Ears On With Plantronics Rig 500 Series

Recently I had the chance to check out some pretty amazing new headsets that are coming to market, at first I was unsure if I would like them, I mean they are headsets, just how good could they be. Turns out, when it comes from a company who helped broadcast from the moon, they know a thing or two.

The company has a long history of innovating in areas that people never thought possible, they created the standard for pilots, air traffic controllers and yes, even astronauts. Since they started back in 1961, they have provided a lot of headsets for military use, with their base design still being used by NASA to this day, so to say they know their stuff, is pretty easy, they created the market. It was 1999 when Plantronics first entered into the gaming market and from that decision a lot of important events have occurred.

If anyone remembers that black box you bought for Xbox Live back on the original Xbox, inside you got a headset, well that was made by Plantronics, years later when the Xbox 360 was king and people wanted a wireless chat headset, Plantronics was who Microsoft turned to. But over the years as they have kept releasing new headsets for both console and the PC markets, they have never rested on their laurels, starting from scratch each time, which brings us to the Rig 500 series I was checking out.

I know from experience that when I buy a headset, it might feel great the first time I wear it, but after an hour or so it starts to pinch, turns out Plantronics know about that. In fact they claim that almost every headset made will fit about 50% of people ok and the rest will get a pinched head, so with the Rig 500 series they wanted to make that number closer to 90%, but in order to do that, they needed to input and it turns out they would get it from some very serious gamers, eSports competitors to be exact.

When they started, the first thing they needed to build was the headband itself, the core component of a decent headset but it had to be light, at no point could it way a lot as it was going to be worn for extended periods of time, but it still had to be durable. The headband is made of a special blend of materials which has in turn made it extremely durable, but also super flexible. Peter, the man from Plantronics walking me through this, was literally twisting the band in every way he could and it always want back to its normal shape, it was very impressive.

But a good headband is only one part of a headset, you still need the cups as well as some additional support and it’s with these elements that the 500 series really starts to shine. The entire thing is modular, if you want one cup to sit higher than the other, you can do that, if you need more support you can add the inner band to help, or remove it if you don’t want it there. By making the unit modular, they are hoping to be able to reach more gamers, because not every head is the same shape, so why should the headsets be fixed to one. The best thing about them all is that the ear cups are all made from memory foam, which means they are soft

There are actually three different variants of the Rig 500 series, there is the base model the Rig 500, the Rig 500HD and the granddaddy the Rig 500E, depending on your budget you will get a range of features, but Plantronics also wanted to ensure that if you could only afford the base model now, there would be nothing to stop you down the line from buying the extras parts to upgrade, rather than buying an entire new headset. In the near future they will also allow you to place your order for your own custom band, meaning that if you are a member of a team, the entire group can have your own emblem showing on the headset, or maybe a fancy pattern, there is almost no limits.

For the base model, you get the noise cancelling boom mic, with isolating ear cups that contain 40mm drivers, the isolating ear cups is the thing we are looking at first, as they close over your ear and keep noise from getting in, there is also no air flow around your ears, which can give some people some issues. If after a while you really like the headset, but need to get some air around your ears, you can simply head to the Plantronics website and order the vented ear cups. Again, the headset is modular, meaning you can change things around as you want. The microphone that is built-in to the headset has a cool feature in that when you flip it up, once it goes against the headset itself, you will hear a click and that is your notice that the mic is now muted. Perhaps the coolest part is that this comes with a 3.5mm connector, which means you can use it on your console of choice, PC or even tablet.

The next one up in the list was the 500HD and the big different between this and the lower one is that this headset supports 7.1 Dolby Surround. It also sports 24 channel support, which will let you have some of the clearest sound around. You won’t get the 7.1 out of the box, but you can purchase the adaptor that enables that later, if you wanted to, but even without that, the audio quality is pretty amazing.

The final one I checked out was the 500E, this a serious piece of equipment, it comes with the 7.1 audio adaptor, two sets of ear cups, one isolated and one vented, so you can change whenever you want, the internal band is leather for maximum comfort and it is ESL endorsed, which means it’s the ones that the pros will use in tournaments. This unit also comes with the ability to swap between a 3.5mm connector and a USB connector, depending on what you are using them for.

I was able to test out the 500HD and 500E on Call of Duty Advanced Warfare and Outlast respectively and both helped add a level of immersion to the games I never thought about before, especially Outlast, with 7.1 on, that game took creepy to an entirely new level. My time using them was very limited, though I would have been happy to walk out with the 500E in my bag, but seeing as the prices start at $99.95 for the 500, $129.95 for the 500HD and $199.95 for the 500E, they are well with-in affordability and hey, I can always upgrade parts later if I want.