This review is about the comparison between the Razer Kraken Ultimate and Astro A40. Both these headsets are of popular brands. These headsets not only differ from their brands but also from their prices and features we get from. To know which one has the better feature and which one is good for you to buy, go to the detailed review.

Razer Kraken Ultimate	Astro A40
BUY NOW	BUY NOW
PROS	PROS
Good sound quality. Robust software. “Underglow” lighting looks pretty neat. THX Spatial Audio is a decent software-driven surround.	Excellent sound. Intuitive amp. Comfortable fit. Good for both PC and consoles.
CONS	CONS
Somewhat expensive. Ridiculously large.	Not great for living room setups. Expensive.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Detail review:

INTRODUCTION:

Razer Kraken Ultimate

The Razer Kraken Ultimate is from the Kraken family. The Razer Kraken Ultimate is currently retailing for around 120 dollars. These headsets are coming along with the RGB Chroma lighting which makes them more stylish. These are one of the headsets coming with the THX spacial sound.

Astro A40

The Astro A40 is among one of the headsets in the market that are coming with their own software. The Astro A40 is retailing for around 250 dollars currently along with the Mix Amp Pro. These headsets are really well built, stylish, and have great comfort.

DESIGN:

Razer Kraken Ultimate

The cable in this headset is not detachable. It is already attached to the headset. The cable has a USB input, which goes straight into a PC. This is a braided cable with enough length. The headset is constructed of steel and plastic. The Top of the headband is made of some type of leather. There is a Razer logo on the top of the headband. There is a retractable microphone in this headset and there’s a button on there on the mic to turn on or off the mute. There is also a light on the mic which lights red when the mic is muted and turned off when the mic is not muted.

The side of the ear cups is metal and it has the Razer logos on it. It has the RGB chroma all the way around the Razer logo and on the logo itself on both sides. There are a volume wheel and a button to turn on and off the THX spacial sound on the back of the ear cup. The headband in this headset is adjustable from one to six points on both sides. So, if someone’s head is big then they can adjust it as they want. These headsets are flexible and durable too.

Astro A40

They’re built pretty stinking good and you really feel that premium quality within this headset. I don’t think they’re the best but I still think they’re very good. The headband had got a bracket and it goes into that metal arm, which will be your adjuster. Then you got the other bracket at the lower part of the metal arm which holds the earcup arm. I really like that however you stretch it out or whenever you’re putting on your headband and you’re pulling it out and getting on every day, that pressure point is not going on one bracket either. It’s kind of being dispersed from the bracket up and then that went down to the bracket in the ear cup which I really like. It’s not dispersed enough pressure onto one bracket over and over again.

The other thing I really like about this headset which is super cool is we have a little pivot in the ear cup but you can’t see any brackets on the outside of the ear cups. There are no little levers or anything. It’s actually inside that little arm with a little cover. So, when you keep your headset down, all you’re hitting is the frame, not the bracket in there. You can bend them and twist them, you don’t get creeks or cracks or anything and you can feel confident with them but nothing really feels cheap on it.

The Mix Amp Pro feels solid and it’s got some nice weight to it. The entire bottom right down there is a whole rubber grip. Even up to the edges and everything is very solid. The little knobs where you adjust your volume and your chat is actually metal. The little Amp and headset here really feel incredibly premium. I really like the build quality of both these.

COMFORT:

Razer Kraken Ultimate

These headsets are one of the most comfortable headsets from the Razer Kraken family. These headsets have a cooling gel technology inside the ear cups, so they don’t feel much uncomfortable at times except during long play secessions. The cooling gel use to keep your ears cool but you need to take them off, after the long secessions of play. The Razer Kraken Ultimate is featured to be eyewear friendly, so it would not hurt you much as the other headsets do with their clamp force. These have enough clamp force, neither it is too much forceful nor it is too loose that it will fall off from your head.

Astro A40

When you take these headsets straight out of the box, you may feel these are pretty heavy. But honestly, whenever you put them on your head, you really lose that weight. I mean they don’t really make feel like a weight on your head. It has a medium clamping force neither it is losing nor it is tight. You can shake your head and you may get a little bit of movement but nothing drastic by any means.

It has a super nice plush cloth ear cups. You can also buy the full pleather ones. But these plush ear cups are very nice and very breathable. The one part on the headset which is a little bit different is the headband. It’s just small, I wish it was a little bit wider not even plusher. The ear cups have full swivel so that you can bring them out flat. As well as you can also pivot them in and out which is really nice. You’re not going to get any certain pressure point anywhere and they’ll fit every head shape perfectly. Even if you wear glass also, they don’t hurt by any means. So, as far as comfort on the Astro A40, it’s incredibly comfortable and they fit fantastically.

