Gaming Headset Showdown: Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 VS Razer Kaira Pro

Which is the better $150 Xbox headset?

Photo taken by the author.

When I first reviewed the Kaira Pro last year, it was the best Xbox headset I had tested so far. It has Razer’s awesome new TriForce drivers, Bluetooth functionality, and full RGB support, which I believe is a first for an Xbox product. But Turtle Beach also refreshed their iconic Stealth series last fall, and as I found in my recent review, it’s a juggernaut. The Stealth 700 Gen 2 packs in numerous upgrades, including features that used to be reserved solely for the company’s premium Elite series of headsets.

Both of these headsets sell for a retail price of $150, but only one can be declared the winner after I nitpick them endlessly.

OVERVIEW

Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 2 (official site here)- I had high hopes for the Stealth 700 Gen 2, and the headset blew them all away. It features all of Turtle Beach’s flagship technologies, including their Nanoclear speaker drivers and ProSpecs glasses relief pad system, as well as the famous Superhuman Hearing mode. The Turtle Beach mobile app gives you extreme control over the headset, through different EQ modes and the ability to remap the secondary volume control wheel on the back of the left ear cup.

It’s a complete package, and its Bluetooth implementation is also great, with a seamless transition to your phone audio if a call comes in.

Razer Kaira Pro (official site here)- Rather than re-use an existing design for their new flagship Xbox headset, Razer went all-in on a new frame. The drivers were first developed for the excellent BlackShark V2, but the industrial design evokes classic headphones as much as it does Razer’s other gaming efforts. Only a bright strip of green color along the headband the RGB ear cup lighting let you know this is a Razer product through-and-through.

The feature-set is a fundamental match on paper for the Turtle Beach model, although the software controls for Razer’s Kaira come in the form of an Xbox/Windows 10 app instead of a mobile companion. And as you’ll see in the “Features” section below, the Bluetooth implementation isn’t quite as robust.