Razer Kraken Tournament Vs Nari Ultimate: Which One is Worth Buying?

Razer-Nari-Ultimate vs nari wireless (1)

This is the detailed comparison of the Razer Kraken Tournament and Nari Ultimate Wireless headset. Both these are one of the popular headsets out of some headsets from Razer. Both the headset is specially made for gaming but you have to decide which one will be more worth for gaming and for that this review will be helpful for you.

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Razer Kraken TournamentRazer Nari Ultimate
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PROSPROS
Excellent sound.
Versatile design.
Smart amp.
Reasonable price.
Haptic feedback when gaming.
Customization through Razer Synapse 3 software.
THX Spatial Audio.
Strong wireless connection.
CONSCONS
Potentially buggy software.
Too big for easy transport.
Sound quality.
Heavy build.
Cost.

SPECIFICATIONS:

MODELRAZER KRAKEN TOURNAMENTRAZER NARI ULTIMATE
BrandRazer Razer
Series
ModelKraken TournamentNari Ultimate
HEADPHONESRAZER KRAKEN TOURNAMENTRAZER NARI ULTIMATE
Headphones Form Factor
Headphone Technology
Sound Output Modestereostereo
Frequency Response12 Hz12 Hz
Sensitivity109 dB105 dB
Impedance32 Ohm32 Ohm
Diaphragm2 in
MICROPHONERAZER KRAKEN TOURNAMENTRAZER NARI ULTIMATE
Microphone Operation Modeuni-directional
Response Bandwidth100 Hz
Sensitivity-42 dB
REMOTE CONTROLRAZER KRAKEN TOURNAMENTRAZER NARI ULTIMATE
Audio Controlsmicrophone on/mute, volumemute, volume
ControlsVolume, microphone on/mutemute, volume
DIMENSIONS & WEIGHTRAZER KRAKEN TOURNAMENTRAZER NARI ULTIMATE
Width8.6 in
Depth3.9 in
Height7.3 in
Weight11.36 oz15.2 oz
FEATURESRAZER KRAKEN TOURNAMENTRAZER NARI ULTIMATE
FeaturesGet total control with the USB audio controller. Turn on THX Spatial Audio for increased immersion, control both volume and bass levels, and even configure the game / chat balance. All of this at your fingertips – for gaming audio that is always perfectly customized for you.

Go beyond traditional virtual surround sound. THX Spatial Audio* breaks the boundaries of defined 5.1 and 7.1 channel surround to deliver seamless 360 degrees positional audio for a more natural and lifelike experience. It also adds depth to the experience by simulating sound both above and below you for incredible gaming immersion.

Never experience your game audio overpowering team communication again. The Game / Chat Balance option lets you fine-tune the right balance of what you hear. Or simply leave it in the middle for a standard mix.

Equipped with large custom-tuned 50mm drivers, the Razer Kraken Tournament Edition provides a wide soundscape, from subtle footsteps sneaking up behind you to climactic explosions that blow you away. This clarity in range and deep, punchy bass is crucial in creating a lifelike immersive experience.

The cooling gel-infused ear cushions reduce heat build-up, while the soft cloth and leatherette combination provides both comfort and sound isolation. Hidden indented eyewear channels eliminate pressure from glasses. The headband features an incredibly comfortable ultra-soft padding, allowing you to game for hours and forget that it’s even there.

With its 3.5mm audio jack, the Razer Kraken Tournament Edition is cross-platform compatible – works with with your PC, Mac, PS4, Xbox One, Switch or even mobile devices.
Feel every impact in your game. The Razer Nari Ultimate features HyperSense technology that picks up on audio cues and uses vibrations to add tactile feedback, allowing you to truly feel the action. Whether it’s a plane flying overhead or blasts from an explosion, your gaming experience now comes with a whole new layer of immersion.

Go beyond traditional virtual surround sound. THX Spatial Audio* breaks the boundaries of defined 5.1 and 7.1 channel surround to deliver seamless 360 degree positional audio for a more natural and lifelike experience. It also adds depth to the experience by simulating sound both above and below you for incredible gaming immersion.

