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Given that this unit does not have any wireless capability, the accessories bundled with the unit are on the lighter side of things. As mentioned before, the inclusion of a relatively long USB 2.0 braided cable is a nice touch (though expected at this price point, I will be honest), and - in my experience - I never had any issues with it snagging on anything in particular. This is, as anyone who has seen me wearing any kind of headphone/earphone, a passionate hatred of mine, i.e. anything (be it cable, mic attachment, etc.) catching on my clothing or any obstacle. It is enough to drive me to rage within seconds. Luckily, nothing to see here with the 500's, so moving on...
As for connectivity, Asus has made great strides in their product blurb to market this headset towards many users, not just those gaming on PC. Console gamers are a key audience as well, though I can potentially see the 2m cable being a somewhat limiting factor here for those in much larger rooms, or those using HTPC setups to game on their TVs. Mac users are also targeted as a market, though (ahem) dongles will be required for newer devices. Connectivity limitations with modern MacBooks aside, this marketing does make sense, as the advent of GeForce Now being advertised to Mac users and the tendency of music producers/audiophiles to use Macs can't have escaped the eye of Asus' marketing team. We shall later see, however, if the audio experience lives up to something that said users might be interested in.
I'll take some time to look at unit physically. In a word, to my mind, it's very pretty. Asus are clearly going for a very 'angular' aesthetic, but I do not think it makes them look overly aggressive or - for lack of a better term - 'gamer-y.' The outside of the ear cups are made of a shiny hard touch material, but the rest of the headset is made up of dark, subdued colours. Lighting aside, I really wouldn't have an issue in wearing this in a public place, as the lighting can be turned off. The edges of the headband have the famous Strix Owl out the outside, and 'Strix' written on the inside. Some may dislike the shiny exterior to the ear cups (and they were the only bit of this unit that I was still unsure about by the end of my time with it), but to be honest I can see this being the only possible point of contention between those that like this unit, and those that don't.
The included ear cups are - to Asus' massive credit - extremely comfortable, though they are - in my opinion - on the smaller side (in terms of actual area inside the cups). Whilst I will always make a beeline toward any mesh style cup, I have to say that the default 'leather' cups were pretty darned cushty. As a small teaser to comfort, 'very' is a word I would quickly use to describe the 500 wearing experience.
The headband is very well padded, and generally the headset sat very nicely on my head with minimal adjustment needed. On that point, adjustment of the unit is done simply by two extendable tabs inside the headband. These travel smoothly, and after I did pull the cups down a little, the 500's sat true and with next to no 'wobble' that I could notice. The cups themselves are also able to swivel on a 90 degree axis, so should adjust themselves to the contours of your head within any issue at all. They did for me, at any rate. I also found that the headset could be loosened to a fair way beyond an 'ideal' fit, and it still did a decent job of keeping itself on my head. To me, that's a sign of good ergonomics.
Build quality is excellent, and the 500's feel very solid in the hand with a good heft (but not excessive, as this can increase wearer discomfort over time). All in all, the 500's are - on the outside - your fairly typical 'big' gamer headset, albeit with a few neat tricks up its proverbial sleeve. Padded headband, relatively large ear cups, a muted 'gamer' aesthetic, and - as is the trend for high end headsets of 2017/18 - some level of RGB integration. All in all, it covers all of the bases that need to be covered.
