STEALTH C6-100 Gaming Headset UK Review (2026), Tested & Rated

Most gaming headsets are bought on impulse and regretted within a fortnight. You pick one up because the box looks good, the price seems reasonable, and you need something that works tonight. What you actually get is a coin flip between something that does the job and something that makes your ears hurt after an hour. After eight years of testing headsets across every price bracket, I've learned that the budget end of the market is where you really have to pay attention, because the gap between a decent budget headset and a useless one is enormous, and the marketing rarely tells you which is which.

The STEALTH C6-100 sits firmly in the budget category, priced to appeal to parents buying for younger gamers, students who can't justify spending more, and anyone who just needs a second headset for a spare room or a mate's house. STEALTH as a brand has been quietly supplying the UK gaming accessories market for years, mostly targeting the sub-£40 crowd. They're not trying to compete with SteelSeries or HyperX on audio engineering. They're trying to give you something functional at a price that doesn't sting. Whether the C6-100 actually delivers on that modest promise is what I spent three weeks finding out.

I tested the C6-100 across PC, PS5, and Nintendo Switch. Sessions included competitive matches in Warzone and Apex Legends, longer story-driven playthroughs in Elden Ring, and some casual use watching YouTube and listening to music. I also used it during voice calls and Discord sessions to get a proper read on the microphone. Three weeks of daily use gives you a much clearer picture than an afternoon unboxing, and there were a few things that surprised me, in both directions.

Weight is light. Genuinely light. This thing doesn't feel like it has much to it, which is either reassuring or worrying depending on how you look at it. The cable is a single 3.5mm jack with an inline volume wheel and a mic mute toggle. No separate mic and headphone jacks, so if your PC only has separate audio ports you'll need a splitter (not included). The earcups are over-ear in design, with a fixed boom microphone on the left side. There's no retractable option here, the mic is always present.

Build materials are plastic throughout. The headband has a basic adjustable slider mechanism, and the earcup padding is a soft leatherette material. The overall construction feels exactly like what it is: a budget headset designed to a price point. Nothing here is going to win awards for engineering, but the joints feel reasonably solid and nothing rattled or creaked during testing. For context, I've had headsets at twice the price feel flimsier out of the box.

Impedance sits at around 32 ohms, which is low enough to be driven properly by a phone, a console controller headphone jack, or a basic PC audio output without needing a dedicated amplifier. Sensitivity is listed in the standard range for budget headsets. In practice, this means the C6-100 gets to a comfortable listening volume without you having to crank your device to maximum, which is a basic requirement that some cheap headsets actually fail. This one doesn't.

The frequency response claim of 20Hz to 20kHz is technically accurate in the same way that most headset specs are technically accurate, which is to say it tells you the range but nothing about how flat or consistent the response is across that range. In reality, budget 40mm drivers tend to have a pronounced mid-bass hump, rolled-off sub-bass, and variable treble performance. The C6-100 follows this pattern fairly closely. It's not a flat, reference-grade response, but it was never going to be at this price. What matters is whether the tuning works for gaming, and that's a more nuanced question.

For competitive gaming, this tuning is a mixed bag. The elevated bass means explosions and gunfire have some weight to them, which feels satisfying. But it also means that the subtle high-frequency cues that tell you exactly where a footstep is coming from can get a bit muddied. In Apex Legends, I found myself occasionally uncertain about the precise direction of footsteps in close-quarters situations. Not catastrophically so, but noticeable if you're used to a more neutral or treble-forward headset. For casual or story-driven gaming, the warm signature actually works quite well. Elden Ring sounded atmospheric and immersive, and the low-end weight made boss fights feel properly dramatic.

Music performance is decent for the price. The bass-forward tuning suits hip-hop, electronic, and rock reasonably well. It's less flattering for acoustic music or classical, where you want more precision and air in the high frequencies. But honestly, if you're buying a budget gaming headset to listen to classical music, you're probably approaching this from the wrong direction. For gaming and casual listening, the sound signature is functional and inoffensive. It won't embarrass you, and it won't blow you away either.

