Turtle Beach has unveiled a new lineup of gaming headsets, keyboards, and mice that it plans to launch next month, and it includes the Atlas Air, a new wireless open-back PC gaming headset that is said to be the first to not only support high-fidelity 24-bit audio, but also floating earcups, complemented by an adjustable float headband, for improved fit. The Atlas Air is joined by two additional headsets in the form of the Stealth 600 and 500, while a Vulcan II TKL Pro keyboard and Burst II Air mouse have also been announced.
Availability:
- All launch May 19, 2024
- Pre-orders open now at www.turtlebeach.com and participating retailers
Product pages:
- Atlas Air Wireless Open Back PC Gaming Headset
- Stealth 600 Wireless Gaming Headset
- Stealth 500 Wireless Gaming Headset
- Vulcan II TKL Pro Magnetic Mechanical RGB Gaming Keyboard
- Burst II Air Ultra-Lightweight Wireless PC Gaming Mouse
Atlas Air features:
- Open Back Design with World’s First Floating Earcup
- 40mm Drivers with High-Fidelity 24-bit Audio Quality
- Flip-to-Mute Mic with Noise Reduction & 32kHz High-Bandwidth Performance
- Lightweight Design at 301g with Glasses Friendly Memory Foam Cushions
- Low Latency Wireless + Bluetooth or Wired Mode
- QuickSwitch Button for Seamless Wireless to Bluetooth® switching
- Up to 50 Hour Battery Life Plus Quick Charge
- Swarm II Desktop & Mobile App with Advanced 10-Band EQ
- Waves 3D Audio for PC + 10-Band EQ & Superhuman Hearing
- Customizable Headband & Ear Cushion Mod Pack Sold Separately
A closer look at one of the headset’s world’s firsts:
Turtle Beach on its new collection:
- Stealth 600 Wireless Gaming Headset
- Turtle Beach has revealed a newly redesigned version of its best-selling Stealth 600 wireless multiplatform headset series, now entering its third generation. This newest Stealth 600 offers low-latency 2.4GHz wireless and Bluetooth connectivity and now features the brand’s powerful signature 50mm Nanoclear drivers. It also has an astounding 80-hour battery life, AI-driven microphone noise reduction and much more for the same $99.99/£99.99/€109.99 MSRP that’s made it the industry’s leading wireless gaming headset. The Designed for Xbox version will be available in Black or White, as will the PlayStation version. A PC version will also be available in Black.
- Stealth 500 Wireless Gaming Headset
- Turtle Beach is also expanding its best-selling wireless multiplatform Stealth headset series with the introduction of the new Stealth 500, providing gamers with the brand’s signature high-quality gaming audio, plus low-latency 2.4GHz wireless and Bluetooth connectivity, an adjustable floating headband, and best-in-class 40-hour battery life for $79.99/£79.99/€89.99 MSRP. The Designed for Xbox Stealth 500 comes in Black, as does its PlayStation and PC counterparts.
- Atlas Air Wireless Open Back PC Gaming Headset
- For groundbreaking PC gaming audio, Turtle Beach has unveiled the Atlas Air – the first wireless open back PC gaming headset supporting high-fidelity 24-bit audio. The Atlas Air’s precision 40mm drivers pair with its revolutionary open back earcup design to produce ultra-clear natural audio quality for total immersion on PC. The Atlas Air is extremely comfortable and lightweight at just 301 grams – one of the lightest gaming headsets in its class. It comes equipped with low-latency 2.4GHz wireless plus Bluetooth to connect with Windows PCs, PS5 & PS4, Nintendo Switch and mobile devices, and is also able to connect in wired mode via its 3.5mm jack and included cable. The Atlas Air also features immersive Waves 3D audio, a high-bandwidth 16kHz microphone, plus up to 50-hours of battery life for $179.99/£159.99/€179.99 MSRP. Additionally, PC gamers will be able to further customize their Atlas Air with the mod pack featuring a separate headband strap and ear cushions available in Pink, Purple, or Blue for $24.99/£29.99/€19.99 MSRP.
