Turtle Beach Stealth 300 Headphones Review

The Turtle Beach Stealth 300 look almost identical to the Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Wireless. They're a wired variant of the same headset, and also have large ear cups and a wide headband with a decent amount of padding. They have a slightly different yoke design that shows the metal at the center of the frame. Unfortunately, like the wireless model, the breathable fabric used for the pads looks and feels a bit cheap. They also have a typical gaming design, with color accents that match the console variant purchased. Unfortunately, they're not the most stylish-looking or outdoor-friendly, unlike some of the HyperX gaming headsets we've tested.

The Turtle Beach Stealth 300 are the same comfort-wise as the Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Wireless. They're also a bit tight on the head, but the spacious ear cups fit comfortably around most ears. The headband and ear cups are decently well-padded, although the fabric covering the ear cup pads doesn't feel as nice on the skin as the faux-leather of some of the other headphones we've tested. On the upside, they have a slight dip in the ear cup padding to better fit listeners who wear glasses.

Update 06/26/2019: After testing the Turtle Beach Recon 70, we revisited the Feedback score, which we felt was previously scored too harshly. The score has been adjusted.

The Turtle Beach Stealth 300 have the same button layout as the Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Wireless despite having slightly less functionality. They provide a volume and microphone dial, as well as a fold-up-to-mute feature to completely disable the mic. They also have two buttons on the left ear cup to switch between four audio presets and to turn on/off the headphones. It's an easy-to-use and decently responsive control scheme.

The Turtle Beach Stealth 300 are somewhat breathable, thanks to the porous fabric used for the ear cup pads. However, since they create a decent seal around your ears, they do obstruct a fair bit of airflow which will make your ears quite warm after a couple of hours of gaming. They're not as bad as some of the other over-ears, but the temperature difference is noticeable.

Like most gaming headphones, the Turtle Beach Stealth 300 aren't very portable. They're big and bulky with large ear cups that only lay flat and don't fold into a more compact format. They're a hassle to carry on you if you don't have a bag or a backpack and don't come with a case or pouch, which is slightly disappointing. On the upside, since they're wired, you can use them outdoors with your phone if you want to, unlike the Turtle Beach Stealth 600 which have the same design but are limited by their USB transmitter.

The Turtle Beach Stealth 300 don't come with a case or pouch.

The Turtle Beach Stealth 300, like the similarly designed Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Wireless, have a plasticky build quality that doesn't feel as durable as some of the other gaming headsets we've tested. The ear cups are decently dense and shouldn't get damaged by a couple of accidental drops. The headband is also flexible enough to handle the physical stress of most casual use. Unfortunately, the frame and hinges feel fragile and cheap. They have slightly different yokes that expose a metal center; however, they don't feel that much more durable than the 600.

These headphones aren't made for sports. They're a bit tight on the head, so they don't move too much during more casual activities like gaming. However, since they're not made for physical activities, they're cumbersome and sway quite a bit when running. They can quickly fall off your head if you use them for working out. They also have a non-detachable cable that can yank the headphones off your head if it gets hooked by something.

• Turtle Beach Stealth 300 headphones
• USB charging cable
• Manuals

The Turtle Beach Stealth 300's frequency response consistency is very good. The bass delivery across our human subjects was quite consistent, with the maximum deviation being less than 3dB at 20Hz. Their treble delivery across multiple re-seats was even more consistent than their bass range, which is probably due to their relatively small ear cups.

The Turtle Beach Stealth 300 have good bass accuracy. Their LFE (low-frequency extension) is at 10Hz, which is excellent. This indicates a deep bass that is capable of producing thumps and rumbles common to EDM, hip-hop, and film scores. Additionally, the range's response is quite flat but consistently overemphasized by about 4dB, which makes the sound boomy but fans of heavy bass may like it. Overall, the bass is deep and well-balanced, but noticeably heavy.

The Turtle Beach Stealth 300's mid accuracy is very good. Low-mid, mid-mid, and high-mid are a bit uneven but overall decently balanced. This ensures clear reproduction of vocals and lead instruments. The mismatch between the L/R drivers in the graph isn't considered an issue in the frequency response, but they'll get penalized for it in the Imaging section.

