I’ve always been into sound when it comes to entertainment, and gaming especially. Ever since I was a kid I’d read up on the latest tech in magazines and anytime I saw that cheesy ad in the gamefan or EGM mags where you could win some $10,000 entertainment setup with the huge surround sound speakers – I daydreamed my life away thinking of what i’d do with all that power pumping straight into my senses.
Fast forward about 20 years and man, has tech become quite amazing. Ironically it wasn’t until a few years ago that I sprung for a “premium” pair of headphones for my computer since I had “work to do” – and some “games to play” ;).
My headphones of choice until recently had been the Hyper X Clouds by Kingston, and for the price they were super – really loved them, but the worst thing about old tech is…
*dun dun dun*
The cords!! Oh man, wireless tech has spoiled me. Utterly ruined my life. Everything must be cordless, beautiful and perfect.
That is where this upgrade comes in – I hadn’t wanted to use my headset on the PS4 due to the issue of ugly cords running through the living room, well the folks over at Turtle Beach must have read my mind when they manufactured the Stealth 700 Gaming Headset – it’s a real beauty. The Stealth 700 is the latest premium wireless surround sound gaming headset for PS4 Pro and PS4. If you are in the market for great sound for your games, keep reading, and be sure to compare with other models to ensure you get the best budget gaming headset.
First Impressions
Upon gazing at the packaging (another one of my loves) I felt the craftsmanship beaming through already. Once I dug in there wasn’t much to the inside, but what was there counted. My favorite color is blue so I was happy to see this sleek pair of black headphones with nice blue highlights – looking like a true gaming headset but in a modern way, definitely no cheese factor going on here.
Setup was pretty simple for such a complex gadget (we’ll touch on all the amazing features of this thing in a minute), after you peel off those glorious plastic protectors from everything, you are pretty much left with:
1) Headphones
2) USB Dongle (the usual)
3) USB Charging cord
4) Optical cable
5) A Sticker! 😀
Once I plugged the optical cable into the USB dongle, and into the back of my PS4 – and then plugged the USB dongle into an open USB port – I synced it up and we were off to the races!
Design
The design is hard to stop looking at, so we’ll cover that first. Like I said I loved the Blue – it matches the branding of the PS4 perfectly and it just feels right. The build quality is very nice, high grade materials went into this thing and it shows.
The ear cups are soft as fine leather, really comfortable to wear. I was able to adjust them to a comfortable level, while they were a little tight at first I began breaking them in and it was loosing up nicely and I was ready to play for a few more hours! Also if you wear glasses then you are going to love Turtle Beach’s unique ProSpecs™ glasses friendly design – finally I don’t have to put on my contacts just to enjoy using headphones!
The button layout of the headset was just fine, while my favorite feature of the design engineering was easily the microphone functionality. If I wanted to mute the mic i’d simply raise it up to it’s hidden position and it would mute itself, pull it back down to unmute – simple and very easy for me (and everyone around me) to know when I was muted or not. Well done Turtle Beach.
Another great design decision was to pair a companion app with the headphones, it isn’t required but it sure does make it a lot more comfortable to use the headphones as an extension of your phone (like most things these days). In the app you can turn some things on and off, adjust settings, etc without taking the headphones off to see where stuff is – so that’s very convenient.
Audio Quality
This is why you are here isn’t it? How do these things sound?
They sound great.
They are everything I was hoping for and more. I was worried that the wireless wouldn’t deliver, or they would be underpowered, or something like that – nope. The Stealth 700 delivers immersive DTS Headphone:X® 7.1 Surround Sound giving you a true bang for your buck. Historically you would have been paying well north of $200 for a comparable, fully loaded premium wireless surround sound gaming headset. This bad boy comes in at around $150 – at the original time of this review they were on sale for $119! These days they can be had cheaper.
Performance
You get a lot here for $150, lots of tech went into this. Most impressive being the dual channel bluetooth – it gets two bluetooth signals, one from your TV and one from your phone so it doesn’t interfere with your gaming if you want to answer a phone call or listen to audio from your phone, you can do all of that without skipping a beat here. Bluetooth connectivity to take calls and listen to music while gaming is hugely convenient, plus Turtle Beach Audio Hub app-based settings you can control from your mobile/tablet (android or ios) device really makes this headset stand out from the competition.
The Battery was impressive and should last 10-hours when using Active Noise-Cancelling and Bluetooth functions, and extend to around 15-hours if those are turned off. If you are like me and you just game a few hours a day when you have time you really don’t have to worry about charging these much which is great! The snug fit and Active Noise-Cancellation on this headset did a really good job of drowning out noises in the house or from outside, this is key to keep you focused on the match at hand.
Verdict
Look at the value of what you get in terms of quality audio, comfort and features for the price point – chances are it doesn’t get much better than this. If you are looking for a new gaming headset that not only LOOKS cool, but performs well, and is 100% wireless – then I’d say go ahead and pick up the Stealth 700 by Turtle Beach while they are on sale! Can’t get much better of a deal than that.
I personally love these because it allows my living room to stay clean and neat without cords, and I can just pick these things up at night and get some rounds of Rocket League in without waking up the wife and kids. Peace and Serenity come to me!
This headset would be a great gift for Gamers this Holiday season so if you are one, or need to pick up a present for a picky one that you may have noticed doesn’t have a great audio setup – make their holiday bright with one of these!
This is the perfect gift this holiday season for the gamer in your life!