VOIP question

[Knock-on]

Does anyone have experience of a good integrated stereo headset and microphone unit for VOIP that sounds clear?

Thanks.

[Daniel]

Is this to hook up to a PC or to a phone?

For a phone I'd reccomend one of these

http://www.best4headsets.co.uk/product/asp/ProdID/2061/CtgID/3468/af/page.htm
Unfortunately I don't have one of these at work at the moment but everytime there is one free I steal it till the person gets back. Very good, loud, clear and comfortable to wear. I like the flexible adjustable boom, never get complaints about not being unclear even though I mumble a bit. Has a noise cancelling microphone which is excellent :up:

If it's for a PC (which I suspect it is)
I'd reccomend this
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/GB/EN,CRID=103,CONTENTID=10013
I use it for online gaming and again even when I'm in a small French village being shot at by Americans and there are grenades exploding and such I usually come across loud and clear and I can hear well too. It's USB so you'll want to have a spare USB port. You can put the volume up and down and you can also mute it at the touch of a button which is good for when you want to say to a co worker "This guy is such a ^&%&%ing &*^*&" and so on or when someone walks into the room and you want to talk to them but don't want the person on the other end to know :) Only problem with this one was because Caroline uses a weird webcam and has her ADSL going through a USB modem the PC didn't have enough bandwidth on the it's USB bus to handle being on the internet and transmitting voice and video at the same time but I'm 99% sure you'll be fine :) Mine has been heavily abused for the year or so that I've had it and the cord gets run over all the time and it gets dropped and it still works a treat. Some people say it's uncomfortable but I disagree. I found mine uncomfortable for a few days but after that I got used to having a little bit of pressure on my ears and I can wear it for hours and hours now and I don't notice I'm even wearing it. If you bought it and seriously didn't like it I'd probably buy it off you as I want another one for Caroline when I get my own PC.

Or for a cheaper version here's a normal one which just plugs into your speaker and microphone ports. I'm led to believe it's basically the same as the one above but just not USB. But I've never used one so it could be crap.
http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/GB/EN,CRID=103,CONTENTID=10011

I personally like to go for binaural (two sided) headsets because they drown out background noise better. I'm guessing when you say stereo you mean binaural because of course unless the person has a stereo mic you won't get stereo sound coming from them :)

Hope that helps :) If you're not sure with the Logitech headsets go for a Plantronics one as they're what most companies use when they use headsets. Just make sure it has a noise cancelling microphone as the 3 headsets above do and you'll probably be fine.

[Daniel]

Did that help at all Knockie? :)

[Daniel]

Whoops. Posted the wrong link to the Plantronics headset. This is the noise cancelling one http://www.best4headsets.co.uk/product/asp/ProdID/2062/CtgID/3468/af/page.htm

Oops :)

[Knock-on]

Did that help at all Knockie? :)


Sorry mate, I must have missed that.

Will look at them this afternoon.

KO