FEATURES:

Razer Kraken Ultimate

The box claims that it has THX spacial sound, active noise-canceling microphone, it has aluminum and steel construction, eyewear friendly, headphones made for pc and it has Razer Chroma RGB lighting. Inside the box, you are going to get the headset itself and user guide booklets. It has a 50-millimeter driver which is really nice for comfort as it goes around your ears. It does come with the cooling gel technology which increases your comfort level.

When you plug in the headset to your PC, the first thing it asks you to do is to install the Razer Synapse software. You need to install the Razer Synapse 3 to get access to all the updated features. After installing the Synapse software, when you open the software you need to go into the audio. The first page you gonna get in the audio will be your sound. On that page, you do have your profiles Kraken music and Kraken games, from which you have to choose one. Also, there exists your volume bar by which you can increase and decrease your headset volume. Then we have our stereo and surround sound tests on the sound page.

The second page you gonna get in there in the software will be your mixer. In the mixer, there will be your THX spacial sound on and off button. You can also turn on the THX from your headset, only after you get into the software. You do have the option to choose the stereo or surround sound for the apps, that are opened in your PC at the moment from the mixer. Also, you have the calibration for the THX spacial sound which you can adjust as per your want.

The third page will be your enhancements after the mixer. The enhancements allow you to access the bass boost, sound normalization, and voice clarity so that you could turn on or off them and raise or lower their levels as you want. Then the fourth page will be your equalizer. There exist different presets those are default, game, movie, music, and custom. You have the ability to change the presets and customize the equalizer as you want.

Then the second last page in the software for your headset will be your mic, in which you can turn on or off the mic. Also, you have the ability to access the mic volume, mic sensitivity, and sidetone. You can also adjust the level of these sub-bars. You do have the option to access the active noise cancelation, volume normalization, and vocal clarity from the enhancements for the mic.

The last page there will be your lighting, in which you can level up the brightness as you want and even you can turn the RGB on or off. Also, we have options for the RGB lighting effects those are the quick effects and the advanced effects. Again the quick effects and advanced effects do have sub-options for them. The options that are in the quick effects are audiometer, breathing, spectrum cycle, and static while the options that are in the advanced effects are general and work. You are able to choose any one among all the options available there for your RGB lighting. 

Astro A40

You should make sure that you get a PlayStation 4 Pro or one of the older Xboxes because you need an optical or you can take that optical and route it into your TV if you want. If you want to go straight into console then it must be a Pro or an older PlayStation. As far as connecting up on all the above devices, it’s pretty easy but you do need some of the wires.

You need the 3.5 which connects our identity headset band and then right into the front of the Amp. Then as far as on PC, take the very nice thick quality USB that you have here and plug into your PC. As far as going on Xbox or Playstation 4 Pro, you get your optical over here for that. These wires are pretty long enough, so if you’re playing on consoles and your TV is in a distance from you then your wires are definitely long enough to help you. Overall, as far as your wires, it’s very good quality, it’s very durable and very long. This can be used on the PlayStation but the one thing you lose is that microphone. But when we’re on PlayStation, at least me when I play games like Uncharted, Game of War, Knack, all these single-player games, I don’t need the mic. 

As you are getting the Mix Amp with this headset, you can control your game to chat volume right over there not necessarily your mic volume. One nice thing about the mic is it is detachable and they are retractable. The mic is nice, durable, and flexible. Another nice thing about the mic is you can remove the plates right there on the sides of ear cups and change the plate having the mic port as on which side you want your mic to be. You can move the mic all the way up or down. But it does not mute when you flip it up. 

The mute button is with the 3.5 wire. The wires are nice and durable but the little slider button to mute the mic feels chintzy plastic in my personal opinion. I would’ve liked it if another button implemented onto the Amp to be able to mute the mic. But this one works perfectly fine. Another thing whenever you mute the headset, the dial knobs on the Amp turns red from white. So that’s actually pretty nice to know whether our mic is active or muted.

You are also getting the software called Astro Command Center with this headset for your different settings. As far as the command center, you have an equalizer, your presets, and everything. Honestly, I didn’t go into any of these and adjust any of these, I left them as it is and they sound awesome. You can also get in there and create your own and then adjust all these if you desire. You do have a microphone option there, where you have some other noise gates. You also get a streaming option inside the microphone. You also have your mic level and your sidetone as well. Then you have the stream port, where you can adjust the game, the chat audio, your mic, and Aux. The software here is really very simple, it’s straight to the point, and it has all the options you need.

