Well, what a lovely surprise this was. Seemingly developed in secret for a good chunk of time, Nacon’s RIG R5 Spear PRO HS is certainly not your run-of-the-mill wired PS5 gaming headset – far from it. With a dogged focus on untouchable audio quality and a simplified, yet streamlined form factor, the RIG R5 Spear PRO HS sets a lofty new bar for wired PS5 gaming headsets going forward.
RIG R5 Spear PRO HS Review
In this RIG R5 Spear PRO HS review
Sound Quality & Value
Landing at a £69.99 price point, I think it’s fair to say that at least as far as PS5 wired headset prices are concerned, the RIG R5 Spear PRO HS skews more expensively than many of its peers. Now while that price tag may indeed cause the raising (involuntary or otherwise) of an eyebrow or two, allow me to reassure you that the devil is very much in details, or in the audio drivers at least.
You see, while the RIG R5 Spear PRO HS 40mm audio drivers might seem like nothing special on the surface, the graphene material which has been layered upon them provides a multitude of ear-stroking benefits above and beyond what a standard set of audio drivers would normally be able to provide. The first and perhaps most keenly felt of these benefits is how the RIG R5 Spear PRO HS is the reduction in harmonic distortion to a state that is 0.5% or less. In practice, this means that the unwanted addition of other sounds is much less noticeable than it would be using other headsets, resulting in much clearer audio reproduction as a result.
Another benefit of the graphene covered audio drivers that are arguably a defining feature of the RIG R5 Spear PRO HS is how the quality of the PS5 and PS5 Pro embedded Tempest 3D audio is head and shoulders above that which is employed by its competition. Put simply, the standard of audio directionality and spatial audio is so much better than comparable headsets and is immediately noticeable to boot. Take Sucker Punch Productions seminal Ghost of Yōtei for example – when you’re riding through a dense bamboo forest, you can hear the individual branches crackling and creaking around you, while both far off and near sourced sound erupts all around you with the sort of accuracy that might expect to get from Sony’s own PlayStation Pulse headsets. This is truly fantastic stuff that makes games which support 3D audio really come alive in ways that I didn’t think would be possible for a sub £70 PS5 gaming headset.
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Away from its stellar support for 3D audio, the RIG R5 Spear PRO HS also boasts truly high fidelity audio across a broad 20kHz to 40kHz. What this essentially means is that the quality of audio reproduction you’ll get from this headset is supremely accurate and clear with none of the audio distortion artefacts you might experience elsewhere.
Critically when taken together, this stellar feature set also entails that the RIG R5 Spear PRO HS is an immensely suitable proposition for high-end, eSports level gaming. Whether it’s the creeping of footsteps a level above you, below you or behind you in Call of Duty: Warzone, the telltale reload sound of a seemingly hidden foe in Apex Legends, or the rolling thunder of incoming enemy ordinance in Battlefield 6, the RIG R5 Spear PRO HS empowers your ears for competition in a way that no other PS5 wired gaming headset can match. For Nacon then, the tagline ‘audio above all’ reveals itself to be far more than just a catchy marketing slogan – it’s a statement of functional fact that is the beating heart of the RIG R5 Spear PRO HS.
It’s certainly worth mentioning that the technical design of the RIG R5 Spear PRO HS extends beyond incoming audio, too. The pull-down mic for example, is not omni-directional as many of them tend to be in other PS5 wired and wireless gaming headsets, but instead – much like the other functional aspects of Nacon’s latest headset – this offering focuses on refining the aural experience. In real terms this means that when using the mic, you get an astoundingly accurate reproduction of your own speech without any of the background noise piggybacking off the back of your input, allowing you to provide the sort of crystal clear comms that are so vital to success in many online multiplayer titles.
Form Factor, Comfort & Overall Design
For all of its cutting edge technical innovations, it’s also somewhat refreshing to discover that while the design of the headset itself is arguably less ambitious, it is still supremely streamlined at the same time. Seemingly Occam’s razor is the dominating principle here, manifesting itself in a headset that is easy on the eyes, comfortable to wear and straightforward to use.
Starting with the aesthetic of the RIG R5 Spear PRO HS, Nacon has crafted a perfectly handsome if not particularly revolutionary looking headset. With its standard wider headband and memory foam ear cushions, the RIG R5 Spear PRO HS dutifully ticks many of the aesthetic boxes that one would expect from any PS5 gaming headset. Though resolutely comfortable to wear, I would say that the default ear cushions aren’t quite as comfortable as those seen in other headsets, and as such, don’t quite engulf the ears as much as I would like – however you can swap these out if you like, albeit at extra cost. Additionally, the headband also doesn’t quite extend quite so far as I would like either, having something of a limited range of protraction which only allows for a short extension, rather than a larger one that folks may be acclimated to.
Elsewhere, simplicity reigns. On the headset itself you won’t find any buttons, dials or switches – with the volume control instead being featured on the lead itself for easy configuration during play. And of course, being a wired headset, the RIG R5 Spear PRO HS is a no-fuss device when it comes to setup. Simply just plug it into your 3.5mm jack on your DualSense controller and away you go – no pairing, no USB stick and no wireless drop outs.
Nacon have also engineered the RIG R5 Spear PRO HS with the capability to switch in and out a set of ear plates too via its SNAP+LOCK system. Though outside of cosmetics (the included second set of plates actually has a whopping great big PlayStation logo on the ear plates, which is, y’know, nice), there isn’t much reason to do this and it doesn’t really do anything to meaningfully improve the comfort or design of the headset. That said, I could understand why from the perspective of pure customisation, gamers might be compelled to seek out additional plates to stylise their IG R5 Spear PRO HS yet further still.
Final Words
Setting a new standard for wired gaming headsets on PS5, the RIG R5 Spear PRO HS is a veritable embarrassment of aural riches. Boasting best in class sound bolstered by its Graphene audio drivers, minimal harmonic distortion, broad high frequency response range and precise mic audio inputs, Nacon has delivered a home run with the RIG R5 Spear PRO HS that gives both competitive and non-competitive PS5 gamers an ultra compelling wired headset that is without equal. Gold stars all round.
The RIG R5 Spear PRO HS headset is out now.
Review unit kindly provided by Nacon PR.