You won't find many premium gaming headsets these days without some form of locational audio, whether that be a standard 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound solution or a more advanced 3D audio implementation like Dolby Atmos.
Turtle Beach has gone for the advanced option here, incorporating Waves Nx 3D audio technology into the Elite Atlas Aero. While Waves might not have the name recognition of Dolby Atmos, the implementation here is solid, with footsteps, gunfire and other important audio cues easy to place within a 3D space. I had no trouble picking out both distance and direction when playing games like Destiny 2 and Bioshock Infinite (I was feeling nostalgic). Importantly, activating the 3D audio did not degrade the quality or impact of the audio at all.
3D audio aside, the general sound quality of the Elite Atlas Aero is very good for this price point. Gunfire sounds suitably punchy, explosions land with satisfying impact and ambient background tracks swell with rich, pulse-pounding urgency. No clarity is lost when cranking up the volume, either, which is critical for such a premium headset.
However, where the Elite Atlas Aero really shines is when you activate "Superhuman hearing" mode. This amplifies the volume of specific sounds – most notably footsteps and reloading weapons – so that they're easier to pick out of the audio mix. It's quite impressive, working just as described across multiple games I tested.
While it's probably overkill to leave the mode active in slower-paced, single-player experiences – you lose a lot of bass with it on – it could provide a considerable advantage to competitive players wanting to maximise their situational awareness. The sooner you can hear the enemy, the more time you have to react and respond.
Battery performance is just as important as the audio for a wireless headset. Turtle Beach claims the Elite Atlas Aero can last more than 30 hours on a single charge, and this figure aligns with my testing. I got around 28 hours of use before having to charge it back up again, and the discrepancy here could have been due to my testing at max volume to determine peaking levels. Regardless, 28 to 30 hours is still a good range, enough for plenty of gaming before having to recharge.
The one area where the Elite Atlas Aero let me down was its wireless performance. Its Bluetooth strength is noticeably weaker than a lot of other wireless headsets I've tested. I can normally walk around most rooms in my house without Bluetooth headsets losing connection, whereas wandering off with the Elite Atlas Aero would cause it to start beeping to indicate it had disconnected. Reconnecting would sometimes require turning the headset off and on again, too, which is a bit of a bummer.