Unlike conventional headsets, cooling gel-infused ear cushions reduce heat build-up, while high-density foam with plush leatherette on the rims of the earpads provide the perfect combination of comfort and sound isolation. Hidden indented channels eliminate pressure from glasses for eyewear relief.

The auto-adjusting headband with swiveling ear cups is engineered for maximum adjustability to fit your head to perfection for fuss-free comfort. The unibody aluminum frame ensures that it is lightweight with long-lasting durability.

Get lag-free, high-fidelity gaming audio with 2.4 GHz wireless technology. A plug-and-play wireless USB transceiver lets you enjoy a wireless range of up to 12 meters smoothly without disconnection. With audio controls directly on the headset, you can do everything from adjusting volume to muting your mic on the fly.

Game audio will never overpower your team communication again. With the Game/Chat Balance option available in wireless mode, fine-tune what you hear or simply leave it in the middle for a standard mix.

Expert Reviews of Razer Kraken Tournament:

By IGN
The Razer Kraken is an extremely comfortable headset, but suffers from poor sound quality from both the microphone and the speakers. While they may be built to be worn for long periods of time, they’re unfortunately not compelling enough to take your eSports skills to the next level.

By Thinkcomputers
When we started this review we wondered if the Razer Kraken Tournament Edition could stand out in the $99 gaming headset crowd, which is where many gaming headsets sit. After spending some time with the Kraken Tournament Edition we feel that it does….

By PCmag
Razer’s Kraken Tournament Edition gaming headset delivers strong bass performance and capable simulated surround sound for…

By CGM
The inclusion of THX audio makes the Razer Kraken Tournament edition a real step forward for Razer and it’s a device that sounds as good as it…

By Gameaxis
The Razer Kraken: Tournament Edition certainly is a solid set of headphones. High quality construction, crystal-clear audio, a plethora of customisation options, comfort… everything you’d usually expect from a Razer accessory.Usually.Although the…

Expert Reviews of Razer Nari Ultimate:

By Techadvisor
The Razer Nari Ultimate is a beautifully-designed high-end headset that delivers not only an exceptional audio experience, but a comfortable one too. With high-end features like haptic feedback, THX Spatial Audio and cooling gel-infused…

By Kitguru.net
Ever wished your headset vibrated and you could feel what was happening in game? The Razer Nari headset was released back in September and in this review we take a look at the recently released Razer Nari Ultimate that has all the features of the…

By Techgearlab
Overall, the Razer Nari Ultimate is a solid headset with a few cool features, but not enough to redeem its otherwise mediocre showing and topple our award…

By Wmpoweruser
Created with a mixture of plastic and metals, the light exterior is one of the more comfortable options available in Razer’s library of devices. Attached to the headband is a swinging mechanism for the device’s earcups which, while making the headphones a bit awkward to put back into their box, does allow the device to fit comfortably on a large variety of head…

By Thestraitstimes
It might not be the first-ever force-feedback gaming headset, but Razer Nari Ultimate’s combination of superb audio and great haptic response will add that extra delight during…

Detail review:

INTRODUCTION:

Razer Kraken Tournament

This headset can give you nice features for gaming and also good sound quality at a price of under $100. This one is almost the same as Razer Kraken aesthetically. 

Razer Nari Ultimate

This is a wireless headset with new haptic technology. The price is around $180 which is much higher than the Razer Kraken Tournament. This headset also gives you many features for your gaming. 

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DESIGN:

Razer Kraken Tournament

In real-world terms, it’s safe to consider this the next evolution of the Kraken 7.1 V2. Going over the design, the first thing I noticed was the sheer amount of aluminum that’s present in the frame. I also noticed the generous amount of Razer green on offer here but these are also available in black if you like a more subdued look.

The design appears to be really stout actually, the aluminum comes through the headband down past the slides and finally terminates in the ear cup surrounds, it actually goes all the way around the outside of the ear cups. So, these are hands front and back on each cup, this allows for just a little bit of up-and-down tilt but completely forgoes any kind of swivel at all so I guess that’s the trade-off.

