When it got here to the final season’s mannequin, the Stealth 700 Gen 2s, my ideas had been very a lot consistent with my realized US up to date’s 8/10. They actually weren’t an ideal pair of cans proper out of the field (with two medium-sized faults needing to be zapped by way of firmware updates), however these bugbears apart, my pair served me aural delights for ages. I’ve been eager to see (learn: hear) how the envelope may very well be pushed additional with a Gen 3.
This new revision has some large reminiscence foam cups to fill, although—the Stealth 700 Gen 2 wasn’t fairly the apex of high-fidelity ear sweet in 2020, however on the time it was Turtle Beach’s greatest headset thus far by a substantial margin.
Have these Gen 3s spent 4 years of an low season elevating the benchmark? Yes and no (however largely sure). I’m going to dig into specifics in a sec, however I ought to get the impulse purchasers amongst you sorted with the most cost effective costs obtainable now. If you want to skip all that window procuring in favour of uncooked data and unfiltered impressions as an alternative, click here to leap proper to it.
Turtle Beach Stealth 700
Wireless Multiplatform Amplified Gaming Headset for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, PS5, & Mobile–60mm Speakers, A.I. Noise-Cancelling Mic, Bluetooth.
Amazon – $274
JB Hi-Fi – $399
Big W – $399
Kogan – $348
Scorptec – $399
Catch – $360
Ears On Impressions
Let’s roll out a fundamental overview of those cans for these of you who skipped Gen 1 and Gen 2. First of all, and although its packaging is large on the Xbox branding, know that the Stealth 700s are very a lot a wi-fi multiplatform affair with assist for PlayStation 4 / 5, PC, Steam Deck, and cell gadgets along with your Xbox X|S / One.
The greatest feather in its cap? A CrossPlay 2.4GHz wi-fi system that leverages two (included) USB transmitters (plus some simultaneous Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity) to allow you to seamlessly and sans problem swap your audio output from completely different platforms with a button faucet. And, clearly, the implications of that Bluetooth double up are which you can take heed to music when you’re gaming, take a name when you’re gaming, and many others. Pretty slick stuff, although many people have been having fun with this for ages.
Additionally, the Stealth 700 boasts 80-hours price of battery cost, and the Swarm II companion app remains to be available to tweak and get probably the most out of your A.I. noise-cancelling mic and the spectacular 60nm Eclipse Dual Drivers. In layman’s phrases, that is roughly a subwoofer and a tweeter separated. The concept being: halving the workload for higher outcomes as one driver delivers the sharper high-end audio particulars and the opposite is dealing with the beasts under who’re lurking within the low-end of your soundscape.
It’s additionally price noting that there is a 10-band onboard EQ, and that the 60nms are certainly an improve from the 50nm nano clears utilized by the Stealth 700 Gen 2. Technically talking, they’re solely “new” if you happen to low cost the truth that these 60s have been utilized in one other Turtle Beach headset within the intervening years.
Let’s indulge our shallow facet and deal with the aesthetics. Firstly, whereas there are three variations obtainable, the pattern I acquired was the bog-standard black “Designed for Xbox” version. If you desire a splash of color or love seeing brownish-black fingerprint smudges accumulate over time, you may all the time go for the Cobalt Blue or White (PlayStation) variations, respectively, as an alternative.
Once once more, the design strategy right here will not be from the college of Pulsing Disco RGB and Aggressive Angles, however Turtle Beach remains to be erring on the facet of gaming (simply not capital ‘G’). The fold-down-to-use / fold-up-to-mute microphone isn’t fully hidden, which (together with the outstanding emblem) are the principle giveaways of the first goal of those. (If you imagine the advertising and marketing pitch, that’s: “to rank up” within the vidjagurms with Daredevil-level listening to.)
If you intend on taking these barely cumbersome beasts out on the street to enrich your Steam Deck, you’ll be pleased to know that the construct high quality feels rock strong. There’s a spine of metal working by way of the band that also permits for some fairly vigorous bending and twisting to swimsuit probably the most oddest-shaped and overlarge craniums possible. Furthermore, the head-pinching nature of the Gen 2’s have been lessened noticeably this time round.
Likewise, they’re fairly cozy on account of a mix of primarily pleather on each floor that will likely be touching your hair (or scalp) and a few materials across the ear sections. The warmth dispersal is nice across the ol’ ear balls—I used to be compelled to make use of these in 30C+ warmth this summer time and was fairly shocked by how low sweat my ears had been after lengthy periods. Better but, and with out impacting consolation, the within padding of those ear cups have been pushed again to be about 20% extra cavernous when in comparison with the Gen 2’s, which suggests wider assist for…effectively, wider ears.
Let’s transfer on too the issues that matter way more for me—connection efficiency and the audio expertise. The included dongles, I’m pleased to say, labored flawlessly with each console I slapped them in (I’ve all the principal ones talked about earlier available). Compatability-wise, I imagine I obtained one of the best Stealth 700 variant to go together with, as one of many particularly labeled Xbox dongles comes with the encryption chip wanted to attend Microsoft’s needlessly snooty and selective peripherals social gathering.
Switching between the dongles is a cinch due to a fast swap button in your cup and a visible system of “orange standing by” and “inexperienced in-use” represented on the 2 dongles you are working on separate machines. The swap is principally instantaneous, too, and if you happen to’re working Bluetooth audio at that second, it is not disrupted in any approach.
When it involves sound efficiency, this Gen 3 sounds a contact completely different to the Gen 2s, however nonetheless very a lot the Turtle Beach strategy to audio. For me, the Gen 3s felt like their bass nonetheless envelops properly however is a contact shallower and a smidge punchier. The mids are vibrant and plateau properly for content material like voices, and the highs are richly detailed with out being scratchy or harsh. All in all, I feel an already great-sounding headset tweaked to be barely higher proper out of the field. For FPS video games, not less than, I would not swap EQs in any respect.
I’ve related reward to heap on the mic expertise as effectively. My teammates reported crisp and clear comms from me, regardless of the followers of my PC and PlayStations going roughly flat knackers (as a result of, once more, 30C+ warmth). And, when you can name me antiquated for not embracing touch-to-engage and spin-to-change controls on a few of TB’s more moderen headsets, I really like that my mic and recreation/chat combine controls are simply instantaneously changeable with sensibly situated bodily dials.
Couple all that with the aforementioned improved consolation (and the battery fast cost that may take you from out of juice to able to maul for one more 3 hours after a mere quarter-hour), and this Gen 3 of Stealth 700s is mighty spectacular. Would I ditch my Gen 2s and pony up once more for the refresh? No, in all probability not. But if you happen to’re canless and searching for high quality on this extremely aggressive value vary, Turtle Beach places up a shelluva good argument for a purchase order right here.
Adam Mathew is our Aussie offers wrangler. He performs virtually every thing, typically on YouTube.
