Turtle Beach Stealth 300 overview: Great sound, awkward setup

The new Turtle Beach Stealth 300 is a little bit of a bizarre one. It’s a wired headset that comes with a 3.5mm audio connection, however because of its built-in bass amplifier, it additionally must be charged through USB each 40 hours or so – one thing that, usually, you solely have to do if it’s wiremuch less.

Straight off the bat, then, the Stealth 300 is extra of a faff than nearly each different wired headset on the planet – besides, possibly, the Steelseries Arctis Pro and its barely convoluted GameDAC setup. Are the additional bass beats price the additional problem to make it one of many best gaming headsets round? Let’s discover out.

Technically, I’ve bought the PS4-branded model of the Stealth 300 on take a look at at present, however each it and the green-garbed Xbox One version are totally appropriate with PC and are just about equivalent. The solely actual distinction is that the latter makes an enormous track and dance about having assist for Microsoft’s fancy Windows Sonic for Headphones spatial encompass sound tech, which isn’t out there on PS4.

That’s probably not a priority for PC folks, although, as all that stuff is constructed into Windows 10 anyway, no matter which headset you find yourself going for. All you’ve bought to do is make sure that Windows Sonic is enabled in your PC’s audio settings. For us, then, it actually simply comes right down to what your favorite color is – blue or inexperienced?

Comfort-wise, I used to be pleasantly stunned by the Stealth 300’s padded headband, as I used to be capable of put on it for a good period of time with out my dreaded buddy Headache McSqueeze making an look. Its metal-reinforced body additionally makes it really feel loads sturdier than its plastic casing would possibly suggest, and its fabric-coated ear cups had been good and comfortable towards my cheeks.

So how about that bass, then, eh? Well, the Stealth 300 is certainly on the loud and boomy facet of gaming headsets, however fortunately you’ll be able to alter how boomy it’s utilizing the Mode button on the left ear cup. Here, there are 4 completely different EQ presets to select from, starting from the default ‘Signature Sound’ to ‘Bass Boost’, ‘Bass and Treble Boost’ and simply ‘Treble Boost’.

In reality, I couldn’t hear an enormous distinction between all of them. To my ears, Treble Boost sounded similar to Signature Sound, for instance, however Bass Boost was most likely the fullest and most all-encompassing one of many lot, and it actually got here into its personal once I was blasting my means by a degree of Doom.

Overall, the Stealth 300 might be a bit of bass-heavy for my private music tastes, however man alive, unloading the Super Shotgun right into a Possessed Soldier’s face has by no means sounded extra weighty or, certainly, extra satisfying. The headset did a incredible job of serving to me select the place all of Doom’s straggling enemies had been hiding, too, their clear, throaty groans revealing precisely which path I needed to go to ensure that them to fulfill their Super Shotgun maker.

I used to be additionally impressed by how the Stealth 300 dealt with Hellblade‘s foreboding atmosphere without overpowering the all-important voices whirling around inside Senua’s head. Again, switching between the headset’s completely different presets didn’t have a lot of a discernible influence once I stopped and listened to the stormy cacophony of Senua’s first hallucination proper firstly of the sport, however Bass Boost as soon as once more proved to supply the richest and most detailed soundscape, making a palpable sense of menace that the opposite EQ settings couldn’t match. It additionally gave Senua’s inside voices a welcome sense of heat and depth throughout the recreation’s opening cutscene, and it by no means felt just like the bass was being pushed to the forefront on the expense of every thing else.

Final Fantasy XV was one other good match for the Stealth 300, the zips and zaps of Noctis’ teleporting warp strike ringing crystal clear towards the sport’s busy orchestral battle themes and growling monsters.

It’s only a disgrace all that goes to pot while you strive utilizing the Stealth 300 as a daily music headset. When I fired up my Final Fantasy XV soundtrack in iTunes, for instance, each observe simply sounded very loud and echoey, the principle melodies at all times sounding like they had been vulnerable to turning into misplaced beneath the booming bass. The recreation’s piano tracks additionally sounded just like the pianist continuously had their foot jammed on the comfortable pedal as nicely, giving them a barely muted, muffled high quality that didn’t sound practically pretty much as good as they did in-game.

Rock and pop music fared higher due to a clearer distinction between their vocals and backing music, however there have been nonetheless moments when very busy tracks – songs and instrumental soundtracks alike – simply turned an excessive amount of for my ears to deal with, making me wince from the sheer cludge of noise being chucked down my ear canals. It’s a bizarre sensation, describing what an excessive amount of noise feels like, but it surely continued even once I lowered the quantity. It didn’t occur usually – simply when there have been a variety of devices competing to be heard on a selected chord, for instance – however this lack of subtlety simply reinforces the truth that common music listening positively isn’t the Stealth 300’s forte.

The Stealth 300 headset has separate sliders for quantity and microphone quantity, however sadly it doesn’t decrease the quantity of different folks’s mics as nicely, so that you’ll nonetheless should put up with screaming twelve yr olds when enjoying on-line.

There are different parts of the Stealth 300’s design that aggravated me as nicely. For occasion, I used to be by no means certain I used to be urgent the best little bit of the headset once I wished to cycle by its EQ presets, because the Mode button additionally sits on the identical clicky bit as the principle energy button. Fortunately, the previous solely requires a single faucet (providing you with a pleasant little audible beep to point which profile you’re presently on), whereas the latter must be held down for a few seconds, so it’s not such as you’re by chance going to maintain turning it on and off once more while you’re attempting to alter presets. That mentioned, it may nonetheless be extra apparent what you’re really touching while you’re blindly fumbling round for them along with your fingers.

Given its console leanings, the three.5mm audio cable can be on the quick facet – excellent for plugging it right into a wi-fi controller, much less so for these hoping to attach it around the again of a PC. Even worse, it wants a mixed headphone and microphone jack, in any other case the mic received’t really work. Most laptops have these, however a variety of PC instances and motherboards are inclined to have separate ones, and it doesn’t include an adapter within the field. As a outcome, you’ll both want to purchase an adapter to make it work along with your PC, or be sure to’ve bought the proper of jack beforehand.

Luckily, I had a spare adapter knocking round, so I used to be, in truth, capable of take a look at it. It’s a relatively diddy little factor that slides forwards and backwards over the left ear cup, and it’ll robotically mute itself when it’s pushed again away out of your face – which is, once more, indicated with a useful beep to let you understand you’ve performed it correctly. There was a small background hiss current once I recorded myself speaking in Audacity, however in any other case every thing was crystal clear with no apparent pops and wind results – spectacular contemplating its small stature.

Overall, then, the Turtle Beach Stealth 300 is a effective headset in relation to in-game audio, however for me it lacks the steadiness and additional subtlety to make it a very good basic listening headset as nicely. That’s effective in order for you one thing good and full to bop your head to whereas enjoying video games, however there are higher, extra well-rounded (and fewer irritating to arrange) headsets on the market for roughly the identical amount of cash.

At £70 / $80 a pop, the Stealth 300 has two major rivals: the wonderful USB-based Corsair Void Pro RGB, which matches for £80 / $70 lately, and the three.5mm Steelseries Arctis 3, which is presently simply £65 / $67 and produces the identical nice audio as its wi-fi sibling, the Steelseries Arctis 7.

Personally, the Arctis nonetheless reigns supreme at this type of worth, each by way of consolation, ease of up and total sound high quality, and it comes with all of the adapters you could get it working straight out of the field. The Stealth 300 received’t disappoint when you favor your audio on the boomy facet of issues, however for these after a extra versatile headset, each the Arctis Three and Corsair Void Pro are higher worth for cash.