Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II review: Great sound, bad build
Turtle Beach seems to be taking a page from Apple’s playbook, because if you combine the AirPods Max with a gaming headset, you’d probably get something like the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II. It may not have that Apple quality feel, but it doesn’t have the Apple price tag either. More importantly, it does have a ton of gaming features to help you rank up in competitive shooters. But are they enough to overlook the quirky build design? Find out in our review.
How has this article been updated?
This article was published on May 14th, and this is the first version of the article. Updates will follow as the market changes.
What’s it like to use the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II?
Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II can be used outdoors by removing the boom microphone.
The Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II uses a combination of metal and plastic, giving it a premium look and feel. However, I had issues with adjusting the headband. On most gaming headsets, the adjustment sliders feel smooth. But with the Stealth Pro II, it feels like the metal of the slider mechanism was rubbing against each other, which meant I had to apply excessive force anytime I wanted to adjust the headset. But that’s not my only issue with the headband.
The Stealth Pro II has a fabric suspension headband, very much similar to the AirPods Max. However, it’s significantly thinner and puts more pressure on my head than I would like due to the headset’s 395g weight. Wearing the Stealth Pro II feels uncomfortably heavy, especially at the 2-hour mark. At around the 5-hour mark, I have to take a break from wearing the headset. Given the loose, worn-out mesh headband on our six-year-old AirPods Max, I don’t have much confidence that the Stealth Pro II’s headband will last the test of time.
The headband is like the Apple AirPods Max, except with a bar in the middle to prevent flexing.
The headset has decent clamping force, and achieving a good seal results in more consistent audio performance. However, I found that the seal is tight enough to create a vacuum effect. I got used to this sensation after a few hours, but if you’re sensitive to that sort of thing, you may not like how the headset feels.
Despite all my complaints, the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II fits my head well. The headset’s yoke swivels to achieve a better fit, allowing the earpads to sit flush against my head. The earpads themselves are made of fabric and are contoured to fit snugly against a human head. I think this type of earpad design is much better than most, which aren’t curved and are just flat.
The Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II has a pretty intuitive set of controls.
The controls on the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II are pretty intuitive. On the headset, there are 3 volume scrolls for Bluetooth, game, and chat volume, an ANC toggle button, a crossplay switcher that swaps between multiple connections, a Bluetooth pairing button that controls playback, and a power button that also enables “SuperHuman Hearing” mode. More on how that performs in the sound quality section. I do have to note that on the first unit we received, I couldn’t put the headset into Bluetooth pairing mode. But that was not an issue on the second unit.
What I don’t like about the controls is how the volume scroll feels. The volume scrolls are dampened with tactile, long, flat bumps. The dampening feels unpleasant, and the notches between the bumps are too far apart for fine-tuned adjustments. When connected to a Windows PC, it adjusts the volume in increments of 4, with no in-between values. This can make the volume scroll feel like it’s increasing or decreasing drastically. Thankfully, for most people, you won’t have to adjust the volume once it’s set. Unfortunately, there isn’t a way to adjust this in the Turtle Beach Swarm II app.
Should you use the Turtle Beach Swarm II for the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II?
The Turtle Beach Swarm II with Stealth Pro II offers great gaming features.
My experience with the Turtle Beach Swarm II software isn’t great; it crashed even on different computers. While testing, the Turtle Beach Swarm II app crashed for reasons I couldn’t determine. I first noticed when I tried to toggle the Superhuman hearing mode and the Dolby Audio effects. There was even a point when I had to reinstall the app because it would not even launch.
Also, it took the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II about 30 minutes to update to the latest firmware, which is rather long. The good news is that you don’t have to log in to access any controls, and it doesn’t ask you to create an account.
Assuming you don’t find issues with the Turtle Beach Swarm II app, the included features are more than acceptable. There’s a 10-band EQ, with a few presets available for both the headset’s sound and the microphone. You can set hotkeys to toggle headset volume, ANC, Mic Mute, SuperHuman hearing, and noise gate on and off. These are good features to have, and I like that the hotkey section is easily accessible. You could even create a custom profile that automatically applies when you launch an app.
