The following Turtle Beach Atlas Air product was given as review sample from Turtle Beach.
One of Turtle Beach’s latest kits this month is the Turtle Beach Atlas Air, a Bluetooth-capable open back gaming headset with an emphasis on high bandwidth audio, giving players “total immersion”. Turtle Beach sent me a review unit to mess around with and I’ve spent a good week playing games and blasting music on this 24-bit capable headset—and I’ve found that the Atlas Air is a seriously excellent gaming kit.
So much so that I’ve been using it even outside a bunch thanks how comfortable I feel using it. This headset is one of Turtle Beach’s high end models, one of the three that came out this month. If you want to read up about the other two Stealth models and the Swarm II software, check out my review of those right over here.
A brief lesson on open back headsets before we begin: open back quite literally means that the earcup’s back is opened up and unlike a closed back headset like say, a Stealth 600 or a pair of Sony WF-1000XM4s, allows air to pass through and gives a more concert-like sound to your music. Pressure that gets built up, especially low frequencies, leaks out instead of crushing your eardrums. One thing I really like about open backs is that gives a new sound to what I listen to and in some cases, even gives me a more accurate listening experience such as listening to live concert performances. With that being said, the Atlas Air takes this methodology and brings it to gaming headsets, being one of the few gaming-focused sets on the market now.
The Atlas Air comes in a very nifty little box, packed away nice ‘n tight in a carrying case with a USB-C cable, a 3.5mm cable, and a wireless USB transmitter that PC, PlayStation, and Switch capable. Unfortunately, unlike the Stealth 500 and 600 Gen 3, the Atlas Air will only work with the Xbox via the controller’s 3.5mm jack. It won’t stop you from getting a good listening experience, but I’m not sure if the controller is capable of outputting more than 16-bit audio either. But unlike the Stealth headsets, the Atlas Air does have a 3.5mm port, meaning it can work on a wide-variety of devices without relying on the battery as well.
After a brief update period, it was time to give the Atlas Air a whirl. The headset uses a band similar to the Stealth 500 that forms to the shape of your head, unlike the traditional adjustable cups found on other sets. Except the Atlas uses a more comfortable net that has more square footage and I found it does better in grasping my horrible egghead. The mic is detachable, though I decided I’d rather keep it plugged in and hung up since it doesn’t get in the way. The volume knob is on the side of the left earcup, which is a nice touch and is much easier to reach compared to other headsets I’ve tried.
Button placement is still a little odd. Unlike the Stealth 600, the Atlas goes back to using a similar button style for all of its functions and I keep hitting the Bluetooth “switch” button instead of power. Haven’t gotten used to it yet, but it’s not the end of the world.
The Atlas Air sounds great. Both for gaming and especially for music listening. As a matter of fact, I ended up listening to more music on this headset than gaming thanks to its comfortability and sound output. The foam cups and drivers have more flexibility to move around here and the open back design gives a rich, lively, and crisp feeling to my music collection. For gaming, it’s perfect for all genres, but keep in mind that because this headset leaks sound, others can hear your gaming and whatever music you’re blasting. I find the best environment for open back headphones is a quiet environment for the best listening experience, but it won’t stop you from enjoying them in the outdoors like I did.
Our awesome PR representative suggested a few songs I start off listening to to get an idea of what the Atlas Air is capable of doing. But as I unironically only listen to video game music (well, a good 98% of my collection anyway), here’s some starters I have for you if you pick up this set for yourself:
- mahina’s “Falling Down” has a more expansive sound, and is extremely noticeable in the repeated chorus as the instrumentation builds up.
- Christopher Tin’s “The Lost Birds” is a beautiful listen, the composer’s broad choice of instruments and vocalists are emphasised by the outdoor breeze.
- James Landino and Nikki Simmons’ “vs. SAYU” boss theme features a heavy techno melody that broadens out on the outer frequency bounds. Cliqtrack’s Rock variant of the song benefits greatly from the escaping lower frequencies.
- Yuu Miyake and Katamaritai Jr.’s “Cherry Tree Times” is a heavy vocal track that relies on trebles and an airy, almost “outdoors music playing” melody that benefits greatly from a pair of open back headphones.
- Gisula’s “Lila’s Gambit” is a grand little performance (the whole album is, really) and I love the sound of a piano being played outdoors to an audience.
I’ve linked all these tracks to their relative Spotify listings, though do note that all my listening is done locally via ripped FLAC tracks. Streaming services tend to use lower bitrate tracks for streaming and that’s detrimental to listening on your expensive and capable headphones. Getting FLACs is easy, just buy your favourite artist’s music directly through them or rip their music CDs on purchase. If you’re going big with headsets, your music listening habits will need to change, too. Though there are services like TIDAL and Qobuz that offer hi-res streaming, albeit with more limited libraries.
Turtle Beach’s Swarm II software allows you to enable additional gaming-related features such as Superhuman Hearing and Waves 3D, which you can read about in my Stealth review article. Microphone options are available here as well, which let me test out the 16kHz capable device for a bit. My thoughts? It’s okay, good enough for talking to friends and have on for a Twitch stream. Don’t expect it to replace a proper Zoon H6 setup, however.
All in all I’m left impressed with the Atlas Air. It’s a comfortable and great sounding gaming headset with some caveats in wireless range and microphone quality. Retailing at $179.99/£159.99/€179.99 MSRP, the open back set up will give your music and games a more open-ended feeling and in my experience, puts much less stress on your ears and hearing compared to closed back headphones. The company will also offer a mod pack that features a separate headband strap and ear cushions available in Pink, Purple, or Blue for $24.99/£29.99/€19.99 MSRP if the black isn’t to your liking.
You can pick up the Turtle Beach Atlas Air directly from the company and local retailers.
