Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 Max Review

Thankfully the new Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 Max headphones are the exact opposite of their rather overblown and parody-esque name, in that this is a unit that delivers concise quality that will leave you lost for words with its outstanding design and brilliant adaptability.

So let's talk aesthetics. Honestly, I was blown away by the brilliant Cobalt Blue and Bronze combo as it's not one I usually consider when looking for headsets, however, this ultra-sleek design means that these look plucked straight from your favorite sci-fi film without ever veering into the flashy and overblown visuals that so many other units find themselves in.

When it comes to comfort this is like having a memory foam pillow wrapped around your noggin and after testing the unit while wearing glasses and without I didn't experience any discomfort at all. The slight pressure applied by the headset was enough to keep them secure and therefore didn't cause any irritation through incidental movement (as I have a rather sensitive scalp this is a huge deal for me!).

Even more impressive is the tactile feeling of the unit overall which while being on the lighter side feels solid and robust and the locking parts that deal with adjustments feel secure across the board. For those looking to push the unit to its limits, the metal-backed headband will take a lot of abuse and always bounce back to its original shape, meaning that if these get pulled off your head without warning you're not likely to be left cleaning up broken shards of plastic.

So they look great and are surprisingly well made, but what about the sound?

After taking the unit for a spin in both a richly orchestrated game such as Elden Ring, pumping the bass into oblivion in Midnight Fight Express and Hotline Miami and checking out what granular details I could make out in Darktide I came away feeling very impressed by what I'd heard. The sound quality was immediate and crisp, the Bluetooth lag which plagues some headsets was non-existent and thanks to the aforementioned comfort of the unit I was often enveloped by the rich sound that removed me from the real world. I'd say those true audio snobs will find the acuteness of the headset lacking if they were to use these for mastering or competitive play seeing as the detail did get muddied when the action hit all at once. Still, overall this is a higher-end experience at a mid-range price making it excellent value overall.

Plus if you fancy yourself a bit of a tech wizard, you can install the Turtle Beach app to your mobile device and tweak the settings to your desired needs. It's a nice inclusion and with some know-how gives this product a great adaptability that many other headsets simply don't have. And speaking of adaptability, Turtle Beach has finally listened and unlocked the unit to work on every major console and PC thanks to a multi-switch dongle!

The only feature that I was slightly lacking came in the form of the microphone, which while being suitable for a headset of this price range, paled in comparison to the microphones I used regularly for voice-over work and streaming, meaning I'm unlikely to use the admittedly non-bulky fold in mic over my current setup.

For general calls and casual play, however, you could do a LOT worse than this.