MICROPHONE:

Razer Kraken Ultimate

The Razer Kraken Ultimate provides you a standard active noise-canceling microphone as they claim. As per my test, they do work better in terms of noise-cancelation, but not the best. Obviously, at this price point, we can’t expect them to be great. Still, they are good at the sound quality. My friends said I sounded good through this headset during my play sessions.

Astro A40

The sound quality of the mic is very solid, very nice, and natural. It doesn’t really pick up a lot of those P and T’s. One thing I want to point out where I made the mistake myself is that when you insert the 3.5-millimeter wire into the headset, make sure you push it into that last little bit right there on the 3.5 Jack of the headset. There must be no gap because if you have a little bit of gap right there you’re gonna start sounding staticky and robotic on the mic.

SOUND:

Razer Kraken Ultimate

The sound quality in this headset is not bad at the same time its not good enough. But because of the THX spacial sound, I literally like this headset. The sound experience with the THX spacial sound is really great. You are able to hear the sound from everywhere even the minute sounds. You can easily find out where the enemies are coming by their footsteps. It allows you to hear the footsteps clearly so that you can go in the correct direction. The gunshots during games can be heard explosively. For games, they are really good but for the music, they lack some mids and lows. I would not recommend these for music but for games and movies, these are good at this price point.

Astro A40

This headset sound pretty good. As far as the quality of sound and the soundstage was the same on every device. Whether it’s on PC or Xbox One X or a PlayStation 4 Pro, the sound was exactly the same on all of them and it was a good sound. These headsets have balanced highs, mids, and lows. This is the first DAC Amp I’ve used with a gaming headset combination deal, that’s actually had some really awesome presets. The presets are pretty really nice.

These have quality and nice hitting bass. Sometimes when that bass was hitting right there, it didn’t overtake anything else but with this, I can still hear footsteps. I played the Call of Duty and Ghost Recon with these and it sounded awesome. Your shots of every different type of gun sounded really nice and everything just sounded so good.

This headset does have surround sound. You can press the button right up there on the Amp and it’s gonna go to that Dolby. With this headset, you get an activation code for two years of Dolby Atmos. It doesn’t sound like your surround sound but Dolby Atmos is really good because it just gives it a little bit of punch into that stage and brightens up the sound. So, as far as the Aster A40s sound on every device even PlayStation with the Xbox version, they sounded amazing. They sound fantastic on every device.

WHICH TO BUY?

In my opinion, the Astro A40 is good to buy than the Razer Kraken Ultimate. Even though the price of Astro A40 is much more than the Razer Kraken Ultimate, the Astro does come with the Mix Amp Pro. As far as price, the quality we get from is more important than the price. The Astro A40 sounds better, has a better build quality, and has better comfort.

Expert Reviews of Razer Kraken Ultimate:

By ThinkComputers
Razer added active noise canceling to the microphone, which does a pretty good job of canceling out unwanted noises. The other change is that you get RGB lighting on the headset itself, which looks pretty cool.

By nag.co.za
The Razer Kraken Ultimate sits firmly in the gaming headset sub-genre for peripherals, with RGB-forward design aesthetics and questionable sound quality to match. While definitely an improvement on previous iterations of the Kraken, there still isn’t…

By PCMag IN
Bottom LineThe Razer Kraken Ultimate wired gaming headset brings powerful bass, programmable lighting, and an excellent microphone to you…

By TechRadar
With an excellent upgrade to an already excellent headset, Razer has made a gaming headset that can keep you comfortable even in the longest gaming binges.

By Craving Tech
As a wired, USB gaming headset, Razer Kraken Ultimate offers great gaming experience: THX Spatial Audio, great microphone clarity and quality with active noise cancellation option, full RGB lighting, comfy thick cushion, and a good length of USB…

Expert Reviews of Astro A40:

By Armchair Empire
The king of customization among all headphones we have reviewed thus far, the Astro Gaming A40 TR is indeed a gamer’s dream. It has infinite levels of customization and not to mention add-ons too. From the speaker tags that you can customize to the way…

By gadgetynews.com
The Astro A40 TR headset is brilliant for its designed purpose – gaming. The thing is that it’s also at the upper end of the price range. Aimed squarely at the more serious end of the gaming community, the Astro A40 TR is kitted out as such. The design…

By PC Mag
Astro Gaming’s pricey A40 TR + MixAmp Pro TR wired gaming headset is packed with features designed for serious competitive players, including a separate amp/mixer for controlling your audio…

By GameZone
For someone who isn’t a huge audiophile, I end up using a variety of headsets any given year. I mean, sure, at full disclosure, most of them are sent to me for review purposes, so therefore it is my job to wear them and then write about them, but out of…

By Trusted Reviews
If you want a wired gaming headset that delivers top-notch audio quality then the Astro A40 TR should be very high up your…