Page 3 - Subjective Audio Analysis
Reviewing audio devices require extensively trained ears, lots of experience, and sufficient technical knowledge. Even for the experienced auditioner, it may prove challenging at times to obtain an accurate evaluation of a product without a thoroughly familiar product to use as a simultaneous reference. Furthermore, many self-proclaimed audiophiles are susceptible to biased write-ups due to placebo effects from false advertising. While I am not going to even try to claim that I am the only trustworthy or best evaluator for sound, it is fact that most computer review sites have editors who are insufficiently trained in reviewing audio equipment. Give them practically anything and all you will read about goes along the line of "good bass, nice midrange, awesome treble, really clear sound, 10/10". While there are many knowledgeable audio reviewers at various respected online media outlets, they are by far the minority.
As I have mentioned in my past audio reviews, there are really no true objective measurements for sound quality. As the evaluator, however, I will put it through a series of subjective tests to try to come up with the most objective rating possible. Yes, it sounds like a paradox. For all tests, I plugged the wireless transmitter into a USB port on my motherboard. After over 70 hours of break-in time -- well above the typical required period -- I put the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro to the tests. All tracks are uncompressed or high bitrate audio files. I tested the headset with ANC on and off to see how it would affect the sound. For gaming, I played VALORANT, League of Legends, and Genshin Impact. First-person shooter games are probably the most crucial games to test these headphones, as gameplay can heavily rely on hearing additional sounds. The other games have aspects where audio is useful, but this is less of a factor.
As always, I first like looking at the "big three", which is the bass, midrange, and trebles. Out of the box, everything is set to a flat equalizer setting. Starting with the bass, I was able to hear the general boost in this region. This was more prominent in the upper bass leading to the lower midrange. The bass here was generally smooth. It did not offer that deep of a feel and what was present felt a bit loose in its definition. However, with the active noise cancellation turned on, it felt like the bass became a bit more defined. In games, the bass region is important for hearing deeper sounds like footsteps and other environmental cues that would be helpful in gathering spatial information about your enemies. Other sounds like explosions and blasts also benefit from good characteristics in this region.
Moving to the midrange, as I mentioned, the lower midrange was slightly more boosted, but overall, this region felt recessed. Voices were still clear but they did not have the full richness of detail I might have liked. Instruments like pianos and guitars had some resonance, but lacked a bit of the warmth. Some of the upper midrange also started to feel dry and this trait lead into the trebles. A recessed midrange does not affect gaming too much, as this is often the case for most gaming headsets. It still is important for cues like vocal dialogues and hearing your teammates in communication.
At the top, we have the trebles, which felt bright and generally clear. Instruments like violins and flutes were sharp and clean, while high hat crashes were not too clashy. Sibilance was a bit more apparent here with hard "s" sounds coming off a bit shrill. Trebles are important to hear audio cues like glass breaking and gunshots firing. If we were to look at the overall sound profile, I would characterize the Stealth Pro as a slight upside-down W-shaped sound signature. As described above, the bass is a bit more emphasized with a boost in the upper bass region while the midrange is recessed. The trebles were a bit more emphasized, but there was a drop off at the highest-end.
When it comes to soundstaging, the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro was average, with a decent amount of width and depth. However, it still felt like it was coming from within the headphone ears. With ANC on, the depth did shrink a bit as it lost some of the openness. The imaging capabilities of the Stealth Pro were also natural, although again I felt like it was a bit limited in its width and depth. Soundstaging and imaging capabilities are often helpful in games for identifying where other people might be located on the map. Turtle Beach's Superhuman Hearing does somewhat help with this by emphasizing some regions of the midrange, reducing the bass, and adding a bit of reverberation. While this may help in gaming situations, it is not recommended for music as it alters the overall sound signature negatively.
As for layering, I felt like the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro struggled the most in this area. While it did pick up all the different layers and reproduced them naturally, there were times where the detail was not as clear as it could have been. Everything felt quite cohesive, but almost to a point where some detail would be lost as not all of the frequencies would be distinct from each other. This was exacerbated in more complicated music, where the details of different voices were not as defined as expected. Otherwise, the sound was generally clean with no muddiness.
For sound isolation, Turtle Beach includes active noise cancellation with the Stealth Pro. In testing, I found the ANC to be perfectly fine in your home. In my computer room, it was able to remove the noise coming from my computer fans. You probably will not be using the Stealth Pro on public transportation or in an airplane, as it is not intended for that nor is it capable of removing louder noises. Passively, the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro's leatherette pads create a decent seal around the ears. I did notice a bit of sound leakage with the Stealth Pro.
In terms of battery life, the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro was quite impressive. While it was quoted to last 12 hours on each battery pack, I actually was able to get closer to 16 hours for each pack for a total of 32 hours. As well, since you can charge one pack while using the other, this reduces the downtime for the Stealth Pro waiting for it to charge. Each battery charged up to full within 3 hours, and also can be charged for 15 minutes to get 3 hours of use. Its wireless range was decent over the USB wireless transmitter, although with obstacles like walls, I could not go further than 9m away from my headset. It notably was worse when moving laterally away from the transmitter puck rather than if I was on the floor below but directly underneath. Otherwise, I did not notice any wireless lag when gaming or watching videos with the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro. There was also one quirk I noticed while using the Turtle Beach Stealth Pro. Whenever I turned on the headphones, they would start at maximum volume and not in sync with my Windows system volume. This would remain until I made any changes to my system volume. While this is a potential early batch issue, I hope it can be fixed with firmware updates later on.
As for the microphone quality, I used Audacity to record and exported the captured audio as MP3 files. There are two recordings here: One using the integrated microphones on the headset and one using the included boom arm microphone. In both cases, the Stealth Pro was capable of picking up my voice. With the integrated microphones, it recorded a more open sound, but unfortunately it also meant it recorded more background noise. With the unidirectional microphone on the swinging arm, the audio recorded sounded a bit more condensed. While this helped with reducing background noises, it also made my voice sound a bit less natural. There was also a bit more of a fuzziness to my voice when using the boom arm microphone. In either case, the audio inputs on the Stealth Pro are fine for voice calls and gaming, but you probably want to invest in a dedicated microphone for streaming or recording purposes.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Physical Look - Hardware and Software
3. Subjective Audio Analysis
4. Conclusion
