Page 3 - Subjective Audio Analysis
For all audio products we review at APH Networks, it takes quite a bit of experience and training of the ears before we can assess with fair judgment. Even for many audio enthusiasts, it can be hard to produce an exact or accurate evaluation of a product without a familiar product to use as a reference. While I am not the greatest expert in this field of technology, I have worked with Editor-in-Chief Jonathan Kwan extensively to accurately evaluate many audio devices. There are no true objective measurements for audio sound quality, but as a reviewer, I will put the Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 3 through a series of subjective tests to try and come up with the most objective rating as I can. The audio tests were conducted on my PC by connecting the USB transmitter to the back of my motherboard via USB mode.
After over 50 hours of break-in time -- far beyond the typical required period -- I put the Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 3 to the tests. All tracks are uncompressed or high bitrate audio files. Equalizer settings were set to flat or “Signature Sound” for testing purposes. For gaming, I played Valorant and osu!. First-person shooter games are probably the most important type of game for testing these headphones with, as the gameplay can heavily rely on hearing to gain information. I find that playing rhythm games like osu! can also be very important to test latency, which is especially important for wireless headsets.
Let us start with the Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 3’s lower frequencies. In this section, I found the headset produced a solid and round sound. The headset produced a nice solid bass, feeling quite punchy. The output was decently smooth and does stand out compared to the other two sections. Instruments like bass guitar are balanced well with deeper frequencies. In games like first-person shooters, low frequency sounds would correlate to things like footsteps. Footsteps were very easy to listen for with the Stealth 600 Gen 3, and even easier with Superhuman Hearing enabled.
Moving on to the midrange, this is where I found the headset to sound the best despite being slightly less emphasized compared to the bass. The entire section felt mostly natural. Instruments and voices in this region were nice, but slightly recessed as we move to the higher end of the midrange. Voices were reproduced very clearly, sounding quite natural. Although the midrange is not that important for strict gaming like the bass for footsteps and treble for reloading, it is still useful for hearing what your teammates are saying or abilities. It is more important to be able to isolate the sounds from this region instead of having higher quality noise, but the Stealth 600 Gen 3 did well in both regards.
Continuing with the treble, I found the sound the headset produced to be decently clean. I did find this section in general sounded slightly recessed compared to the other two regions. Despite being recessed, the sound was still sharp and clear. In games, the treble would be recognized as glass breaking or guns reloading. Overall, the sound signature of the Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 3 is that of a negative slope. Despite having a slightly recessed treble, in games, reloads are still very apparent. A little more emphasis in the treble would be appreciated as it honestly does sound good. Generally speaking, the Stealth 600 Gen 3 does sound good for a gaming headset.
In terms of soundstaging, the Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 3 performed decently in this category in both gaming and music. It offered a good amount of depth and width, with it being able to easily distinguish directional elements of the game. The larger drivers of the Stealth 600 Gen 3 did help in this regard, but it was still limited physically by its closed-back design. Overall, I would have still liked a bit more width overall, as sounds still felt tight in music, especially as the tracks become more complicated.
When it comes to layering, I found the Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 3 to be able to provide detail and precision in gaming situations where there are limitations to the amount of sounds you hear. However, in music, some details started to get lost in the mix as the tracks got more complicated, mainly in the treble. Frequency ranges were separate for the most part. Overall, the sound was clean and quite good for gaming.
Due to its closed-back nature, the Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 3 does not leak as much sound as an open-back would, but the mesh fabric does allow a bit more noise to flow out compared to a leather pad. I personally prefer the fabric for comfort and think it is a worthy trade-off, but some buyer’s opinions may differ from mine.
The above is a microphone test for the Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 3. This recording was made using Audacity while the wireless transmitter is plugged into the back of my motherboard. From this, you can hear how easily the microphone picked up my voice and little to no background noise. My voice could be heard clearly, but you will notice there are some instances where my voice becomes quieter. This is due to the noise gate effectively removing the background noise, but at the cost of reducing the sound of my voice at times. I would find no issue with the sound captured from this headset if any of my friends were to use it. For in-game communications, this microphone is good enough, but I would recommend something else if you wanted to use this for professional recording or streaming.
When it comes to the wireless capabilities of the Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 3, I was quite pleased. This headset is advertised with an 80-hour battery life. In my testing, I thought the battery life would exceed this label much like its predecessor. My testing showed after 80 hours at 50% volume, I still had 15% battery life remaining. While this may not seem like a lot, in my previous experience with Turtle Beach headsets, you should never sleep on how long their low battery headsets last. This is an absolutely astounding battery life. Recharging the headset only takes a short while, given the quick charge feature, but you will not need to charge this headset very often. I will say it would be appreciated if the power button could light up green, as you cannot really tell if the headset is fully charged unless you check the software. As for the wireless range, it was more than satisfactory as I could walk across my entire home without facing any connectivity issues. The wireless experience with the Stealth 600 Gen 3 is within my expectations, given my previous experience with the series being impeccable.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware and Software
3. Subjective Audio Analysis
4. Conclusion
