Plantronics is a company known for their audio accessories, and their latest audio fruition, the Rig headset doesn’t disappoint. I picked up a pair in Vegas at CES and have been using them daily since.
What you get
The headset themselves are made out of plastic with a cloth-covered foam headband and earcups. The cloth headband is black and the cloth on the earcups match the black headband, but have orange cloth covering the 40 mm drivers. Connecting the earcups to the headband is a white housing. If white isn’t your thing, there’s also an all black version as well. The headband length adjusts and earpieces pivot to fit your noggin accordingly. Additionally, the earpieces can swivel 90 degrees to lay flat for storage.
Inside the box you’ll find:
- Headset
- Controller
- Inline mic
- Boom mic
- RCA adapter
- XBox 360 controller cable
Performance
The Rig is a gaming headset and it’s rather versatile; it can be used with a PC, mobile device, Xbox, PS3, or PS4. I listen to music… a lot and that’s what I use my Rig for, hooked up to both my Nexus 5 and PC while at my desk at work. I work in an office in a cubicle environment where there’s chatter and people everywhere, the Rig works perfect for me, because if I want to drown everyone out I can just crank them, but if need to still hear people coming up behind me or calling my name, I can turn them down.
Prior to getting a Rig, I would use two pairs of headphones (no joke), one for my music and phone and one for my PC. I’d always be switching between the two depending on what I was doing. Now, I just plug my Rig into my PC and phone, and I can do use both simultaneously. The Rig allows you to use both inputs at the same time for listening using the rocker to select which will receive the mic input and have the dominant volume. I usually have my mic muted and listen to online radio from my TuneIn Radio app on my Nexus 5, but if I happen to be watching a YouTube video and I get a phone call, I just turn on the mic, switch the toggle to line input and I can talk on the phone instantly. It should also be noted that the button on the controller will pause or play the last audio app you were using on your phone, for me it’s either TuneIn or Google Play Music.
For the price, the Rig performs rather well. The non-isolating cloth covered foam earpieces sound good and produce a 20Hz – 20kHz frequency response. You will pick up outside noises in your ears and others can hear what you’re listening to, so you won’t be listening to your favorite embarrassing song in secrecy. Bass comes through well for not being isolated and the treble does too a little less-so, but it’s not bad at all. The mic sounds good, game chat comes in clear, as do phone calls. The best part is you can adjust the volume of everything and shape the sound with the three equalizer settings depending on what you’re listening to: pure (natural), intensify (moar bass), and seismic (moar treble). You’ll hear one, two, or three beeps when clicking the equalizer button. Listening to music, I keep on intensify and for phone calls, I switch to seismic.
Pros:
- Cloth headphones breathe, minimal sweating compared to leather or vinyl
- Three setting sound profiles optimized for whatever you’re doing
- Independent PC and input jack volume control paired to overall volume control
- Easy rocker switches mic to input jack or PC with color indicator for each
- Price is good at or near $100
- No batteries, fully powered via USB
- Headset has both line and traditional boom mic options
- Wired cables are robust and durable
- Mics have physical switch and button on controller for muting
- Other mic’ed headsets can be used with controller and work just fine
Cons:
- Cloth earcups don’t isolate your music (or whatever you’re listening to), so passersby or people close will hear them; they’re not very good for espionage
- Wearing a Rig makes you look as if you’re on a flight deck (though this is true for most headphones); also limits espionage-ness
- Slight delay when setting sound profiles and adjusting volumes
- Tethered to cable, not wireless
Check out the Plantronics Rig for yourself.
Last Updated on December 28, 2015.
