Turtle Beach Ear Force Stealth 450

[Inle]

The Turtle Beach Stealth 450 is a wireless gaming headset with great sound quality, an impressive wireless range, and long battery life. Its microphone isn't capable of delivering the performance needed for streaming or voiceovers, but with a price of $85, the Stealth 450 provides excellent value for the money regardless.

Show full review

 

[erixx]

thank you!

As during hot months most headphones are infernal to wear, I am looking forward to a special summertime headsets review: textil earcups, breathing materiales, lightweight, yet great quality. Would be "cool"! ; )

 

[Inle]

thank you!

As during hot months most headphones are infernal to wear, I am looking forward to a special summertime headsets review: textil earcups, breathing materiales, lightweight, yet great quality. Would be "cool"! ; )

It's been 38-43°C where I live for the past couple of weeks so I know exactly what you mean Quite fortunate that I'm currently working on headsets with "breathable" ear cushions such as this one and the SteelSeries Arctis family. I'd probably go mad if that wasn't the case...

 

[Therion_I]

Again with comments like this:

"Of course, turning the virtual surround sound on also has a heavy impact on the overall sound quality, and not in a good way. Overall, I can't think of a single reason why someone would use the Stealth 450 in surround rather than stereo mode."

Just because virtual surround doesn't work for your ears does not mean it doesn't work for others. I get this is your personal opinion but it's unhelpful in a review! Here's some quotes from other reviewers of this product in regards to the HRTF:

"On a PC with DTS Headphone:X engaged, things sound even better. The surround sound mix and presets work brilliantly across games, movies and music."
"DTS Headphone:X has three presets; game, movies and music. It's phenomenal for games and films, creating positional audio that feels like it truly surrounds you, but it doesn't work as well with music."
"The Stealth 450 offers digital DTS 7.1-channel surround sound, and it makes a big difference when gaming. After enjoying rich, immersive sound while punching, swinging and shooting my way through a handful of games, everything I played sounded shallow with it turned off."

I'm not saying their opinion is more valid than yours but I find the way you are conveying your dislike of HRTF, and dismissing it, to be frustrating.

 

[Red_Machine]

Hah, "Ear Force". That's ironic, because a Turtle Beach headset gave me tinnitus.

 

[Inle]

Again with comments like this:

"Of course, turning the virtual surround sound on also has a heavy impact on the overall sound quality, and not in a good way. Overall, I can't think of a single reason why someone would use the Stealth 450 in surround rather than stereo mode."

Just because virtual surround doesn't work for your ears does not mean it doesn't work for others. I get this is your personal opinion but it's unhelpful in a review! Here's some quotes from other reviewers of this product in regards to the HRTF:

"On a PC with DTS Headphone:X engaged, things sound even better. The surround sound mix and presets work brilliantly across games, movies and music."
"DTS Headphone:X has three presets; game, movies and music. It's phenomenal for games and films, creating positional audio that feels like it truly surrounds you, but it doesn't work as well with music."
"The Stealth 450 offers digital DTS 7.1-channel surround sound, and it makes a big difference when gaming. After enjoying rich, immersive sound while punching, swinging and shooting my way through a handful of games, everything I played sounded shallow with it turned off."

I'm not saying their opinion is more valid than yours but I find the way you are conveying your dislike of HRTF, and dismissing it, to be frustrating.

I appreciate what you're saying. Perhaps a clarification is in order. When I said there's no reason for someone to use the Stealth 450 in surround mode over stereo, I was referring to the in-game performance of the headset. If someone's after a competitive edge, stereo is the definite way to go with these, because the spatial positioning is infinitely better that way. I have no way of knowing what other reviewers were looking for when they tested the 7.1 surround sound in games, as my impressions are wildly different. I'm not against 7.1 surround sound per say but I do require it to sound good before I sing praise to it. For me, the immersiveness just wasn't there with the Stealth 450 in 7.1 surround mode, which completely defeats the purpose of using it - especially when at the same time you're trading it for otherwise great acoustic performance of the headset. I wrote about it somewhat more positively than in the case of SteelSeries Arctis 5, though, as it did sound a bit better overall If and when I run across a headset with great surround sound performance, be sure that the review will reflect exactly that.

 

[Therion_I]

I appreciate what you're saying. Perhaps a clarification is in order. When I said there's no reason for someone to use the Stealth 450 in surround mode over stereo, I was referring to the in-game performance of the headset. If someone's after a competitive edge, stereo is the definite way to go with these, because the spatial positioning is infinitely better that way. I have no way of knowing what other reviewers were looking for when they tested the 7.1 surround sound in games, as my impressions are wildly different. I'm not against 7.1 surround sound per say but I do require it to sound good before I sing praise to it. For me, the immersiveness just wasn't there with the Stealth 450 in 7.1 surround mode, which completely defeats the purpose of using it - especially when at the same time you're trading it for otherwise great acoustic performance of the headset. I wrote about it somewhat more positively than in the case of SteelSeries Arctis 5, though, as it did sound a bit better overall If and when I run across a headset with great surround sound performance, be sure that the review will reflect exactly that.

Unfortunately I'm in a position whereby I need to use closed-back headphones. I own a pair of dt-770s and a pair of ATH-900X. The soundstage on the 900x is really good considering it's closed but I actually game on a crappy pair of Corsair 1500s purely because I find Dolby Headphone to give much better positional audio cues. Everyone's ears are different though.

A review of the HyperX Revolver S might be nice. People seem to really like the Dolby implementation and they seem like decent cans as well.

 

[Inle]

A review of the HyperX Revolver S might be nice. People seem to really like the Dolby implementation and they seem like decent cans as well.

You'll be happy to find out that the review of HyperX Revolver S is coming fairly soon!