- Vulcan II TKL Pro Magnetic Mechanical RGB Gaming Keyboard
- The Turtle Beach Vulcan II TKL Pro Magnetic Mechanical RGB PC Gaming Keyboard delivers pro-level performance in a compact TenKeyLess (TKL) footprint. Equipped with magnetic Hall Effect switches for reliable, silky smooth key presses rated at a 150M click lifecycle, the Vulcan II TKL Pro’s keys feature a fully adjustable actuation point from 0.1mm to 4mm. Plus, with the Rapid Trigger setting, PC gamers have faster, more precise movement control with less downtime between key presses. Per-key RGB, AIMO intelligent lighting, five on-board profiles, and analog features including controller emulation and up to three multiple inputs per key can be customized using Turtle Beach’s new Swarm II desktop software. The Vulcan II TKL Pro comes in Black or White and is available to pre-order for $149.99/£149.99/€159.99 MSRP.
- Burst II Air Ultra-Lightweight Wireless PC Gaming Mouse
- Turtle Beach’s Burst II Air Ultra-Lightweight Wireless Gaming Mouse satisfies PC gamers’ need for speed with an incredible, best-in-class 47g weight. The Burst II Air is designed for quick flick shots and the fastest players with Turtle Beach’s smooth yet precise Owl-Eye 26K DPI optical sensor with 650 IPS (16.5m/s) tracking speed. Blazing fast TITAN Optical Switches with adjustable debounce provides a long-lasting 100 million click life cycle, while click tensioning and lightspeed actuation deliver unprecedented speed and precision. Dual wireless connectivity offers low-latency 2.4GHz wireless for gaming (up to 40-hours of continuous use) and Bluetooth (up to 120-hours) all in a right-handed symmetrical, solid top shell design. Included grip tape and extra PTFE skates allow players to further customize their feel. The Burst II Air comes in Black or White and is available to pre-order for $99.99 /£99.99/€109.99 MSRP.
Turtle Beach added:
Additional new and newly relaunched Turtle Beach PC gaming peripherals include the Turtle Beach Pure Air and Pure SEL ultra-lightweight wireless and wired mice; the Turtle Beach Kone XP Air premium wireless mouse; the Turtle Beach Vulcan II and Vulcan II MAX full-size keyboards; the Turtle Beach Vulcan TKL and Vulcan II Mini Air smaller format keyboards; and the Turtle Beach Sense AIMO XXL mousepad. All are available for pre-order now and launch May 19, 2024.
Discussion (16 replies)
Join Discussion →Looking at the image... that's a lot of plastic.. nope. Snappy mc snaperson.
Consumer grade, probably. Plenty of plastic headphones that can handle years (decades) of abuse, but not produced by 'gaming' companies.
Especially not whatever company is turning Turtle Beach into a junk production facility.
Turtle Beach. Proud maker of e-waste.
I remember their sound cards back in the day were pretty high end, but now they have degraded themselves to things like this unfortunately.
Just wait for reviews.
It sucks you can't get excellent headphones without spending $300+
You can get decent for less.. but for something you will wear for hours at a time, cutting corners is not recommended.
Sad part is, the 'reigning king' of gaming headsets is the Audeze Maxwell, with Audeze just recently being bought by Sony.
Build quality isn't necessarily great with these either; probably have to go with something from Beyerdynamic for that. They make stuff that will survive the war after the next world war.
Sennheiser HD6xx, 58x, and 560 all fit in that range if you're okay with open back. For closed, Beyerdynamic's DT700 Pro X is a bit more but delivers.
All really depends on what you're looking for though.
I have used this Logitech headset for when I do play some games with friends. Best set I have used to date.
https://www.logitechg.com/en-us/products/gaming-audio/pro-x-2-wireless-headset.981-001262.html
First, whats the different been open and closed back? They all look the same to me LOL
Secondly, I have the Astro A50 wireless headset and haven't had many complaints on them in the few years I've owned them. I normally wear them for hours a day while I'm at my computer gaming.
