Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 Wireless Gaming Headset for Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch & Windows PCs with Xbox Wireless – Bluetooth, 50mm Speakers, & 20-Hr Battery – Black

(**Update: 2/23/21** - I recently installed the Firmware Update V2.1.2, and have tested for a couple of weeks. I have not had the connectivity loss issue since. I noticed before writing this today, that there is now another Firmware update available. I do not get my laptop out very often these days, and since I'm no longer having issues, I won't drag it out until it's convenient to update again. I am now100% pleased with these bad boys. I have updated to a 5-star review. BTW.. I recently left my Bose QCII's on after having watched some YouTube, and opened my current game. I could not believe how much of a lousier difference there was between them and my Turtle Beaches. I immediately grabbed for them, much to my ears' delight. Huuuuge, difference. The Bose are fine for TV, but definitely not for gaming.Initial review:These headphones would EASILY have been a 5-star rating... were it not for connectivity issues. When these work, which to be fair, is most of the time, they are fabulous. I am VERY into great headphones, music, and gaming. My old wired (at LEAST 10 yrs old) Turtle Beach headphones, were dying. For the record, just the wire part, not the cans themselves. I wear headphones almost all of the time, whether it be for games, music, or YouTube. Okay, on with the meat of the review...Right off the bat, they look great. I was actually pretty surprised they there is no signature green anywhere to be found. That's neither good nor bad. They look very sturdy and well-made. I thought, just handling them, that they might be really uncomfortably tight, but they aren't at all. They are snug in just the right way. Now I am a woman, and have a small head, lol, so I can't say how they'll fit a larger-headed dude. The controls are all easily reachable when wearing. The first thing I do with anything with a battery, is to completely charge it. These come at least partially charged because it didn't take long for these. Then I got the Firmware update via my Win 8.1 laptop. Set up with the app (and yes, the app works great) and my Xbox One, as well as pairing with my phone and tablet was easy enough.Ahhh, the sound. Fabulous. That little worry I have when I go to put headphones on for the first time, about how they're gonna sound, was instantly quelled. The sound is perfect. No hissing, not too much this or that (and you can adjust it if you like with the app, and sound great whether gaming, listening to music, or watching YouTube. I have not yet tried them in a call, but I just cannot imagine the experience would be anything less than great. ) I never had surround sound headphones for gaming before, and MAN do they make a difference. That reason alone has made my gaming a much better experience. I'll never play without surround sound again. Now, the disappointing part...MOST of the time, things just couldn't be better. However, sometimes, all of a sudden, the sound drops out. There is no audible statement to be heard about a drop in connectivity, and no visual notification comes up on your screen. Just.. nothing. The only thing that has brought back the sound for me, has been to turn the headphones off, then back on again. BUT sometimes even THAT won't do it unless I do it several times. SOMETIMES, they turn themselves off after I've turned them back on. I sit about 7 ft. from my Xbox One BTW. Now all of that is MAJORLY disruptive when gaming. It's a good thing I only play single-player games. I can only imagine being part of a team where talking to your budding is crucial (Speaking of which, BTW, the mic is clear.), and all of a sudden you aren't in the picture. You can't talk to them, they can't talk to you. You can only witness the carnage and confusion that results. It sucks even playing by myself and there is a cut-scene, or bad guy speech, or instruction and the sound is gone, right in the middle of it, with no way for me to get that replayed. It's just lost and you have to Google to see what you've missed, if it's even there. Now as I said previously, MOST of the time, there is no problem with this. That doesn't matter though, when you miss something. I am hoping there is another Firmware update that fixes the issue. Otherwise, I'll put in a support ticket with Turtle Beach. Without this connectivity issue, I would be happy as a pig in slop with these. The sound is phenomenal. $150.00 cans should work 100% of the time though. So there is that.

Updated post:I have been using these headsets for about a month now. I did exchange the first ones as the mic kept disconnecting even after the software update. The mic would just completely shut off and my friends couldn't hear me unless I would restart the headset. The new ones came in and I automatically did a software update again. I can totally tell the difference, I can play for hours without having to reset the headset and start all over due to mic issues. The sound quality is still extremely good. My friends immediately notice I had a new headset because they said the sound quality was way better. Pretty happy with these now, even while connected to the Bluetooth.I'm glad the originals were only defective. I did try the SteelSeries 7x before the exchange because I was about to give up on my original purchase but the sound quality to me wasn't as great. So I exchange these and I'm glad I did. Updated from a 4 to a 5.Original post:I've had these for about a week now. The sound is really great, I like the clarity when it is not cracking. I read the reviews before and figured I'd give these a shot. I do experience a cracking sound at times even after the software update. Sometimes the mic disconnects or the other people say I cut in and out. I've read it might be the connection to the Bluetooth which I'm going to try but it does defeat the purpose of being able to answer your phone while playing if it is going to give you issues concluding the call. I have been testing out the features so I'm waiting a bit and playing with the features again in case I messed with something that might of caused the connection concerns.I'm going to try these for a week or two since I have a remorse window hoping that I figure them out or I'm able to get these working properly. I just want to make sure it is not user error before I discredit them and return or exchange them since I do like some of the cool features.I will give an update if I end up figuring them and fixing the problem.