Razer Kraken V3 Headphones Review

The Razer Kraken V3 look very similar to other headphones in this manufacturer's Kraken V3 lineup, like the Razer Kraken V3 X and the Razer Kraken V3 HyperSense. They have a mostly black look with metal grilles and the manufacturer's logo on both ear cups. The logo also has customizable RGB lighting that you can adjust to your liking in their companion software. They only come in one color variation: 'Black'.

These headphones have a decently comfortable fit. The ear cups are made with faux leather padding and a cloth-like material interior. There's also some leather padding in the middle of the headband. While they have a bulky design, which is to be expected from gaming headphones, the ear cups have a poor range of motion and can't swivel left or right.

The Razer Kraken V3 have sub-par controls. Like the Razer Kraken V3 X, the controls are on the left ear cup, and there's only a dedicated mic mute/unmute button as well as a volume wheel. Luckily, the mic mute button is indented when you're muted, and it feels a bit clicky and springy. However, the volume wheel doesn't have notches to let you know when you've reached min and max volume. If you're looking for gaming headphones with a haptic bass feature to add more rumble to your gameplay, check out the Razer Kraken V3 HyperSense.

The Razer Kraken V3 aren't very portable, which is common for gaming headphones. They're bulky, can't fold into a more compact form, and don't come with a carrying case to help protect them when you're on the go.

The Razer Kraken V3 are well-built. They have a better build quality than the Razer Kraken V3 X as they use a thick, braided audio cable and have metal components to their headband. The headband has measurement marks to let you know the height of the headband, while the faux leather padding feels good. However, the audio cable isn't detachable, meaning if it snags on something, the headphones could be damaged.

These headphones have mediocre stability. While they should stay on your head while you're gaming in front of your computer or TV, they can easily fall off your head with moderate head movements. Their cable isn't detachable either, and the headphones could be pulled off your head if it gets snagged on something.

• Razer Kraken V3 headphones
• Manuals

The Razer Kraken V3 have a warm sound profile that delivers extra boom to your gameplay, which can help emphasize sound effects. Their mid-range is also fairly flat and neutral, so dialogue in cutscenes sounds clear and accurate. However, the headphones are very prone to inconsistencies in audio delivery, and their position, fit, and seal on your head can all affect the consistency of your audio each time you use them. Luckily, you can use their companion software's graphic EQ and presets to help you adjust their sound to your liking.

The frequency response consistency is sub-par. Bass and treble delivery can vary depending on their fit, positioning, and seal. You may experience a drop in bass if you have thick hair or wear glasses, as this can break the ear cups' seal on your head.

The Razer Kraken V3 have decent bass accuracy. Although they're a little lacking in thump and rumble, their mid and high-bass are overemphasized. This adds body and intense boom to your mixes, which help emphasize sound effects. However, some users may find they sound boomy and muddy.

Note: The response here represents the average bass response. Bass delivery can also vary across users, so your experience may vary.

These headphones have excellent mid accuracy. The low-mid is slightly overemphasized, which can muddy your mixes. That said, the mid to high-mid is very flat and neutral, resulting in accurate and clear vocals and lead instruments.

The Razer Kraken V3 have good treble accuracy. It's underemphasized across the range, so vocals and lead instruments sound veiled and lacking in detail. Sibilants like S and T sounds are also dull and lispy.

Note: The response here represents the average treble response. Treble delivery can also vary across users, so your experience may vary.

The peaks and dips performance is decent. There's a dip in the low-bass that reduces thump and rumble, while a peak in the high-bass adds extra boom, which some users may find muddy. Another dip between the low to mid-mid thins out vocals and lead instruments while also nudging them to the back of your mix. A dip in the low-treble veils the upper harmonics of vocals and lead instruments, while the uneven mid-treble makes sibilants like cymbals alternatingly dull and piercing.

The Razer Kraken V3 have a sub-par imaging performance. Unfortunately, our 'Phase Response Mismatch' graph doesn't fully represent what we hear when using the headphones, and we had to redo many passes to get matching or close-to-matching results. We don't know if this is an issue with our dummy head or with our software. However, we have retested imaging to achieve results that better match their real-life performance, and you can see this graph here. We've kept the original results in our review as we also hear imaging issues with the bass range.

The weighted group delay falls below the audibility threshold, resulting in tight bass and transparent treble reproduction. The L/R drivers are also matched when it comes to amplitude and frequency response. However, the large mismatch in phase response skews the stereo image and indicates inaccuracies. Sound effects like footsteps and voices may not be localized correctly. That said, our results are only valid for our unit, and yours may perform differently.

The Razer Kraken V3's passive soundstage is sub-par, common for closed-back gaming headphones. Their soundstage seems natural but not very wide or open. Sound also seems like it's coming from inside your head rather than from speakers placed in the room around you.

The Razer Kraken V3 are compatible with THX virtual surround. There are several modes to choose from: 'Game Mode', 'Movie Mode', 'Music Mode', and 'Custom Mode'. Each mode changes the speaker modeling set up to better suit that genre of audio. You can also calibrate each mode to your liking or create a new mode. In addition, you can select which app uses which audio mode or let the program automatically set itself.

The Razer Kraken V3's weighted harmonic distortion performance is good. Although there's a slight peak between the low to mid-treble at high listening volumes, it can be hard to hear with real-life content, and it may not be noticeable to all users. That said, the rest of the range falls within good levels, resulting in clear and pure audio reproduction.

These are the settings used to test the Razer Kraken V3. Our results are only valid when used in this configuration.

The Razer Kraken V3's noise isolation performance is disappointing. Like most over-ear gaming headphones, they don't block out the low rumble of bus engines. That said, they do a decent job of cutting down office chatter and can block out the high-pitched hum of an AC unit.

The Razer Kraken V3's leakage performance is good. Leakage is spread out across the range and sounds full-bodied, especially when compared to in-ear headphones. That said, escaping audio shouldn't be too noticeable if you're gaming in a moderately loud environment.

The Razer Kraken V3's detachable boom mic has an alright recording quality. Your voice sounds natural but lacking in body and brightness.

The mic's noise handling performance is very good. It's able to separate your voice from moderate ambient sound. If you're chatting with friends by a window with traffic outside, they should have no problem hearing you clearly.

The Razer Synapse software is great. It offers a 10-band graphic EQ and presets like 'Bass Boost', 'Sound Normalization', and 'Voice Clarity' to help you adjust their sound to your liking. You can also adjust the brightness and the effect of the RGB lighting or turn it off if you prefer. If you like to game with others, you can adjust the mic's volume, turn on or off the voice gate as well as sidetone, and use 'Volume Normalization', 'Voice Clarity', and 'Ambient Noise Reduction'. The mic even has a 10-band EQ to help you tweak its sound.

These headphones come with a non-detachable USB-A cable. They have very low latency, though, so you shouldn't notice audio or visual syncing issues while gaming.

These headphones can only connect to PCs via wired USB as they don't support any other connection. However, they have full audio and mic support using their USB-A connection.

You can use the Razer Kraken V3 on PS4 and PS5 consoles with full audio and mic compatibility via their USB-A connector.