There’s quite a bit I actually like about Turtle Seashore’s new flagship wi-fi gaming headsetthe Stealth Professional. It is obtained the options you count on from a headset meant to do all of it, from gaming to strolling — twin 2.4GHz and Bluetooth wi-fi, inside and exterior mics, lively noise canceling for the audio plus noise-canceling mics, scorching swappable batteries and extra. And it succeeds, with first-rate mic and sound high quality, a comfortable match and a few glorious design touches.
But it surely’ll price you. The headset is available in two fashions, one a part of the Designed for Xbox associate program, and one designed to work with PS5/PS4 — each price $330. There aren’t any practical variations between the 2; the Xbox mannequin works with all platforms, whereas the PlayStation model would not work with Xbox due to licensing and USB restrictions for that console. In any other case, each work with the remainder of the platforms: Nintendo SwapPC and Mac, and Bluetooth gadgets.
Turtle Seashore Stealth Professional
Like
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Actually snug, even with glasses, and customarily properly designed
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Superb mic high quality and each mic and lively noise cancellation
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Good breadth of management over numerous settings
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Sizzling-swappable batteries
Do not like
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Slowish connecting
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Must bodily swap USB connections between console and PC
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No encompass help on PC
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Particular person battery life is comparatively quick
Although it shares options with the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Professional Wi-fi, the inexpensive Razer Barracuda Professional and others, the Stealth Professional combines virtually all of them in a single package deal, with one massive exception: They’re stereo, and help encompass solely on the Xbox by means of Home windows Sonic for Headphones. (Like all headsets, the PlayStation model can use Tempest 3D Audio.)
They’ve virtually every part I like in a headset design. Whereas they really feel a bit heavy in my hand (I haven’t got the precise weight), they do not on my head. The leatherette-covered reminiscence foam is squishier than common, so that they’re much less liable to feeling like a vise; they’re pretty noise-isolating on their very own, however with the ANC enabled you are just about trapped in your individual head.
There is a remappable button and full-size dial on the fitting earcup. A detachable, simply misplaced plug covers the increase mic jack on the left earcup.
As is turning into extra frequent, the built-in mics can cross ambient noise by means of, and the Audio Hub software program gives 11 ranges of transparency. Like all the opposite options, the mics tend to spice up some frequencies, which signifies that sure varieties of sounds get emphasised and turn out to be extra annoying than they’d have been with out ambient noise allowed by means of (for example, my air conditioner).
It has a flip-to-mute mic which might be eliminated — my favourite combo — although the little cowl for the jack is assured to vanish 5 minutes after you are taking it out. The detachable battery sits underneath a magnetic cowl on that very same left earcup. The wi-fi receiver is about the identical measurement because the earcup and has a spot for charging the second battery.
You possibly can swap them with out shedding the connection (offered you do it comparatively shortly), which is essential: I’ve had occasions when energy dropped from medium to gone unexpectedly quick. I might estimate I obtained about 8 hours per battery, which is on the low aspect. You possibly can cost immediately within the headset whereas in use, however there isn’t any method to make use of it wired, which is sweet to have in a pinch.
The battery lies beneath a magnetically connected cowl.
Turtle Seashore makes an enormous deal over its 50mm drivers — wi-fi opponents stick to 40mm. They sound superb with a comparatively vast soundstage for each video games and music, however I would not say they sound notably higher than the 40mm driver fashions they usually have comparable frequency response ranges. On condition that I think the bigger drivers are chargeable for the shorter battery life than 40mm fashions, I do not know that it is well worth the tradeoff. And the Superhuman listening to would not essentially make up for the directionality you may get from encompass sound through Dolby Atmos or DTS Headphone:X.
The detachable increase mic does work very properly and delivers clear voice with out noticeable processing artifacts with the noise cancellation — which additionally works very well. I did not even discover issues with the shortage of a foam cowl, although it is also laborious to get the mic shut sufficient to your mouth that it turns into vital. I ended up having to bump the sensitivity simply to get an inexpensive quantity.
It is rated for a variety of about 50 toes (15m) from the receiver. If you need to undergo partitions, it looks like it is a bit lower than that — nearer to 25 toes earlier than the connection will get unstable or disconnects. It reconnects fairly shortly as soon as it is again inside vary although.
Design
All of the headset controls are on the fitting earcup: energy, Bluetooth and Turtle Seashore’s Superhuman listening to on/off (it boosts the sound of gunshots and footsteps) plus a button and wheel on the aspect, each of which might be remapped to different capabilities. The Bluetooth button controls pairing, media playback and name dealing with. However I actually, actually miss having the ability to flip Bluetooth on and off individually like you’ll be able to on the Arctis. Due to the way in which Bluetooth is designed, the headset will all the time reconnect with the final Bluetooth gadget it was used with. That is positive when you solely have one.
However when you have a number of telephones and tablets like I do, the sport of “what are you related to?” begins earlier than any video video games can. And in some circumstances it means both turning Bluetooth off or unpairing the headset from the gadget to maintain it from occurring or permitting you to connect with a special gadget. Because it takes a bit of longer than I might like simply to connect with the two.4GHz transmitter, having to take care of Bluetooth makes me additional cranky.
The Superhuman Listening to button is simple to distinguish by really feel from the facility and Bluetooth, however the latter two are a bit of more durable. Extra annoying, all of them require a big quantity of stress to press.
The buttons are additionally oddly laborious to press; I must grip all the cup whereas urgent them with a view to apply sufficient pressure. And the dial is absolutely annoying. It is remappable and defaults to quantity nevertheless it takes a number of rotations to decrease or elevate the amount. One full rotation ought to take you from lowest to loudest — it takes someplace round three to 5 for this one. And actually, a quantity management shouldn’t be non-compulsory. Plus, I might love a strategy to choose which rotation course goes up and which matches down; my intuition is all the time to rotate ahead for down, however its intuition is the alternative.
The software program gives the same old important equalizer and mic changes, chat increase and sport/chat combine (which you’ll solely management on ear for the Xbox) and so forth. However it may well sometimes be glitchy, similar to generally requiring a restart to detect the headset and wonkiness within the equalizer preset creation.
The wi-fi receiver is an efficient measurement and properly designed — I want it had a second USB-C port to connect with each console and PC with out having to swap cables.
The wi-fi receiver is typical, as I all the time desire these standalone pucks to dongles, particularly once they’re twin PC and console and require a swap flip. This one’s positive, with an LED stripe round it to point connection standing, mic mute and (in principle) battery cost standing. The issue is that there are circumstances the place you’ll be able to’t inform the cost standing as a result of it is overridden by the connection standing. Gimme two stripes, please!
There’s solely a single USB-C connection for the console and PC, which is absolutely annoying. For one, it means having to bodily join and disconnect the cable. And when you’re solely related to 1 or the opposite, why do you want a swap? There is a charging-only USB-A connection, nevertheless it’s low energy so cannot fast-charge a telephone.
The Turtle Seashore Stealth Professional has virtually all of the options and efficiency you count on from such an expensive gaming and general-purpose headset, however the way in which a few of them are applied can grate (or not) relying upon how a lot you care about specific capabilities. I discover myself liking the headset quite a bit, at the very least till I run full-tilt into one among my disliked implementations.
