Reviewed by Chester Labaco on Monday, 19 Sep 2016

Plantronics RIG 500E review: Modular Design

With the ever growing gaming scene, it is expected that companies will try to enter this lucrative field. Plantronics is one of them. Well known for their business-to-business and Bluetooth headsets, they are now entering the gaming arena with their RIG headsets. We’ll be taking a look at one of them. Specifically, the Plantronics RIG 500E.

The Plantronics RIG 500E is one of the most modular gaming headsets we’ve ever seen. Out of the box, it comes with the usual documentation, an ESL sticker for gaming folks, a 3.5mm audio jack that’s 1 meter long, a Dolby 7.1 3.5mm to USB adapter, and the headset itself.

Open-back ear cups

Closed-back ear cups

As for the headset, you get two sets of ear cups (one closed-back, and the other semi open-back), cloth and leatherette ear cushions, headband, and the frame itself.

The Plantronics RIG 500E is primarily made of plastic. It’s light in both good and bad ways. Good, because it doesn’t fatigue you ears and head as much compared to heavier headsets. Bad, since the headset feels fragile. Fortunately, none of the modules of the RIG 500E broke with our relatively careless handling.

You can adjust the height of the ear cups using these notches

The headband is soft and doesn’t give any strain on the head while the frame is lightweight and does a decent job in clamping the ear cups onto our heads. Adjusting the fit of the headset is simple as well. There are three notches on both sides of the frame where you can choose where to attach the ear cups depending on your preference.

As we have mentioned, the Plantronics RIG 500E comes with two ear cups. One closed-back while the other is open-back. Both ear cups are decently sized, however, they are a bit small to our liking and our outer ear does touch the edges of the cushion. Despite that, the cushions are soft enough that we don’t feel any fatigue while playing games for long intervals. Despite not having an indicator which ear cup is left or right, that is mitigated by the microphone plug which is located on the left ear cup.

In order to use the 7.1 Dolby surround sound capabilities of the headset, you’ll need to use the Dolby 3.5mm to USB adapter that comes in the box. It’s easy enough to install, although you would need to download the RIG 500 software from Plantronics’ website to fully utilize it. You can also edit the equalizer to your preference using the RIG 500 software. It does come with several presets with a lot of slots for your own preferred equalizer settings.

The Plantronics RIG 500E is powered by a dynamic 40mm driver with a frequency response 20Hz – 20KHz, an impedance of 32ohms, and a max input power of 40mW. The closed-back (or isolating ear cups) does a fairly good job of isolating noise from the outside thus immersing you in the action. The bass in the closed-back ear cups is also much more pronounced compared to the open-back version. The open-back (or vented ear cups) despite its lack of bass compared to the closed-back version, have a wider soundstage.

Primarily a gaming headset, we decided to use it on some games first. The Plantronics RIG 500E did not disappoint. We used the 7.1 Dolby surround sound in The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt and we were suddenly immersed in the game. We can hear the sufficiently hear the voices of the NPCs while in the bustling city of Novigrad. We can clearly hear the rustling of the grass and leaves while we were in the Skellige Isles. We cower in fear whenever we hear the screech of a Forktail flying over the horizon. We feel empowered, however, when in battle due to the superb audio quality brought by the Plantronics RIG 500E whenever the battle music is played, and when steel meets flesh while fighting with monsters or humans.

In competitive games, we decided to test the Plantronics RIG 500E in Blizzard’s Overwatch. Again, we were not disappointed with its performance, especially in 7.1 Surround mode. We felt like we had every tactical advantage in terms of sound. We can pinpoint where Tracer is whenever she uses her Blink ability, footsteps of Reaper is much more pronounced so we can locate and shut him down before he uses his Death Blossom. Locating an enemy in Overwatch before you/they see you is essential to be the victor in the battlefield.

It is most likely that you’ll also use your headset to play music. It’s up to you if you prefer the noise isolation and bass with the closed-back ear cups, or the wider soundstage and “music around you” feeling of the open-back ear cups.

Usually, gaming headsets have boosted bass and mids to pronounce explosions and footsteps while in game. The Plantronics RIG 500E is no different; we can definitely hear the mids and bass in songs much more than the high notes. We’ve definitely heard better audio quality in similarly priced audiophile headphones in the market, but since the Plantronics RIG 500E focuses on gaming instead of pure musical quality, the headset still performs decently.

The removable mic can be plugged-in at the left ear cup.

The microphone is a noise-cancelling, removable mic boom that can be attached to the left ear cup of the headset. It’s a bit short and reaches the side of your mouth, but it can still pick up your voice clearly. We did, however, notice that it still managed to pick up minute noises in the background such as the clacking of our mechanical keyboard and the humming of the air conditioning unit. Aside from that, the mic perfectly captures our voices and we are able to call out commands to our teammates in Overwatch.

Priced at PhP 7,195, the Plantronics RIG 500E gives us something that we’ve never experienced before: a modular headset that’s fully and easily customizable with excellent gaming performance and delivers a decent music experience. If you’re a serious gamer and if you like listening music every now and then, keep the Plantronics RIG 500E on your short list. It’s definitely a purchase you won’t regret.

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Plantronics RIG 500E

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