Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Signature Sound

Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 2 Wireless Gaming Headset Review

A decent console headset bolstered by bonus features and spatial accurateness

Note: Turtle Beach kindly sent me a terminal retail unit of this headset to review at my discretion aslope marketing assets and technical information. I don't receive a kickback if yous decide to purchase one, and none of the links in this article are affiliate links . I wasn't sponsored to write this, and I had total editorial control over this article.

Click hither to see my reviews policy.

In spite of the "Gen ii" in the name, this new version of the Turtle Beach Stealth 600 is essentially an all-new pattern compared with the best-selling original. It's built around the same underlying characteristic concepts, but with improved execution.

Gone are the vertical support posts and oval ear cups from the original design(besides found on the old Atlas Iii model), replaced with a more traditional headband and a brand new ear cup shape. The headset is also packed with the sort of bonus audio features that don't ever brand it into console-focused models, all controllable without a secondary app.

It doesn't have the sturdiest build I've ever seen, but its feature listing and sound tuning still make it worthy of consideration.

Photo taken by the writer. The Turtle Beach HS2 Headset Stand shown is not included, and is a sample unit too sent to me by Turtle Beach. More info about that stand hither: https://www.turtlebeach.com/products/hs2-headset-stand?p=1

OVERVIEW

The Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 2 is a wireless, airtight back gaming headset that sells for $99 and is available in PlayStation and Xbox versions. Each version comes in either white or blackness, and the black models have bluish and green accents reflective of the branding of their respective platforms. The PlayStation models apply a wireless USB dongle that will too piece of work with a docked Nintendo Switch, and the Xbox version connects through Microsoft's proprietary Xbox Wireless arrangement.

You can cheque out the official product web site here.

In the box, you get a dainty USB-C charging cable and the headset, alongside some instructions.

No additional apps or software are required to command the headset'southward bonus functions, though y'all can plug it into a PC or Mac to and use Turtle Embankment's Audio Hub to install firmware updates. Turtle Beach sent me the white PlayStation version, and it had the latest firmware already installed.

Official marketing overview video, https://youtu.be/kYQXIjKptXM

SOUND QUALITY

The Stealth 600 Gen 2 has 4 selectable sound EQ presets: Signature Sound, Bass Heave, Bass and Treble Boost(5-shaped), and Vocal Boost. Yous can easily switch between them past pressing the way push button on the back of the headset.

On the back of the packaging, it says the headset is "Tuned to deliver distortion-free audio with precise, realistic directional accuracy." That's a great description of the default Signature Sound EQ setting. It doesn't offer the most impressive or powerful bass response, but it does have a surprisingly clean midrange and treble, with good imaging accurateness and a petty more width and openness than I normally look from closed gaming headsets.

Bass is all the same nowadays but it's not the star of the show, and I think that'south as much a function of the cloth ear pads every bit it is the tuning. The upper midrange and treble stop just short of the fatigue level, offering realistic vocals in music and plenty of positional sensation in games.

If you're a true footsteps fiend, a quick press of the power button turns on Turtle Beach's famous Superhuman Hearing way. This drops abroad all parts of the sound spectrum not associated with locating your foes. It sounds sort of bizarre for normal listening tasks, but it does indeed work to aggressively highlight positional audio information in games.

I found the Bass Boost mode quite enjoyable when I wanted to kick up the immersive oomph in movies or games. The Signature Sound mode brought out the detail in some of my favorite music tracks ameliorate than I expected it to, and though information technology'southward not quite an "audiophile level" experience, it's still more clean and precise than I thought it would audio.

The V-shaped mode and vocal boost mode didn't do that much for me personally, merely it'due south still nice to have that level of EQ adjustment available. The political party conversation volume balance on PS4 works well enough that I didn't demand to engage the vocal boost, and the V-shaped Bass and Treble Boost manner is a little flake too harsh up top for my personal audio tastes.

At the risk of spoiling the adjacent review I'm working on, the Stealth 700 Gen 2 offers a much bigger, more powerful manner of sound, with an impressive dynamic response and cinema-like beefiness. But the Stealth 600 yet has decent sound, and it should too pair well with spatial sound virtualization systems like Sony'due south Storm 3D audio. I tested it for a fleck with Windows Sonic on my PC, and it sounded great.

Condolement

The ear pads on the Stealth 600 Gen 2 have but enough space to fit all the way around my ears, providing a close fit where I notice their fabric covering at all times. That fabric doesn't isolate quite as well every bit leatherette would, but information technology also doesn't trap that much estrus, pregnant these don't go all that hot over long sessions.