Bass extension is present but not deep. You'll hear and feel the mid-bass punch of explosions and heavy music, but genuine sub-bass rumble below about 60Hz is largely absent. This is normal for 40mm drivers in a closed plastic housing. Treble clarity is acceptable for the price. Cymbals and high-frequency sound effects are audible and not painfully harsh, which is a real achievement at this price point because many budget headsets either roll off the treble too aggressively or spike it in a way that causes listening fatigue. The C6-100 sits in a reasonable middle ground.

In actual gaming sessions, the sound quality held up better than I expected for the price. Warzone was playable and I could distinguish directional audio well enough for casual play. The bigger issue was that after extended sessions, the slightly compressed, narrow soundstage became more noticeable. It's the kind of thing you don't notice in a ten-minute test but becomes apparent over a two-hour gaming session. That said, at this price, you're not buying a headset for audiophile-grade imaging. You're buying it to hear the game, communicate with your team, and not have your ears hurt. On those terms, it passes.

Voice clarity is functional. In Discord calls during gaming sessions, my teammates could hear me clearly enough that nobody complained or asked me to repeat myself. That's the baseline test for any gaming headset mic, and the C6-100 passes it. Background noise rejection is limited, as you'd expect from a basic omnidirectional mic at this price. If you're gaming in a quiet room, you'll be fine. If there's a TV on in the background or other people talking nearby, that noise will bleed into your mic feed. I tested this specifically by having a podcast playing in the background during a Discord call, and it was audible to the other person, though not overwhelming.

The mic mute toggle on the inline control is a nice touch. It's a physical switch rather than a button, which means you can feel whether the mic is muted without looking down at the cable. That's genuinely useful during gaming. The inline volume wheel is smooth and responsive. Neither control feels premium, but both work reliably, and after three weeks of daily use neither had developed any wobble or inconsistency. For a budget headset, that's a reasonable result. Don't expect broadcast-quality voice reproduction, but for gaming communication it does the job.

The leatherette earcup padding is soft enough initially but does get warm over time. After about ninety minutes of continuous use, I noticed some heat build-up around my ears. This is common with closed leatherette earcups at any price, but it's worth flagging if you're prone to warm ears during gaming. The earcups are large enough to fit over most ears without pressing on the ear itself, which is important for long-term comfort. Nothing worse than an on-ear headset masquerading as an over-ear design. The C6-100 is genuinely over-ear for average to large ears.

Glasses wearers will find the light clamp force helpful. There's not much pressure pushing the arms of your glasses into your head, which is a common pain point with headsets that have aggressive clamping. I wore the C6-100 with glasses for several sessions and found it more comfortable than some mid-range headsets I've tested that clamp harder. Build quality overall is plastic and light, but nothing broke, cracked, or showed signs of stress during three weeks of regular use. The cable is fixed and non-removable, which is a durability risk over time, but the cable itself felt reasonably well-made with decent strain relief at the jack end.

The cable length is approximately 1.2 metres, which is fine for console gaming where you're sitting close to the TV or using a controller. For desktop PC use, 1.2 metres can feel a bit short depending on your setup. If your PC tower is on the floor or your monitor is far from where you sit, you might find yourself stretching the cable. An extension cable solves this easily, but again, it's an extra thing to buy. The inline controls sit about 30cm down the cable from the headset, which puts them in a natural position for reaching down to adjust volume without looking.

There's no USB option, no wireless, and no Bluetooth. This is a purely analogue wired headset. For some people that's a negative. For others, it's actually a positive because analogue connections don't have driver issues, don't need charging, and don't introduce wireless latency. At this price, I'd rather have a reliable wired connection than a budget wireless implementation that drops out or has noticeable lag. The simplicity of the C6-100's connectivity is appropriate for what it is.

