Gaming peripheral maker Turtle Beach has a new pair of headphones aimed specifically at VR gamers.

It’s so obvious. So painfully obvious. And yet we wonder why no one did it sooner.

The new Turtle Beach Stealth 350VR is a pair of gaming headphones with purported 30+ hour battery-powered amplification. What makes these headphones “built for VR”? A divet in the headband foam to let overhead cables through from a VR headset like the HTC Vive or OSVR HDK 2.

Stealth350VR_b

It’s so simple, and yet, after many continuous hours of VR gameplay, the top of my head already yearns for the comfort of not having added pressure from a bulky headset resting atop the cables.

Launching October 9th, the $80 Stealth 350VR headphones have all the usual trappings of mid-range gaming headphones: 50mm Neodymium speakers, fabric-wrapped memory foam over-ear cushions, and a removable noise-cancelling microphone. Turtle Beach also says the headphones have detachable cables for easy cable management as well as on-board audio controls to change your volume in VR without the need to remove your VR headset.

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Ben Lang
Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."
  • psuedonymous

    That’s nice I guess, but I’ve never had a problem with the cable/top band. The problem is the SIDE bands passing over your ears, with the headphones trying to sit on top of them. Not an issue with the Rift (bands go above the ears, integrated headphones don’t interfere with anything), but the Vive’s wide elastic bands are already uncomfortable even without headphones. If you move the ‘backpiece’ high enough for the sidebands to clear your ears, the whole assembly just pops off the top of you head if you turn too quickly.

  • Nitsan Duvdevani

    That’s it? A divet in the headband foam? Why not make the thing wireless to begin with?

  • I saw this headset first on Twitter, my immediate impression was that they were wireless, every single image I see shows them without a wire. It’s not until later I figured out they are indeed wired, which does make sense considering the price. Very disappoint.

    What I haven’t seen any information about is just what the cable options are. Does it come with a USB soundcard or how else does the Vive capture audio from the microphone? I cannot even find this product listed on their own website.

    To be honest I still want a wireless headset for the convenience, I’m concerned about price/weight and latency though. Light headphones are a must for me, like for you the top of my head grows painful with too heavy cans. The size and fit also matters as too large headphones makes my head overheat, I know this from experience. I don’t like the included in-ears as I can hear myself talk super loud, and I still want over-ears for comfort.

    Right now I use a pair of Bose QC25 which I happened to own. They’re pretty awesome, the active noise cancellation is awesome to have in games like Brookhaven Experiment where it’s super important to hear correctly. It’s expensive though, and the new wireless QC350 headphones are even more expensive and who knows what kind of latency and audio quality bluetooth has.

    So many parameters to consider in the hunt for the perfect VR headset -_-