As the fourth and final entry in Turtle Beach’s Stealth range of gaming headsets, the Stealth 700 for PS4 and PS4 Pro sits right the top of the pile in terms of quality and price.
Costing £129.99, the Stealth 700 gaming headset offers a wireless surround sound solution for your audio needs, while offering an array of features designed to give players a competitive advantage.
Compatible with PS4, PS4 Pro and Xbox One, the Stealth 700 is super simple to set-up. In the box, it arrives with:
- 1 x wireless transmitter
- 1 x digital optical cable
- 1 x charging cable
Plugging the wireless transmitter into the USB port, connecting the digital optical cable from the transmitter into the PS4’s optical out port on the back of the console, and switching the headset on, was all it required to get the audio feed up and running – the Stealth 700 was ready to roll out of the box.
However, to maximise the audio experience, there are some tweaks needed in your PS4 settings, which are laid out clearly in the manual, and include switching your primary output source on your PS4 to Dolby Digital 5.1ch and setting the Bitstream to Dolby.
So, after a couple of minutes we were set up and ready to test them out.
How does the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 look?
The overall aesthetics of the Stealth 700 are fairly low-key with Turtle Beach opting for just two colours, black and blue.
With matte black cups, accentuated with a glossy area that runs down the centre, there’s also a small triangle Turtle Beach palm tree logo in blue. In the area between the cups and the ear cushions, there’s a lazer blue plastic band that provides a stylish contrast to the black colouring of the rest of the headset.
The adjustable headband pulls up and down smoothly so you can get the best fit, and across the top is the embossed Turtle Beach logo. At the point where the band connects to cups is the branding “Ear Force Stealth 700” in silver, ensuring that everyone will know you’re wearing a pair of these beauties.
On the left cup sits the microphone, which can be swivelled easily towards your mouth or set in the upright position. What we love about the mic’s design is that it automatically mutes itself, even giving you a little audio beep to confirm that you’re muted – just by putting it back into that upright position.
Under the mic, are three buttons, which you can barely see as they blend into the design in matte black. While one is the power button, which also activates noise cancellation should you press it for under one second, the other two offer some sweet features – Superhuman hearing and Bluetooth control.
There’s also two separate sliders so you can turn the volume down for game audio and chat independently and a VR mobile port and the mini-USB port for charging.
To take advantage of the VR/Mobile port, you’d need to buy a separate cable which isn’t available in the box. Get one of these, and you can also use Turtle Beach’s latest gaming headset with mobile devices or VR systems.
In terms of design, we think the Stealth 700 could have been a little better. It sits snugly around your head, and – thanks to the wide headband – feels lightweight and comfortable to wear, while the ear cushions feel soft and inviting.
However, we did find ourselves fumbling to find the buttons while wearing the headset. This is because the embossed symbols that represent the power button etc, don’t really stand out to touch when you run your finger across them. Consequently, we often found ourselves taking off the headset to press them. We guess the longer you use the gaming headset, the more natural it will become to locate the buttons – we tested the Stealth 700 out over three days.
Also – and this is a very minor point and a personal preference – we’d have actually preferred the microphone, and/or the buttons to be on the right set of cans rather than the left as we’re right-handed gamers. You can’t just turn around the headset because the mic doesn’t rotate 360 degrees, and the mic isn’t detachable.
So, overall, despite minor quibbles, the headset looks subtly stylish and comes with all the features you’d expect from a set of cans that costs over £100.
Where the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 really excels is in its audio performance.
How does the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 sound?
Powered by 50mm drivers, the sound from the headset is as clear as a bell with no crackling or interface during our testing. The bass is meaty without being too overpowering, and there’s a real fullness to the sounds of weapons being fired and explosions on games like Battlefield 1.
Switching Superhuman hearing on, we really didn’t expect to notice much difference but there’s a boost in audio of sounds such as weapons reloading and footsteps coming your way. This effect does also rely on the quality of audio in the game you’re playing, but for the big triple-A multiplayer shooters it could mean the matter between life and death.
Enhancing that immersion, the active noise cancellation features drowns out background sounds outside of the game. It doesn’t totally cancel noise – we heard a door slam and some talking – but what it does do is drown out constant sounds and make them barely audible so you can focus totally on the audio in-game. This works extremely well and ensures there’s no major distractions while playing.
Chat works well too with communication between players crystal clear, though this obviously also depends on whether your fellow players have a quality headset too. What we like about the Stealth 700’s chat is that you can hear yourself when you’re talking. It’s a very subtle feature but it allows you to understand how you sound to another player and tweak the volume as necessary.
The Stealth 700 also offers Bluetooth connectivity. Pop this on by pressing the Bluetooth button on your headset, and download the Turtle Beach Audio hub app on iOS and Android and you can control audio settings from your mobile device.
Not bothered about listening to the game audio or chatting with friends? You can stream music from your phone to the headset, or even take incoming calls. We’ve missed many a phone call while engaged in a do or die battle, especially when you can’t hear it ring, so we’ve really made good use of this extra functionality. Of course, this feature also means you could take the headset out and about and use it for listening to music.
Final thoughts on the Stealth 700
Overall, the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 is an impressive, professional-looking headset with a build quality and set of features to match its price tag. It feels comfortable to wear, and enhances audio significantly with its noise cancellation and superhuman hearing features, while the crystal-clear sound quality totally immerses you in the game (or even a movie if you prefer).
With not much to knock about the Stealth 700, aside from our personal preference of having buttons on the right cup rather than the left and perhaps a more tactile feel to the headset buttons, the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 comes highly recommended for gamers looking for a high-class audio experience that provides an increased level of immersion that only the best gaming headsets can provide.