Turtle Beach Stealth Pro review: Punchy audio that’s ideal for FPS games

Best Prices Today: Turtle Beach Stealth Pro

The Turtle Beach Pro gaming headset sits right up there with a vanguard list of premium gaming headsets that offer impressive sound, but also the opportunity to optimize that sound for specific games. Read on to find out more…

Turtle Beach Stealth Pro Wireless design and build

The Stealth Pro has a profile I was happy to show off. It sports a sleek refined aesthetic that resembles a premium pair of headphones.

The design boasts a metal reinforced headband and frame, which safeguarded it during my heavy use. I found the shiny metal was just what I needed on my daily commute — it survived the rough and tumble of my backpack.

There’s good movement in the headset too; the cups rotate 180 degrees and the headband slides down to fit your ears. Although there’s less tilt than in some cans, the Stealth Pro Wireless still has enough to alleviate any tightness in your head and neck.

The memory foam ear cushions are of medium thickness. They held soreness at bay well into a multi-hour gaming session. The earcup coverings were also extremely comfortable, being the soft leatherette kind. Although, they did get slightly sweaty when I was hot.

Further reading: See our roundup of the best wireless gaming headsets to learn about competing products.

Turtle Beach Stealth Pro controls

The controls span both left and right earcups, but the majority can be found on the inner section of the right earcup.

I was generally happy with the functionality I had at my fingertips, which not only included volume adjustment and power on/off, but also the ability to control the Bluetooth, ANC, and SuperHuman hearing (more on that later).

The volume button is located on the outside of the left earcup and surrounded by a large mixer wheel. You can add extra functions to this button in the headset’s Audio Hub companion app, including a game chat mixer if you’re using the headset with Xbox, or multimedia controls if you’re using it with PC.

The latter came in very handy for skipping through my library of movies.

Turtle Beach Stealth Pro Wireless connectivity

The Stealth Pro can easily be your go-to gaming headset across your devices. My review unit was made primarily for Xbox console, but it also worked with my PC, PlayStation 5, Mac, Nintendo Switch, and my cellphone.

A PlayStation variant lacks the Xbox compatibility but connects to all the other devices I mentioned above and the PlayStation consoles.

The Stealth Pro also comes with a circular wireless transmitter unit. A USB-C to USB-A cord facilitates hooking it up to your selected device. Unfortunately, there’s no option for direct analog wired connectivity.

That meant I couldn’t use the headset with my guitar amp, which is slightly disappointing considering the headset’s current $330 price tag. Still, I could do a lot with the dual wireless connectivity which consists of 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.1.

I found the Bluetooth was especially convenient for using the headset with my cellphone on the bus. The Bluetooth also has a simultaneous mode that allowed me to stream my phone calls while gaming. Although, it should be said, the headset only supports the default SBC audio codec, so users hoping for AAC support will have to do without.

Turtle Beach Pro Wireless gaming performance

The Stealth Pro’s 50mm neodymium drivers produce a bold sound, with a low, punchy bass and a gutsy treble. That makes it ideal for fast action games like FPS shooters, where explosions, loud thuds, and footsteps are really brought to the fore — think games like Halo, CounterStrike 2, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

That profile synced well with the headset’s SuperHuman Hearing technology, which you can activate on the right earcup. Once pressed, this feature emphasized sounds like footsteps and the close-up movements of players in my games, but it did slightly veil other sounds.

Mid-range tones were a little flat at times, which means the headset had less of a neutral sound than the likes of the Audeze Maxwell Wireless headset. But this didn’t affect my overall enjoyment of the audio.

The clamp pressure was moderate, but I found it formed an effective passive noise isolation barrier, so I could play for long periods with the ANC switched off and still enjoy sound mostly free from environmental noise.

Considering that the headset’s soundstage isn’t as big as with some headsets, it also meant the impact of the audio wasn’t lost for me.

For a headset of this caliber to have no spatial audio seems like a lost opportunity. Sure, I can go out and find my own, but for a premium headset so skewed to FPS games, it should really have shipped with the option.

The headset’s battery life of just 12 hours continuous playtime isn’t great. It’s very short compared to the up-to-70 hours you get from the likes of the Razer BlackShark V2.

But some smart accessorizing by Turtle Beach saves the day, providing you manage your charging. You get an extra swappable battery that you can charge in the transmitter while you’re gaming, so there’s never any reason you should be without power.

I found the headset’s mic conveyed my voice clearly. But even more impressive was the versatility the mic setup delivered. It’s detachable so I could use it like a premium set of headphones without anyone even knowing I was wearing a gaming headset.

Turtle Beach Pro Wireless software

Turtle Beach Audio Hub is the Stealth Pro’s companion app for Windows, Android, and iOS and can be downloaded from the Turtle Beach website. The app has a lot of useful features that allow you to customize, control, and optimize your headset’s sound to get the most from your gaming experience.

For example, you can make and save audio presets for your different games or media using the app’s 10-band EQ chart, or apply boost settings to the headset’s bass, treble or vocals to emphasize a particular trait in your game sound.

One of my go-to settings was the SuperHuman Hearing slider that let me adjust the SuperHuman Hearing from its maximum of 100 percent to a lower setting. This allowed me to better modulate the different frequencies when SuperHuman Hearing was switched on.

I like that the headset’s mic is detachable so I could use it like a premium set of headphones without anyone even knowing I was wearing a gaming headset.

Should you buy the Turtle Beach Pro?

The Turtle Beach Stealth Pro is a sure bet for great gaming audio. This headset lists off a long and impressive list of features and functionality that any gamer would be happy to have — a premium well-built design, excellent cross-device compatibility, and no-holds barred audio that’s ideal for FPS games.

It doesn’t give you spatial audio support, but you can just arrange your own.

Best Prices Today: Turtle Beach Stealth Pro

Author: Dominic Bayley, PCWorld Australia Editor