My only main complaint with them is the micro-USB port on the base station. It sometimes doesn't get a good connection and I have to wiggle the damn thing to get it to power up. It hasn't been much of an issue lately since I replaced the stock cable with a different one. So maybe it was a cable issue the whole time?
Either way, I really wanna know the difference between closed and open backs. lol
Literally as it sounds - open back headphones are 'open' as in you can hear through them, so someone next to you speaking will be audible so long as you don't have the headphones loud enough to drown them out (lol).
Closed back is more or less sealed (some have vents for acoustic tuning), and will naturally block out more of the sound around you. All of your noise-cancelling headphones are closed, which add cancelling waves to the audio stream to neutralize sound around you that would otherwise make it into the headphones.
You'll find among open-back headphones that there are designs that are 'more' open and that are 'less' open. The Sennheisers I mentioned above are very open, to the point that they barely attenuate sound. Typically you'd use those in quiet environments or when you actually want to hear what's going on around you for whatever reason. I use open cans in the office so I hear people around me for example.
Yeah, after I made the post I got impatient on waiting on a reply. The CUPS are open in the back. I was thinking it was something to do with the head strap or some crap. Yeah, I know. I'm an idiot. Once I realized it was the cups, I knew what it meant. lol
Spent about an hour or so researching headphones since I'm kind of looking for some to use when gaming on the patio and I don't want to blast out the neighbors.
Hence the crux of it though. I've used some nice closed backs over the years and my ears get way too hot, plus I don't like not being able to hear around me.
Never had open backs and honestly didn't even know they were a thing until this. However, after reading some reviews (thanks @LazyGamer and @Niner51 for your posts since they gave me some launching points), there are folks who state how obnoxious open-backs can be for those around you if the volume is loud. Now I'm not expecting to crank them but I don't want to blast the backyard with wearable speakers either.
The next detail is that I don't care about gaming headphones (ironic since I'm looking for headphones for gaming) since I'm not going to use the mic. Wireless 24-bit is also important but so is the freq. response and these are okay at 20-40K, would prefer 10-40 kHz like what the HD6xx offers. I actually just ordered these on Amazon since the price dropped today to more or less match the Drop version and there are so many 4 and 5 star reviews on multiple sites.
Yep, a lot of plastic on these Turtle Beach ones, been down that road before, and yep, just a matter of time until it gets trashed. I'm sure that's also a factor with the price being lower than most of the others in this tier and yeah, my research yesterday showed that you're pretty much looking at $250-$300 for quality.
I'll update how my experiences with the HD6xx go. They'll be my 1st headphones in around 20+ years
Your first experience will be that they're really tight on the head. This is by design; the metal strip in the headband will need to be stretched to fit. Once fitted these will be the most comfortable headphones you have ever owned.
I have the corsair virtuoso SE's that I purchased refurbished in July of 2020 that have been rock solid. I'm one of those people with a big head and I needed something I wouldn't break and I wanted the full headset.
Personal remarks. The headset is solid but the earcups I replaced after 3 years, and I need a cover for the headband as the pleather is coming apart on it but it isn't easily replaceable. All of the hardware is still rock solid and not giving me issues. Wireless and wired options are great. The cable that comes with it isn't short so that is a big + if you need to use it wired. It will even work wired off of your phone if you want to but you'll need your own USB C to C cable.
the newer XT models support bluetooth if that's important to you. As far as durability I have had zero issues with mine and it's a refurb. BUT reviews say frequency response is a bit warm and rated 20hz to 40khz. 20 hz supposedly the bottom of human hearing but I've heard mixed review on that. A good sub response matters. But if you're wearing a headset you're not looking to 'FEEL' the rumble.
I'd take these as... complete fabrications.
Not on a gaming headset, or really most headphones for that matter - regardless of cost (like >US$50,000 even). There are certainly headphones that will bring out sub-bass, just understand that there's usually a tradeoff somewhere else, and at more accessible pricepoints, there are likely tradeoffs everywhere else.