The Rig 800 is still the most comfortable wireless gaming headset I’ve tried

In 2018, in a fit of curiosity, I decided to review all the wireless gaming headsets on the market: 32 pairs to be exact. None of them were anywhere. close as comfortable as the Plantronics Rig 800. “The only one so light, so comfortable I sometimes forgot I was wearing it,” I wrote for CNET.

Four years later, I’m happy to say that feeling hasn’t changed.

Plantronics no longer exists, after merging with Polycom to become “Poly” and later being sold to HP. But platform 800 is alive and well at French gaming company Nacon. I’ve been testing the 2022 “Pro” model for the last two weeks and I find it hard to imagine a more comfortable headset.

It still uses the exact same design with a spring-loaded inner head strap that automatically adjusts the tension to the size of your skull, rather than pinching the sides of your head by a fixed amount. That, combined with its unique modular headband that lets you position the headset in three different positions for small, medium, and large heads, makes it even more comfortable than SteelSeries’ lauded Arctis headset, at least in my book. (The 10.9 oz weight and super soft ear cups don’t hurt either.)

Also, it looks like the $150 earphones might eliminate one of my biggest frustrations with headphones like these: Battery. Not only does the new Rig 800 seem to have even more battery life than the original: I measured 38 hours at 50 percent volume this weekend, which is 14 hours longer than Nacon quotes! — but now it also comes with a magnetic docking station so you can charge it just by putting it down. While it sometimes requires firm pressure to seat the contacts, it fully works and I love having one less load to worry about.

In a way, I wish Nacon had gone beyond the original 2016-era design because some of the Rig’s shortcomings haven’t changed. While game audio is crisp and immediate, the headset’s identical 40mm drivers still sound a bit flat and tinny without much depth or punch for music and movies. (The Rig has bass tubes that kick in if there’s a real, substantial drop, and I enjoy those drops.)

And, in a way, the Rig 800 is worse: wireless range. While the original Rig 800 had an ugly pigtail from a USB antenna box, I wrote that it had epic range, enough to allow me to walk around the house and grab a snack. Today’s Rig 800 has that nifty charging cradle, but its wireless antenna is confined to a thumb-sized removable USB stick. That could come in handy if, for example, you’re planning to switch between a console and a PC, but were getting pops, static, and disconnections from just a room and a half away.

Nacon USA president (and Rig brand director) Jack Reynolds tells me that since the Rig 800 was one of the company’s highest-rated and most-loved headsets, the company didn’t want to change its “quintessential” design too much. “. The team just wanted to address some of the biggest complaints, like the stiff mic boom and the hassle of plugging in a USB cable to charge. I like that Nacon got rid of the old two-position power switch, which was easy to accidentally leave on. Now, press and hold a button.

But I do think they should have tested the bigger changes a bit more. In addition to decreased wireless range, I’ve found that the new mic tends to pick up a lot of wind noise when I’m just breathing, and Reynolds says future shipments of the Rig 800 will come with acoustic cloth for its mics as a result. .

But Reynolds also hints that a more premium Rig headset is coming. The existing design is already much more comfortable and has a much better battery solution than my current favorite, SteelSeries Arctis Pro Wireless, at less than half the price. Maybe the next Rig will also get your money’s worth in audio quality.

If you decide to try the Rig 800 (instead of one of our other best wireless gaming headset picks), know that there are still three versions: one for PlayStation and PC, one for Xbox and PC which includes Dolby Atmos software and an upcoming PC-only version. On Xbox, there is a game/chat balance dial; on PlayStation, that dial controls microphone monitoring. Unfortunately, none of them offer dual audio outputs on PC.

Photography by Sean Hollister/The Verge