Turtle Beach Stealth Pro
MSRP $330.00
“Turtle Beach’s Stealth Pro gaming headset is packed with useful features that justify a high price tag.”
Pros
Discrete design
Comfortable match
Great audio high quality
Innovative battery resolution
Loaded with options
Cons
Pricey
Mic high quality is so-so
Some difficult options
The extra “Pro” a headset turns into, the extra hurdles its producer should clear. Every added characteristic goes to wish some additional ingenuity to keep away from a headset that’s lined in buttons. Each new tweak is certain to drive up the worth a bit extra every time too. There’s a tough steadiness to land between ease of use, affordability, high quality, and options. You can see these tensions play out in Turtle Beach’s wonderful, however considerably difficult Stealth Pro headset.
There’s a lot happening within the Stealth Pro that it’s arduous to run by all of it in a concise method. For a hefty $330, you’re getting nice sound high quality by way of its 50mm drivers, highly effective lively noise cancellation (ANC), two microphone choices, a swappable battery, a wi-fi transmitter that expenses an included second battery when you use the opposite one, compatibility with nearly each gaming machine, and a large customization suite by way of Turtle Beach’s app. While there’s not a lot a catch to all of that, there are some design quirks that enable Turtle Beach to pack all of it in.
If you possibly can adapt to some difficult options and have over $300 to spend, the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro is a top-tier gaming headset value investing in. It’s shortly turning into my go-to audio machine due to its snug design and progressive battery resolution that solves one in every of my largest gripes with wi-fi headsets. I simply want to show myself to cease fidgeting with it in public.
Design and luxury
The largest praise that I may give the Stealth Pro is that it doesn’t appear like a gaming headset. There’s a pattern occurring within the house proper now the place producers are ditching loud, colourful designs for discrete ones that make them extra viable as cans you should use in public. Turtle Beach follows that pattern right here with a easy black and silver design with just a few unobtrusive logos and no RGB accents.
It’s fairly the sturdy headset too, with a metal-reinforced headband that feels prefer it’ll maintain up effectively in the long term. That could make it really feel a bit stiff, as there’s a good quantity of resistance when attempting to regulate it, but it surely’s an enormous improve over the overly plastic really feel of the bottom Stealth fashions. I normally really feel a bit self-conscious when testing a gaming headset out on a NYC prepare journey, however the premium feel and look right here put that fear to relaxation.
I’m particularly pleased with the consolation issue thus far. At first, it felt a bit tight and I figured it’d squeeze my head a bit an excessive amount of. That discomfort by no means got here throughout my testing due to its extremely smooth reminiscence foam ear cushions and headband. I used to be maintaining it on for hours at a time with out fascinated by it. I’m not solely certain the way it’ll match greater heads, but it surely appears versatile sufficient that it ought to adapt simply whereas retaining a comfortable match.
Audio high quality
It doesn’t come as a lot of a shock that the Stealth Pro wins in audio high quality. Turtle Beach is aware of the right way to make a headset that’s appropriately balanced for gaming at this level in its storied profession. The 50mm Nanoclear drivers right here produce extremely clear sound the place no frequency vary feels misplaced. Bass, mid, and excessive tones all come by just about the place I count on them to and Turtle Beach gives a good quantity of customization to tweak the combo to my liking. Naturally, there’s the corporate’s signature Superhuman Hearing characteristic, which helps enhance appears like footsteps. Then there’s the audio hub app that lets me simply tweak my EQ presets on the fly too.
I’m particularly impressed by the noise cancellation right here, which cuts out a ton of sound. Room tone is nearly eliminated after I’m a recreation, letting me absolutely focus my consideration on one thing like Octopath Traveler 2’s wonderful rating. There’s a mic monitor accessible if you wish to herald some exterior noise, however I’d recommend fidgeting with it by the audio hub app first. At its default, the monitor is extremely noisy. When utilizing it on a prepare, I used to be left with an earful of harsh, peaking audio.
The Stealth Pro is a improbable gaming headset general that solves a number of points I’ve with gadgets like this.
Microphone high quality isn’t too unhealthy both, although I discover that I’m not often solely happy with that side of gaming headsets — and at $330, this isn’t elevating the bar as a lot as I’d count on. What I do respect, although, is that the Stealth Pro contains each an in-line microphone and a removable increase. The former isn’t preferable, with a hole, echo-filled tone that picks up a number of room tone, but it surely’s good to have a built-in mic I can use in a pinch if I don’t really feel like breaking out the attachment.
The increase produces a a lot clearer sound that I’d really feel much more snug subjecting my teammates to. It’s a contact tinny, however my voice comes by clearly, with a relatively gentle layer of room tone getting by. It will be muted by flipping the microphone up, which may create a barely annoying microphone dealing with sound. I even have run into conditions the place the microphone randomly mutes for a couple of seconds with out me touching it. Despite that, the characteristic works effectively contemplating I can flip all of it the best way out of my face with ease and get an audio cue confirming it’s off.