The sliders themselves do have adjustment markings in the cable that extends from the headbands into the ear cups is positioned behind the slider in a way that would be really difficult to snag or damage it. They slide really easy, I actually wonder how long this thing will be able to hold its adjustment over time. The outside of the ear cups themselves are plastic and they should look pretty familiar by now if you’re into Razors products at all. They’ve got that black mesh insert as well as the Razer logo stamped on the outside, so no lining and no RGB on this one.

Razer Nari Ultimate

The design of this headset encompasses a sleek gunmetal finish with an auto-adjusting headband that’s perfect for those gamers out there with a medium or large size head. Aside from the size of this headset, I think it’s pretty cool that you get the RGB lit Razer logos on each one of the ear cups.

I wish they possibly making the headset a little bit smaller because if you look at it from a flat angle, it kind of looks like a double-stacked headset which is completely fine if you plan on using this headset at home and if you have a medium to larger sized head. For those of you have a smaller head out there, I would kind of be worried about this headset flying off of your head at the slightest movement that you make.

COMFORT:

Razer Kraken Tournament

They’re not that typical leatherette all over which has a tendency to peel and flake over time. They are actually wrapped in some faux leather like that but the area that actually makes contact with your face is like a heat transfer microfiber, kind of like we’ve seen with some higher-end offerings from Sennheiser.

They also have a cooling gel layer on the top and something I’ve personally never seen before, they have a little hidden indentation in the cup themselves to allow a place for the stems of your glasses to sit. You can tell that Razers put a lot of thought into what it would take to comfortably wear this headset for an extended period of time.

They do have a sheer fabric liner over the top of the drivers themselves but this doesn’t have any kind of foam pad to it at all which you may need to know because there’s a strong possibility these drivers are going to be touching the outside of your ears. There’s the biggest internal dimension of any ear Cup on any headset I’ve reviewed. Then they say over-ear they really mean over-ear, they make something like the HyperX cloud alpha feel like an on-ear design by comparison.

This headset is extremely comfortable, there’s little to no clamping force at all. So, everything feels extremely light and cool even for extended sessions. They don’t do the best job of isolating outside noise and they do leak to a pretty high degree. These are also designed to fit some absolutely enormous heads too.

Razer Nari Ultimate

You get cooling gel-infused cushions for ear cuffs made out of memory foam and rims that support a heat transfer fabric perfect for those longer gaming sessions. Weight comes in at just under a pound and it feels surprisingly light for the size of this headset. This isn’t a headset that’s gonna fit comfortably in your travel bag, not that Razer was looking to create a travel headset when engineering the Nari ultimate. You could carry this headset around your neck since both of the ear cups swivel to 90 degrees for added convenience.

Comfort was definitely not spared which is good by these super soft ear cups. At first, I thought I might have an issue with the auto-adjusting headset. However, all-night I didn’t seem to cause much of a problem for me, I could see this headset sliding around more for those of you out there that do have a much smaller head.

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FEATURES:

Razer Kraken Tournament

It’s also pretty Spartan in terms of controls that have the volume adjustment and the mic mute or present inline on the cable itself. The cable is really flexible and braided which I like but it is permanently attached which I don’t. The only other feature on the outside of the ear cups is the retractable mic on the left side.

In the USB dongle, there is volume up and down, mic mute, surround toggle. There are a few things there you don’t normally find. The first is chat mix which is going to become a deal-breaker for me on headsets. If you’ve never used it before, it basically negates minutes of negotiation with whoever you’re playing with to adjust their mic volume if it’s coming in too high and you get to decide on the control how much of the audio in your headset is dedicated to the game or how much is dedicated to your teammates’ chatter.

The other thing is on the USB controller is tactile bass boost control at a hardware level and you can basically boost this up or down without having to jump back into synapse to adjust. Also, there’s sidetone, it’s lag-free as well and it sounds great. The entire back of the dongle is coated in the really sticky like silicone material, it basically like really easy to clean and you can just like stick it to the top of your desk and it stays clean.

Razer Nari Ultimate

The Razer Nari Ultimate is the first headset to feature haptic technology that delivers pulse-pounding vibrations that actually make you feel the sound from your games.

