Turtle Beach Atlas Air review

Turtle Beach’s new Atlas Air gaming headset lives up to its name by letting your ears breathe with an open-back design. They’ve also done some fancy design work with “floating” ear cups and a mesh fabric headband, making them super comfy to wear. They’ve packed in plenty of gaming goodies – wired and wireless connections, a mic that mutes when you flip it up, and an app where you can tweak pretty much everything. It all sounds great on paper, but how is it to actually use? I spent over a week with the Turtle Beach Atlas Air to tell you how it holds up.

Editor’s note: this is the first version of the article. Updates will follow as the market changes.

What’s it like to use the Turtle Beach Atlas Air?

The first thing you will notice about the Atlas Air is the big, round, floating ear cups that look like sci-fi valves. Instead of traditional hinges, these cans use elastic bands to suspend the ear cups. This design is intended to make them more comfortable by pivoting to the shape of your head, but it just didn’t nail it for me. While the ear cups are big and plush, the clamping force is fairly weak. Combined with the pivotable earcups, they too easily shift placements when turning your head. A forceful headshake will throw them off completely.

The headband does a decent job of distributing the weight, but if you’ve got a bigger head, you might find them a bit snug since the headband adjustment is just limited to a velcro strap underneath the mesh. The headset has a dark grey and black color scheme, with shiny grey plastic accents on the ear cups. If you’re not digging the stealthy look, Turtle Beach has you covered with its “mod packs”—basically fancy replacement parts in bright colors to spice things up.

As for build quality, the plastic feels sturdy and is definitely a step up from their Stealth 600 line. That six-point suspension system with the elastic bands might look delicate, but it’s actually tough enough to withstand my tugging on it. The downside is that you can’t rotate the ear cups to lay flat on your shoulders or desk. On that note, while they include a carry pouch, it’s more for preventing scratches than surviving drops and keeping the accessories together when stuffing them in your bag.

How do you control the Turtle Beach Atlas Air?

The Atlas Air features a well-thought-out control scheme with dedicated buttons and dials for essential functions. There’s a large disc on the side of the left earcup which you can turn to adjust volume. Bluetooth pairing and input switching also have their own physical controls. However, the buttons’ uniform circular design makes them difficult to distinguish by touch alone, and their somewhat stiff mechanism means pressing them can occasionally disrupt the headset’s position.

Unlike the Stealth 600, the Atlas Air relegates channel mixing to the companion app rather than providing physical controls. The multi-function Bluetooth button handles both call and music controls when connected wirelessly, though these features aren’t available during analog connection.

The microphone has a flip-to-mute function with an audible cue when activated. The headset provides audio feedback for other actions, too, with distinct tones indicating maximum and minimum volume levels, successful device pairing, power status, and EQ preset changes.

Should you use the Swarm II app for the Turtle Beach Atlas Air?

The Swarm II companion app offers a robust suite of customization options across Windows PC, Android, and iOS platforms. The app’s interface displays useful information, including battery status, connection mode, and access to firmware updates.

Users can fine-tune their listening experience through a graphic equalizer or choose among the presets, adjust the game/chat mix, and configure various microphone settings, including noise gate, sensitivity, and monitoring levels. The microphone equalizer and chat boost features provide additional control over voice communication quality.

One unique feature is Turtle Beach’s “Superhuman Hearing” mode, designed to enhance subtle audio cues like enemy footsteps — a modest advantage in competitive play. PC users get additional benefits, including hotkey configuration and macro settings for supported games. You can also customize the headset’s audio cues, adjusting the feedback tones for various functions to make them more distinct.

How do you connect the Turtle Beach Atlas Air?

The Atlas Air performs best using the USB-A wireless dongle, delivering low-latency audio for gaming. While Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity is available, it’s better suited for media consumption than gaming. You can switch between Bluetooth and dongle connections with the QuickSwitch button, though I did experience a two—to three-second delay in transitioning.

For those who prefer a wired connection, the headset includes an analog cable with virtually zero latency and full audio/mic support. The headset works with PC and PlayStation via both wireless dongle and analog connections, while Xbox users are limited to a wired connection through the controller. The package also includes a USB cable, but it’s solely for charging purposes.

How long does the Turtle Beach Atlas Air’s battery last?

Battery life on the Atlas Air is good, exceeding  Turtle Beach’s advertised 50-hour runtime. In our testing, we achieved 57 hours of continuous use — enough for several marathon gaming sessions. A full charge takes under 2 hours through the USB-C port, and you can continue using the headset wirelessly while it charges.

The headset includes a configurable auto-off timer that can be set to 5, 10, 20, or 30 minutes of inactivity. I found this helps preserve battery life whenever I would inevitably forget to power them down after a late-night gaming session.