I wish the ear pads were closer in size to those used on the Roccat Elo or the Stealth 700 Gen 2, both Turtle Beach products. The foam has the same contoured shape and ProSpecs relief arrangement every bit the Elo models, which both assistance these to fit meliorate against my caput and seal effectually my glasses, but that middle ear hole is just a footling too small to give these truly premium comfort.

Fortunately, the headband pad deserves only praise. It's thick and soft, and filled with a slow-rebound memory foam that's a little flake nicer than the padding inside the ear pads.

The extremely light weight and plush headband make this headset an easy all-twenty-four hours wear. The merely matter that keeps the headset from totally "disappearing" is the slight and continuous presence of the close-fitting ear pads.

The ear cups have plenty of swivel and the headband is widely adjustable. On my large head, I have 2 clicks of extra adjustment, so this should fit most head shapes just fine.

Blueprint/BUILD

This headset uses the same blueprint linguistic communication as the more than-expensive Stealth 700 Gen two, but everything is scaled down to be a little smaller. It'southward also built entirely of plastic. It feels one minor pace above empty and hollow in the hands, and on first touching it I didn't really like how it felt at all.

However, after several days of use, I came to appreciate its smaller build details. The rotation hinges for the ear cups take a smooth creamy feel to them, just like the ones on the Roccat Elo. The support yokes take a small pad in them to keep the ear cups from clacking against the plastic. The microphone'southward storage nook has its ain small pad to keep the mic from rubbing. The volume control wheels are rubberized and accept a very smooth activeness. And the aligning sliders take a stiffer ratchet mechanism than I was expecting, and concur their place even better than those on the solid Stealth 700 Gen 2.

All of these minor details elevate the frame pattern from feeling cheap to feeling intentional. Yes it's very light and plastic is everywhere, but I don't call back information technology'll snap autonomously if used under normal gaming weather, and the light build means that it has sure comfort advantages over larger models.

You can definitely get a sturdier headset for the price, even from Turtle Beach's ain Roccat Elo models. But the blueprint hither is nevertheless good, and had some true thought put into it beyond weight and cost reduction.

FEATURES/MICROPHONE

The battery is rated for xv hours, only I had no trouble exceeding that number in my testing, so that's great. The main volume wheel has a smooth adjustment with no noticeable channel imbalance issues. The secondary volume bicycle controls existent-time mic monitoring side tone, and it sounds clean and accurate to the actual mic audio. The mode push button emits a quick beep when you change EQ settings and changes the sound instantly. The headset boots up and shuts off quickly, and I never had it accidentally power down when I turned on Superhuman Hearing.

I love that this headset has a USB-C charging port. I love that it has an intelligent motorcar-off function to salvage battery if I forget to switch it off. I as well dearest that all of its features are available on console without whatsoever fuss. A lot of headsets out there technically work on PlayStation systems, but require a PC for total access to their settings. Hither, you become every feature right on your console through handy buttons.

This little lateral mic swivel is a neat touch. It'south as well on the Stealth 700 Gen 2, but the 600'due south version is a bit stiffer and more premium-feeling somehow. Photo taken by the author.

If you want to arrange mic volume, yous'll need to use the settings congenital into Sony'southward OS. The mic has plenty of sensitivity when used with a PS4 panel, but it was a petty quiet when I plugged it into my PC with no way to conform it upward or down. The mic has a clean tone to it, merely information technology doesn't practice an amazing job of canceling out groundwork noise, so it'll piece of work all-time in a quiet room at home.

Hither's a brusk mic test I recorded on my PC. I added a few decibels of proceeds to this to improve simulate the book level you lot'll achieve on a PlayStation console.

FINAL THOUGHTS

The Turtle Embankment Stealth 600 Gen 2 is a decent headset. It'due south non built like a tank, the ear pad holes are but a pilus too small for my ears, and I wish its mic had more sensitivity options or ameliorate background noise cancellation. I'd honey to see some of the Roccat Elo 7.1 Air's design incorporated into a Gen 3 version of this headset. The metal headband and larger ear cups in that location get a long way.

Still, this offers a peachy overall features bundle (EQ, Side tone, Superhuman hearing) for console players, something that often gets disregarded at this price point. The battery life is excellent. And the audio tuning is cleaner than I expected, with a precipitous focus on spatial cues for gaming and a bass boost way for when you lot want some extra kick.

This is a skillful solid mid-range wireless headset with more features than the average $99 model. But, at the gamble of spoiling my next review yet once more, the Stealth 700 Gen 2 does and then much more than for its $50 bump up in price.