Turtle beach elite atlas: Elite Atlas Pro PC Headset – Turtle Beach®

Turtle Beach Elite Atlas review

Turtle Beach is one of the biggest brands in gaming peripherals. You’ve no doubt seen its products if you’re into the esports scenes of games from Call of Duty to Rocket League. However, you don’t have to be a professional to afford the company’s headsets. The Turtle Beach Elite Atlas is a straightforward, competent gaming headset claiming competition readiness, despite lacking any of the bells and whistles other headsets on the market offer.

How does it stack up to the competition?

Editor’s note: This review was updated on February 24, 2022 to include answers to FAQ submissions, as well as a link to our guide to video chat apps.

Who is the Turtle Beach Elite Atlas for?

• Gamers looking for something comfortable to use on different platforms.
• At-home workers who want a headset for calls, but need something compatible with a split audio/mic jack.

What is using the Turtle Beach Elite Atlas like?

Everything from the ear pads to the cord is easy to remove and replace.

If the Turtle Beach Elite Atlas name has you expecting a top of the line, no expenses spared, fully-featured experience, think again. Regardless of the name, this headset is about as basic as it gets—but that doesn’t mean it’s a disappointment. The Elite Atlas is a 3.5mm gaming headset, so it works basically everywhere. It doesn’t come with software frills like a custom app or surround sound, or really any particular hardware quirks—just plug it in, and it works the same everywhere.

This headset is made of a mix of metal and plastic, and while it doesn’t have a lot of flash, little flourishes make it particularly nice to use.The steel suspension band makes adjusting the headset easy. The thick plastic hinges can also rotate to lay flat, which is always nice to see.

The headphone pads are covered in soft fabric and leatherette, held in by magnets and easily replaceable. There are also decorative plates on the sides of the headphones (which are also held on with magnets), and Turtle Beach sells replacements with different designs on them. In fact, everything—from the cord, to mic, to the headphone pads—was clearly designed to be easy to remove and replace (Turtle Beach sells components on its site, even individual left and right ear pads if you just need one).

The boom mic of the Turtle Beach Elite Atlas tends to sit off-axis, making plosives and other mouth sounds slightly rare.

Of course, all that would be moot if the Turtle Beach Elite Atlas wasn’t also comfortable to wear, and it very much is. In addition to the suspension band and the solid headphone hinges, the ear pads sit on tilting platforms that further contour to the shape of your head. The ear pads themselves feature soft fabric faces and leatherette sides, and combined with everything else make getting a comfortable, secure seal around your ears very easy. Velour would still be better for gamers with glasses, but the soft fabric shouldn’t cause too much trouble.

Actually using the headset was a pretty solid experience. It was a little tight initially, and after my first lengthy session with it (a few hours), I definitely felt some discomfort. However, after just a few adjustments—and time for the headset pads to break in—I stopped running into issues.

After you get the tightness dialed in, there’s really not much else to learn about the Elite Atlas. There’s an in-line control unit with a volume dial and a mic mute switch, and it’s just as easy to find and use while gaming as any other. The detachable microphone sits on a long, flexible wire, I didn’t run into any problems with it on calls over Discord or Zoom. Outside of the context of calling apps, which adjust a lot of your volume automatically, I found the mic was exceptionally quiet, but otherwise pretty clear and easy to use. There’s even a little foam screen built into it, so it won’t struggle with breath sounds as much.

Gaming with the Turtle Beach Elite Atlas

The removable mic is great for using the Switch, because you can yank off the microphone; useless for games that use Nintendo’s awful voice chat system.

Gaming with the Turtle Beach Elite Atlas is just as straightforward as using it for anything else. This is a stereo gaming headset with a 3.5mm connection, so just plug it into your PlayStation 4 controller, Xbox One controller, Nintendo Switch, or PC and you’re good to go. The included 3.5mm splitter more than doubles the cable length, so you shouldn’t have any issues reaching your PC tower, no matter how big your desktop setup is.

Obviously, there’s no surround sound here, so the Fortnite or Call of Duty-obsessive will probably want to look elsewhere, but more casual fans shouldn’t mind so much. The headset didn’t struggle with games like Risk of Rain 2 and League of Legends on PC, and Dauntless and Animal Crossing: New Horizons on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch respectively. Whether the audio focused more on a sweeping soundtrack or situational cues, I never had any issues hearing what was happening clearly and comfortably.

