The Best Wired Headset of 2026? ( RIG R5 Spear Max HD Unboxing & Impressions )
They say that when you lose one of your senses, the others become stronger. You know, like Daredevil. But what if you don't have to lose one of your senses in order to get an edge when it comes to hearing things when gaming? Well, that is the advantage that I'm told RIG are bringing to the table with their brand new AR Five Max HD. Now these are still sealed and brand new in the box, so I will give you guys my first impressions. And I have been briefed on these, and there are really three things that, when they told me about them, I was like, really? And I am interested to know if you will be surprised by these things too. Anyway, let's get this out of the box and see what it comes with.
So RIG actually have a few different names for these headphones, and one of them is the AR Five Sphere. And here we have a bit of paperwork where they are referred to as the AR Five Sphere Max HD. If you do buy these, I don't think you're going to get this bit of paper. I think this is exclusively for the press. So first out of the box is this — they are snap-lock mod plates. I will come back to these once we get the headphones out of the box. And we have a box within the box. I believe this will be more like the official retail packaging. Now I really like the black and gold theme that they've used on the packaging here, and these are cross-platform compatible, so you can use them with Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, PC, and even mobile.
And actually, one of the features that surprised me was regarding mobile gaming. You'll see something that I'm quite happy to see, which is this Dolby Atmos support for spatial audio. And if you are a PlayStation fan, you'll be happy to know that these also support Tempest 3D audio. “Audio above all” is the tagline for RIG. So these right here are the official mod plates that you get with this headset. So let's get a little look at them. So these are optional covers for the backs of the earcups. And the idea is that you can get your own ones made or add your own branding to them. So if you're a game streamer, you can kind of interchange the branding whenever you feel like it. You know what? Since we're here, we might as well see what these other ones look like, if they're any different from the ones that you get in the box.
So those have got a completely different style. This is a good example of what you can create. And if you do happen to have a 3D printer, RIG do provide the files that you need in order to create your own RIG mod plates for the headphones. And I really like what RIG have done with these ones. I like the style. Anyway, let's get the headphones out of the box now. So, taking these out of the box for the first time, something I really appreciate is the weight that they have. They're not extremely light, which can make them feel cheap. They're not extremely heavy, which could make them feel uncomfortable. Just like with the packaging, they've got the black and gold theme going on here. And something that's really, really nice about these headphones is the all-metal headband. These apparently have been thrown at the wall — quite literally — to make sure that they can survive rage quits.
So, first impressions are that I really like the look of these headphones. They do kind of look like studio monitor headphones without the mod plates. And when you put the mod plates on, yeah, they take on that gamer look a bit more. hidden away underneath here are a few more things, including one of the things that I mentioned in the intro that really surprised me. So this right here is a magnetic broadcast-grade microphone, and you'll notice it can be detached when you don't want to use it. It's got a flexible arm here. It does use a cardioid pickup pattern. It very simply magnetises onto this little area. And it does have the flip-up-to-mute feature. And there is something else quite special about this microphone, which we're going to come back to in a moment. But let's see what else is in the box first.
So right here is another attachment. And it is another magnetic attachment. And this attachment is purely for those of you who are not into game chat. This one is just for audio. You've got 3.5mm here, and you've got the adapter here if you do have more pro equipment. Of course, there's paperwork in here, including a QR code to some support videos, a quick start guide, and this — because these are Dolby Atmos certified headphones — they do kind of prompt you to download the Dolby Atmos software for PC if you are going to be gaming on PC. And it also shows Xbox here, so Dolby Atmos via Xbox is supported too. Okay, last but maybe most importantly is this — the RIG deck. If you are watching this and you are a more serious gamer, this might be the audio game changer that you've been looking for, and I will show you why.
DESIGN
Let me give you a quick guided tour of the design, and I'll explain what that feature is with the deck. So customisation is a big deal when it comes to these headphones. You can easily interchange the mod plates and change up the look entirely whenever you want. I actually do like them without the mod plates. I think they look, as I said before, like studio monitors. The microphone can be detached, and if you wanted to, you could attach it to the opposite side. This is something that I have never heard of before when it comes to gaming headphones. And this is one of the features that I was like, really?
And when it locks on, it's super secure as well. It's not like you're going to snag that and it's going to get ripped out of the headset whilst gaming. They've really done a fantastic job at making sure that that's really locked in there. And I'm giving this a lot of force now, and it's not detaching. It's only when you pull it straight outwards that it comes off. And the mic does have inline controls built in, so you can adjust the levels there very easily with this nice little slider.
Here's a little mic test for you guys. This is how the mic sounds in a very quiet room. But let's say you're gaming in a coffee shop — here's a coffee shop background noise. And this is how the mic sounds now. Because it is a cardioid mic, you can really point it towards your mouth and away from the sound. Let me know how it sounds in your opinion. For the mic test, please watch the video
The modularity and flexibility of this make it very different from other headphones. And of course, like I said before, if you don't want to use the mic, you can just use the audio cable just like that. Something I know a lot of people will appreciate is the look — the gold accent on the headband — but maybe more so than that is the durability of this headband. I really don't want to damage them before trying them out for the first time, but I've seen you can fully twist these up. You’ve got a bit of subtle branding across the top and a lot of padding across the inside at the top of the headband, which is very nice. And it has very soft padding here, and it's very breathable.
And one of the reasons for that is this — so hopefully you can see this — inside this leatherette area is actually perforated, which means it can breathe better. When you do squash it down, the air can actually escape, and I'm assuming the other way as well. So when you start to get hot, there's some good ventilation built in here. And something else that I know a lot of you guys will appreciate is this — the earcups are magnetically attached, which means you can replace them when they get worn down. And behind them is the second thing that I was like, really? When I heard about it. It is the type of drivers that RIG are using here. One of the big differences between these headphones and all of their similarly priced competitors is the fact that this RIG headset uses graphene 40mm drivers, with the membrane being 45% pure graphene.
Now, the reason this is important is because graphene has a certain amount of stiffness to it, but it's incredibly light. It's also very thermally efficient. And when you push it, it doesn't fall apart like other drivers. And compared to most traditional types of drivers used in competitor headsets, the harmonic distortion is far lower — less than 0.3% with these headphones. Most regular headphones are around 0.5%, and this might seem like a minimal difference, but it's a huge difference when it comes to audio distortion and ultimately clarity.
And because they can be pushed so far without distortion, of course, they do support high-res audio. The frequency response here is 20Hz to 40kHz, which exceeds human hearing. But the fact that it doesn't start to degrade outside of that range means that the accuracy within the hearing range should be much clearer and far more detailed — they say, in fact, maybe twice as detailed compared to other 20Hz to 20kHz headphones.
