Turtle Beach – Stealth 500 Wireless Gaming Headset for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC & Mobile – Black

Bought this for my girlfriend works great easy to connect to Xbox series s

I’ve been gaming on my xbox series x with this pair of headphones for the past week and I’d like to share my thoughts.
I’ll start by talking about its build quality. They are mostly made of plastic, the headband is adjustable and the foam on the ear cups is soft memory foam. They bounce back to their shape rather quickly. They are quite comfortable for long gaming sessions and they are probably the best thing about this headset. They are lightweight and comfortable. They have 40mm drivers in the speakers and the microphone adjusts 4 ways. Up / down (mute / unmute ) and it swivels left and right a little. Surprise! I like that about it. They charge via the included usb C cable and battery life is excellent! Ive yet to charge them since the initial out of the box charge. Turtle beach claims 40 hours of battery life and I think it’s safe to say that it holds true.
The headphones will pair to just about any device via bluetooth, but turtle beach includes a 2.4 ghz dongle to pair them with the xbox series X. This is the preferred way to connect to your Xbox, as it will provide the lowest latency and strongest connection. The headphones pair very quickly with the dongle and provide a strong stable connection. I can roam around my place without it dropping connection.
Sound Quality: This is where I was a little let down. Are they bad? No. They’re decent..
but if you’ve owned any pair of “low end” turtle beach headphones in the last 5 years or so.. you’ll know what to expect. They sound about the same to my ears. Ive owned several pairs of turtle beach headphones and they’ve all pretty much sound the same to me. I’ll go ahead and call it the turtle beach signature sound. They have a trebly and “digital” / processed sound. There isn’t much bass on these, so explosions sound low res and trebly. Reminiscent of the 16/32 bit games I’d play as a child haha. It makes me think that they’ve crammed the same drivers and speakers of past into a new shell.
Perhaps some of it is the fault of the Xbox.. and the audio drivers in it. So I won’t bash them on sound.
They’re decent, but they won’t blow your mind ( or ears for that matter)
Microphone quality is great, and if you plan on using them to chat with your friends or live stream with these I think you will be happy with these. They have two volume rockers on the left ear cup.. one is for master volume and the other is for mixing game audio and chat audio. So convenient!
There is no aux port in these, so keep in mind that they are strictly wireless!
Would I recommend these? Sure.. especially if you just want something reliable, with great battery life and easy to pair with your console. It’s hard to match the features that these wireless headphones bring to the table (at this price point) and I think the vast majority of gamers will be perfectly happy with these headphones. If you are an audiophile and command the best sound quality.. I would look elsewhere.