This article’s frequency response and isolation charts were measured with our old testing system. We have since purchased a Bruel & Kjaer 5128 test fixture (and the appropriate support equipment) to update our testing and data collection. It will take a while to update our backlog of old test results, but we will update this review (and many others!) once we’re able with improved sound quality measurements and ANC performance plots. These will be made obvious with our new chart aesthetic (black background instead of white).

Thank you for bearing with us, and we hope to see you again once we’ve sorted everything out.

How does the Turtle Beach Elite Atlas sound?

Most of the sporadic de-emphasis is slight enough that you probably won’t notice it.

The Turtle Beach Elite Atlas offers more accurate audio than most gaming headsets. There’s a very slight de-emphasis in the very low end, and a slight de-emphasis in the highs (most likely to avoid natural resonances in the ear), but otherwise everything is right as rain.

In music, this means songs of all genres should come through very clearly, without any significant issues with auditory masking. In American Boy by Estelle and Kanye West, the subtler rhythm guitar strumming that runs under a lot of the song is exactly the kind of thing a gaming headset with over-emphasized bass and under-emphasized highs (read: most gaming headsets) would struggle with—on the Turtle Beach Elite Atlas, it all comes through loud and clear.

In-game, the accurate bass output means the sounds of gunfire and explosions shouldn’t run roughshod over the quieter sounds in a given scene, at least not unless the game developers designed it that way (looking at you, Master Chief Collection). Mid range sounds—like the vocal cues of characters in Overwatch or the sounds of footsteps in battle royale games like Fortnite—should also come through really clearly.

Don’t expect this headset to block much noise, regardless of where you are.

The Turtle Beach Elite Atlas has relatively poor isolation for a gaming headset. The fabric on the ear pads makes establishing a decent seal around your ear easy, and it helps with heat buildup, but it’s just not as good a material as leatherette for blocking out sound. This should do fine at home, when things aren’t very noisy. In louder areas, you’ll probably need to increase the volume to compensate, which isn’t great, as it can eventually contribute to noise-induced hearing loss.

How is the microphone?

The main issue with this mic doesn’t show up on a frequency response chart.

The Elite Atlas actually offers a considerably more accurate microphone than most gaming headsets. While there is a notable de-emphasis in the bass range, it’s nowhere near as severe as most gaming headsets. This means people with deeper voices won’t sound like they’re talking out of a tin can as often as other headsets.

However, while the audio is accurate, it’s also quite quiet. As I mentioned earlier, calling apps like Zoom and Discord offer tools for easily boosting your output. Outside of that, I needed to boost things by 20-30dB just to get the volume to a normal level. Listen for yourself:

How does the microphone sound to you?

220 votes

Should you buy the Turtle Beach Elite Atlas?

If you’re looking for something simple and solid, maybe.

Replaceable parts are a big plus, but they don’t make the headset perform better than its main competition.

The Turtle Beach Elite Atlas may not be the flashiest gaming headset in the world, but it was clearly built with a degree of care that headsets in this price range are often missing. Touches like replaceable parts, sturdy build, and an accurate mic are really great to see. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a slam dunk.

If the Turtle Beach Elite Atlas seems like the kind of gaming headset you’re looking for, I doubt you’ll be disappointed with it. If having replaceable parts is important to you, that’s doubly true. However, if you’re on the hunt for a good gaming headset under $100, there a lot of great options other out there, too.

What should you get instead?

At just under $100, the Turtle Beach Elite Atlas is pretty much a direct competitor with perennial favorite the HyperX Cloud Alpha. Both headsets are hardly slouches, but they also have a lot of the same strengths (comfort, audio quality) and weaknesses—the Elite Atlas’ strengths are just a little less… strong. The Fnatic React is also a very viable option, and it offers comparatively fantastic mic quality.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for a headset that’s wireless, or maybe offers more features, it’s probably best to look elsewhere. SteelSeries gaming headsets like the Arctis 7 and Arctis 1 Wireless are great alternatives, and very close in price.

Frequently asked questions about the Turtle Beach Elite Atlas

You would need to keep your phone very close to your Nintendo Switch, but it could work.

Turtle Beach Elite Atlas Aero review

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How elite is the Elite Atlas Aero?

(Image: © Future)

TechRadar Verdict

The Turtle Beach Elite Atlas Aero is a good headset, with excellent sound quality and features, but the tight fit, high price tag and questionable aesthetic hold it back from true greatness.

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Ask any PC gamer and it’s likely that they’ll know Turtle Beach as “that company that makes console peripherals.” And, while it’s true that the manufacturer has been behind a lot of peripherals for the Xbox One and PS4, it’s trying to branch out and reach PC gamers with headsets like the Turtle Beach Elite Atlas Aero.