How do you connect the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II?
Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II connection options.
The Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II supports Bluetooth 5.3 and LC3+ and LDAC codecs, enabling high-quality audio streams over Bluetooth. The headset also has a USB-C port for charging and wired listening.
I also like that you can get simultaneous audio from both the 2.4GHz wireless transmitter and Bluetooth. This means I can receive a call in the middle of a gaming session. Also, I found that the perceived sound quality doesn’t drop even when audio is playing through both the 2.4GHz wireless and Bluetooth connections, which is great. You can also get the 2.4 GHz wireless connection via a USB-A dongle and the Crossplay transmitter dock. This means that it comes with 2 transmitters, but you can order more if you’d like. The headset can pair with and switch to up to 4 2.4GHz transmitters, but it can connect to only one stream at a time.
The Crossplay transmission dock acts as a transmitter and battery charging cradle. The dock only takes as much space as a cup on your desk. It connects to your console or computer through the included USB-C to USB-A cable. While testing, I didn’t have any issues or perceivable lag with the wireless connection through the dock.
How do you pair Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II to another device?
While I did have issues entering pairing mode on the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II, I found a workaround. If the headset keeps connecting to the device you first paired with, and you’re unable to connect to another Bluetooth device, follow the steps below:
- Turn off the headset, and the Bluetooth of the device it keeps connecting to.
- Turn on the headset and wait until the Bluetooth LED continues to flash blue.
- On the other device you want to connect to, search for the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II in the list of available devices.
Hopefully, Turtle Beach will release a firmware update that automatically puts you into pairing mode. It seems more like a software issue, as using the playback controls through the Bluetooth button works fine.
How long does the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II’s battery last?
Underneath the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II earcup is a removable battery.
Turtle Beach claims that the Stealth Pro II batteries last 40 hours each. Giving you a total of practically infinite battery by swapping it with the Crossplay transmission dock. However, when you swap batteries, there isn’t any built in to last long enough for you to swap from the Crossplay transmission dock. This should be more than enough for a flight and time to get settled into a hotel. You can also charge the headset through the USB-C port, so you can leave the second battery at home with your desktop.
How well does the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II attenuate noise?
While testing the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II, we found that the headset creates noise when the earpads don’t seal properly. It took some trial and error, but we eventually fixed the problem. If you run into any issues with the ANC, I’d suggest reinstalling the ear pads and twisting them clockwise until they can’t move anymore.
Testing with the earpads properly mounted, our lab shows that the headset can reduce the perceived loudness of outside noise by an average of 81%. This result is on par with most high-end gaming headsets, and means that air conditioning hums and screeching trains should be sufficiently quieted. The headset’s ANC struggles a bit with gusts of wind, so keep that in mind if you’re planning to bring it outside.
If you’re trying to block out the sound of people chattering in the office or living room, it doesn’t do very well for me. I can still make out what people are saying, which can be a bit distracting while gaming, and especially if those voices are right behind me.
One thing I dislike is that you can’t use the ANC button on the headset to disable the noise control functions. You can only toggle between ANC and Transparency, without the option to add passive isolation. If you want to turn noise control off, you’ll have to do that using the Swarm II app.
How do the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II sound?
The Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II does great in competitive gaming, but it is a touch too sibilant for long listening sessions, which can become annoying. Also, I couldn’t perceive any noticeable static noise. This is an issue I often find with other gaming headsets, given that I have sensitive ears, so I’m glad the Stealth Pro II has a very low noise floor. Silent sections of games actually sound silent.
Reviewer’s notes
The Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II does well in gaming.
Editor’s note: this review uses a hover-enabled glossary to describe sound quality based on a consensus vocabulary. You can read about it here.
