THE REVS REVIEW - Turtle Beach Stealth 500X (Xbox One) I got the Turtle Beach Stealth 500x because I hate being tethered to the controller and needed something for when its late at night and I cant crank the 9.1 system up. Also, people tend to hear my speakers through my headset no matter how low I turn the volume, so it made sense. Very nice packaging and pretty straight forward setup. You do have to hook both the headset and wireless receiver up to a Windows PC first to update the firmware on both, so be aware of that. Once thats done, you hook the receiver up to your Xbox One via USB and an included optical cable for the audio, then set your Xbox One to output Dolby Digital to the optical out. The voice chat works wirelessly through the USB receivers connection with this, not directly to the Xbox. The headset itself is pretty light. Surprisingly, its not much heavier than my roommates wired Turtle Beach XO Four. After 3+ hours of use, I still felt pretty comfortable with them. They came fully charged out of the box and are supposed to last for about 15 hours, but Ill see if that claim is accurate over the next few days. The battery isnt user replaceable, which could bother some people... but they use mini-USB to charge, so I cant imagine too many people will find it horribly inconvenient. I did find that with my external hard drive, the receiver for the headset and the charge cable for my controller, I had exhausted all the USB ports on the Xbox One. However, my 360 sits nearby so I hooked the charge cable for the headset up to that instead. One nice feature I have to mention: You can plug a wire in to them to use with your phone... which seemed like something I wouldnt use until I realized that I could play music from my phone AND still get full audio from my games. That means I can finally race to my own music in Forza 5! Its a small thing, but nice to have until Microsoft sorts out background music playback. As far as range goes, I managed to get about 40 feet away before the audio started dropping out, so I dont foresee anyone having any issues with them losing sync in most rooms. I can walk to my kitchen to grab a drink with no problem. Audio quality: Theres surprisingly very little hiss even when the headset is cranked up loud, which is a surprise for a wireless solution. Voice sounds nice and clear, and others say I sound clear and loud in chat. There does seem to be some noise rejection here, because normally people can hear my ceiling fan in chat but they cant with the Turtle Beaches on. As far as audiophiles go, these arent going to replace a purpose-built headset for music, but stereo music does sound pretty solid with them - more so than I expected. Surround quality: These take the 5.1 DD surround and convert them for 2-speaker output using DTS Neo:X. Im always concerned by HRTF type surround solutions with headsets, because they tend to either really work well or not at all. In the case of the Stealth 500X, Im actually surprised at how well DTS Neo:X translates the surround audio for headset playback. It does only a passable job at making sounds seem to come from directly in front of you, tending to be more like the normal headset sound of coming from between your ears... but for sounds that are meant to come from the sides and rear, this headset does a surprisingly good job! Ive found that I like the Shooter preset slightly more than the TB Signature preset because it seems to expand placement in sides/rear, but I havent found a BAD setting for games yet. Theres also a selection of other presets that you can load using the update software that all basically seem like EQ variations (footstep enhancement, etc.) but I have not played with any of that yet. Ive seen complaints that these arent loud enough, but I found quite the opposite. At half volume, these were plenty loud for me and explosions had a nice clean bass sound to them. My only minor problem is the volume controls themselves, which consist of two dials - one for chat and one for game audio. Once you find a good mix for these, I imagine you wont have to change them much though. All in all, Im pretty pleased. $229 may keep these from being everyones cup of tea, but for a truly wireless headset solution, I think theyre worth the money.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 16:18:46 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015