TechRadar Verdict

Well-tuned sound, smart lightweight design and a cheap price of entry all should combine to make the RIG 700 PRO HS a tempting option for players looking to pick up a wireless headset that isn’t going to break the bank. But some unsatisfying and awkward design choices dull the sheen on what could have otherwise been the jewel in the RIG series’ expansive crown.

Pros

+
Comfortable, lightweight design
+
Robust mic and voice options
+
PlayStation 3D audio-compatible

Cons

-
Battery drains quicker than advertised
-
Questionable sound quality

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Two-minute review

The main selling point of the RIG 700 PRO HS is that it has been designed to make the most of PlayStation hardware. It may not be a first-party bit of kit, but it might as well be – the headset boasts that it has been ‘precisely tuned for PlayStation 3D audio’, which Sony is pushing as one of the major selling points of the PlayStation 5 (alongside that luxurious DualSense controller).

The compatibility, though, comes at a price; sound staging and quality when using the headset are often sub-par – especially compared to other hardware in the same price category – and during our review, we often switched back to other headsets to see if the sound really was that bad in the unit, or if it was the game that was making missteps. Each time, it was the headset that came out worse.

Unlike its sibling hardware, the RIG 500 PRO HX Gen 2, which has a partnership with Xbox and Dolby Atmos, the implementation of the 3D Audio here feels tacked on and actually counterproductive to the headset as a whole. Sure, there’s a rich feature set and some nice tactile elements that make the headset durable and comfortable for marathon play, but when the sound generally comes in under par, do you really want to listen to muddy bass blasts and tinny sound effects for 10+ hours at a time?

Perhaps we’ve been spoiled by other RIG headsets – especially the aforementioned 500 PRO HX – but something about the dongle that you need to use to make your PS4 or PS5 broadcast audio to this headset loses something along the way, making this Sony-focused effort just a little better than your average headset, at best.

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RIG 700 PRO HS headset price and release date

The RIG 700 PRO HS headset is available from $120 / £110 / AU$160 and it is available now. It fits into the mid-range price for a wired headset, and its closest competition would likely be the Razer Blackshark V2 X or the Razer Kraken Ultimate, with the SCUF H1 also coming in at the top end of the category. The headset is designed specifically for PlayStation consoles, and as such is compatible with PS4 and PS5 via a wireless USB inline adaptor. It is not compatible with Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, and PC, and has no 3.5mm input.

Design

The design of the RIG 700 PRO HS is definitely the strongest part of the headset. The manufacturer has made sure to promote the headset’s remarkable 241g weight quite a lot – and for good reason; it’s lightweight, unobtrusive and can sit on even the biggest heads for hours at a time without causing physical discomfort (not something you can say of every headset, even this reviewer’s favourite, the Sennheiser GSP 600).

The ‘signature self-adjusting headstrap’ may give issues to some people if you have the wrong setting in place – most people will want large, it seems – but a quick, tactile pop of the earcups out of the light frame means the headset is easily and quickly adjustable. Ideal for gamers that may be sharing their setup with kids, then.

Despite our best efforts – and the seizure of the headset by a newly acquired dog! – we found the RIG 700 PRO HS to be practically indestructible. The literature for the accessory boasts it’s ‘virtually unbreakable’ and we had reason to doubt that language, but if you live in a household that’s busy, active and prone to tech getting destroyed, we’d be hard-placed to recommend something sturdier. Which is outstanding, frankly, given the headset itself weighs under 300g. We’ve got no idea what RIG is doing in its factories, but someone from NASA should look into how they’ve made something so light quite so durable. It defies logic.

Audio performance

Perhaps the main cause of the sub-par audio performance is the 40mm driver living at the center of the headset’s around-ear coupling. Whilst the sibling headset is at its best in complex, multi-layered soundscapes, the RIG 700 PRO HS really only works well in quite simple, easy-going audio environments…. not ideal for FPS lovers and shooter aficionados, then. The sound stage quickly gets muddy and struggles with music and sound effects working together, really taking the climactic edge off your cinematic games and making you feel overwhelmed and vulnerable in online shooters. Even going into something quite chill – Tetris Effect, say – you notice that the sound, 3D Audio or not, just can’t live up to what other hardware seems to effortlessly be able to trot out.

The specs say the headset supports a frequency response range of 20 Hz to 20 kHz, and whilst we believe that, in action it’s hard to parse. The 32 ohms impedance means little when even dialogue sounds mangled coming through the drivers. We’d never advocate you use built-in TV sound – for anything, really – but sometimes the audio was so unpleasant through this headset that we were tempted to just run the sound through our TV to make sure we weren’t judging the hardware based on bad audio mixing, or something. We weren’t: the sound is just not that bright or clear in the RIG 700 PRO HS.

Microphone quality and wireless connectivity

Aside from being ugly – and really feeling quite cheap – the mic is what you’d expect from a headset in this price range. Unidirectional pickup and -45dBV/Pa sensitivity means that you won’t have to worry about being too quiet, even if you position the flimsy arm a fair distance from your face to reduce pop and sibilance. Just don’t get too agitated whilst playing, or you’re going to knock the mic right out of the headset; that connection isn’t the most steadfast thing in the world.

If you’ve got the mic on, and you’re sitting a good 10+ feet away from your PlayStation, don’t expect the battery to live up to the advertised 12 hours. We got between eight and maybe the lower end of nine hours out of the headset when it’s firing on all cylinders – dongle, mic and volume up fairly high. It charges, quickly, at least, but the ‘up to’ in the headset’s proposed ‘up to 12 hours battery life’ does a lot of legwork for RIG, there.