When it got here to the final season’s mannequin, the Stealth 700 Gen 2s, my ideas have been very a lot according to my discovered US modern’s 8/10. They definitely weren’t an ideal pair of cans proper out of the field (with two medium-sized faults needing to be zapped through 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 Seaside’s finest headset so far by a substantial margin.
Have these Gen 3s spent 4 years of an low season elevating the benchmark? Sure 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. In the event you want to skip all that window buying in favour of uncooked data and unfiltered impressions as a substitute, click here to leap proper to it.
Turtle Seaside Stealth 700
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Wi-fi Multiplatform Amplified Gaming Headset for Xbox Collection X|S, Xbox One, PC, PS5, & Cellular–60mm Audio system, A.I. Noise-Cancelling Mic, Bluetooth.
Amazon – $274
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Catch – $360
Ears On Impressions
Let’s roll out a primary overview of those cans for these of you who skipped Gen 1 and Gen 2. To start with, 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 cellular gadgets along with your Xbox X|S / One.
The largest 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 trouble change your audio output from completely different platforms with a button faucet. And, clearly, the implications of that Bluetooth double up are that you would be able to take heed to music when you’re gaming, take a name when you’re gaming, and many others. Fairly slick stuff, although many people have been having fun with this for ages.
Moreover, the Stealth 700 boasts 80-hours price of battery cost, and the Swarm II companion app remains to be on hand to tweak and get probably the most out of your A.I. noise-cancelling mic and the spectacular 60nm Eclipse Twin 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 beneath who’re lurking within the low-end of your soundscape.
It is also 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” when you low cost the truth that these 60s have been utilized in one other Turtle Seaside headset within the intervening years.
Let’s indulge our shallow aspect and focus on the aesthetics. Firstly, whereas there are three variations obtainable, the pattern I acquired was the bog-standard black “Designed for Xbox” version. In order for you a splash of color or love seeing brownish-black fingerprint smudges accumulate over time, you possibly can all the time go for the Cobalt Blue or White (PlayStation) variations, respectively, as a substitute.
As soon as once more, the design method right here will not be from the varsity of Pulsing Disco RGB and Aggressive Angles, however Turtle Seaside remains to be erring on the aspect 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 objective of those. (In the event you imagine the advertising pitch, that’s: “to rank up” within the vidjagurms with Daredevil-level listening to.)
In the event you plan on taking these barely cumbersome beasts out on the highway to enhance your Steam Deck, you’ll be comfortable to know that the construct high quality feels rock strong. There’s a spine of metal operating by the band that also permits for some fairly vigorous bending and twisting to go well with probably the most oddest-shaped and overlarge craniums possible. Moreover, the head-pinching nature of the Gen 2’s have been lessened noticeably this time round.
Likewise, they’re fairly cozy as a consequence of a combination of primarily pleather on each floor that can be touching your hair (or scalp) and some materials across the ear sections. The warmth dispersal is nice across the ol’ ear balls—I used to be pressured to make use of these in 30C+ warmth this summer time and was fairly shocked by how low sweat my ears have been after lengthy periods. Higher 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 implies 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 am comfortable to say, labored flawlessly with each console I slapped them in (I’ve the entire foremost ones talked about earlier on hand). Compatability-wise, I imagine I obtained the perfect Stealth 700 variant to go along 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 because of a fast change button on your cup and a visible system of “orange standing by” and “inexperienced in-use” represented on the 2 dongles you are operating on separate machines. The change is principally instantaneous, too, and when you’re operating Bluetooth audio at that second, it is not disrupted in any manner.
In relation to sound efficiency, this Gen 3 sounds a contact completely different to the Gen 2s, however nonetheless very a lot the Turtle Seaside method 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 brilliant 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, at the least, I would not change EQs in any respect.
I’ve comparable 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 newer headsets, I really like that my mic and recreation/chat combine controls are simply instantaneously changeable with sensibly positioned 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, most likely not. However when you’re canless and searching for high quality on this extremely aggressive value vary, Turtle Seaside places up a shelluva good argument for a purchase order right here.
Adam Mathew is our Aussie offers wrangler. He performs virtually the whole lot, usually on YouTube.