Gaming Headsets · owner-verdict comparison

Cloud III vs Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3: what real owners say

Real owners lean toward the Cloud III: 53% of 138 owners recommend it, vs 35% of 127 for the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3.

Verdicts aggregated from Reddit, enthusiast forums, and YouTube owner comments — affiliate reviews excluded. Sample sizes differ; judge accordingly. How we score

Cloud III

53%of 138 owners recommend
53% recommend · 31% neutral · 16% don't
Owners praise
  • Custom EQ profiles (via NGENUITY, Equalizer APO, or DTS Sound Unbound) turn a mediocre stock sound into something owners call amazing, with many saying it saved them from returning the headset
  • Comfortable for long sessions, with several owners saying comfort is noticeably better than the Cloud II despite the added weight
  • Strong value at the roughly $39-40 price point, called the best bang-for-buck wireless gaming headset in its class
Owners complain about
  • Out-of-the-box sound is flat, muffled, dull, or watery until owners apply an EQ
  • Directional/positional audio in competitive FPS games (footsteps, gunfire location) is weak or inconsistent for some owners
  • NGENUITY companion software is buggy: EQ settings randomly reset, volume drops unexpectedly, and DTS:X built-in support is widely called broken
Full owner report →

Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3

35%of 127 owners recommend
35% recommend · 12% neutral · 53% don't
Owners praise
  • Sound quality, the thing owners praise most often, with bass and footsteps in shooters singled out
Owners complain about
  • Sound that drops out on PC while the headset still shows as connected
  • Mics that stop working or won't stay unmuted, sometimes out of the box and sometimes after a year
  • Mic sound that teammates describe as tinny or hard to understand
Full owner report →

Which should you buy?

Get the Cloud III if
  • ✓Budget-conscious gamers wanting solid comfort and sound around $40-130
  • ✓Competitive FPS/CS2 players willing to apply EQ or NGENUITY presets for footstep positioning
  • ✓Wireless users who value long battery life and low latency over long sessions
  • ✓Owners comfortable tweaking EQ APO or NGENUITY software to fix the flat out-of-box tuning
Skip it if
  • Anyone expecting great sound straight out of the box with no EQ tweaking
  • Audiophiles or music listeners who found the default tuning flat, muffled, or thin
Get the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3 if
  • ✓Console players who put sound first, especially bass and footsteps in shooters
Skip it if
  • PC players, the group reporting the most sound dropouts
  • Anyone who leans on voice chat and needs a mic that stays working and sounds clear

What Cloud III owners say

“these sound great!”
— Boring-Ad-8227 on Reddit
“That works for me.”
— Poolplyr28 on Reddit
“Sound quality trash, straight cheap plastic headphones, and now to top it off they are poisoning you. The only good thing about them is their noise cancelling features work well.”
— Booliano on Reddit

What Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3 owners say

“Bought them today, and awesome. Everything I wanted in a headset my Audeze Maxwell has but lighter, way more comfortable, loud at max volume and audio quality.”
— @birdsoup777 on YouTube
“It’s not a perfect headset but it’s a damn good headset.”
— @ReynaldoRoman on YouTube
“I actually would not recommend this headset. I hate this thing.”
— @aaroncarr3413 on YouTube

Cloud III vs Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3: frequently asked questions

Is the Cloud III or the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3 better?

Real owners lean toward the Cloud III: 53% of 138 owners recommend it, vs 35% of 127 for the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3.

Who should get the Cloud III?

Owners point the Cloud III at budget-conscious gamers wanting solid comfort and sound around $40-130, and competitive FPS/CS2 players willing to apply EQ or NGENUITY presets for footstep positioning.

Who should get the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3?

Owners point the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3 at console players who put sound first, especially bass and footsteps in shooters.

What do owners complain about?

The most-cited downside of the Cloud III is out-of-the-box sound is flat, muffled, dull, or watery until owners apply an EQ. For the Turtle Beach Stealth 700 Gen 3, it's sound that drops out on PC while the headset still shows as connected.