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Turtle Beach is ready to improve your sound game – literally – with two new upgrades to their best-selling gaming headsets: the Stealth 500 and Stealth 600. Both offer a great experience, and while only 20 bucks separate them in price, there are several quality-of-life differences that could make it difficult choosing one over the other, and even more so with their flagship Atlas Air.
In this review I’ll be talking about the Stealth 500, a great entry-level option that manages to look, feel, and sound better than most entry-level gaming headsets. But will that be enough to keep you from spending a few more dollars for a mid-range option instead?
via YouTubeDesign: Angular Improvements
The Stealth 500 isn’t going to win any awards for design innovation, but it’s still an attractive headset that looks slick and wouldn’t embarrass you in public. You can see the overall influence of the Roccat brand (RIP) Turtle Beach acquired a few years back. The body is made of plastic that feels a little cheaper than I’d like, so maybe this wouldn’t be the best headset for younger or more “excitable” gamers. It’s only available in black, so there’s one less thing you need to worry about.
Because you’ll probably be wearing it for hours you’ll be happy to know the Stealth 500 is very comfortable, with spongy pleather-like cushions that play nicely with bigger ears and gamers with glasses. They have a nice fit and exert the right amount of force, though neither cup can swivel around and there’s no way to extend or adjust their length. The headband is flexible and stretches slightly to accommodate larger heads, and can be adjusted slightly by popping out the fasteners to find an even comfier fit. Also, this headset is incredibly light, at just 8.2 ounces (232 grams) it never felt oppressive after an extended session.
Inside both cups are standard issue 40mm drivers that sound great for most mid-range bass and treble. The left cup has everything you’ll need to control the Stealth 500 and communicate with other players. A single uni-directional mic is nestled within the left cup and can be extended out for quick usage (and easily slotted back). There are two wheels, one for volume and another for mic monitoring only. Near the rear are buttons for Power/Standby, Mode, Bluetooth, and QuickSwitch, as well as a single USB-C charging port.
Connectivity is entirely via low-latency 2.4GHz wireless (via USB dongle) or Bluetooth 5.2, and while the Stealth 600 Gen 3 supports multiple profiles (one USB, one Bluetooth) they cannot play simultaneously. Keep in mind the USB dongle remains a more traditional USB-A, not the smaller USB-C type found on the charging port.
A Learning Curve
The Stealth 500 Gen 3 is generally easy to use, but there’s a learning curve. The left cup contains a LOT of functions, and having so many buttons so close to each other can be a recipe for disaster. An accidental press of the QuickSwitch button will instantly lose your connection, either connecting you to another paired device or into silence.
You quickly adjust, however, but prepare your fingers to learn where to press – and where not to. Sadly, the volume wheel doesn’t control in-line system volume when paired to your PC, just volume levels on the headset itself. Thankfully, the Bluetooth button (even when paired via USB) lets you play/pause content.
Gaming: Respectable Bass
Just about everything sounds better with a little bass, and the Stealth 500 offers a very good sound experience with respectable bass and trebles, especially at mid-range. When everything is adjusted properly it delivers a noticeable improvement over not using a gaming headset, but make sure you spend a little time tweaking levels to really get optimal performance as the available presets won’t cover everything equally. I noticed a little distortion when volume levels maxed out, or when your source volume was set too high, especially in games with a mix of sound profiles (i.e. music, effects, dialogue).
But once it’s tweaked? Oh yeah, now we’re talking. You’ll feel every dragon punch in Street Fighter VI, hear all Peter Parker’s wisecracks in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, take a trippin’ trip through the Mushroom Kingdom in Super Mario Wonder, or rip and tear baddies in DOOM Eternal. The list is endless, but everything that played through those 40mm drivers sound great – with the right settings, of course!
The headset also support’s Turtle Beach’s patented Superhuman Hearing filter, which essentially changes compression levels of certain sounds (i.e. footsteps) then amplifies them. Personally, I’ve never been a fan as turning this feature on distorts audio quality too much, but I’m also not the most competitive gamer. I do find it funny that it’s almost been depreciated in newer headsets as there’s no dedicated Superhuman Hearing button; it can only be activated by using Swarm II or by assigning a specific keyboard key.
So how’s the microphone? Turtle Beach promises “A.I. noise reduction”, which sounds buzzy and it mostly is, and my opponents never really noticed anything fancy about its output, except that my voice came through nice and clear (including with meeting apps like Skype or Zoom). There’s a handful of options to tweak using Swarm like sensitivity, mic monitoring (sidetone that lets you hear yourself) and even noise gating, but most users will be fine with the microphone as is.
Other Functions
The Stealth 500 is marketed as a “Gaming Headset” so that’s where most of my review time was spent, though I did manage some quality time using it with music and movies. It offers a decent playback experience for both, but bass and treble levels were consistently too high or low, even after serious tinkering with EQ levels. The lack of in-line volume controls hurts, but at least you can play/pause media with the Bluetooth button. Most users will usually adopt a single headset for everything they consume (i.e. work and play), so less fuss means more fun.
Battery life is very good with 40+ hours of playtime between charges, but not even close to the phenomenal 80 hours the Stealth 600 will get you. But 40 hours isn’t anything to sneeze at, and I’d be lying if I said this was any kind of problem, though.
Join the Swarm (II)
I won’t lie, Swarm isn’t my favorite piece of software out there but I’ve used worse. While you won’t need Turtle Beach’s proprietary Swarm II software to use the Stealth 500 headset, you’ll need it to get the most from it, including driver updates and EQ levels. Unlike the Stealth 600, sadly, you cannot adjust either the second wheel or Mode button.
While not as robust as the desktop version I’d recommend installing the mobile version of Swarm II and keeping it handy while playing as it lets you quickly access presets and options like sound equalizers and microphone settings (you can even use the mobile app for driver updates and bypass the desktop version altogether if you don’t want it).
A word of caution: both desktop and mobile versions of Swarm II don’t always play nicely with each other, especially when it comes to presets and customized EQ settings. Some customized EQs won’t display when using the mobile app, and customized presets made using the desktop version were erased when playing with the mobile app.
Nitpicks
As much as I enjoyed my time with the Stealth 500 there were a few nitpicks I had, none of which are deal breakers but should be pointed out. Surprisingly, this headset performs better with Bluetooth connectivity than its pricier Stealth 600 counterpart, and while I still found the pairing process a bit clumsy I had few issues actually connecting to any devices.
One thing that continues to be a thorn in the Turtle Beach lineup is how small differences can be between versions of the same headset that can affect compatibility. In days past this wasn’t much of an issue; a gaming headset was branded for the console it worked on. Now, thanks to USB receivers and Bluetooth an “Xbox” headset can work just fine with a PlayStation, Switch, PC or even your phone. And that’s the case with the Stealth 500, which comes in three variants (Xbox, PlayStation, and PC) that mostly play well with other platforms.
Listing every difference here would turn this review into a Wiki article, so just make sure to do the research before settling for a specific version of this headset.
Conclusion: An Entry-Level Champ
Despite being called an entry-level headset, Turtle Beach’s Stealth 500 offers a respectable audio upgrade over not using a gaming headset, delivering an excellent mix of bass and treble at mid-range levels. They’re comfortable, sound output is usually very good, and solid battery life means more gaming between charges. Regardless of how you game, just having Bluetooth means you can use any version with anything that accepts BT, and what doesn’t will probably use the USB dongle. Games sound better with a proper headset, and that’s exactly what the Stealth 500 delivers.