Turtle Beach Ear Force Stealth 500P Wireless Gaming Headphones Review

Gaming headsets differ from the normal headset with the former giving special emphasis on a complete gaming experience compared to simply focusing on the sound. A plethora of gaming headsets are now available, and this particular one from Turtle Beach is made specifically for Sony’s PlayStation 3 and 4. Let’s check it out.

Manufacturer’s Specification:

Headset

• Speakers: 50mm diameter speakers with neodymium magnets
• Digital Signal Processor: Digital Signal Processor for independently controlled chat, game and mic signals
• Audio mute: Audio mutes automatically when carrier signal is lost
• Battery: Lithium Polymer rechargeable battery pack
• Shut down: Automatic shut down after approx. 10 minutes of carrier loss or silence to conserve battery power
• Weight: 8.6 oz
• Speaker Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20 kHz
• Battery life: >15 Hours
• Digital Wireless RF wireless carrier reception.: 2.4 GHz
• Speaker Impedance: 32Ω
• Headband/Earpad Material: Perforated Synthetic Leather (Black) with Foam Cushioning
• Microphone Design: Removable Omni-Directional Microphone
• Earcup Design: Around-Ear (Closed)

Transmitter

• Audio input: Optical TOSLINK digital audio input compatible with 48kHz digital audio stream
• Power: USB
• Game Input: Digital Optical (Mini-Toslink to Toslink)
• Chat/Mic Input/Output: USB
• Surround Sound Processing: DTS Headphone:X 7.1
• Wireless Connection: RF with Intelligent Channel Hopping
• Wireless Range: Up to 30ft
• Console Compatibility: PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4

Design:

The Turtle Beach Ear Force Stealth 500P’s design comes in a strong plastic build which looks more durable than it looks. It contains a lightweight, padded headband along with a faux leather covering the ear cups for the most comfortable fit and even has a blue strip for a simple yet striking design.

Most of the controls on the Turtle Beach Ear Force Stealth 500P are situated on the right ear cup and also contains the controls for chat and sound volume along with a micro USB port that is used for charging the headset. There is also a 3.5 mm audio port so you can still use it to plug the headset to compatible audio sources. The power button is cleverly hidden on the right part of the headset where the logo is located. Just press it to turn the device on.

Since the Turtle Beach Ear Force Stealth 500P is made for gaming, the headset also supports voice chats which you can do using the microphone. The great thing about this headset is that the microphone is removable (which you can plug on the left side of the device), so you can stow it away without it getting in your way when you don’t use it.

The device is primarily wireless, and it uses a USB dongle that you can connect to your PlayStation 3 or PlayStation 4 console for it to work. Additionally, it uses the digital out port on your console to be able to render full surround support.

Setup:

Setup can be quite tricky but once you get it up and running, the Turtle Beach Ear Force Stealth 500P shouldn’t be a hassle to operate.

First thing you would need to do is connect the included Toslink cable to your console and then plug it to the included USB transmitter. Once that is done you would need to plug in the transmitter to one of the free USB ports on your console located at the front.

Additionally, you would also need to configure your console to specifically output sound to the digital out port to ensure that you are hearing a true surround sound from your games. You would need to make sure that all sound should be routed to the headset, all of which you can find under the sound settings part of your console.

Once all of that is setup you can simply turn on the headset and it will automatically pair with the USB transmitter.

Performance:

When using the Turtle Beach Ear Force Stealth 500P, you have the option to use four audio presets: Stereo, Game, Movie and Music. Each of these presets have their own sub-sound options as well: natural sound, bass boost, bass and treble boost and vocal boost. These options were provided so you can freely choose what mode you want to listen to when using the headset.

The differences between the modes are subtle. Though Game Mode is probably the best option out of the entire presets. This is because the bass is more emphasized – and when you are playing an action game, it certainly works well.

I hooked up the Turtle Beach Ear Force Stealth 500P to my PlayStation 4 while playing Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and Until Dawn and the surround effects worked well enough to give you full atmospheric sound. You can actually hear if someone is coming from behind. It’s awesome for action games and creepy as hell for horror games. I also used it for playing music though the bass can be overwhelming at times – similar to Beats headsets. It can be a pro or a con, but for me, bass shouldn’t always be deep, loud thumps.

The Turtle Beach Ear Force Stealth 500P includes voice prompts whenever you change a setting, and this includes changing the presets or even plugging in the headset for charging. The attached microphone also provides a clear and decent sound input.

The headset is comfortable enough to be worn for long periods. I’ve also used the headset on a regular 1-2 hour gaming sessions over for over a week before it gave me the low battery warning.

Box Contents

• Ear Force Stealth 500P Headset
• Ear Force Stealth 500P Wireless Transmitter
• Removable Microphone
• Mobile Cable
• Digital Optical Cable (.6m/2ft.)
• USB Charging Cable (.6m/2ft.)
• Quick Start Guide
• Turtle Beach Sticker

Pros & Cons:

Pros

• Great, comfortable fit
• Effective surround sound

Cons

• Occasional volume drops
• Bass can be overwhelming at times

Conclusion

The 449 AED price for the Turtle Beach Ear Force Stealth 500P is good enough for its features and performance. It’s not the perfect headset, but its battery life, detachable microphone and wireless capabilities make it one of our top recommended gaming headsets.