Turtle Beach may be one of the most well-known brands in video game audio, but it still has to show up when it comes to new product releases. That’s more true now than ever, which makes its new flagship, the Stealth Pro II, important. It’s part of a burgeoning class of gaming headsets that splits the difference between gaming and audiophilia, headphones you might wear on a commute and a headset that you might wear at a competition. The result is one of the best, but most expensive, gaming headsets of the year – and you might want to consider saving up.
Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II – Design and Features
Released only two years ago, the original Stealth Pro was a value-oriented alternative to headsets like the Steelseries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless. If you wanted access to an infinite battery system – in my opinion, one of the absolute best advancements gaming headsets have seen in years – you could expect to pay big. And while that was true of the Stealth Pro as well, it came in around $30 cheaper, which made it a decent option if you didn’t mind making a few concessions.
One of those concessions was definitely appearance: the original Stealth Pro looked too utilitarian for its price point. Its successor suffers none of these same stylistic missteps. Quite the contrary, it actually seems obvious that Turtle Beach plans on gamers using the Stealth Pro II throughout the day whether they’re gaming or out in public.
The headset is available in white or black, but both look equally slick. The earcups are bigger and more ovular to seal better around each ear. The feel of the fabric is softer and feels more breathable in side-by-side tests, though I doubt most people could tell without having both headsets to directly compare against. The headband has now adopted an elastic weave like the AirPods Max, which I found immediately more comfortable.
Aesthetically, I’m a big fan of the clean, mixed-materials look Turtle Beach went for here. Each earcup blends matte plastic with a color-matched hybrid fabric cushion and a brushed aluminum face plate. It’s a material sandwich and makes the Stealth Pro II feel more luxurious and carefully crafted than the majority of gaming headsets. With the microphone removed, the only real tell that it’s a gaming headset at all is if you happen to recognize the Turtle Beach logo.
The headset’s most notable feature is the return of the hot-swappable battery system and its base station charging dock. This was present on the original Stealth Pro and, as it has been on each of the handful of headsets that have featured it, is probably the single best quality-of-life feature headsets have acquired in recent years. The system comes with two batteries. While one is powering your headset, the other is safely in the charging dock, ready to be swapped in at any moment. The dead battery goes back to recharge so you always have a full battery ready to go. The changeover is fast but there is a short drop out in between.
The batteries have been massively upgraded, more than tripling uptime each, with around 40 hours of real-world gaming. It’s long enough to effectively not worry about and to guarantee that the other battery will be completely charged and ready to go when the time comes.
The sound quality and audio processing, including active noise cancellation, have all been tuned up and upgraded. The headset comes with Turtle Beach’s Eclipse Dual Drivers, which are bigger (60mm versus the Stealth Pro’s 50mm) and now house a subwoofer and tweeter on each side, physically separating the bass from the mids and highs. The updated drivers also offer a wider frequency response range of 10 Hz to 40 kHz, which is well beyond the bounds of human hearing. While the human ear typically caps out at 20 kHz, this sonic overhead allows the drivers to reproduce audible sounds with plenty of headroom so that everything you do hear is pristine
Active noise cancellation has also been improved and is much more effective at blocking out the typical sounds of a human home. That said, the cabin pressure effect is especially noticeable, so I’d avoid this headset if you’re sensitive. I found myself popping my ears more than any pair of ANC headphones I’ve used (and I’ve used a lot).
The microphone is great. As a bit of a microphone nerd, I couldn’t be happier to see this level of quality on a wireless gaming headset. The Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II features a large nine-millimeter unidirectional microphone, capable of delivering a full-bodied sound typically reserved for desktop microphones. It is detachable, so you can take it on the go without giving away that you’re wearing a gaming headset. The software also allows you to apply different EQs, so you can dial in your perfect “radio voice.”
As the focus on sound quality and the detachable microphone implies, this headset is designed to be just as good for music and calls as it is for gaming. It supports Bluetooth 5.3 in addition to the 2.4 GHz connection to its docking station, and both can be used simultaneously. It’s perfect for when you’re playing a game or getting work done but don’t want to swap devices just to take a call.
The controls are located on the back of each earcup and are overall simple and intuitive. You can control your game-chat mix, volume, ANC, and listening mode without opening the software or removing the headset. With a little practice, you can even swap the battery without taking the headset off, and the magnetic faceplates are keyed so the logo will always face the right way.
The last big feature also represents a major upgrade: CrossPlay 2.0. Included in the carrying case is a small USB Type-A dongle that communicates with the base station. Plug that into a second console or PC and you can switch between them on the fly with a press of the dedicated button on the right earcup. According to the product page, you can even purchase additional dongles and connect up to four devices at a time.
