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Turtle Beach Elite Atlas Aero review

Quick verdict: Strong 3D audio, premium comfort and deep customisation make the Turtle Beach Elite Atlas Aero a solid choice in the wireless PC gaming headset space.

Comfortable ear cups
Premium construction
Good audio quality
Superhuman hearing mode is a compelling addition for competitive gamers

Pretty pricey
Weak Bluetooth performance

Matt Sayer

Last Updated Feb 3, 2021

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Turtle Beach might be one of the most prolific names in the gaming headset space, with dozens of headsets spanning a variety of gaming platforms and budgets. A selection of these carry the "Elite" moniker, signifying that they're built for folks willing to pay a premium for high-end performance.

Such is the case with the Turtle Beach Elite Atlas Aero, a wireless gaming headset aimed primarily at PC players. While it's not cheap, you get what you pay for, with a premium design, strong audio performance and a comprehensive feature set with plenty of room for customisation.

Design

Sleek and resilient design feels suitably premium
Thick ear cushions ensure the headset remains comfortable over long sessions
Some odd choices with the on-ear controls

If first impressions were all that mattered, the Elite Atlas Aero would be up there with the best of them. It immediately looks and feels premium, with a strong frame of metal and plastic giving it a reassuring heft without being uncomfortably heavy.
The large ear cups convey a sense of power, while their thick memory foam cushions are soft enough to minimise pressure while ensuring the headset remains firmly in place. That said, the pressure never goes away entirely. For as comfortable as it is, I never forgot I was wearing the Elite Atlas Aero as I was testing it.
That comfort comes at a cost, though, as the memory foam struggles to block out ambient noise. If you're gaming in a noisy environment, you'll need to crank up the volume to fully drown out the world around you.
Sturdy hinges allow the ear cups to rotate a full 90 degrees so you can rest them on your collarbone when not in use. You can also fold the ear cups inwards for when you're travelling with the Elite Atlas Aero, which is always a plus.
Not all Turtle Beach's design choices align with the premium moniker of the Elite Atlas Aero. The controls on the left ear cup, for instance, feel a little plasticky and incongruously cheap. I'm also slightly baffled as to why the two scroll wheels are placed right on top of each other, as it's awfully easy to reach for the wrong one in the heat of battle.
The headband cushion also seems oddly cheap and insubstantial at first glance. Fortunately, it's perfectly comfortable once you've got the headset on, so it's not actually an issue.
On the connectivity front, the Elite Atlas Aero includes a removable noise-cancelling mic on a flexible arm. I always favour flexible mics over their rigid counterparts, since you can simply move them closer or further away if you need to change the volume of your voice.
If you run out of juice or want to use the Elite Atlas Aero with a device other than a PC, you'll be happy to know it features a 3.5mm audio jack for that exact purpose. Just bear in mind that using the headset in wired mode means missing out on 3D audio, Superhuman hearing and the various other software-based features.

Performance

Good 3D audio implementation
General audio quality is suitably premium
Bluetooth performance is lacking

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.

Features

Turtle Beach Control Studio app is packed full of customisation options
Remappable on-headset controls are neat

Turtle Beach Elite Atlas Aero headset controls

Turtle Beach has leaned hard into customisation with the Elite Atlas Aero, packing in an impressive array of features that all contribute to the audio experience – there's no superfluous RGB here.
First and foremost, you'll find no fewer than four different quick-access controls on the left ear cup. There's a dedicated mute mic button, which is always nice, plus a standard volume wheel for on-the-fly adjustments.
On top of that, there are two remappable inputs: a regular button and a secondary scroll wheel. You can set the button to control modes like 3D audio or Superhuman hearing as well as activating bass boost, a noise gate or variable mic monitoring (more on that later). The wheel, meanwhile, can control the intensity of many of those settings including Superhuman hearing volume, the bass boost level and the mix between game audio and chat.
All these settings are housed within the Turtle Beach Control Studio, a PC app that also lets you play with a bevy of sliders to tweak the Elite Atlas Aero's audio profile to your liking. In addition to boosting treble and bass levels, you can amplify or muffle in-game dialogue, boost chat audio and enable variable mic monitoring which lets you hear your own voice piped back through the headset – handy if you find yourself inadvertently shouting at your teammates in the middle of an explosive firefight.
There's also a separate 10-band equalizer for folks who like to dive deep and define individual volume settings for different audio frequencies. Helpfully, the app includes labels above the frequency bands categorising the sounds typically associated with each band, so it's a cinch to boost explosions while reducing the sound of rushing wind to a mere whisper. You can define different EQ profiles for game audio, chat audio and your own microphone audio, too, which is a plus.

Verdict

How we score our reviews

Looks and feels like a premium headset
Delivers a high-quality 3D audio implementation

Should you buy it?

PC gamers looking for a high-quality wireless headset have a lot of options to consider, and the Turtle Beach Elite Atlas Aero should definitely be among them. It's built like a premium headset should be, with a sturdy frame and tremendously comfortable ear cups. Audio performance is equally great, with the powerful 3D audio and the competitively-tuned Superhuman hearing feature worth the price of admission.

Top it all off with deep customisation and a solid 30-hour battery life, and the Elite Atlas Aero definitely earns its use of the "Elite" qualifier.

Pricing and availability

Price: RRP $269.95
Where to buy: Amazon | eBay

Specifications

Turtle Beach Elite Atlas Aero Wireless PC Gaming Headset

Where to buy

Build

Wired/Wireless

Wireless

Speaker Driver

50mm Neodymiummm

Frequency Response

12Hz - 20kHz

Ear Cushion

Over-ear memory foam

Microphone Type

Uni-directional mic with noise cancelling

Colours

Black

Sound Format

Virtual Surround Sound

Connectivity

Connection Type

USB/3.5mm

Battery Life

Up to 30 hours

Features

RGB Lighting

Detachable Microphone

Yes

On-headset Controls

Volume, Mute, Multifunction

Matt Sayer

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Matt Sayer is a technology writer and editorial engineer for Finder, combining industry expertise with data-driven solutions to help people make better decisions. His extensive portfolio spans investigative reporting on the roll-out of 5G, statistical analysis on the legacy of E3 and guides for popular products like mobile phones and smart speakers. Matt has a Bachelor of Computer Science from RMIT University and is passionate about finding ways that technology can better our lives.

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Turtle Beach Elite Atlas Aero review