Turtle Beach’s Stealth 500 Headset Review

I’m a huge fan of RIG’s ultra-lightweight headphones. I’ve been using them for a few years now and am constantly amazed by the weightlessness they provide. Even after being taken over by NACON a few years ago, RIG’s feathery character remains its unique selling point.

However, Turtle Beach is now encroaching on that market segment, introducing their own ultra-lightweight headset to the masses. It comes in the form of the Turtle Beach Stealth 500 Headset for Xbox.

Turtle Beach Stealth 500, a lightweight headset.

A lightweight Turtle Beach headset.

If you play games, you will be familiar with Turtle Beach, whether you are a seasoned gamer or a newcomer. They have a large number of headsets on the market, each of which serves a certain niche. There are inexpensive, mid-range, and fully customized hyper-expensive versions. It indicates that Turtle Beach has your back, no matter what you want. However, I do not believe they have ever built a headset that is so lightweight in their whole history. The box is so light that picking it up may leave you wondering if it contains anything.

The Turtle Beach Stealth 500 headset is very pleasing. Turtle Beach is easily identified by its all-black appearance. And it’s not only the eye-catching silver lettering on the outside of each earcup. Despite its small weight, it feels like a high-quality product in your hand, and you’ll have no trouble wearing it for hours on end. Again, the 232 gram weight practically forces you to do so.

The Stealth 500 has a suspension-styled material headband on the underside of the plastic skeletal frame, and adjustment is straightforward, following the same path as the great majority of other headsets without slidable bands. Instead, a pull and push notch arrangement allows you to adjust the 500’s size ratios, ensuring that it will fit a variety of head types. And the finest part about that system? Once you’ve got it set up the way you like it, there’s no need to modify the fitment, so you can be confident that every time you put this on your head, it’ll be perfect.

Suspended Headband

Memory foam earcups

Each of the earcups then feeds well off the bottom of the headband, providing an aesthetically pleasant fit while still allowing for some flexibility. These oval cups also fit completely over your ears, encasing everything so that every piece of audio pushed through the 40mm drivers ends up where it should: in your ear canal. Pleather cushioning with tons of squidge and memory foam sponginess gives excellent comfort. And, thankfully, that cushioning is pretty deep, and we have never felt our ears pressed on the drivers within. The Stealth 500 gaming headset excels in terms of comfort, a feature often overlooked by other headsets.

From there, the controls are all on the left cup, along with a fantastic flip-to-mute microphone. There is no room for flexibility with this mic, and while it may appear to be a little short at first, we’ve had no complaints about it in use; teammates and coworkers are pleased with how it produces tones. You wouldn’t expect anything else from Turtle Beach, though.

A couple of well-placed volume knobs allow for quick adjustment of both the master volume and some game/chat balancing, with credit going to Turtle Beach for dividing those into two independent dials. Perhaps some notches on those would have been useful for quick dialing in, but it’s not a major deal. Around those controls, on the same cup, are a slew of other buttons, including power (obviously), which also activates Turtle Beach’ Superhuman Mode, an EQ button, Bluetooth button, and Quick Switcher, which allows you to switch from Bluetooth to wireless and back again.

Packed with buttons and dials.

Bluetooth or wireless?

Out of the box, the Turtle Beach Stealth 500 Headset can handle audio from a variety of sources, including inbuilt Bluetooth (ideal for mobile phones) and the supplied USB-A dongle (Xbox, PlayStation, or Switch). That dongle is also tiny, far smaller than many we’ve used over the years, and by inserting it into your preferred console, you’ll be able to enjoy the Stealth 500’s 2.4GHz wireless capabilities. It’s also the way to go, with a low-latency commitment that ensures nothing but immediate audio with Xbox Series X|S.

That is also critical, as any type of audio lag when gaming can be lethal – literally, depending on the games you play. We rarely find ourselves in the cutthroat world of an online multiple shooter or similarly fast-paced games, but we’ve found the Stealth 500 to be more than capable of handling a variety of racers (most notably The Crew Motorfest), some multiplayer golf through Golf With Your Friends, and slower-paced puzzlers. Again, because to its lightweight nature, we’ve found ourselves wearing it for nights on end, satisfied with everything offered.

We should also remark the audio quality, which, as expected from Turtle Beach, is superb. The Stealth 500 produces rich, deep music that perfectly complements our favorite settings. It also gets rather loud, ensuring complete immersion, yet there is very little leaking out the other end; those cups form a nice seal, allowing you to switch out from the outside world.

It’s also capable of getting through those nights as if there’s no tomorrow. We don’t usually track battery life, instead depending on gut instinct. And this headset certainly delivers. Turtle Beach promises 40 hours of battery life before requiring a charge via USB-C (a very short cable is included in the box, but you can mostly use any USB-C cable you have lying around), and we believe they are quite close. We have not found ourselves constantly reaching for this headset.

A good option to have

What is not to like?

So, what’s not to like about Turtle Beach’s Stealth 500 Headset for Xbox?

Well, we’d much rather not have to utilize a dongle for wireless access, and we’d love to see Turtle Beach implement complete Xbox integration to free up a valuable USB-A port on console. And, to be honest, the first setup has been a little shaky, necessitating a full console reset and some messing around to get the dongle to couple with the headset. Those frustrations are long gone, but we’ll admit they were an early concern. To be honest, connecting to Turtle Beach’s Swarm Android App has been a headache.

Since then, the connection has been reliable; nonetheless, we would have preferred that some of the buttons and controls be spread between both cups. There’s nothing wrong with the way they’re put up on Stealth 500, although it might feel cluttered at times.

The structure has a slightly plasticky feel, which is a trade-off for the lightweight design. However, considering the weight, affordability, and Turtle Beach’s reputation for high-quality audio, this headset represents exceptional value. While we aren’t going to replace our favorite SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7X Wireless headset or Turtle Beach’s own Stealth 600 Gen 2 MAX with the Stealth 500 as our primary headset, it is an excellent choice for casual gaming sessions.

Where can I acquire the Turtle Beach Stealth 500 Headset for Xbox?

Many thanks to Turtle Beach for supplying the Stealth 500 Headset for evaluation. Contact Turtle Beach directly to obtain a unit for yourself. You should be prepared to pay $80 or less.