How well does the Turtle Beach Atlas Air attenuate noise?

As expected from an open-back design, the Atlas Air offers minimal noise isolation. You’ll clearly hear environmental noise like conversation, traffic, or household sounds while gaming. There is also significant sound leakage. Anyone nearby will be able to hear your game audio, making these headphones better suited for private gaming spaces than shared environments.

How do the Turtle Beach Atlas Air sound?

The Atlas Air delivers detailed, bright-leaning audio that excels for competitive gaming and dialogue clarity, though bass-lovers might find explosions and action sequences lacking some impact.

Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Scores (MDAQS)

The chart below shows how the sound of the Turtle Beach Atlas Air was assessed by the Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Score (MDAQS) algorithm from HEAD acoustics.

The Atlas Air scores highest in Timbre with a 4.8 out of 5. The higher Distortion score might seem bad, but this wasn’t particularly noticeable in my gaming sessions except during intense action sequences at high volumes. The Immersiveness score is just okay, not great, and doesn’t fully capture the expansive soundstage I typically expect from an open-back design. Still, the overall score of 4.5 suggests that most people should enjoy how these headphones sound for a multitude of media playback.

Reviewer’s notes

Editor’s note: this review uses a hover-enabled glossary to describe sound quality based on a consensus vocabulary. You can read about it here.

Objective Measurements

Our frequency response measurements reveal some interesting characteristics when compared to our preference curve. The Atlas Air shows relatively neutral bass and mid-range response up to 1kHz, though with slightly less sub-bass emphasis than our target. Above 2kHz, we see a notable elevation in the treble region that peaks around 4kHz before showing some unevenness in the higher frequencies.

This frequency response provides a detailed sound that emphasizes upper frequencies where footsteps and tactical audio cues live. However, the somewhat uneven treble response can make some sounds like gunfire and explosions a bit sharp or harsh. The subdued bass response means you will not feel much at all in low-end from explosions and ambient effects. For music, expect crisp vocals and prominent cymbals, with bass-heavy genres sounding a bit lean.

How good is the Turtle Beach Atlas Air’s microphone?

The Atlas Air’s microphone delivers great recording quality. Teammates reported my voice sounding natural and clear. Noise handling is good enough but not perfect. Loud background noises from traffic or the pipes in our office building could be heard but didn’t detract from voice clarity. The default noise gate setting of 50% was effective for most situations, though you can fine-tune both the noise gate and EQ settings through the Swarm II app if you want to customize the mic’s performance.

Turtle Beach Atlas Air microphone demo (Ideal conditions):

Turtle Beach Atlas Air microphone demo (Office conditions):

Turtle Beach Atlas Air microphone demo (Reverberant space):

Should you buy the Turtle Beach Atlas Air?

For under $200, the Atlas Air will appeal to gamers looking for a comfortable open-back headset. It has excellent spatial audio and positional clarity that competitive gamers will appreciate, while the lightweight build and long battery life make it suitable for extended gaming sessions. The companion app adds valuable customization options, and the multi-platform wireless connectivity (except for Xbox) offers good flexibility.

However, the limited bass response and bright sound signature won’t please everyone, particularly those who want impactful explosions in their action games. The poor noise isolation makes it unsuitable for noisy environments, and the loose fit might frustrate users who move around a lot while gaming.

In short, I would recommend the Atlas Air if you primarily game in a quiet space and value precise audio positioning over bass impact. But if you need a more versatile headset for noisy environments or prefer a more bass-heavy sound, you might want to look at closed-back alternatives in this price range.

What should you get instead of the Turtle Beach Atlas Air?

If you’re willing to forgo wireless connectivity, the Drop + EPOS PC38X ($194.22 at Amazon) is another good open-back gaming headset with better localizability. The microphone isn’t quite as good, but some people might find the oval-shaped earcups more comfortable than Atlas Air’s round ones. They also have a firmer clamping force. There’s no companion app for EQ customization, but the PC38X’s default sound is suitable for competitive gamers.

For those seeking a more immersive open-back experience, the Corsair VIRTUOSO PRO ($199.99 at Amazon) delivers a wider, more speaker-like soundstage with better consistency between gaming sessions. However, you’ll again miss out on wireless connectivity and the comprehensive app features that Atlas Air provides.

If you’re looking to save money and primarily game on Xbox, consider the Turtle Beach Stealth 600 Gen 3 ($99.99 at Amazon). While it can’t match the Atlas Air’s build quality or soundstage, it offers direct Xbox wireless connectivity and better noise isolation, as well as a closed-back headset if you occupy shared spaces, all for nearly half the price.

Frequently asked questions