I have used a lot of wireless headsets over the years, and the Stealth 500’s are the 4th Turtle Beach headset I have owned. I have last years Stealth 600 Gen 2 for the Xbox, so I was surprised to see the new design of the 500’s for this year, which looks to be a departure from years past.
Build Quality/Design
The 500 is a closed back design with a hinged mic and volume/EQ controls. There are no visible wires running along the headband or even up from the earcups, so it looks very clean from a design standpoint. The headset connects to Xbox (Series and One), and PC with a USB transmitter. It can also connect with Bluetooth 5.2 to PC, mobile, Playstation and Switch this way as well. The headset uses the companion Swarm II app for additional EQ settings through your PC or phone. The headset uses a suspension band design for the headband. All parts are still plastic, so the headset remains surprisingly light. The earcups are wrapped in a faux leather material but are soft and comfortable. The earcups are fixed to the headband, so there is any rotation, but they do have a slight pivot to help them lay flat on your head. The suspension band can adjust for larger and smaller head sizes – mine sits right in the middle which is the out-of-box setting.
The right earcup is featureless while the left holds all the controls/ports – EQ mode, power, volume wheel, chat mixer wheel, connection switcher, and USB C charging port. The volume and chat mixer wheels have upper and lower stopping points – you hear a beep when you hit the end of the wheels range. On PC the volume wheel controls the headset level only – your system sound level is not affected. Holding the power button for 2 seconds turns on the headset – you will hear a few beeps to confirm that it is on. The mic boom is short and stubby that is concealed in the left earcup. It folds downs with a little bit of force. It has multiple detents along its range of motion to hold it in place. You will hear some beeps as you fold it down/up to indicate the mute status. The boom can angle slightly inwards by bending it at a little hinge point.
Specs on the headset are pretty good. The battery life at 40 hrs is impressive – I haven’t come close to emptying them after 10-15 hours of game time. I haven’t seen any specs for the range on the headset. Bluetooth 5.2 is usually around 30-40 feet which seems about right from what I have experienced. In 2.4GHz mode I have gone 75+ feet away in an office with multiple walls and other wireless devices without any audio issues. The earcups come loaded with 40mm drivers, which is what I would expect in an entry level headset.
Comfort
I have a lot of love for suspension band setups – it’s the design I gravitate to the most for its comfort and flexibility. The biggest killer for suspension bands is weight and too narrow of a band. The 500’s are incredibly light and have a 7/8” wide suspension band. Both of these specs are a really good indication for comfort. However, the band has no additional padding – it is just a cloth/elastic band. The omission of extra padding is unfortunate since so much is right with the design for lightweight comfort. My older TB Elite Pro 2’s, Corsair HS80’s, and 2 Rig 800’s have heavier builds with similar band widths, but their bands have additional padding. This helps to avoid that feeling of a pressure band across the top of my head after longer sessions. This isn’t to say these are uncomfortable at all, but a little extra padding would take these from great to amazing comfort.
The earcups are fairly comfortable as well and the faux leather material provides a nice seal and added noise isolation. I wear glasses, which was a little bit of an issue with the earcups on the Gen 2 600’s. This does not appear to be an issue at all with the 500’s – my glasses have no effect on the comfort of the earcups. The only comment I have on the material is the faux-leather does trap a little bit of heat. The earcups are removable, so if you get hot ears you might look to swap the earcups out for a mesh/cloth alternative. Otherwise, the earcups feel pretty good.
At this price point I feel like the 500’s punch above their weight in terms of comfort.
Compatibility
These Stealth 500’s are wirelessly compatible via USB dongle for Xbox One/S/X, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Plugging the receiver into the back of my Series X and my One X was the only setup required. A notification popped up that a headset was assigned, and it was ready to go. The Xbox interface assigns the headset to the signed in account and it detects battery level as well. Plugging the receiver into my PC was a similar experience and it worked just like any plug-n-play device. I didn’t have a chance to install the PC based Swarm app, but I have read that it enables greater EQ controls over the mobile app. The mobile app has been pretty useful/handy so far, which is the only reason I haven’t done the PC app.
You can also connect the headset via Bluetooth to any Bluetooth compatible device. That means it can connect to mobile, PC, Switch, and Playstation. This wide compatibility sets the Xbox version of the headset apart because it’s the only one that can connect to all systems. The headset does not feature any controls like you might find on a pair of earbuds – music and call controls are absent. The volume and mixer wheels only affect the headset, and do not control the devices the headset is connected to.
Sound
The 500’s have 4 different EQ profiles to choose from: Signature, Bass Boost, Bass+Treble Boost, Vocal Boost. This is the order that the “Mode” button will cycle through them. Signature is still a flat EQ profile that is an “all-around” mode. Base Boost picks up the lows a bit, but not drastically. Bass+Treble is a V shape profile that boosts the highs and lows – this mode has the most dynamic feel to it for me. Vocals picks up the mids and highs, and works well for dialogue or things like an audiobook. As you cycle through the modes you hear 1-4 beeps depending on which mode is chosen. There is also the Superhuman Hearing mode that you turn on with a quick press of the power button. This drops the bass off completely and picks up the mids and highs in order to highlight noises like footsteps or gunshots. I have tried it in the past on the 600’s and here again on the 500’s – its not really for me. It does what it aims to do, but I don’t care for sound processing effect. Using the phone app you can toggle between 3 profiles – Legacy, Footsteps, and Gunshots
The 500’s use 40mm driver, which is the same as what many of my headsets have used. The 40mm drivers keep the cost as well as the weight down on the headsets, so it’s a decent tradeoff. The 40’s sound pretty good across the range, but the smaller drivers lack the bass punch of the larger 50mm drivers that you would find in the 600’s. For that reason, I preferred to keep the EQ mode in either Bass Boost or Bass+Treble Boost when listening to music and playing most games. The only time I would kick it over to Signature mode was during multiplayer matches where I had a party chat going on. The pumped EQ’s became a little much with the added chat.
For games I’ve mostly been playing Halo Infinite or MCC with some GTA. The 500’s handle the sound mixing from these games without any issues. The volume out of the headset is more than enough. For Halo I mainly kept it on Bass+Treble because it seemed to help me pick up explosions and gunfire a little better. Signature sounds pretty good as well, and I have no problem playing on that EQ. With GTA I didn’t find the need for a Treble boost as much so I stuck with just the Bass Boost or Signature EQ for most of my play time. I think it really comes down to how you want to make the games feel. With Bass+Treble the game sounds a lot more dynamic than just Bass or Signature, which is why I like it for FPS games. I play GTA for a more casual time, so I don’t want or need as much of an assault on my senses.
Mic
The mic is just like my 600’s – short, stubby, and tucked away in the earcup. Due to the low clamping force of the earcups and the resistance of the mic boom to movement I do have to grip the earcup while rotating the mic up or down. This makes quick mute/unmute mic boom movements more difficult – I will see if more usage will loosen things up a bit. The mic on its own works just fine. There’s a little bit of muddiness with your voice so I sounded a little bit quieter than with some of my other headset mics, but it’s not bad at all. The side tone is enabled by default and it works great. Once you pair it up with the Swarm II app you can start to fiddle with the settings. Default settings had Side Tone and Sensitivity set to max, and the Noise Gate set to around 30%. The noise gate and sensitivity settings work together to kind of set a range of sound that it will pick up. These settings can be useful in a noisy environment where you want to cut out background noise. I messed around with it a bit and turned the noise gate setting up slightly to block out the sound of my HVAC blower a little better. I dialed back the sensitivity a bit as well to limit the mic from picking up my kids playing games on my other TV. I am going to keep messing with it a bit more, but it’s nice to have these controls.
Conclusion
Overall, the new Stealth 500’s are a really great headset. I am a little shocked at how good these are for their price point. They have a wide compatibility range, lightweight design, and are very comfortable. I honestly think Turtle Beach has a winner with these.

great headphones i love the sound and how light weight they are!!