Turtle Beach Recon 70  Headphones Review

These headphones look quite similar to the Turtle Beach Recon 200. They have the same large headband design, but they have different yokes for size adjustment, as well as large ear cups lined with pleather instead of fabric. The console-specific headphones come in two-tone color schemes with vivid accents, although all variants are wired and will work on all platforms. This means you can choose whichever color you prefer, regardless of which platform you game on.

They're decently comfortable headphones. They have a cheap imitation leather coating that doesn't feel that nice on the skin. While their headband isn't as well padded as that of other Turtle Beach models, it still does a good job of distributing their weight. Unfortunately, if you have a larger head, you'll find them to be a bit tight on the head, and they aren't quite as comfortable as alternatives like the Logitech G432.

These headphones have a physical control scheme that's easy to use but lacks functionality. They have a volume wheel on the left ear cup that stops when you reach max or minimum volume. You can also mute the boom microphone by flipping it upwards.

These headphones aren't very breathable, but this won't be an issue during casual gaming sessions. However, they aren't a good option for exercise as they trap quite a bit of heat inside their ear cups, making you sweat more than usual.

Like most over-ear gaming headphones, they aren't very portable. They don't fold into a more compact format, but their cups swivel to lay flat. This makes them noticeably wider but also easier to slide inside a bag.

These headphones have mediocre build quality. They're entirely made of plastic with pleather-lined ear cups and headband padding. The headband is also thin but fairly flexible. Additionally, they don't have metal-centered yokes like the Turtle Beach Recon 200 Gen 2 or the Turtle Beach Stealth 300. They creak a lot and feel fragile when manipulating them.

These headphones have mediocre stability. They're tight on the head, so they don't move too much while gaming. They'll likely fall off your head with intense head movements, though. They also have a non-detachable cable that can yank them off your head if it gets hooked on something.

• Turtle Beach Recon 70 headphones
• Sticker
• Manuals

The Turtle Beach Recon 70 have a reasonably balanced sound profile. The dip in the low-bass range will be disappointing if you prefer some extra thump and rumble in your favorite action-heavy games. However, the high-bass range is slightly emphasized, which can help accentuate environmental audio, like footsteps. They also have a fairly balanced mid and treble range response, resulting in detailed dialogue and bringing out the detail in game soundtracks.

These headphones have poor frequency response consistency. They struggle to deliver audio consistently, as their audio reproduction is highly sensitive to fit, seal, and positioning. If you have long hair or wear glasses, you'll find that it's particularly difficult to achieve a consistent sound between gaming sessions.

Their bass accuracy is okay. Their underemphasized low-bass range results in a loss of thump and slam, which is most apparent in action-heavy games. When playing first-person shooters like Battlefield 5, you'll notice that explosions lack a lot of low-end rumble. That said, the slight overemphasis in the high-bass range helps bring out footstep sounds in your in-game mix.

These headphones have outstanding mid-range accuracy. Dialogue, as well as vocals and lead instrumentals, are clear, present, and detailed in the mix.

Their treble accuracy is very good. Aside from a dip between the low and mid treble ranges that results in some sibilants sounding dull and lispy, the rest of the range is flat and even. Higher frequency sibilants, like cymbals, sound bright and airy.

They have a decent peaks and dips performance, and these headphones generally follow their own sound profile well. A dip in the low-bass range robs some tracks and sound effects of adequate thump and rumble. A bump in the high-bass range generates a lot of boominess and muddies mixes. The low- to mid-treble range is quite inconsistent and makes the upper harmonics of vocals and lead instruments sound alternatively harsh and veiled. A peak in the mid-treble range can make some sibilants sound a little piercing.

Their imaging performance is mediocre. Other headsets within Turtle Beach's Recon line have had solid imaging performance, which is indicative of the manufacturer's quality control and ergonomics. However, imaging tends to vary between units. Our unit's weighted group delay doesn't surpass the audibility threshold, which results in tight bass and transparent treble. While the L/R drivers are well-matched regarding amplitude and frequency response, there's some significant phase response mismatch. This impacts the localization and placement of objects like voices and footsteps in the stereo image.

The passive soundstage is mediocre but still better than many other closed-back gaming headsets. While it's fairly spacious and natural, the sound is still likely to be perceived as originating from inside the head rather than like speakers set up around you.

The weighted harmonic distortion performance is good. At moderate volumes, there's some distortion in the low-bass range, but this is difficult to hear with real-life content as it affects a narrow frequency band. The rest of the frequency spectrum falls within acceptable limits at both moderate and high volumes, resulting in mostly clean and pure audio reproduction.

These are the settings used to test these headphones. Our results are only valid when they're used in this configuration.

The noise isolation performance is bad. They offer virtually no isolation against lower-frequency sounds, like the rumble of bus engines outside your window. They're not much better at blocking out ambient noise in the mid-range, so you'll hear a lot of background chatter from people nearby. They do better at blocking out higher-pitched sounds, like the hum of an A/C unit.

The leakage performance is mediocre. Most of their audio leakage occurs in the mid-range, so escaping sound is relatively full-bodied. If you're gaming at full volume in a quiet environment, like a shared living room, your roommates will likely be able to hear what you're listening to.

The integrated boom microphone has good recording quality. Recorded speech sounds full-bodied, clear, and natural but also a bit bright.

The boom microphone's noise-handling performance is mediocre. While your voice is clearly understandable in moderately noisy environments, it struggles to fully separate speech from ambient noise in louder settings, so you'll want to stick to using them at home.

The Turtle Beach Recon 70 have a 1/8" TRRS cable that offers full audio and microphone compatibility.

These headphones can be used with PCs with full audio and mic compatibility via their wired 1/8" TRRS connection.

These headphones have full audio and mic compatibility with PlayStation family consoles when using the 1/8" TRRS cable with the mic attached.

These headphones offer full audio and microphone support when you plug their 1/8" TRRS cable into an Xbox family controller.