Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 Max (PS5) review
After spending a solid few months with the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 Max, I can say it's one of the most comfortable and impressive-sounding gaming headsets for the price.
The Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 Max launched last year, iterating on the 2021 model that didn't carry the 'Max' portion of the name. What's the difference between the two? Well in addition to Bluetooth, the headset is accompanied by a wireless USB adaptor to eliminate lag across PS4, PS5, and PC. The battery life has been boosted from 20 hours to 40+ hours, but it still houses the same drivers as the 2021 variant.
Offering superb comfort and sound for a reasonable price. the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 Max for PS5 is one of the best gaming headsets you can pick up right now for under £150 / $200 / AU$350. Let's delve into the details.
Design
The design of the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 Max isn't the best. You can choose between a black or cobalt blue variant, and we had the latter. The colour is somewhat lacklustre which isn't helped by the matte plastic, and the rose gold trim and black ear cups err more towards a palette mismatch than stylish trim. While they may look somewhat garish, the headset definitely feels a lot more premium than it looks.
The earcups themselves are huge, angular monstrosities, but that's all the better for caressing your ears. The gloriously plush memory foam earcups paired with the thick, buttery soft headband make the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 Max incredibly comfortable to wear for long periods. I had reservations about just how secure a fit such an unwieldy headset would provide, but they're surprisingly snug. This may pose a problem for those of you with heads skewing to the larger end of the spectrum, but given how loose a lot of bulkier gaming headsets tend to be, it hit the sweet spot for me. That being said, it is fairly weighty, but you get used to it after a while.
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All of the controls for the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 Max are located on the rear of the left earcup, running along the outer rim. The volume wheel sits just above the variable mic monitoring wheel, and below those is the mode button for the Superhuman Hearing feature, power button, and Bluetooth Multi-Function button. The latter is a super handy button for calls, or listening to music, so long as you can remember and successfully pull off the myriad of inputs available.
There's a flip-to-mute mic on the front of the earcup, with an extended mic mute position so you don't need to tuck it away into the cup every time you want to speak off-mic.
Features and sound
The Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 Max for PS5 is – as you might expect – not compatible with Xbox consoles. You can use the headset with a PC however. Just plug in the USB dongle to your console or gaming rig (remembering to toggle the switch to your hardware of choice) and you're off. Thanks to the Bluetooth feature, you can connect it to a multitude of other devices, including Nintendo Switch, smart TVs, iOS and Android.
One of the standout features for me is that you can pair the headset with two devices simultaneously, so you can hack and slash your way through Dead Island 2 or Diablo 4 with your favourite Spotify playlist setting your own personalised soundtrack for the carnage.
The battery life is another point of note. Turtle Beach says the Stealth 700 Gen 2 Max battery will give you over 40 hours of playtime before it dwindles, doubling the battery life of the previous model. I've managed to squeeze that out and then some. You're unlikely to find yourself mid-match with a useless piece of plastic on your head because you forgot to plug it in to charge. It's generous enough for even the most scatter-brained of users to not be caught out.
Being a fan of mic monitoring, I know I'm not shouting the house down, the variable wheel for this is another favourite feature of mine, letting you tweak your voice feedback on the fly.
The Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 Max is designed to be glasses-friendly with its Pro-Specs Glasses Relief System. What that means is there's a channel in the ear cushion that alleviates pressure on the frame of glasses. This can actually be adjusted by yanking off the ear cushion and fiddling with the tab to accommodate the size of your specs. I transitioned to contact lenses a while ago, after developing a prescription that rivals Danger Mouse's Penfold so I can't comment on how this feature pans out for glasses-wearers, but the adjustment options and general comfort of the cups suggest this is likely to provide more comfort if you do wear glasses.
Kitted out with 50mm neodymium drivers sporting Turtle Beach's Nanoclear label, the Stealth 700 Gen 2 Max promises sound clarity worthy of a trademark, and it delivers. The sound profile consists of strong bass, reasonable mids, and decent enough treble. You can adjust the bass and treble with the companion app which I didn't bother with as the default settings were fine. But it's there if you prefer to finetune your EQ settings.
There's also the game-specific Superhuman Hearing mode that favours higher frequency sounds over the bass – perfect for zeroing footsteps or other audio cues in competitive shooters like Warzone or Fortnite.
Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 Max (PS5) is now compatible with even more devices and you can connect via the USB dongle and Bluetooth at the same time (Turtle Beach)Overall thoughts
While it's not the best-looking headset out there, it's not the worst given the oversaturation of obnoxiously loud RGB headphones that absolutely shriek 'gamer' at anyone that so much as glances in their general direction. The Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 Max is definitely more muted, and the rose gold trim is lovely – it's just the lacklustre cobalt blue, bulky design, and cheap plastic look that doesn't tick all of the boxes for me.
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But looks aren't everything; a pair of gaming headphones needs to be comfortable to wear over long periods and the headset shines in this area. The synthetic leather and memory foam cups paired with the spongy headband and snug fit make them a delight to wear – like a hug for your head. And shockingly, there's no make-up residue caked all over them despite using them for months and neglecting to give them so much as a wipe (I'm an animal, I know).
The sound quality is fantastic, and you'd be hard-pushed to find better around the same price point. I'm no audiophile or competitive gamer, so unless you have particularly stringent standards for what you allow into your ears, the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 Max more than does the job. It's now the go-to headset for my PS5, elbowing out three other models for prime position.
If you're looking for a decent PS5 headset then the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 Max is worth considering offering great sound, quality features, and premium comfort for a very reasonable £149.99 / $199.95 / AU$319.95. And you can pick it up for even cheaper than that at various retailers, including Amazon UK where it's on sale for £129 right now.
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