With the startling growth of the multiplayer scene making an online mode almost requisite in most games and even the exclusive offering on others, a good-quality headset is important to have if you want to connect with your friends online. The sleek-looking Tritton Kunai has arrived, and at a $60 price point, it’s the same dollar amount as a boxed retail game. It it worth it? That all depends on which retail game you’re talking about, but for starters, let’s look at the specs:
- Cable Length: PS3: 14ft, PS Vita: 3 ft
- Speaker Diameter: 40 mm
- Ear Coupling: Supra-aural
- Magnet Type: Neodymium
- Frequency Response: 25Hz-20kHz
- Total Harmonic Distortion: <1%
- Resistance: 16 ohms
- PS3 Audio input type: RCA
- PS Vita Audio Input Type: 3.5 mm connector
- MSRP: $59.99 USD
Setting up the headset is relatively simple and involves, for the PS3, plugging the USB into the front of the system and connecting two audio jacks into the back of the television. There’s nothing to sync, and nothing to install. After that, I had to wrestle with the settings a bit. While it’s unclear whether initial difficulties were caused by the headset or the console, I struggled with the settings a bit. While simply plugging in the headset will automatically feed sound, I had to select, deselect, and reselect the headset in the PS3’s menu to get sound exclusively to the headset. Granted, after that I didn’t have the same issue. Really, the hardest part about actually getting started was detaching the headset from the incredibly attractive packaging.
One of my biggest fears was honestly having to sit close to the TV to use the headset because of cable length. Luckily, this seems to have been taken into account, as the massive 14 foot cable allows me to sit where I usually do for gaming, at my desk chair (impractical, I know) with plenty of room to spare. There’s also a convenient little control piece on the cord so that players can easily reach down to adjust volume or mute their mic. Speaking of the mic, the Tritton Kunai has a pretty neat detachable mic. If you’d rather just listen to the game’s audio, the mic pops out of the jack. It does, however, lock into place to prevent the attachment from falling out during heated gameplay sessions. It’s important to note that the mic will not work if it has not been locked by turning it. I initially had mic issues before realizing that I hadn’t locked it, but after fixing it, I was informed that I came through loud and clear.
This headset boasts incredible sound quality when it comes to hearing the person on the other end. I got on with our editor-in-chief, Josiah, and was able to hear him perfectly, even to the point where I could pull the headset away and still be able to pick up his voice without any sort of muffled distortion. I tested a few games with the headset to get a broad perspective on how the product conveys different tones. I spent most of my time with Dishonored, and got a bit of a mixed experience. Footsteps, voices, and music came through magnificently through the speakers, with particularly impressive exhibition of sound mixing and balancing between the left and right ears. However, some of the deepest bass sounds, such as gunshots, sounded just a little bit “crunchy” through the headset speakers.
I encountered this intermittently in other games. Just Cause 2 sounded great for the most part, and Sound Shapes and The Walking Dead had such good sound quality I will likely not play them without a headset ever again. The Kunai does a great job of separating the notes and sounds, making for quite the immersive aural experience. With all of the games, the positives heavily outweighed the negatives due to extremely crisp sound, but it’s still difficult to ignore the times in which the audio crackled, ruining the immersion.
This is an extraordinarily comfortable setup: The headset fits snugly around the ears with plenty of room for adjustment and is surprisingly lightweight, without feeling flimsy. This is quite welcome, as I spent almost a full year back in the day holding that standard Xbox 360 headset together with a half ton of duct tape. The Tritton headset not only feels sturdy, but it has multiple points of rotation to accommodate different head shapes or preferences in how the headset is situated on the head.
The Tritton Kunai stumbles when it reaches its bass thresholds that some games surpass, but the more games I ran with it, the fewer times this issue reared its head. This is a fine piece of hardware that delivers an impressive experience for the asking price, contained in a sleek, durable model. The headset is comfortable after even several hours of wear, and it’s easy to access any of the headset’s controls. This is a good choice if you want affordable quality.
The Tritton Kunai was created by Tritton and Mad Catz. A headset was provided by the company for the purposes of review.