The microphone state of affairs is the place I begin to run into among the headset’s “premium” quirks. In what appears to be an effort to maintain the design as quiet as attainable, the microphone jack is roofed up by a small plastic cap on the left earcup. Anytime I wish to use the mic, I’m left praying that the tiny cowl doesn’t get misplaced, leaving an ugly gap proper on the facet. It’s one space the place the Stealth Pro feels a bit overdesigned, as an uncovered port off to the sting appears unobtrusive sufficient. It’s simply one in every of a handful of strange selections you’ll must reside with to get that Pro feeling.
Battery
That comes up once more with its progressive method to battery. Turtle Beach says the headset lasts about 12 hours on a cost, which roughly appears correct (although 10 is perhaps a more in-depth estimate). It’s a bit low contemplating the worth tag, however what’s neat is that the battery will be simply eliminated and changed with a second one which comes bundled with the headset. Replacing it is so simple as popping off the plastic cowl on the left earcup, slotting the brand new one in, and placing the cap again in place.
OK, I’m being a bit cheeky after I say “simple” right here. It’s an ideal concept, but it surely’s given me some issues as a continual fiddler. I had one embarrassing mishap the place I managed to fling the duvet off whereas on the prepare, leaving me to scramble to get it again in place, one thing that’s troublesome to do by feeling alone. I gained’t criticize Turtle Beach for my very own incapacity to take a seat nonetheless, but it surely’s actually a headset that you just’ll wish to hold your palms off of as a lot as attainable.
There’s one other neat element to its battery resolution. The Stealth Pro comes bundled with a wi-fi transmitter that may be simply linked to a PC by way of USB. The spherical puck actually takes up extra space than a flash drive-sized dongle, however there’s a very good purpose for it: It doubles as a battery charger. While I’m wirelessly linked to a tool, I’m charging my second battery. When my first one runs out, I merely swap it into the transmitter and pop in a completely charged one. It’s a genius resolution that solves these eventualities the place your headset dies and also you simply must cease utilizing it to cost it. The trade-off is having a big transmitter hanging round, but it surely does appear worthwhile for the utility.
The solely disappointment I’ve right here is that there’s no manner to make use of the Stealth Pro with a wire. I at all times favor to have that choice in a wi-fi headset, permitting me to plug in at any time when I must. The swappable battery does cut back the necessity for that situation, but it surely’s nonetheless one thing I’d count on from a headset I’m paying this a lot for.
Features and controls
The actual “Pro” side comes when digging into its options — although that’s the place its quirks are most noticeable too. On the optimistic facet, it’s appropriate with nearly each gaming system indirectly. Bluetooth lets me simply connect with my telephone, whereas the transmitter will be plugged right into a docked Switch or Xbox Series X. It can at all times be a bit difficult to pair a headset like this to a number of gadgets, however I discovered I used to be in a position to swap between the transmitter on PC, my Switch by way of Bluetooth, and my telephone with out an excessive amount of fuss.
Part of me needs sure components of the Stealth Pro caught a bit nearer to the fundamentals.
The spectacular characteristic set can get a bit difficult from there. For instance, quantity isn’t managed by way of a regular dial wheel. Instead, all the proper earcup is a rotating dial that controls quantity. It feels a bit foolish to execute contemplating what number of rotations are wanted to hit high quantity, however I obtained used to it.
What’s a bit tougher to understand is the wheel’s a number of modes. By utilizing the audio hub app, I can map a secondary operate onto the wheel that prompts by urgent a button within the middle of it. That permits me to regulate my mic monitor quantity, ANC stage, bass enhance, and extra. That’s a neat additional, however just one will be assigned at a time. I can’t alter my Bluetooth quantity or my recreation/chat combine on the identical time. It’s a compromise that’s maybe essential to get extra performance packed in with out 100 buttons, but it surely does create limitations.
I can really feel that stress between desirous to load the Stealth Pro up with options whereas maintaining its design easy. There are solely three buttons on the machine apart from the mode toggle: an influence button, Bluetooth toggle, and a Superhuman Hearing swap. Some of these buttons have a number of capabilities ,although, which will be arduous to maintain observe of. To mute the in-line mic, as an example, I want to carry the Superhuman Hearing button down for a couple of seconds. Those three buttons are a bit arduous to press whereas carrying the headset too, normally requiring me to take it off so I may even discover them (although some texture on the Superhuman Hearing button helps).
Part of me needs sure components of the Stealth Pro caught a bit nearer to the fundamentals. A conventional mute button and a quantity wheel would have sufficed, as would have an uncovered mic jack. Even so, I do really feel like I’m nitpicking a bit when trying on the massive image. The Stealth Pro is a improbable gaming headset general that solves a number of points I’ve with gadgets like this. A discrete design, nice audio high quality, swappable batteries — all of those options give me a wi-fi headset that’s shortly changing the wired headsets I normally favor on my go-to gadgets. The solely barrier is that $330 price ticket, but it surely’s arduous to argue that you just’re not getting a very “Pro” expertise for the cash.
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