With a wired headset, you never have to think about power. You pick it up, plug it in, and use it. For younger gamers especially, or anyone who finds battery management an annoyance, this is a genuine quality-of-life benefit. The trade-off is the cable, which can get in the way and is a potential failure point over time. But in terms of day-to-day usability, not having to charge your headset is a real convenience.

The inline controls draw no power and require no batteries. The volume wheel and mic mute toggle work passively through the analogue signal path. This means there's no risk of the controls failing due to battery issues, and no firmware updates required to keep them working. Everything about the C6-100's power situation is as simple as it gets, and that simplicity is a feature, not a limitation, at this price point.

The lack of software isn't really a negative at this price. Budget headset software is often poorly made, rarely updated, and sometimes causes more problems than it solves. I've reviewed headsets where the companion app crashed on launch, required an account sign-up to access basic EQ, or simply stopped working after a Windows update. The C6-100 avoids all of that by not having software at all. It's a pragmatic choice that suits the target audience.

If you do want to tweak the sound, the C6-100 responds reasonably well to EQ adjustments. Pulling back some of the mid-bass around 150-200Hz and adding a small boost around 8-10kHz improves the competitive gaming performance noticeably, giving you a bit more clarity in the high frequencies where footstep sounds live. This is something you can do in Windows Sonic, Dolby Atmos for Headphones, or any free EQ tool. It's not necessary, but it's worth knowing the headset isn't completely fixed in its sound signature if you're willing to spend ten minutes tweaking.

The one compatibility caveat is the split audio situation on desktop PCs, which I mentioned in the connectivity section. It's worth repeating here because it catches people out. If you're buying this for a desktop PC and you don't have a combined audio jack on your front panel or a USB audio adapter, you need a splitter. Check your PC's audio ports before buying. Most modern gaming motherboards do have a combined front-panel jack, but older machines or budget builds sometimes don't.

Multi-platform use is genuinely easy with the C6-100. Because it's a simple analogue wired headset with no platform-specific software or wireless pairing, switching between your PS5 and your Switch takes about five seconds. Unplug from one controller, plug into the other. No re-pairing, no driver installation, no compatibility mode to toggle. For households with multiple gaming platforms, or for someone who wants one headset that works everywhere without fuss, this is a real practical advantage over more complex headsets.

The Turtle Beach Recon 50 is probably the C6-100's most direct competitor. It's been around for years, has a huge number of reviews, and is a known quantity. It offers slightly better build quality and a more established brand reputation, but it's typically priced a bit higher. The HyperX Cloud Stinger Core is another strong option at the budget end, with HyperX's generally reliable audio tuning and decent build quality, though it's usually priced above the C6-100 as well. The C6-100's main competitive advantage is its price, which is genuinely low even by budget headset standards.

Where the C6-100 loses ground is in audio imaging and build confidence. The Recon 50 has a slightly wider soundstage and the Cloud Stinger Core has better driver clarity in the mids. Neither is dramatically better, but if you're spending a bit more, you do get a bit more. The C6-100 competes on value, not on outright performance. And at its price, that's a legitimate position to take.

The weaknesses are real and worth being honest about. The soundstage is narrow, which limits competitive audio performance. The fixed boom mic is always present whether you want it or not. The cable is short enough to be mildly annoying on some desktop setups. And the bass-forward tuning, while pleasant for casual gaming, isn't ideal if you want precise positional audio in competitive matches. None of these are dealbreakers at this price, but they're things you should know going in.

Who should buy this? Parents looking for a first gaming headset for a younger child. Students who need something that works across PC, console, and phone without spending much. Anyone who needs a spare headset for a second gaming setup or a guest. People who've had their main headset break and need something functional while they save up for a replacement. The C6-100 is a sensible, no-nonsense option for all of those situations. It's priced at £16.99 and it earns that price honestly.

I'd score it a 6.5 out of 10. Not because it fails at anything, but because it's a budget headset with budget limitations, and the score reflects that honestly. Within its category and at its price, it's actually one of the more sensible choices available. If your budget stretches further, spend more and you'll get more. But if the C6-100's price is your ceiling, you're not making a mistake buying it.