When you get to the right ear cup, you get the volume wheel and a slot to hide the 2.4 gigahertz USB wireless receiver. On the left side, you get the rest of the controls from the mute button to a balanced rocker for both the game and chat audio, a power button, a micro USB for charging, the retractable mic, and a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack.

The main reason for the size of this headset is mostly in part to its haptic technology that’s built into the headset which by the way can be turned off in the Razer synapse software that you will have to download. There is no way to turn off the haptic technology on this headset from your console or from your mobile device. So, if you do plan on traveling with this headset, please make sure you have your laptop with you, so you can download that Razer synapse software if you somehow forget to turn it off.

It’s powered by Razer synapse software where you can fully customize your audio and adjust the sound and bass boost in the equalizer or by selecting feature presets based on gaming, music, and movies. You can also adjust your microphone settings and customize your chroma lighting if you guys would like to go ahead and save some power while using this headset. This headset does not have to be powered on to be able to connect to any mobile device or audio device out there, it has a 3.5-millimeter audio jack.

Battery life comes in at 8 hours according to Razer and that’s with both the hyper sense and the chroma lighting enabled and both of those turned off, you get the normal 20 plus hours of battery life with this headset.

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MICROPHONE:

Razer Kraken Tournament

The mic is retractable. It’s built into the left ear cup and you do still retain the volume up and down and mic mute controls in line. The reason why this is such a big deal for me is that normally you’ll have an audio cable that made to the dongle then the dongle will go in USB that’s great if you have volume controls on the dongle itself but on the times, when you opt to use it wired to anything else, you lose the ability to have inline controls. So, it’s nice that they’re still on the cable even when you’re not using USB.

As for the mic quality itself, it takes a little bit of dialing into really nail it but once you do totally, it’s one of the better gaming mics I’ve heard. Out of the box even with the mic volume set at a hundred percent in both Windows and synapse, it has this really weird habit of stepping on your lower speaking.

I recommend you to go into synapse software settings, disable the auto sensitivity and crank that all the way over to high, it’s worth noting in Windows audio settings. The unfortunate trade-off here is that noise cancellation from the background is practically non-existent. There are also some additional options in here for the mic inside synapse like the ambient noise reduction, it kind of introduces a lot of artifacts, I’ve got to set the 60% for the test. So, it does a pretty good job of filtering out the background noise but it does impact quality a little bit, I would probably avoid this unless you were just in a really noisy environment or had an especially loud keyboard. There’s also a vocal clarity mode which to me makes it sound like most other gaming headset mics which are to say pretty thin, nasally, and brash sounding. It’s worth noting here that it also spikes the volume considerably.

It is annoying that the set up for the mic is so quirky but if you can handle your background noise cancellation landing somewhere on a scale between barely any and sounds made-up, then the actual vocal quality is pretty impressive. You will need to support the earcup a little bit when you’re pushing the mic back into the ear cup but it’s pulled out the game is super strong.

Razer Nari Ultimate

Nari Ultimate has a retractable mic. In this mic, you can pull it out whenever you want to use and you can hide it whenever you don’t use it. The microphone quality is pretty good and you clearly listen to human voices. This mic voice gets struggles a little bit with low-end voices, so the persons with deeper voices may sound tinny.

SOUND:

Razer Kraken Tournament

I am thoroughly impressed with the number of audio features that are packed into this headset at this price point. None of these matters if the sound doesn’t hit the market. The good thing here is that synapse offers a wide variety of options to where you can adjust that sound a little closer to your liking. The bad thing is that you have to keep all tabbing in and out of synapse to do that and that actually crashed my game on more than a couple of occasions. It doesn’t make a killer impression right out of the box.

If you enjoy volume and bass, this will be the one for you. I do recommend for the ps4 because it has plenty of length in the cable to be able to plug in USB and in doing, so you get way more volume than anything else I’ve ever heard plug directly into the controller. It is worth noting when you use it like this, you don’t get access to any of the surround sound stuff, it is stereo only.

If you’re on the Xbox, the dongle doesn’t work at all. You’re gonna be plugging directly into the controller but the Xbox controller generally provides a lot more volume than the ps4. So, this thing gets loud and even outside the basic EQ settings and synapse, you do have the bass boost adjust on the dongle itself.

