The thing about the Stealth 500 is that is does everything solidly okay rather than going all in on one thing exceptionally well. There’s nothing wrong with a middle-of-the-road headset if it doesn’t fall short on any one aspect for players. If it’s affordable, gets the job done without compromises, and doesn’t smoosh one’s ears for long gaming sessions, then it’s a quick and easy recommendation from me. Compared to its similarly-priced competitors, the Stealth 500 offers far more to players and is worth your consideration. It’s much lighter, too.
There is nothing wrong with an entry-level headset, especially for those wanting to level up their game to become slightly more competitive when playing first-person shooters. Things like footsteps and shooting sounds can give the player an indication of where danger is and where they need to go to stay alive. Or kill other players. Both are factually true. Regardless, not all players want or even need a top-tier audiophile experience for playing video games; they just need the basics done right.
With that said, let’s talk about Turtle Beach’s Stealth 500. Turtle Beach’s Stealth lineup of headsets are all wireless beasts, spanning entry-level (Stealth 500) to pro-tier (Stealth Pro) – perfect for players of multiple backgrounds and different budgets. The Stealth 500 is the newest update to the Stealth series, bringing top-tier wireless headset features to those who don’t want to break the bank.
I’ve spent the past week testing out the Stealth 500. Honestly, I’m quite impressed about its features for a sub-$100 wireless headset. For $79.99, I get multiconnectivity (2.4GHz and Bluetooth 5.2), 40 hours of battery life, quick charging, 40mm audio drivers, relative comfort, and a flip-to-mute microphone? That’s unheard of. I’ve tested other headsets over $100 with all of these features as well as sub-$100 headsets with a smattering of these features. But all of them? For less than $100? Yeesh.
When I took the Stealth 500 out of the box and put it on my head, I was stumped by how light it was. Just like when I was testing the RIG 600HS, I had to remind myself that lighter doesn’t mean lesser quality. Instead, it means less strain on my neck and less hard materials pressing into my noggin. The Stealth 500 has an elastic floating headband separating the top of my head from the headset’s bridge along with plush leatherette ear cushions. The cushions are filled with memory foam, too. The foam is quite cushy, less spongy and more pillowy, which feels quite nice when wearing the headset. The lack of firm pressure on my ears and head made it so that there wasn’t an issue or weird imprints left once I took the headset off.
Wearing the headset for long hours produced no strain on my head thanks to its lightweight form factor. While it doesn’t feature the glasses-friendly technology of the 600 Gen 3 (review forthcoming), the Stealth 500 was gentle on my own glasses and didn’t press them into my head in an uncomfortable fashion. I’m sometimes cautious of leather and leatherette cushion materials because of the possibility of sweating, but somehow I didn’t have condensation issues.
The headset’s left earcup contains all of the controls, including the quick switch button, power, LED indicator, microphone, and two wheels that control the headset volume and microphone monitoring. The positioning of the buttons led to several false positive inputs when I was attempting to correctly press the Power button, the Mode button, or simply control the volume. I would have preferred that some of the controls were on the right earcup to better distribute the controls. However, I can admit that having everything on a single earcup can be convenient.
The Stealth 500’s microphone rests flush with the headset when deactivated. To turn on the mic, all I needed to do was pull the microphone down two levels. If I wanted to mute myself, I could push the microphone up one level without closing the microphone altogether. I love it when headsets have a built in mute function on the earcups; while I would personally prefer a physical button, the Stealth 500’s mute setup works just fine. When the microphone is fully active, I could also bring it one click closer to my face. In theory, this would mean that I wouldn’t need to speak as loudly as the mic is closer to my face, but the default sensitivity settings made it so that the microphone was effective in either open position.
The Stealth 500’s microphone had no issues when I tested it out in calls. On both Discord and Teams, other folks could hear me just fine. This unit does not have AI-powered features of noise cancellation and noise isolation like higher-priced headsets, but enough calling platforms have noise cancellation features that make the need a wash on this headset. My voice sounded crisp enough to not need to adjust the gain using other apps or even using Turtle Beach’s Swarm II software suit. No complaints from me.
In terms of audio, the Stealth 500 boasts amplified 40mm drivers for “powerful spatial audio” alongside multiple EQ modes. Out of the box, the Turtle Beach Signature Sound made it so that audio sounded relatively muted across the board, even with the Superhuman Hearing mode disabled. The best-sounding mode for gaming and audio was the Treble and Bass boost which pushed the lower and higher ends of the spectrum by +5 dB. The Swarm II app also allowed me to tune the audio to my liking, which was a better way for me to get the best sounds from the headset.
I don’t consider the Stealth 500 to have the “best” audio by any means. It’s incredibly hard to come by a lower-priced headset to have impressive acoustics, so I don’t fault the Stealth 500 for not impressing me on the audio front. Adjusting the EQ in the Swarm II app gave me some flexibility in squeezing out a bit more quality that wasn’t available in one of the four audio presets, but it wasn’t enough to appeal to my personal audiophile wants and wishes.
On the battery life front, the Stealth 500 very easily lasts 40 hours on a single charge. As I use headsets for both work and play, I often need to wear the headset for more than 8 hours at a time. I was able to get several full days (not work days, full days) of use out of the headset before the Swarm II app notified me that I had to charge the headset. Plugging in the headset for 20 minutes gave me quite a bit of power to finish my day, so I can confidently say that the quick charge function is working well.
This headset comes in several variants (either PS or XB), but is also overall compatible with Android, iOS, and PC. I had no issue pairing my review unit via Bluetooth and via 2.4GHz on my PC along with testing out the Bluetooth compatibility with my Pixel 8 Pro. The only caveat with pairing is that I needed to update the firmware using Turtle Beach’s Swarm II (for PC, Android, or iOS) before being able to use the headset. This means that it wasn’t able to be used right out of the box, an increasingly common caveat as our headsets get smarter. For the sake of science, I tested out my headset on a MacBook Pro to see if I could connect it via Bluetooth and/or 2.4GHz. It worked for me, but the headset does not have official support for Mac OS. If you choose to test this out on a Mac that you use for gaming (it’s slowly becoming less of an oxymoron, folks!), your mileage will vary. Use this headset on your consoles, phones/tablets, or Windows boxes, just to be safe.
The Stealth 500 is perfect for two kinds of consumers. First, this is a good starter headset. Here’s what I mean by that: Players who are unfamiliar with an all-in-one headset and/or ready for their first gaming headset. These types of consumers need a little bit of everything out of a headset so that they get a feel for what they need in the future without currently breaking the bank. At its price point alone, the Stealth 500 should be top of the list. The other type of consumer fit for the is one who might be budget-minded but is more interested in the conversational features that are baked into the headset. By that, I mean Turtle Beach’s Superhuman Hearing. Some might consider this a gimmick, but for those learning to isolate softer sounds like footsteps, this feature may be a good audio stepping stone.
The thing about the Stealth 500 is that is does everything solidly okay rather than going all in on one thing exceptionally well. There’s nothing wrong with a middle-of-the-road headset if it doesn’t fall short on any one aspect for players. If it’s affordable, gets the job done without compromises, and doesn’t smoosh one’s ears for long gaming sessions, then it’s a quick and easy recommendation from me. Compared to its similarly-priced competitors, the Stealth 500 offers far more to players and is worth your consideration. It’s much lighter, too.
A headset was provided by Turtle Beach for the purpose of this DigitalChumps Review.
