Turtle Beach Recon 70 Headphones Review

The Turtle Beach Recon 70 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. They have color accents to match their console variants, although all variants are wired and should work on all platforms. This means you can choose whichever color you prefer regardless of which platform you game on.

The Turtle Beach Recon 70 are decently comfortable headphones. They have a cheap pleather 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, some people may find them to be a bit tight on the head, and they aren't quite as comfortable as alternatives like the Razer Kraken X.

The Turtle Beach Recon 70 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. They also have a flippable boom microphone, but no playback controls.

These headphones aren’t very breathable, but this shouldn’t be an issue during casual gaming sessions. However, they aren’t a good option for sports as they trap quite a bit of heat inside their ear cups, which will make you sweat more than usual.

Like most over-ear gaming headphones, the Turtle Beach Recon 70 aren’t very portable. They don’t fold into a more compact format, but their cups do swivel to lay flat. This makes them noticeably wider, but also easier to slide them inside a bag.

These headphones don’t come with a case.

These headphones have mediocre build quality. They're entirely made of plastic with pleather-lined ear cup 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 aren't especially stable. They're a bit tight on the head, so they don't move too much during more casual activities like gaming, listening to music, or walking around. However, they're cumbersome and sway quite a bit when running. They're likely to fall off your head if you use them for working out. 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 mostly balanced sound profile. The dip in the low-bass range may be disappointing if you prefer some extra thump and rumble in your favorite action-heavy games. However, their fairly flat and even mid and treble ranges should yield clear and detailed dialogue and in-game instrumental music.

The Turtle Beach Recon 70 have poor frequency response consistency. They struggle to deliver audio consistently, as their audio reproduction is highly sensitive to fit, seal, and positioning. This could be a nuisance, especially if you have long hair or wear glasses.

The Turtle Beach Recon 70's bass accuracy is okay. Their underemphasized low-bass range results in an overall loss of thump and rumble, which should be most apparent in action-heavy games as well as musical genres like EDM and hip-hop. That said, mixes should have adequate body and warmth, though the slight overemphasis in the high-bass range does yield a boomy quality in some mixes. Due to their poor frequency response consistency, your real-world experience can vary.

These headphones have very good mid-range accuracy. Dialogue, as well as vocals and lead instrumentals, should be clear, present, and detailed in the mix.

The Turtle Beach Recon 70's treble accuracy is good. Aside from a dip in the mid-treble range that results in some sibilants sounding dull and lispy, the rest of the range is flat and even. Higher notes should be clear and well-articulated. However, not everyone hears treble frequencies the same way, so your listening experience may vary, especially since these headphones have frequency response consistency issues between reseats.

The Turtle Beach Recon 70 have decent peaks and dips performance. A dip in the low-bass range robs some tracks and sound effects of adequate thump and rumble. There's a bump in the high-bass range that generates a lot of boominess and muddies some vocals and lead instruments. An alternating spike and dip in the low treble range makes vocals and lead instruments sound alternatively harsh and veiled. A peak in the mid-treble range can make some sibilants sound a little piercing.

The Turtle Beach Recon 70's stereo imaging performance is mediocre. Their weighted group delay doesn’t surpass the audibility threshold, which should result in tight bass and transparent treble. While the L/R drivers are well-matched in regards to amplitude and frequency response, a severe phase mismatch is present. This has an impact on the localization and placement of objects like voices and footsteps in the stereo image. However, these results are only valid for our unit and yours may perform differently.

The passive soundstage is mediocre. While it's fairly spacious and natural, sound is still likely to be perceived as originating from inside the head rather than a speaker setup in front of you.

These headphones don't have any virtual soundstage features.

The weighted harmonic distortion performance is good. At moderate volumes, there's some distortion in the low-bass range, but this may not be noticeable to all listeners. 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 the Turtle Beach Recon 70. Our results are only valid when they're used in this configuration.

The Turtle Beach Recon 70's noise isolation performance is bad. In the bass range, where the rumble of airplane and bus engines sit, they provide virtually no isolation. They don't do that much better with dealing with ambient noise in the mid-range, so you may hear a lot of background chatter from people nearby. They perform slightly better in regards to higher-pitched sounds, like the hum of an AC unit.

The leakage performance is mediocre. The majority of their audio leakage occurs in the mid-range, so escaping sound is relatively full-bodied. If you blast your music at high volumes in a relatively quiet environment, people nearby are likely to hear what you're listening to.

These headphones have a boom microphone.

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

The boom microphone's noise handling performance is okay. It may struggle to fully separate speech from ambient noise in louder settings like a very crowded room.

These headphones don’t have a battery.

The Turtle Beach Recon 70 don’t have a companion app for customization options.

These headphones aren’t Bluetooth compatible. For a Turtle Beach gaming headset with Bluetooth, take a look at the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Wireless or the Turtle Beach Elite Pro 2 SuperAmp.

The Turtle Beach Recon 70 are wired-only headphones that don't support any wireless connections.

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

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

These headphones don’t have a base or a dock.