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Updated January 10, 2024·
If immersive gaming is your top priority, the Razer Kraken is the better choice given its higher gaming score, but it's more expensive and heavier, which might make it less comfortable for long wear. On the other hand, the Sennheiser HD 400S, while less suited for gaming, ranks higher for comfort and is foldable for better portability, making it a more versatile and budget-friendly option for everyday use, music, and calls. Neither of these headphones offer wireless capabilities or active noise cancellation, so if these features are important to you, you may want to consider other options. Give Feedback
this description is based on the product variant with some specs and product variant with some specs. At the time of writing, the variant with some specs cost some dollars and the variant with some specs cost some dollars.
Advantages of the Razer Kraken
The Razer Kraken has no clear advantages over the Sennheiser HD 400S.
Advantages of the Sennheiser HD 400S
Very good for phone calls
Good for air travel
Good for podcasts and audiobooks
Key differences
Phone Calls
5.5/10
8.2/10
The Sennheiser HD 400S is very good for phone calls, while the Razer Kraken is poor.
Podcasts and Audiobooks
4.7/10
7.6/10
The Sennheiser HD 400S is good for podcasts and audiobooks, while the Razer Kraken is poor.
Noise Reduction
6.5/10
5.3/10
The Razer Kraken is only fair for noise reduction, while the Sennheiser HD 400S is poor.
"Generally the Kraken is a very comfortable headset and there’s nothing that really identifies it as anything else. All in, the Kraken performed exactly as I’d expect a premium, designated gaming headset to perform: performing well in game audio, though not quite with the same quality of those headsets further up the price scale."
"Sennheiser has done it again. The HD 400S performs well beyond its price range and is one of the better budget model headphones I’ve tried. It has very few bells and whistles and offers a simple means of listening that still delivers amazing clarity and quality. If you need a good first pair of headphones or need something that you can take out of the house, then the HD 400S is definitely for you."
Get a great deal on the Razer Kraken or the Sennheiser HD 400S
About Razer
Razer is an American-Singaporean hardware manufacturer aimed specifically toward the gaming market. They manufacture a very wide array of gaming laptops, tablets, phones, peripherals and, of course, headphones and earbuds both wired and wireless. Since 2016, Razer has owned the THX suite, aimed at quality assurance of audiovisual systems such as speaker sets, video game consoles and even movie theaters.
About Sennheiser
A family-owned company, Sennheiser is a German, high fidelity, audio equipment manufacturer founded in 1945. Their consumer audio division is now owned by the Swiss hearing aid and cochlear implant manufacturer Sonova. Sennheiser offers a wide variety of, very high quality, audio equipment solutions, from headphones to earbuds, full sets of monitoring speakers, amplifiers and microphones. They also make what is widely regarded as the best, and most expensive, headphones in existence, the HE-1 Orpheus, costing a whopping $59,000 dollars.
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This information was produced and vetted by the PerfectRec earbuds & headphones team. We are a product research and recommendation organization that meticulously reviews and evaluates the latest earbuds or headphones information and makes it digestible for you.
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About the Earbuds or Headphones team
Joe Golden, Ph.D
CEO and Earbuds and Headphones Editor
Joe is an entrepreneur and lifelong electronics enthusiast with a Ph.D in Economics from the University of Michigan.
Jason Lew
Staff Expert & Software Engineer
Jason is a staff expert and software engineer that has been making laptop recommendations for 7 years and moderates one of the largest laptop subreddits.
Chandradeep Chowdhury
Staff Expert & Software Engineer
Chandradeep is a staff expert and software engineer and expert in televisions and monitors. He’s been making monitor recommendations for ten years.
Luis Torres
Earbuds and Headphones Expert
Luis is a Mexico-based headphones expert. He’s been making headphone recommendations for five years and has close to 100 pairs in his personal collection.