When it comes to gaming headsets, not a lot of people actually knows what kind of specifications to look for. Which manufacturers take advantage to be more flair in looks to look cool, rather than functional to really do gaming.
In my perspective of using gaming headsets, here are the three main factors I am looking for.
- Comfort
- Sound Quality
- Compatibility and Price
Hence, enter the RIG 500 from Plantronics. I’ve been urging to get a good headset for PUBG playing ever since my Gamdias Hebe M1 started to flunk out with its cable system. While I have an ASUS Cerberus headset, it wasn’t enough for the intense gaming situations of PUBG, especially heading nearby walking or even gunshots.
Comfort
So answering the three considerations I have, the first one is the comfort. The Rig 500 is made out of plastic with light mesh materials for the foam padding on the earcups. While this might sound weird, it’s actually lightweight at 200 grams, added that this headset is fully modular by breaking down into three main parts of headsets, self-adjusting headband and the ultralight head frame.
Cushioning on the RIG500 is actually okay, the cushion gives good sound isolation and even natural noise cancellation. It’s enough to tone down your noisy air conditioning unit and electric fan, while your whole ear fits inside the cups giving no annoying ear flaps squished.
Overall comfort is 8/10, there might be some scratching cause of the cloth based cushions but there isn’t any annoying leather padding that will make your ears sweat like working out.
Sound Quality
While adjusting the RIG500 is easy with three levels of adjustment for the ears, it’s also nice to listen to for Gaming. The 40mm drivers matched with low frequency resonators gives a good “umph” of bass you want to. I’m a person who like to have above average bass in what I listen, but not overpowering the other essentials like the treble in mid for those gunshot or grenade explosions.
Music wise, it’s actually not bad with good highs and lows. It’s enough to listen to 256kbps music quality, but even 192kbps can be a standard. Just don’t raise expectations enough when you are already heavy bass music like EDM style as it’s more for vocals and instruments that are high to mid.
The Noise-Cancelling boom mic is actually nice. You flip it up to quickly mute, good for those moments you have to talk to someone outside the game.
Environment wise, background noise like air con and electric fan is a bit sensitive. So make sure it’s not directly being blown by air to avoid annoying your team.
Voice is very clear just like a voice call, depth isn’t enough to be clear like a microphone from a studio. It’s responsive and fortunately no electromagnetic problems from signals so far.
Pricing and Compatibility
The RIG500 have a 1.5m cable for a 3.5mm audio jack combination of stereo and microphone. So this might pull you back if you have a desktop setup that the PC is placed a bit far from your table. It doesn’t have a volume control as well, but pretty understandable since it’s just quick to adjust volume via keyboard.
Price wise, the Plantronics RIG 500 will cost you Php3,150 at retail stores. It might not be the cheapest, but it’s a good price point to invest especially if you are serious in using applications such as PUBG or Discord rich-applications as it really helps to have a good microphone and headset to play around for hours.
What we like
- Lightweight and modular adjustment
- Good quality noise-cancelling microphone
- Above average headphone sound quality
- Comfortable cushioning.
What we don’t like
- Cable could be a bit longer
- Separate volume control
Overall the RIG 500 is an ideal gaming headset for gamer on-the-go with their laptops. Or if your budget is just right and you’re just starting for your e-sports career. It’s just right to set you off to the right experience of gaming headsets.