This is essentially Turtle Beach’s best PC gaming headset, with wireless connectivity, a metal headband, powerful desktop software and a price tag to match. That’s right, you’re looking at a price of $149 (£129, about AU$220) if you want to get your hands on the Turtle Beach Elite Atlas Aero. At that price point, it goes up against some of the best PC gaming headsets on the market, like the Corsair Void Pro RGB, which is actually cheaper at $99 (£104, AU$169).  

Turtle Beach is hoping that some unique features will help sell it to PC gamers, but is it worth the inflated pricing?

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(Image credit: Future)(Image credit: Future)(Image credit: Future)(Image credit: Future)(Image credit: Future)(Image credit: Future)

If the Turtle Beach Elite Atlas Aero looks like anything, it looks like a gaming headset. Sharp angles are all over the design of this thing, with speaker grilles on the outside of the earcups that enable Waves NX 3D Audio – but are also kind of an eyesore. The angular, “gamer” design would be better if it came equipped with some RGB lighting, especially at this price point, but you won’t find it here.

The earcups themselves are memory foam, so they’re nice and comfy, but the tight squeeze of the headset on our head kind of offsets the benefit here. This is entirely a personal preference thing, so if you’re into tight headsets that give a good seal, you’ll fall in love here.

You can also remove the earcups, which is awesome if you need to replace them down the line due to wear and tear. But, what’s cooler about these removable earcups on the Turtle Beach Elite Atlas Aero is that there’s a little strap on the inside of each ear pad. You can pull on this strap to adjust it, making an indentation in the earcup that makes it more comfortable for folks that wear glasses. 

Turtle Beach is calling this the “ProSpecs Glasses Relief system,” and it’s a feature we haven’t seen in other headsets. Frankly, this is a major win in terms of accessibility. We love inclusive design work, and the Elite Atlas Aero definitely wins points here. 

Finally, when you pull the right earcup off, you’ll see a little indentation where you can store the USB wireless dongle for easy storage. We still ended up losing the dongle and needing a replacement, but that’s more just us being clumsy than anything on Turtle Beach’s behalf. 

Much like the earcups the mic is removable, which is a nice touch.

To control the headset, you’ll find all the buttons, dials and ports over on the left ear cup.  You’ll get an indented power button, a volume dial and a configurable button that will enable “Superhuman Hearing” by default.

Now, before you break out your credit card to buy a superpower, this just means the frequencies that the sound of in-game footsteps typically occupy will be amplified, so you can hear people walk up behind you or around corners in games. On the outside of the headset, you’ll see a button that mutes the mic.

The biggest downfall in design here isn’t actually the headset, though: it’s the software. Now, it’s obvious that this software is incredibly powerful, but the interface looks like it was ripped straight out of 1996. It gets the job done, but we honestly can’t stand to look at it. This could be updated in the future though, so it’s definitely not a dealbreaker.

This software looks like it came from 1996. (Image credit: Turtle Beach)

Performance

OK, this is a gaming headset that looks like a gaming headset – what else is new? What’s important is how it sounds. And, well, this headset nails it when playing games. Playing Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, the background music is beautiful, the swords clang together in epic fashion and the sound of the blood spraying after stabbing an enemy in the neck is as visceral as ever. 

However, to further enhance audio in your PC games, there are a couple of features that Turtle Beach has included here. First, you’ve got that “Superhuman Hearing,” which is targeted squarely at folks playing esports games. We’re definitely not esports players, we’re too old, so we’re not keen on getting destroyed in something like Overwatch. 

In Sekiro, however, when this option is enabled it will isolate the sound of your grappling hook shooting out, all but muting the rest of the game sound. It’s an odd effect, and we see it being useful for anyone playing the latest Call of Duty, but in single player RPGs, you’re going to want to leave this setting off. 

For the more single-player leaning players, however, Turtle Beach has included Waves NX 3D Audio. This does make the game world feel more voluminous, and made playing Dark Souls into a new experience, even if we’ve played it multiple times. However, this isn’t like the Audeze Mobius that tracks your head movement, it just adds a 3D effect to the game audio.

You can remove these earcups. (Image credit: Future)

Final verdict

The Turtle Beach Elite Atlas Aero ticks a lot of boxes, and its unique features and accessibility options are definitely worth taking a look at. Both esports players and single-player curmudgeons will find a feature to enjoy.

