Turtle Beach Recon 500 Headset Review

I always enjoy getting a new headset to try out because over the years I’ve realised that you can just get used to what you have, and think that it’s the best experience you can get. Turtle Beach are known as one of the leaders in audio technology, so I was eager to check out the Recon 500 headset.

It comes in the box with a detachable microphone, a quick start guide, a support leaflet and a Turtle Beach sticker. Most of the packaging is cardboard, which is always nice to see.

The build quality is decent, with very little wiggle when the headband is extended. The left ear cup has a hole for the detachable microphone, a mute button for the microphone, and a volume dial. The ear cups don’t meet and are far enough from each other that you can turn them 90 degrees. That helps them to rest comfortably when they’re around your neck and not in use.

Designed for use with consoles, but compatible with PC, I decided to plug the Recon 500 into my Xbox Series X. More specifically, the headphone port in the controller. The cable on the headset isn’t very long, but since it’s not USB it doesn’t need to be. Audio quality was fantastic as I played through Saints Row: The Third Remastered, as the Recon 500 is compatible with the console’s Windows Sonic for Headphones, which gives you a surround sound experience.

I also tested them out with my phone and PC, both giving brilliant and loud audio. The quality of the output was great all around, so clearly the 60mm Eclipse dual-drivers are worth the trademark.

My issue came with how the Recon 500 feels to wear. It’s lightweight, and glasses friendly, but that results in the earcups not quite closing over my ears. I thought that perhaps it was my large ears being at fault, but I had my smaller-eared wife try them on and she confirmed that it doesn’t sit properly at the bottom of the ear. Of course, the headband is expandable, but I tried it at multiple sizes and couldn’t get it to fit comfortably. That means a lot of outside sound intrudes.

The padding on the ear cups is really soft, meaning that the claim of “glasses friendly” is entirely correct. It kills me that these don’t seem to fit properly at the bottom, because when everything is quiet they’re great. They don’t claim to be noise-cancelling by any means, but their ill-fitting nature makes it worse.

Turtle Beach’s Recon 500 headset is a great piece of kit with a fantastic sound. It’s unfortunate that it doesn’t fit very comfortably, resulting in quite a bit of sound bleed. If you’re going to be playing games in a quiet space, they’re going to be brilliant. Less so if you’re in a house with five other people.