The Turtle Beach Stealth 300's treble accuracy is good. The response is rather uneven and generally underemphasized. Low-treble is underemphasized by about 3dB, and mid-treble by about 1dB. Overall, their treble is quite well-balanced, but a tad veiled and lacking in detail and brightness.

The imaging is great. Their weighted group delay never crosses the audibility threshold, resulting in a tight bass and transparent treble reproduction. Also, the L/R drivers of our test unit were pretty well-matched in amplitude and phase response but showed some mismatch in the frequency response of their bass and mid ranges. This could create inconsistencies in the stereo image but won't have a significant negative effect on the placement and localization of objects (voice, instruments, footsteps), in the stereo image. However, these results are only valid for our test unit, so your experience may vary.

The Turtle Beach Stealth 300 have a mediocre soundstage. The PRTF response has decent accuracy and size. This suggests a relatively natural soundstage. It suggests an inside-the-head soundstage as opposed to a speaker-like soundstage which is perceived to be in front of the listener. On the upside, their perforated pads and low isolation makes them sound a bit more open than heavily isolating headphones.

The Turtle Beach Stealth 300 have terrible noise isolation. Although these are closed-back headphones, their perforated breathable pads make them quite open and weak at isolating. They don't isolate at all in the bass and mid-ranges, letting in the rumble of engines and the voice of people around you. However, you can mask some of this noise by turning up the volume of your headphones. In the treble range, occupied by sharp sounds like S and Ts, they achieve a decent 20dB of isolation.

The Turtle Beach Stealth 300 have a sub-par leakage performance. A significant portion of their leakage is spread between 500Hz and 5kHz, which is a relatively broad range. Although their leakage isn't as full-sounding as that of open-back headphones, it's more noticeable than that of in-ears and earbuds. On the upside, the overall level of their leakage is not very loud. With the music at 100dB SPL their leakage averages at 46dB SPL and peaks at 60dB SPL which is higher than the noise floor of an average office.

The Turtle Beach Stealth 300's microphone is decent. In quiet environments, speech recorded or transmitted will sound rather full, detailed, and easily understandable. It lacks a bit of airiness and could also be a bit sibilant (sharp and piercing on S and T sounds). In noisy situations, they perform decently well and can separate speech from ambient noise in moderately loud environments, such as a busy street. But they may not be ideal for very loud places, like a subway station.

The Turtle Beach Stealth 300's microphone has a decent recording quality. Their LFE (low-frequency extension) is at 160Hz, indicating that your voice sounds relatively full-bodied. The HFE of 6.5kHz is above-average, so although speech will lack some airiness, it will have enough detail and presence to be easily understood. The 15dB peak around 5kHz however, makes voices a bit too sharp and piercing, especially on S and T sounds (sibilant).

The noise handling capabilities of the Turtle Beach Stealth 300's boom mic are about-average. In our SpNR test, they achieved a speech-to-noise ratio of 19dB. This means they're suitable for quiet and moderately loud environments, but may not be able to fully separate speech from ambient noise in very loud places like a subway station.

The Turtle Beach Stealth 300 have a good battery life that provides about 26hrs of continuous playback on a single charge. They also charge relatively fast for a gaming headset. Unfortunately, like the Turtle Beach Recon 200, they don't have passive playback despite being wired so you won't be able to use them once the battery dies which is disappointing. On the upside, they have an auto-off timer that will switch off the headphone when inactive which saves a lot of power.

The Turtle Beach Stealth 300 don't support the Turtle Beach Audio Hub.

These wired headphones don't have a Bluetooth connection. If you want a gaming headset that supports Bluetooth, check out the Turtle Beach Stealth 700.

The Turtle Beach Stealth 300 have a wired connection that provides volume control and microphone compatibility support for both the Xbox and PS4 controllers. However, you will need a 4-pin audio jack or a headset adapter for the microphone to work with your PC. You could use an adapter, but it's not provided in the box which is not ideal.

This gaming headset doesn't have a dock. If you need a headset with a dock that also has a wired connection for gaming or watching movies, consider the SteelSeries Arctis 7 Wireless 2017.