Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 3 review: My new go-to gaming headset

Best Prices Today: Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 3

$99.99

I’ve spent many hours gaming with Turtle Beach headsets and enjoy the gamer functionality. I’m talking about things like a dedicated chat mixer wheel and the ability to customize EQ and switch profiles. So, naturally, I was looking for the same luxuries in the Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 3 gaming headset.

And, yes, folks, that functionality is there. What’s even better than that is that the Stealth 600 Gen 3 boasts a balanced and clear audio profile that surpasses its predecessor by a mile. Throw in a whopping 80-hour battery life on top of that and it’s not hard to see why I’ve now adopted the Stealth 600 Gen 3 as my go-to headset for most of my gaming.

Further reading: See our roundup of the best wireless gaming headsets to learn about competing products.

Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 3: Design and build

Turtle Beach has outdone itself in the design stakes for the Stealth 600 Gen 3, producing a stylish headset that weighs just 10.6 ounces (301 grams). Admittedly, that’s a tad heavier than the Stealth 600 Gen 2, but considering the extra functionality onboard, it’s worth it.

I’m a big fan of the headset’s stylish look, which does everything to dress me up, even when I’m gaming in my flannelette pajamas. Options include my review unit’s styling — a striking two-tone color scheme with white cups, black cushioning, and a black inner headband lining — or alternatively, an elegant all-black model.

The shape of the headset hasn’t changed dramatically, since Gen 2. The cups still resemble compact Ds that rise to a point at the headset’s front. While they’re comprised of lightweight plastic, the headset’s band is a strong metal that won’t break easily.

I was pleased with the full 180-degree swivel that allowed me to rest the set flat on my neck. The headband’s clamp pressure sits on the firmer side of absolute comfort for me, but on the plus side the Stealth 600 Gen 3 has some of the best passive noise isolation of any headset I’ve used.

I found the cushioning in the cups to be deep and comfortable. That cushioning is covered by an exquisitely soft, breathable weave that won me over immediately — I much prefer its smoothness to the harsh mesh fabric I often get in gaming headsets.

Conveniently, the cushioning is also glasses-friendly — so, feel free to wear your hair out or your accessories on. The lower portion of the headband is a soft pleather material that nicely cushioned the top of my head.

The Stealth 600 Gen 3 also has a fold-to-mute microphone that sits snugly in an unobtrusive groove in the left earcup.

Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 3: Connectivity and battery life

The circular green X logo on my Xbox version was a giveaway to the headset’s compatibility with Xbox consoles. Although, my review model also connected to my Windows 11 PC, Nintendo Switch console, my cellphone, and my PlayStation 5 console, too.

That’s not bad for a headset that costs just $100. Some rival headsets with similar connectivity cost a lot more — like the $160 Asus ROG Delta S Wireless.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

Dominic Bayley / IDG

Dominic Bayley / IDG

The PlayStation 5 connectivity was a big plus for me. I usually have to circumnavigate that lack of connectivity by keeping a separate headset handy. But with the Stealth 600 Gen 3 I could be pillaging villages in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla on Xbox X/S one minute and then slashing my katana in Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut on PC the next.

One peculiarity with the headset’s Roccat Swarm II software app, however, is that you don’t get the same functionality with each version — so my recommendation is to buy the headset version for the platform you mostly game on — Xbox if it’s Xbox, PlayStation if you mainly play PlayStation, and PC if you’re a PC gamer.

The Stealth 600 headset is made to be used wirelessly, for which you get both a low-latency 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.2, and a USB-A receiver.

After plugging in the receiver the headset is easily recognized and switches itself to Wi-Fi mode. I can easily switch between Bluetooth and Wi-Fi with a simple press of the QuickSwitch button on the left earcup.

In the box you also get a USB-C to USB-A cord for charging the battery. The Stealth 600 is rated for a long battery life of up to 80 hours. I tried to run the battery down but after 8 hours of solid gaming and three movies it was still begging for someone to try to drain its battery.

Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 3: Controls

All the Stealth 600 Gen 3’s controls are located on the left earcup, so it can look a little busy there. Once I worked them all out, I was impressed with all the things you can do on-ear.

Some controls handle multiple functions. For example, the power button doubles as an on/off switch for the headset’s SuperHuman Hearing, and the Bluetooth pairing button allows you to answer and end phone calls, in addition to pairing.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

Dominic Bayley / IDG

Dominic Bayley / IDG

The headset also features not one, but two wheels. The top wheel controls the volume. The bottom wheel gives you control of your game / chat mixing in the Xbox version or mic monitoring in the PC and PlayStation versions. The wheel can also be remapped with additional functionality in the headset’s Swarm II companion app.

Adjacent to the headset’s USB charging port is another very cool button dubbed “the Mode button.” It can be set up to be your selector for EQ presets or multimedia controls; as a toggle to turn AI mic noise reduction on or off, or for noise gating or chat boosting.

Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 3: Audio performance

The Stealth 600 Gen 3 may be lightweight, but these cans boast 50mm Nanoclear drivers with a frequency response of between 20Hz and 20KHz.

That, for me, simply translated into bright and clear audio that was super strong through the mids but had enough range in the highs and lows to really brighten up the audio in the majority of games in my Steam library — from first-person shooters like CounterStrike 2 to RPGs like Baldur’s Gate 3, it kept dishing up a pleasant balanced sound that was a joy to hear.

I saved my first few hours of Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut on PC to trial these bad boys and I couldn’t have chosen a better headset for it.

GoT is an excellent port for PC — it’s been hailed not just as game but a movie-game because of its engrossing cinematic cut-scenes and immersive action, which the Stealth 600 Gen 3’s spatial audio-tuned drivers were geared for.

In Helldivers 2, the clear, punchy sound signature was well suited to the soundtrack, too — the captivating mids gave me a big motivational uplift before each match, creating that ready-to-go feeling just before deployment.

SuperHuman Hearing is a feature I’ve really come to like in Turtle Beach headsets. It boosts a number of game sounds that can help give you a competitive advantage if you switch it on — especially in FPS games. In the Stealth 600 Gen 3 it did a great job making enemy player footfalls and enemies moving around corners a lot easier to hear, so I was happy to have it on most of the time.

Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 3: Software

The Roccat Swarm II app is the Stealth 600 Gen 3’s companion app where you can tweak and personalize the headset’s settings.
I was happy with the kind of functionality I had control over, which included things like the sensitivity of the microphone, audio presets, and how dominant the SuperHuman Hearing was.

I also liked having two 10-band equalizers to tweak — one for my game audio and another for my microphone’s sound, which allowed me to fine-tune audio profiles for my different games. The ability to fine-tune my microphone, along with the mic’s AI noise cancellation, allowed me to get a really clear sound in my voice chats.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

Dominic Bayley / IDG

Dominic Bayley / IDG

The Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 3’s settings can also be tweaked via the Swarm II mobile app, which became my go-to controller on my Android phone when I didn’t feel like opening up the app on PC.

Should you buy the Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 3?

For me, headsets like the Stealth 600 Gen 3 prove that gaming headsets have finally busted out of a rut where their audio is only just passable and the functionality you can control is little more than just the volume.

Indeed, with its clear sound, plug-and-play connectivity, and all the options to control and personalize settings, it was actually really hard to have a bad game experience with this headset. It gave me exactly what I want in a gaming headset. For that reason, its asking price of $100 seems a fair trade, and a price you won’t regret spending.