Plantronics RIG 500 Pro Esport Gaming Headset Review

Inside the box you get the headset itself and two cables to attach it to various places. The first cable has an inline remote and is really designed to work with the PC although works with consoles too. The second cable, and one that you’ll no doubt use with your controllers has an audio knob built into the jack itself, to it puts volume control right at your fingertips. It’s the simplest thing ever, but it makes absolute sense. You don’t want to be removing your hand from the controller during intense firefights to hunt for an inline remote control. Do be warned though. If you are using a custom controller like I am, chances are the jack/volume combo cable will not fit into the controller, as the plastic has been designed to wrap around the bottom of the official controllers.

The actual build quality of the Plantronics RIG 500 Pro is extremely sturdy, and feel very solid. I wouldn’t get too worried if I dropped these by mistake. There’s a metal headband that goes right over the top of your crown, with an inner auto-adjustable headband that stretches over your crown. The quality of the inner band is very nice, with fabric on one side for comfort while wearing, and a stretchy leather for the outside.

The entire earcups can adjust to one of three spots, which was very strange to first see, as there’s no adjustable headband. The earcups pop out and snap into each hole. Test all three to find which is more comfortable for you. I chose the bottom because my head is large, but for you, it might be different. I never felt that these headphones were uncomfortable, and my longest gaming session so far with these is about four to five hours.

The headphones themselves house 50mm drivers which sound absolutely superb, even if you’re not using the Dolby Atmos sound space. I used these a lot playing some Apex Legends on my PS4, and the mixture of in-game audio and voices from the people I was chatting to was amazing. Sound is very wide, and again on PS4, enemies and gunfire were very directional so I could pinpoint where enemies were using sound.

I’ve also just started God War. I know late to the party and all that, but the intro to the game and the fight you have with The Stranger sounded epic. Slamming eachother into rock faces, the electrical charges of The Stranger’s attacks and Kratos’ yelling sounded punchy. There was no overpowering bass frequencies, and the crumbling rock sounds were all present.

The cups themselves come with two pads. The first uses what Plantronics are calling dual-material, which basically means the cups use a mixture of memory foam and leather. The second set of earcups included only use memory foam. The advantage I found, as these are open back headphones too is that if I use the dual-material cups, there was better noise isolation from the outside world.

One of the biggest let downs though since this headset advertises Dolby Atmos so much, is the fact that the Atmos 7.1 surround sound doesn’t work with the Playstation 4. The fact that it only works with Xbox or Windows as it’s a software driver download is a shame. But saying that, games need to be coded for Dolby Atmos, so if they’re not, you’re not going to be receiving that glorious spacial surround sound anyway. So it’s hit or miss whether it’ll actually work. Of course you do still get that simulated 7.1 surround.

Lastly the microphone, which is extremely small and removable from the headset itself. While playing that game of Apex Legends, my friend told me that I sounded quite tinny when on comms. I was heard over his game sounds, but the vocal quality seemed to have to bass to it.

Despite the slightly garish look, the Plantronics RIG 500 Pro Esports Edition headset has proven itself to be a worthy component to anyone’s gaming setup, especially if you’re on a console. For PC owners however, for the price of the headset itself, it may be better going for some kind of headphone/condenser microphone type setup. For more information on the Plantronics RIG 500 Pro Esport Gaming Headset, head over to the website now.