RIG 500 Pro HC Review: The ideal headset for the budget-conscious gamer?

If you’re looking for a pair of comfortable headphones that work across all your platforms and also support Dolby Atmos and 3D Audio, your wallet will thank you for considering the Rig 500 Pro HC.

Nacon, better known as the former Bigben Interactive, is still a relatively unknown name, but the company is certainly on the rise. Not only as a publisher (The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, WRC Generations, Vampire: The Masquerade, etc), but also as a maker of gaming accessories for price-conscious gamers. The French company recently added some new headsets to their RIG range, including the RIG 500 Pro HC.

Take a look at the Nacon catalog and you will immediately notice that the 500 Pro HC is the mid-engine. The best of both worlds. A compromise between the really cheap headsets (such as the RIG 300 Pro) and more expensive models such as the RIG 800 Pro. What you also notice is the rather confusing naming. Models such as 500 Pro HS, 500 Pro Gold, 500 Pro HA and 500 Pro HC differ not only in design, but also in supported platforms and prices.

HC, HX, HS in HA?! HA HA HA!

Time to bring some clarity to the confusing offer. In short: the HC variant supports almost all platforms, HX is for Xbox, HS is for PlayStation and HA is for PC. However, all these headsets use a 3.5mm audio cable, so you can use the headsets on all platforms. Launching different models therefore seems to be only a marketing matter, but causes a lot of confusion among consumers.

The HC variant contains an activation code for 2 years of Dolby Atmos, a surround technology that is available on Windows and Xbox, but not on PlayStation 5 (Sony opted for the free alternative “3D Audio”. A lifetime license to Dolby Atmos usually costs you about A 15 EUR, so a 2-year ‘trial period’ is a nice bonus, but keep in mind that only a handful of titles support Dolby Atmos surround sound.

No RGB, but still striking

With that dry theory behind us, on to the headphones themselves. The headset has no RGB lighting, but it is not unobtrusive. With a lot of fantasies and a metal frame (at least at the top) the headset even gets a bit of a sci-fi look.

Adjusting the ear cushions is done in a rather unorthodox way. While with most headsets you can simply slide the eurcups up or down, here you have to effectively detach the earcups from the frame to make the headphones fit better on a smaller or larger head. It’s a task that looks rather clumsy and causes a lot of tension, because you obviously don’t want to break your headset. Especially when you share a headset with several people, it can become very annoying when you always have to adjust the ear cushions.

Adjusting the ear cushions is accompanied by the necessary fumbling.

Another downside is the short audio cable, which cannot be replaced. When you connect the headphones to your controller, the short cable is an advantage as it does not get in the way, but for PC use the short cable of 1.2 meters is extremely inconvenient.

On the cable you will find a simple slider to adjust the volume. For me, a slider is always preferable to a circular dial, since you cannot see at a glance which position the volume is on. Furthermore, there are no buttons on the device, so no mute button for the microphone. Yet you can easily mute it by pushing the microphone all the way to the top position.

Audio quality

Both Davy and I have tested the headphones on a variety of devices and – considering the headphones’ low price point – were pleasantly surprised with the audio performance. The bass is not bombastic, but that will be an advantage for some users.

What is disappointing is the sound quality when you listen to music. It soon becomes clear that there is quite little power behind the drivers, because instruments and voices sound rather dull.

The ear cushions provide a fairly decent sound insulation so that you better notice auditory details in games, but due to the lack of active noise canceling, they are not immediately the best headphones for the plane or train.

You can easily plug in the microphone and the microphone arm maintains the desired position. The quality of the microphone won’t suffice for podcasts, but will suffice for casual multiplayer sessions.

The removable microphone maintains the desired position well.