This Gaming Headsets Should Cost More! ( Rig R5 Pro HS )
Here, I have a brand new gaming headset from RIG. It’s called the R5 Pro HS, and is also referred to here as the RIG R5 Spear, and you can see it’s built specifically for PS5 and PS4. Apparently, this has been designed from the ground up for competitive gamers. I have been briefed on this product, so I do know a thing or two about it already, but let’s get this out of the box now.
Unboxing & Customization Plates
Audio above all. That is definitely a nod to a bit of technology in these headphones that you don’t often see in gaming headphones. so is it ten out of ten for the unboxing experience so far, This is so well presented. This was one of the design features they spoke about: the new Snap Lock mod plate setup for these earcups. If you are a pro gamer, if you do game streaming, you might want to add a bit of your own branding, and these headphones allow you to do that. So I’ll just put this to one side for now.
What’s in the Box
Here’s everything that comes with it. In the box you get the quick start guide and warranty information. This box right here… This is the official PlayStation-branded Snap Lock plate, and RIG are allowed to do this because these are officially PlayStation-licensed. We’ve got a boom microphone. We have a really, really nice flexible arm. It’s got a sort of mesh on the outside and on the inside. And check this out—this is the way it’s attached to the headphones. If we look on the back here, there’s actually a QR code that takes you to the shop where you can buy your own Snap Lock attachments.
Design & Comfort
First impressions of these headphones are really good. I like this style here with the purple and the blue. It’s almost got this reflective quality to it, and it’s got the PlayStation branding there because they are, of course, PlayStation-licensed. I do like the little bit of branding they’ve added here on the side of the headphones. The padding on the earcups feels nice and soft and very breathable, and the same across the top of the headband. The height adjustments here are nice and firm—they’re not going to slip around too easily. As you can see, these are wired headphones.
Controls & Connectivity
There are no batteries inside these—you can play endlessly without having to worry about battery. And there is a little inline control here for the volume, which is this nice little slider. When it hits the loudest point, there’s one extra click. If you want that little bit of extra volume, you can snap it into the max volume mode. Something that’s important to know about these headphones is these are analog headphones, which means you can plug them into anything: a PC, an Xbox, and a Nintendo. Just because they have the logo right there, it doesn’t mean you have to exclusively use them with the PlayStation. They are really nice, lightweight headphones. Let’s see what those Snap Lock cuffs look like when they’re on.
Snap Lock Plates in Action
I actually thought they would physically snap on, but they’re magnetized, so they literally just click on—just like that. That’s quite satisfying. As you can see, that completely changes the look of these headphones. So imagine these but with your own branding on them. I’ve just put these on for the first time, and they do completely cover my ears. There’s a lot of passive noise canceling here—I’m actually struggling to hear my own voice a little bit. I think I actually prefer the look without the Snap Lock, but the good thing about these is you can snap these on and off without looking because of the magnets. You can basically hot-swap these at any moment. now let me explain why these wired headphones might be some of the best-value gaming headphones you can get right now.
Graphene Drivers & Sound Precision
The RIG R5 Pro HS uses graphene drivers. This is a type of driver that’s usually reserved for audiophile-type headphones. Essentially, the graphene layer reinforces the diaphragm on these drivers, making them ultra-lightweight and rigid, and this approach reduces distortion massively. According to RIG, the total harmonic distortion is less than 0.5%, and you just know RIG are very proud of this because they’ve actually printed out all of the tech specs around the back of the earcup here to highlight the qualities of these particular drivers. What this will mean for you when you’re gaming is that the sound will be very precise, very accurate. You’ll be able to tell where things are coming from, and when you hear booms or high pitches, it’s not going to distort and crackle and put you off your game.
Earpads, Hi-Res Capability & Tuning
you’re probably thinking two things right now: first of all, these pads are probably going to wear down and maybe get sweaty. Well, check this out—they are fully removable, and they’re actually magnetized onto the headphones. And the second thing is you’re probably wondering what these graphene drivers actually look like. Well, you can kind of see them right here. Something else that really surprised me about these—especially given the price point—is the fact that these are actually Hi-Res capable headphones, which is quite rare in gaming headphones. The frequency response range here is 20Hz to 40kHz, which does mean these could be pretty awesome for movies and music as well. Apparently, the sound signature has been pre-tuned by RIG specifically for first-person shooters, boosting the upper midrange to enhance sounds like footsteps and things like that.
Microphone Features
Now, the microphone here might look like just a regular headphone mic, but there are a couple of interesting features. First of all, it does support flip-to-mute, so when you raise it up like this, it actually switches the microphone off, and when you bring it back down, it switches it back on. Secondly, they say that this is actually a broadcast-grade microphone, and the frequency range on this is 50Hz to 15kHz. This is perfect for clear voice capture. It does use a cardioid pickup pattern, of course, for optimal noise rejection, and there’s a little built-in pop filter.
Mic Test (Noise Scenario)
All right. This is the mic quality you can expect from the R5 Spear headphones in a quiet environment. I’m going to introduce some background noise. there’s some pretty loud coffee-shop background noise going on just in front of me. Let me know how good this mic is when it comes to canceling out background noise. Can you hear that noise at all? Is it enhancing my voice over that, or is it completely blocking it out? Let me know in the comments. For the mic test, please watch the video.
I mentioned earlier how you can just basically plug and play these headphones with anything, but they do have an exclusive PlayStation feature: they’ve been optimized for PlayStation’s Tempest 3D Audio, which is essentially PlayStation’s own 360 sound or spatial audio—whatever you want to call it.
PlayStation Tempest 3D Setup
So all you need to do to make the most of it is plug the analog audio jack into a DualSense or DualShock controller. Then go to your system Settings → Sound → Audio Output and select 3D Audio for Headphones. Then you can choose one of the five HRTF profiles to optimize your spatial audio. I want to go test these out now with some Metal Gear Solid Delta. I’m about to test out the R5 Spear headphones with the PS5, and I was going to play Metal Gear Solid. The only problem is I bought the disc version and the disc is in a drawer, and the disc that’s actually in the PlayStation right now is Ghost of Tsushima.
Listening Impressions
So anyway, what I’m going to do is get the headphones plugged into the controller. I’m testing out the 3D audio for the first time, and it sounds pretty good. First impressions are the sound is really, really open. You can hear the wind and the direction of the wind. You can hear the birds tweeting above your head and the crickets chirping in the grass. You can get a sense of the guiding wind and which way it’s blowing when you use that feature—you know what I’m talking about if you’ve ever played this game. Yeah, this is very, very good.
Final Thoughts
The last gaming headphones I reviewed were a lot more expensive than this, and these are very competitive. So my first impressions: I am very impressed with these headphones. I do think they’re worth every single penny.