However, the design leaves a lot to be desired, and the lack of any RGB lighting makes the extremely “gamer” aesthetic not worth it. And, at $149 (£129, about AU$220), the price tag might be hard to swallow, especially in the face of headsets like the Corsair Void Pro RGB, which features 7.1 Virtual Surround, while slashing 50 bucks or quid off the price tag.

Turtle Beach Elite Atlas Aero: Price Comparison

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Beaches where you can see sea turtles in Sri Lanka, a beach where turtles come out

The waters around Sri Lanka are rich in marine life: whales, dolphins, shellfish, many species of exotic fish, and of course, sea turtles . The island has several beaches where sea turtles regularly come to lay their eggs. Tourists can look at the turtles up close, take pictures with them, feed them, and swim with them.

If you love turtles (and who doesn’t?), be sure to visit the turtle farm near Kosgoda (available as part of the one-day excursion “South Tour”):

South Tour: Galle Fort, River Safari, Turtle Farm

• River Safari through the Mangroves, Cinnamon Island, Temple Island and Bird Island
• Galle Fortress – the largest fortress built by Europeans
• Turtle Farm
• Private tour in a comfortable car

Fort, turtles, river safari

From $130 per person

Details

Organizer:

Features:

Listed below are some of the places in Sri Lanka where turtles can be seen:

Turtle Beach off Hikkaduwa

Near Hikkaduwa there are several beaches with turtles. The most famous is Turtle Beach, a beach with turtles and reef sharks in Hikkaduwa. This place is near the Hikka Tranz hotel. Turtles appear here every day. They are practically tame, they are not afraid of people, they willingly take food from their hands. You can hand-feed the turtles yourself, or use the services of local consultants who, for a modest fee, will give you special seaweed and show you how to hand-feed the turtles safely.

Turtle beaches Mihiripenna Beach and Dalawella near Unawatuna

Mihiripenna Beach is a 7-minute drive from Unawatuna Beach, where sea turtles show up regularly. Also near Unawatuna there is Turtle beach (aka Dalawella beach and Vijaya beach).

You can snorkel among the turtles. Children especially like this adventure. They are delighted with playing with turtles. The turtle beach in Sri Lanka is a must-see on the island for those who love nature.

Rewaka turtle beach (near Tangalle)

Rewaka Beach is located 10 km from Tangalle and is a great place to watch turtles during the laying season (between April and September). At night, green and leatherback turtles come ashore to lay their eggs on this beach. To visit Rewaka Beach, you need to pay an entrance fee, which goes to the turtle conservation project.

Beaches of Montenegro: description, photo, video

Beaches

Secluded beaches of Montenegro

The stunning beauty of the Adriatic coast offers tourists pebbly, sandy and concrete beaches, wild and equipped, noisy and secluded. We talk about small beaches located in cozy bays in this material.

2 years ago no comments

Beaches

Wild beaches of Montenegro

From November to May, any Montenegrin beach can be considered wild – there are few people on the coast, restaurants are closed, beaches are not equipped for recreation.

3 years ago no comment

Beaches

Ada Bojana beach

Ada Bojana beach – the world famous pearl of Montenegro

4 years ago 5 comments

Beach and

Malevik beach

Malevik beach is located in a colorful bay near the Black Cape north of Sutomore.

4 years ago 4 comments

Beaches

Mogren Beach

Among the numerous beaches of the fantastically beautiful Budva Riviera, Mogren Beach is especially popular among Russian tourists.

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Beaches

Beach Hawaii

Few people know, but a small island off the coast is one of the best places to relax in Montenegro.

4 years ago 4 comments

Montenegro is famous for its warm Adriatic Sea and luxurious beaches. There will be enough places for recreation near the water for all travelers, but before choosing a resort town or laying your route to “wild” places, it is better to sort out the nuances in advance. They will be discussed in this article.

See also: Atlas of Montenegrin beaches: choosing one of 12 types of swimming and water recreation

Features and types of beaches

The total number of beaches reaches 117, and their length is 73 km . They may belong to the city, a hotel, be a closed area, or they may be “wild” beaches. There is a different surface of the coast.

• Sand – such beaches are especially appreciated by tourists, but there are few of them in Montenegro and they are concentrated mainly in the south of the country.
• Pebbles are the most common beaches, and there can be both small pebbles and large cobblestones, which is why some beaches are called “stone beaches”.
• Concrete – these are landscaped areas with a smooth and warm surface of the shore, from which you can go down the ladder into the water and immediately start swimming.

Laws on beaches in Montenegro: cleaning and sun beds Villa Milocer. Access to them is possible only as part of the tour, after booking tables in a restaurant or paying for expensive sunbeds.