Finally, as a quick reminder: though this headset comes in Xbox/PC and PS5 versions, if you happen to own both systems, the Xbox version is the way to go. The PS5 version will work on PlayStation and PC, but lacks the chip necessary to work with Xbox. The Xbox version works with all three natively.
Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II – Software
The Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II uses Swarm II for all of its software configuration options. Though it’s not absolutely required, it’s worth downloading at least once to personalize the sound, microphone monitoring level, and other parameters before relying entirely on onboard controls.
Swarm II is a bit rudimentary compared to more developed apps like Corsair iCue or Razer Synapse. The UI, while functional, is comparatively simple with fewer options and less polish. This is especially true when trying to update the firmware after first connecting it. The update process stalled out no fewer than four times, requiring me to hard terminate the process. My final successful attempt was painfully slow, 15 to 20 minutes, during which time the headset couldn’t be used or else it would freeze again. Thankfully, with everything finally, wincingly updated, it has been running smoothly since.
Settings are split across four tabs within the software app. The first controls your levels, including volume and mic gain, ANC, sidetone, Superhuman Hearing, and a noise gate. Moving down a tab, you’ll find the equalizer settings for the headphones and mic. Each offers 10 bands and a selection of quick presets to customize your sound. Of course, if you’re comfortable working with EQ settings, the best results will always be what you can dial in yourself, but it’s nice to see set-it-and-forget-it options for the choosing too.
The third and fourth tabs allow you to assign functions to the headset’s multifunction roller and button on the left cup. There aren’t many options, but it’s good to see some programmability for those who want it. The last tab houses power settings and hotkey assignments for those features you may need sometimes but otherwise want turned off, like Superhuman Hearing.
Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II – Fit, Comfort, and Performance
The best sounding headset in the world isn’t worth much if it isn’t comfortable to wear, but Turtle Beach has nailed it, at least as far as my head shape is concerned. The cushions are supple and provide a solid, isolating seal. Even though the headset is actually rather heavy by most standards, the mesh headband does a good job of distributing its mass and warding off hot spots. It’s not completely triumphant over wear-time soreness, but I’m usually able to wear it for several hours before needing a break, if I do at all.
Out of the box, the sound wasn’t to my taste. The dual-driver system absolutely provides a bigger and more powerful low end. The tuning Turtle Beach landed on here is downright boomy, like a bass guitar playing in an empty swimming pool–powerful, but lacking definition and at times overwhelming
Thankfully, this isn’t a problem that can’t be fixed. Using Swarm II, you can correct most of these issues and get the headset sounding quite good. These custom EQs also get saved to the headset itself so you can access them on any machine (or just keep the app from using resources in the background on PC). Using the EQ above, I was able to get rid of the boominess and bring the mids and highs forward so you can make out those important details and audio cues. It doesn’t take long to correct, if your taste is similar to mine, but it’s dismaying that only the Vocal Boost rectifies the overwhelming low end – at the expense of everything else.
Once it’s dialed in, however, the Stealth Pro II is capable of sounding quite good. Using the preset above, I found a happy medium between bass and resolution, music and gaming where each sounded full and detailed. There’s something about the design of these drivers that makes the bass sound slightly off… there’s an elastic quality to it, almost like there’s electricity vibrating within each note.
As I mentioned earlier, the active noise cancellation is very good. It is noticeably stronger than the original Stealth or the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless. The cabin pressure effect could be a major issue for sensitive users, however, so this isn’t a headset to buy blind just based on noise cancellation alone. I do love how well it works, though. With a game or music running, it effectively blocks out the outside world until you’re ready to hear it again.
The battery system is excellent. Turtle Beach’s claims of roughly 40 hours of uptime for each battery have proved to be relatively accurate. Never having to stop and plug in or worry about running out of charge mid-match is freeing. It lets the Stealth Pro II be a truly wireless headset without the sacrifices typically associated with that. I’m not usually one to stress about batteries, but even I feel a certain amount of freedom from knowing that it’s not worth worrying about anymore.
The base station is on the simple side, but I like how the illuminated ring around its base acts as an indicator light for connectivity and microphone status. An eject button beneath the battery glows with separate illumination to tell you how close the battery is to being charged. There’s no OLED screen or menu system like some of the competition, but honestly, once I have set up other base stations, I rarely ever do more than swap batteries.
If you have more than one console, CrossPlay 2.0 explodes the headset’s versatility. I was able to swap between my Xbox and PS5 with a single button press, which is about as easy as cross platform compatibility comes. Like the battery system, this is a fundamental feature that’s indispensable if you play games on more than one platform.
No matter which platform you use, the microphone will be consistently solid across each. It’s surprisingly full-bodied and very clear, so without touching any settings, I would be fine using it for streaming. Once you customize it, it’s even better, so I highly recommend doing so. I recorded some test tracks using Audacity and was impressed at how crisp I sounded. I even had a friend comment on how good my new mic sounded during a match of Battlefield 6.
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