Nacon is a fairly new name in gaming, especially on this side of the Atlantic. The company was formerly known as Bigben Interactive, and was best known for publishing video games in Europe. It became Nacon two years ago, and since then it has bought the rights to the RIG line of gaming headsets and accessories from Plantronics (which itself is now called Poly, because every company’s changing their names these days). That brings us to the Nacon RIG 500 Pro HX, Nacon’s newest wired gaming headset that looks and feels a lot like the Plantronics RIG 500 Pro we last looked at in 2018. It’s a light and comfortable headset with a reasonable $69.99 price tag, but its audio performance could be a bit better.
An Easy Wear
The RIG 500 Pro HX looks and feels very much like the Plantronics RIG 500 Pro, with design elements informed by the series’ original concept as a modular headset line. The earcups are completely separate from the black metal headband, clicking securely onto either side of the headband at one of three mounting holes. Three positions for earcup height might seem paltry when most gaming headsets offer a dozen click-stops or smooth sliding adjustments, but it isn’t a problem thanks to the secondary band through which the wire connecting the two earcups runs. The secondary band also clicks into the metal headband, creating a two-piece, ski-band-suspension where the metal is comfortably lifted above the scalp and the earpads rest naturally against the ears. I found the fit to be light and comfortable, without much need for adjustment.
Each earcup is made of black plastic, with geometric, skeletal designs built around circular mounting points on the outer panels. The memory foam earpads are pleasantly soft, covered with faux leather around the side panels and breathable fabric for the surface that presses against the ears and the sides of the head. A 50mm driver sits behind each earcup’s inner fabric.
The left earcup features a permanently attached, 4.2-foot-long, linguini-style cable that terminates in a four-pole 3.5mm plug, along with a hinge-mounted connector for the removable boom mic. The cable features an in-line remote with a volume slider, but no phone controls. The microphone itself is a long capsule on a short, flexible, metal neck attached to a plastic arm that curves into a right angle. When securely snapped onto the headset, the mic flips down for use or up to mute. The RIG 500 Pro HX lacks any other controls.
Unlike early RIG headsets, the Nacon RIGs aren’t intended for modularity. You can easily remove the headband, but you won’t find the variety of alternative colors and materials as optional purchases for headset customization. The permanently attached cable also means you can’t swap it out for one with a smartphone remote.
For Use With Nearly Anything
The RIG 500 Pro HX is framed as an Xbox-specific headset, but it’s effectively identical to the multiplatform, portable-gaming-oriented RIG 500 Pro HC. Which is to say, they’re both 3.5mm, wired gaming headsets. As a result, they’re compatible with any gaming device with a 3.5mm headset jack, including the current-gen and last-gen Xbox and PlayStation consoles, the Nintendo Switch in handheld mode, any PC with a single audio jack, and any smartphone or tablet with a 3.5mm port. If your PC has separate headphone and microphone ports, you must buy a 3.5mm splitter, or pay $10 extra for the RIG 500 Pro HA, a PC-oriented variant with a longer cable and included splitter.
While the RIG 500 Pro HX is a simple, wired, stereo headset, it lets PC and Xbox gamers enjoy Dolby simulated surround. The headset includes an activation code for two years of Dolby Atmos spatial audio processing through the Dolby Access app for Windows 10 and Xbox.
Modest Microphone
The boom mic performs well, but with an unfortunate caveat. My voice sounded clear and full in test recordings, but there was a bit of underlying background fuzz I couldn’t attribute to my notebook’s fan (which some mics pick up). The mic is perfectly suitable for voice chat, but this might not be the headset to use if you want a really strong signal for streaming or recording. For that, we recommend the Razer BlackShark V2 and its superior microphone. Of course, we recommend getting a separate USB mic if you’re serious about content creation, since its performance will probably be better than any headset mic.
Lacks Deep Bass
Don’t expect a strong low-end from the RIG 500 Pro HX, but it reaches enough into the bass range to sound nicely rounded. The bass synth notes and kick drum hits in our bass test track, The Knife’s “Silent Shout,” don’t rattle the head even at maximum volume, but they also don’t distort. The low frequencies are present enough to have a sense of force, but they aren’t palpably strong.
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The opening acoustic guitar plucks in Yes’ “Roundabout” get a good amount of low-mid resonance and sound nicely full, while receiving plenty of higher frequency finesse to bring out the string texture (to the point of sounding slightly sibilant). When the track properly kicks in, the guitar strums and cymbals stand out slightly in the mix, and the bassline’s punchy attack comes through much more prominently than any low-end follow-through. The vocals come through clearly, adding to the sense that the mids and mid-highs are more sculpted than the other frequencies.
For gaming, the RIG 500 Pro HX sounds good when connected to my Xbox Series X through the Xbox Wireless Controller. I played some Psychonauts 2 with the headset on, and the game audio was clear and clean. The piano and jazzy music in the Motherlobe and Lucktopus Casino, respectively, both sounded full and atmospheric, and Raz’s rolling levitation power got enough low-mid response to sound a bit weighty and bouncy. Character dialog was also easy to discern.
Fortnite highlights the RIG 500 Pro HX’s relative lack of deep bass response, with the game’s bombastic soundtrack, shotgun blasts, and clunking of feet on wood floors sounding more poppy than full and robust. It isn’t a thin sound; there’s plenty of low-mids to balance out the strong highs, but nothing sounds quite as deep or forceful as it can on some other headsets. I still found the high-mids and highs to slightly overpower the lower frequencies, making the sounds of action just a bit too sharp to seem natural.
Using Dolby Atmos on the Xbox Series X, the RIG 500 Pro HX gave a decent sense of directionality, though the headset’s general audio balance meant granular left-right panning didn’t feel quite as accurate as it could be. I could easily tell when nearby players and creatures were running around, but the distant thunder of gunfire lacked the low-end power to give an impression of the shots’ location.
Good Comfort, Unimpressive Audio
The Nacon RIG 500 Pro HX is a comfortable, functional wired gaming headset with audio quality quirks. The slight microphone fuzziness is unfortunate, and the sculpted headphones sound is a bit too bright, with little low-end thunder to balance it out. The activation code for Dolby Atmos is a nice extra, but the sound signature isn’t the most optimal to provide a really strong sense of directionality even with the processing.
If you’re looking for a wired gaming headset for well under $100, the RIG 500 Pro HX is a decent choice, but there are appealing alternatives. The $59.99 Astro Gaming A10 is a long-standing favorite for its excellent sound quality, though it’s less comfortable. We also recommend the $99.99 Razer Blackshark V2 if you want a wired headset for PC gaming, and the $99.99 Xbox Wireless Headset if you want to specifically game on the Xbox One or Series S/X.