It’s hard to explain the sound, they are crisp sometimes harsh highs, there is definitely bass. The mids are audible but not in a way that really bridges the lows and the highs in order to blend this together into one warm cohesive production. Naturally, you do have EQ settings inside synapse to help overcome some of this and adjust the sound more to your liking. I actually spent a lot of time tweaking this EQ, so just be aware that the drivers themselves are a little weak in the mids department. I was surprised to see that this headset can be pushed to 24-bit 96k Hertz and windows settings but in real-world that offered no real meaningful increase in sound quality for me.

There is something odd to me with the volume as well. When you put these on, you have a tendency to want to turn it up really loud. So that you can hear all the audio elements of the game but when you do that something comes out of the left field and like a deafening volume and it’s really uncomfortable. This only gets worse the higher you crank the volume up. Now, Razer also has an option in synapse where you can normalize all the audio elements in the headset itself, I highly recommend you do this, just go in turn this slider all the way to 100 and forget it exists.

As for THX spatial surrounding game, this was a miss for me. I don’t really like any kind of simulated surrounding game. I tested this on a wide range of titles including Doom, Overwatch Hitman 2, Far Cry 5, Metro 2033, Black Ops 4, and GTA 5. Now, one thing that struck me is you cannot just grab the dongle and activate surround sound. You actually have to open your game, tab out into synapse go to the surround setting, pull down the drop-down for your game, select surround sound then tap back into your game, now the toggle on the dongle will switch between regular stereo mode and surround mode.

Initially, I was really impressed that the THX spatial didn’t negatively impact the audio in any way and it took me a minute to figure out, it wasn’t actually doing anything at all. So, in every title, I preferred stereo to THX spatial and not just from an audio quality standpoint either also in my ability to pinpoint sounds.

In the section of Far Cry, the helicopter was very easy to discern in stereo mode but with THX enabled, it sounded like the helicopter was literally everywhere. Gunshots also sounded really muffled in THX mode as if I was firing through a pillow and hitman 2 crossing this bridge again in stereo mode, it was very easy to picture in my mind where the location of the waterfall was whereas with THX sounded like I was standing in the middle of the waterfall. There are some good reasons to own this set but for me, the surround is not one of them.

Razer Nari Ultimate

It primarily focuses on its haptic technology. Now, the haptic technology with this headset is designed to rumble and sort of shake based on the audio cues that are given to the headset.

This being the first headset that I’ve ever tested with haptic technology, it will take some getting used to for you. I am assuming if you are purchasing this headset for that technology, it would have been funny to see. It’s nothing terrible. However, I did find it a bit too sensitive for me playing Call Duty: War Zone and it felt like it kept vibrating my eardrums more than it should have. So, I just got sick of the feature and ended up turning it off.

Some of you out there might actually love this feature and I’m assuming that’s why you’re purchasing this headset, to begin with, but for me personally, when I was playing Call Duty: War Zone, it did feel a bit excessive. Turning the high percent off gave me a much better understanding of where my enemies were and a much better depiction of where my enemies were heading. Since I was able to hear their footsteps without all of the vibrations going off in the headset.

Surprisingly, when I use this headset for listening to music, I feel like it sounded a little bit better than when I use this headset strictly for gaming which I don’t feel like is something that Razer did on purpose. I listened to a few different songs and they sounded really good for this being a gaming headset. One thing I noticed with the hyper sense is it doesn’t sync up perfectly with every song not that I think I can listen to music all day with the high percents on but definitely something about I should mention. The volume rocker is something that I felt was a bit too sensitive for me, I did have trouble finding the right game chat audio balance while using this headset. So, if you feel the same, you can go ahead and tweak and adjust that possibly later on in the Razer Synapse software.

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WHICH TO BUY?

Before we decide which one is better to buy, we have clear something which is, is that worth their price? So here, I think Nari Ultimate doesn’t have that much good sound for their price but it has some good features for gaming but that’s just not enough for gaming. The Razer Kraken Tournament is much better than the Nari Ultimate considering the sound quality and even though the Tournament is wired headset, this one is low price and better sound quality for gaming.