Objective Measurement
Looking at the chart, the bass and treble sections seem overemphasized compared to the SoundGuys preference curve. Despite the mids seeming close to the preference curve, they are relatively quiet due to the overemphasis of the bass and treble. This matches my experience, where it took some effort to hear certain voices in dialogue-heavy scenes. The loud bass shelf has a large peak from 60Hz to 200Hz. This can cause explosions and vehicle rumbles to mask higher-frequency sounds, but it is paired with a slight but noticeable dip from 200Hz to 400 Hz that helps make it feel a little cleaner. There is also a peak in the treble from 4.3kHz to 13.5kHz. This tuning may cause cymbals, hi-hats, and some higher-pitched voices to sound painfully sibilant at times.
How would most people rate the sound from 1 to 5?
The chart below shows the Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Scores (MDAQS) earned by the ROG Kithara. The algorithm uses a mountain of data from real people to predict how a group of 200 or so humans would rate the sound of a product on a scale from 1.0 (very bad) to 5.0 (very good), and return a mean opinion score.
Looking at the MDAQS chart, the overall score is just under the typical for wireless gaming headsets. The Timbre score is low, even compared to most gaming headsets, which sit around 3.5. This means that most people wouldn’t find the headset appealing, but it would sound good enough to use. The Distorion score is a touch better than most gaming headsets, and most people would think the sound comes through clearly. The huge outlier is in the Immersiveness score, with a jump to 4.7 compared to most gaming headsets, which are about 3.8. Most people would believe that they could pinpoint the source of a sound with ease.
What do the Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Scores mean?
- Timbre (MOS-T) represents how faithfully the headset reproduces the frequency spectrum and temporal resolution (timing information).
- Distortion (MOS-D) represents non-linearities and added noise: higher scores mean cleaner reproduction.
- Immersiveness (MOS-I) represents perceived source width and positioning: how well virtual sound sources are defined in three-dimensional space.
See here for an explanation of MDAQS, how it works, and how it was developed.
How good is the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II’s microphone?
The Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II features a built-in microphone suspension.
The microphone of the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II is interesting. The headset has a 9mm unidirectional shock-mounted microphone, which is not connected through a 3.5mm port like most headset microphones. The boom mic is connected through a mini USB port. This isn’t a bad thing. It’s mostly a way to ensure the microphone is inserted correctly. There are some issues with the microphone AI noise cancelation. However, with the AI noise cancelation off, the microphone is one of the best I’ve heard on a gaming headset.
Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II microphone demo (Ideal conditions):
Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II microphone demo (Office conditions):
Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II microphone demo (Reverberant space):
Audeze Maxwell 2 microphone demo (Street environment):
Audeze Maxwell 2 microphone demo (Windy environment):
How about with AI Noise Reduction Disabled?
Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II AI Noise Reduction OFF microphone demo (Ideal conditions):
Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II AI Noise Reduction OFF microphone demo (Office conditions):
Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II AI Noise Reduction OFF microphone demo (Reverberant space):
Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II AI Noise Reduction OFF microphone demo (Street environment):
Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II AI Noise Reduction OFF microphone demo (Windy environment):
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Should you buy the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II?
The Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II isn’t stealthy on your head, but it could help in competitive gaming.
The Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II is great for tactical shooters, thanks to its strong sense of immersion. However, the headset’s design and build aren’t ideal for long hours of gaming. It’s better for quick burst sessions, despite the effectively infinite battery life. It also doesn’t completely scream gamer, so you can bring it outside when you want to go touch some grass. If you’re into tactical shooters, the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II is a great headset. If you’re more of a casual gamer who plays story-based games with lots of dialogue, I’d suggest you skip the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II.
What should you get instead of the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II?
I would consider the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Omni, which offers a similar feature set, including effectively infinite battery life. However, unlike the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro II, it’s much more comfortable and offers better EQ presets, making it more than flexible enough for most people’s tastes. However, at , it costs more than the Stealth Pro II.
