to remember its number code (which you can type into the app).
Luckily, these headphones are compatible with Razer’s Synapse software. Within the Synapse interface, you can access all of the possible settings for the headphones. You can change lighting effects, adjust the microphone’s settings, use the audio equalizer to adjust the sound to your preference, and also access power-saving settings (did I mention that this baby will automatically turn itself off when not in use?).
I find Synapse much more convenient to use than the phone apps, so I’m glad it’s an option. Unfortunately, this is only the case for Windows 10. I tried connecting these to Synapse on a laptop using Windows 8 and was told that the headphones could only be adjusted in Synapse on computers using Windows 10. Since Synapse is more convenient than the phone apps, it is a bit sad that the compatibility is limited. To be clear, the headphones do work on my Windows 8 laptop, I just cannot access or change their settings in Synapse.
Satisfying Sound
Since this is a review about headphones, the most important thing about them is probably how they sound, right? The thing is, I wouldn’t consider myself an audiophile, and I’ve only ever used cheap headphones before. To me, these sound great, but I don’t really have anything to compare them to. They were able to play lower sounds than a pair of $50 Taotronics headphones, but otherwise, I couldn’t tell a huge difference.
I haven’t had any issues with buzzing, static, or any other unwanted noise. I think music and other audio sounds really good. It may be odd to say it, but the actual sound quality is not the selling point of these for me. For me, the biggest selling point of any headphones is comfort. Since I’m not an audiophile, I’m pretty happy as long as the headphones work and the sound comes out without any lag, static, buzzing, or things like that, and I haven’t experienced any of that.
Great Mic Quality for a Headset
These headphones have two “internal beamforming mics.” I have no idea what that means, but what I can tell you is that the mic quality is actually pretty good for a headset. While you shouldn’t expect it to match the quality of something like a Blue Yeti (which is a tabletop mic), it is pretty clear and would work great for gaming with friends. I’ve included a recording of myself speaking into the mic so that you can get a sense of its quality.
Gaming Mode
Seeing as these headphones are made by a brand that specializes in gaming tech, of course they would have a gaming mode! This mode is supposed to reduce latency so that you receive sound faster. This should mean less delay between your buddy yelling at you to run and you high tailing it out of the danger zone.
I have to be honest; I’m not sure I can tell a difference between gaming mode and normal mode. I’ve never really had issues with delay in normal mode. Even when doing difficult raids that I was new to, I always heard callouts in time to avoid mechanics unless those were super fast-paced mechanics. In that case, I wouldn’t blame the Kraken Kitty’s normal mode but rather my own inexperience. I also don’t understand why they wouldn’t just make the headphones have the lowest latency possible at all times rather than making you turn on a specific mode.
Generous Bluetooth Range for Pretending to BRB
One of the most important things to me when I look for headphones, aside from their comfort, is their Bluetooth range. I like for my headphones to work when I get up for a quick snack so I don’t have to miss out on any conversation in Discord. The great thing about these Razer headphones is that they do have a pretty generous range. I’m not sure of the exact range, but I would guesstimate that it’s at least 20 feet. While they don’t quite make it to the opposite end of my house (and if they do, they’ll cut out a bit), I can walk around 90% of it without the audio cutting out. I can even go outside and untangle my dog’s leash from a tree. If you’re a weirdo like me who likes to secretly listen in to people’s conversations on Discord after saying “brb,” then these will definitely help you achieve that no matter where you are in your house.
Issues (Because Nothing Is Perfect)
Before I wrap this review up, I want to talk about some issues I’ve had with the headphones. After all, these are $100. Even though that price is fair when compared to something like Bose or Beats, it’s not exactly cheap.
Set-up Struggles
First of all, the initial setup was a bit of a hassle. I couldn’t just default the headphones on Windows 10 and call it a day. I had to change the settings in all apps I used headphones in like Discord and Streamlabs. Otherwise, there would be issues with the application that caused the headphones to stop playing sound completely. So, if Discord had a different set of headphones listed as default, the Kraken Kitties would stop playing sound even if I changed the default to them. I had to make them default, close the app, turn the headphones off and then back on, and then reopen the app. Then, they would work just fine again. It was a little weird since I’ve never had that happen before. Normally, you could just select the headphones you want to use in whatever app and then they would work, but for some reason, these had to be the default or they would stop playing sound.
Playback Problems
Similarly, I’ve had these stop playing sound for other dumb reasons. Once, I had a YouTube playlist of music going. YouTube decided to randomly pause a song to ask me if I was still listening. I pressed yes and the video continued, but I heard nothing. For some reason, YouTube’s “are you still here” popup caused the headphones to stop working properly. Luckily, they are easily fixed by powering them off and back on, but it’s just sort of weird that this could even happen. It has never happened to me with cheaper headphones, so I can’t imagine why it’s happening with fancy Razer ones.
Though these issues aren’t a dealbreaker for me, I still think Razer should work on improving them. Because of the price and the brand name, issues like these are certainly unexpected and disappointing especially because they aren’t a problem for other, much cheaper headphones.
Final Thoughts
Honestly, I really like these headphones. They sound good, they’re comfortable, and the design is to die for. I normally wouldn’t spend $100 on headphones; my cutoff would be about $50. But if I was going to spend that much, I would be happy with these. While I could probably get something comfortable with potentially comparable sound quality for around $50, nothing at that price range is going to even come close to matching how cool these look. You’re paying for the design and the RGB, and to me, RGB is worth it. When you consider that the big names in headphones like Bose, Beats, and Sony are selling pairs for over $200, getting something that has decent sound quality and an awesome design in terms of looks, comfort, and RGB, $100 seems pretty fair.
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Seri
A writer by day and gamer by night, Seri’s most prized possession is her computer. In fact, she built her desktop PC herself and repaired her college laptop with nothing but Google, Reddit, and determination to guide her. This do-it-yourself attitude was born from frugalness, so if you see Seri raving about something, it’s probably worth the price.