When it came to the last season's model, the Stealth 700 Gen 2s, my thoughts were very much in line with my learned US contemporary’s 8/10. They certainly weren't a perfect pair of cans right out of the box (with two medium-sized faults needing to be zapped via firmware updates), but those bugbears aside, my pair served me aural delights for ages. I’ve been keen to see (read: hear) how the envelope could be pushed further with a Gen 3.
This new revision has some big memory foam cups to fill, though—the Stealth 700 Gen 2 wasn’t quite the apex of high-fidelity ear candy in 2020, but at the time it was Turtle Beach’s best headset to date by a considerable margin.
Have these Gen 3s spent four years of an off-season raising the benchmark? Yes and no (but mostly yes). I’m going to dig into specifics in a sec, but I should get the impulse purchasers among you sorted with the cheapest prices available now. If you wish to skip all that window shopping in favour of raw info and unfiltered impressions instead, click here to jump right to it.
Best Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3 Deals
Amazon – $274
JB Hi-Fi – $399
Big W – $399
Kogan – $348
Scorptec – $399
Catch – $360
Ears On Impressions
Let's roll out a basic overview of these cans for those of you who skipped Gen 1 and Gen 2. First of all, and though its packaging is big on the Xbox branding, know that the Stealth 700s are very much a wireless multiplatform affair with support for PlayStation 4 / 5, PC, Steam Deck, and mobile devices in addition to your Xbox X|S / One.
The biggest feather in its cap? A CrossPlay 2.4GHz wireless system that leverages two (included) USB transmitters (plus some simultaneous Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity) to let you seamlessly and sans hassle switch your audio output from different platforms with a button tap. And, obviously, the implications of that Bluetooth double up are that you can listen to music while you're gaming, take a call while you're gaming, etc. Pretty slick stuff, though many of us have been enjoying this for ages.
Additionally, the Stealth 700 boasts 80-hours worth of battery charge, and the Swarm II companion app is still on hand to tweak and get the most out of your A.I. noise-cancelling mic and the impressive 60nm Eclipse Dual Drivers. In layman's terms, that's more or less a subwoofer and a tweeter separated. The theory being: halving the workload for better results as one driver delivers the sharper high-end audio details and the other is handling the beasts below who are lurking in the low-end of your soundscape.
It's also worth noting that there's a 10-band onboard EQ, and that the 60nms are indeed an upgrade from the 50nm nano clears used by the Stealth 700 Gen 2. Technically speaking, they're only "new" if you discount the fact that these 60s have been used in another Turtle Beach headset in the intervening years.
Let’s indulge our shallow side and focus on the aesthetics. Firstly, while there are three variations available, the sample I received was the bog-standard black "Designed for Xbox" edition. If you want a splash of colour or love seeing brownish-black fingerprint smudges accumulate over time, you can always opt for the Cobalt Blue or White (PlayStation) versions, respectively, instead.
Once again, the design approach here may not be from the school of Pulsing Disco RGB and Aggressive Angles, but Turtle Beach is still erring on the side of gaming (just not capital ‘G’). The fold-down-to-use / fold-up-to-mute microphone isn’t completely hidden, which (along with the prominent logo) are the main giveaways of the primary purpose of these. (If you believe the marketing pitch, that is: "to rank up" in the vidjagurms with Daredevil-level hearing.)
If you plan on taking these slightly bulky beasts out on the road to complement your Steam Deck, you’ll be happy to know that the build quality feels rock solid. There’s a backbone of steel running through the band that still allows for some pretty vigorous bending and twisting to suit the most oddest-shaped and overlarge craniums imaginable. Furthermore, the head-pinching nature of the Gen 2's have been lessened noticeably this time around.
Likewise, they’re quite comfy due to a mixture of mainly pleather on every surface that will be touching your hair (or scalp) and some material around the ear sections. The heat dispersal is great around the ol’ ear balls—I was forced to use these in 30C+ heat this summer and was quite surprised by how low sweat my ears were after long sessions. Better yet, and without impacting comfort, the inside padding of these ear cups have been pushed back to be about 20% more cavernous when compared to the Gen 2's, which means wider support for…well, wider ears.
Let's move on too the things that matter far more for me—connection performance and the audio experience. The included dongles, I'm happy to say, worked flawlessly with every console I slapped them in (I have all of the main ones mentioned earlier on hand). Compatability-wise, I believe I got the best Stealth 700 variant to go with, as one of the specifically labeled Xbox dongles comes with the encryption chip needed to attend Microsoft's needlessly snooty and selective peripherals party.
Switching between the dongles is a cinch thanks to a quick switch button on your cup and a visual system of "orange standing by" and "green in-use" represented on the two dongles you're running on separate machines. The switch is basically instantaneous, too, and if you're running Bluetooth audio at that moment, it's not disrupted in any way.
When it comes to sound performance, this Gen 3 sounds a touch different to the Gen 2s, but still very much the Turtle Beach approach to audio. For me, the Gen 3s felt like their bass still envelops nicely but is a touch shallower and a smidge punchier. The mids are bright and plateau nicely for content like voices, and the highs are richly detailed without being scratchy or harsh. All in all, I think an already great-sounding headset tweaked to be slightly better right out of the box. For FPS games, at least, I wouldn't switch EQs at all.
I have similar praise to heap on the mic experience as well. My teammates reported crisp and clear comms from me, despite the fans of my PC and PlayStations going more or less flat knackers (because, again, 30C+ heat). And, while you can call me antiquated for not embracing touch-to-engage and spin-to-change controls on some of TB's more recent headsets, I love that my mic and game/chat mix controls are just instantaneously changeable with sensibly located physical dials.
Couple all that with the aforementioned improved comfort (and the battery quick charge that can take you from out of juice to ready to maul for another 3 hours after a mere 15 minutes), and this Gen 3 of Stealth 700s is mighty impressive. Would I ditch my Gen 2s and pony up again for the refresh? No, probably not. But if you're canless and looking for quality in this highly competitive price range, Turtle Beach puts up a shelluva good argument for a purchase here.
Adam Mathew is our Aussie deals wrangler. He plays practically everything, often on YouTube.
