Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Headset Gen 3

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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 600 Gen 3, a marked improvement over its predecessor in every way, though it’s really the successor to the Stealth 600 Gen 2 MAX. It’s a sizable upgrade that looks better, sounds much better, is incredibly comfortable even after longer sessions, and does all this with battery life to spare. What’s not to love?

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Design: Angular Improvements

The Stealth 600 looks very similar to its predecessor, only with a more refined appearance that makes it look less like a boxy Transformer and more like a premium non-gaming headset. The body is made of tough plastic that feels like it could withstand a little wear and tear, though I’d recommend not chucking one across the room. You can really see the influence of the Roccat brand (RIP) Turtle Beach acquired a few years back. It’s also available in black or white (on consoles only, the PC version is black only).

Because you’ll probably be wearing it for hours you’ll be happy to know the Stealth 600 Gen 3 is super comfy, with soft, yet firm memory foam cushions that play nicely with bigger ears and gamers with glasses. They fit snugly and exert just the right amount of force, and both cups can swivel inward to let you lay the headset on flat surfaces or comfortably around your neck. Each cup can be extended slightly to accommodate those with larger heads, and the padded headband, while not adjustable, was never uncomfortable. It’s a bit heavier than the previous model, at 10.6 ounces (about 300 grams), but the weight is distributed so well the headset never felt oppressive after an extended session.

Inside both cups are 50mm Nanoclear drivers that deliver some incredibly bassy effects (maybe a little too bassy, but more on this later). The left cup has everything you’ll need to control the Stealth 600 and communicate with other players. A single uni-directional mic sits nestled within the left cup and can be extended out quickly for usage (and easily slotted back). There are two adjustable wheels, one for volume and another that can be customized slightly using the Swarm II software (more on this later). 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 600 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. One great feature was the volume wheel, when paired to your PC, offers in-line system volume controls (not just levels), and the Bluetooth button (even when paired via USB) lets you play/pause content.

Gaming: A Bassy Boom

Just about everything sounds better with a little bass, and the Stealth 600 Gen 3 is all about the bass, and some treble. When everything is adjusted properly this headset delivers an incredible sound experience that’s certainly better than not using a nice headset. Just make sure you spend a little time tweaking levels if you want the best possible outcome as the available presets won’t cover everything equally. I often found a little distortion when volume levels reached max, 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 50mm drivers just sounds amazing – 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 600 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 great playback experience for both, but bass and treble levels were consistently too high or low, even after serious tinkering with EQ levels. In-line volume controls and some media control (via the Bluetooth button) help considerably, however, as most users will usually adopt a single headset for everything they consume (i.e. work and play), so less fuss means more fun.

I can’t say enough good things about how incredible battery life is on the Stealth 600. Turtle Beach promises 80 hours of playtime, almost double that of previous gen headsets (and better than some pricier TB headsets), and a week of rigorous testing made me a believer. With the Stealth 600 Gen 3 you’re absolutely spoiled for best-in-class battery life.

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 600 headset, you’ll need it to get the most from it, including driver updates, EQ levels, or to customize the Mappable 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 600 Gen 3 there were a few nitpicks I had, none of which are deal breakers but should be pointed out. Most frustrating is that Bluetooth is really hit-or-miss. When it connects, it’s great, but I often struggled to even connect the headset to most of my Bluetooth devices as the connection would either time out or just fail to register. More than once I had to turn the headset off just to have its pairing mode noticed by 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 600, 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: A Mid-Range Champ

Whether you’re looking to upgrade from a previous model or just starting out, Turtle Beach’s Stealth 600 Gen 3 has all the right features you’d expect from a mid-range gaming headset – and a lot more. They’re super comfy, generally sound amazing, and the 80 hour battery life is possibly the best of any headset. 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 600 Gen 3 delivers.