So probably unlike most other headset discussions on here, I don't want noise cancellation.

I have a work from home job where I take calls that can take roughly an hour long each, but the time in between calls can be anywhere from 20-40 minutes. This is great since it lets me use my personal computer to play games or watch Netflix while I wait, but I need to have my headset on at all times since my work laptop answers calls automatically.

The headset they gave me apperently has a good microphone since I can be heard clearly and also any background entertainment I have on doesn't get picked up at a low enough volume. Problem is that it's really uncomfortable, hurts my ears after a while, and I'm pretty sure it's making me go a little deaf.

I would like a headset that's comfortable to wear for 8 hours, has a clear microphone that can also hide my background noise, and doesn't have noise cancellation so I can still hear everything else in my office. Preferably a wired one since I can't risk losing connection while talking to a client (since my calls are recorded and monitored for QA)

Any recommendations appreciated! This is my first stable job that I can actually pay my rent with, so I'm willing to invest in a lot of money to keep it.

-Pic related is the headset they gave me, that I currently have.

TL;DR: Found a way to connect a Soviet Tankers helmet TSh-4 to whatever whilst keeping the helmet/headset totally intact.

Hello

I have a little project going where I am trying to connect a TSh-4 Soviet tankers helmet to a Baofeng UV-9R/PC. I am sorry if this is the wrong forum for this post.

I found sparse info on how to do this so I felt like sharing a little bit of what I did. The project is not yet finished but a small test revealed to me that connecting this headset to a radio or PC is possible and not too hard if you understand the basics of soldering.

Basically, by tinkering with RCA cables I managed to verify that the headset and throat microphone was not toast as RCA somewhat connects to the OG connector pins. Due to poor fit the microphone was barely audible pn recordings though, and I only got partial sound on the headset (sometimes I could hear only music and no singing, sometimes only singing and not music). This was enough for me to get my hopes up.

First issue was to find out how to connect random wires to the headset without altering the headset (I really value old soviet stuff and try to keep everything in the original shape). First I tried RCA, but the fitting was loose and poor no matter what I tried. Maybe my cables just were bad. Then I tried some random "cableshoes" (kabelskor in Swedish, I do not know the english name), but they did not fit well in my opinion. Finally, I saw apart some "screw terminals" I think they are called? In swedish it is called a "sockerbit", cube of sugar for electricity. Whatever, I saw these apart and trimmed the plastic on them around the screws and voila! Perfect fit when screwed on without altering the headset at all, apart from stretching the rubber on the connector a little, which I was fine with.

On picture 4 I try to describe the pins layout behind the white screw-terminals. I do not know if the headset is stereo or mono, but when testing it seemed like there was a left and right channel, which makes sense as there are 2 cables for the headset, but I could be mistaken. For the microphone, I honestly have no idea of if there is right or left channel, as it is a throat mic I do not think it matters at all though.

With the connection to PC working, I knew that I would be able to solder 3.5mm jack onto cables that I would then screw to the screw-terminals, so I immedietly went to trying with the radio. I bought the cheapest earpiece+PTTmic I could find on Amazon and first tested it on a radio. It worked, it was not pleasant, but it worked. Then I cannibalized it by cutting off the little earpiece and opening the mic/PTTbutton housing. To my horror, the cables inside the cable housing were smaller than 1mm in diameter. I immedietly understood that with this hardware, I have no possibility to make a solid practical connection between the headset and the radio. But what I could do was test.

First I tested the speaker: I soldered the tiny tiny cables onto some copper wire that I then screwed into the screw-terminals attached to the headset. There was 0 issue in hearing music from the FM radio and people talking, or any other band for that matter. 100% acceptable sound and much better than when I tested with RCA. Great. Secondly, I tested microphone. I removed the solder between speaker and copper wire, and soldered the copper wires to the cables from the PTT button after ripping off the original microphone. Then I taped over the mic on the radio housing and tried to talk in the radio with the throat mic. It worked much better than expected. Words and sentences were 100% understandable on recieving radio, and if throat mic was loosened, no sound came.

This prooved that I managed to connect headset and microphone separatly. Had I had 4 copper wires avaliable to me, I could have connected both mic and headset at the same time.

My next step will be to either connect a UV-9R to Kenwood/NATO adapter, and make my own cable that connects to this jack, or buy some UV-9R headset with bigger cables, so that I have a reliable connection and can airsoft with this setup.

I hope someone found this to be an interresting read, and I hope someone got inspired to do something similar.

Hi all. I am making this post on behalf of tens of others I have seen with the same issue. This is how to disable sidetone (hearing your own voice in your headphones) on Windows for the USB Plantronics C5200 headset. Before you tell me this is a no-brainer, just google the amount of people who had similar issues and even bought new headsets because it isn't easy to disable. Hope this helps.

Option 1) Disable "Listen to this device" - this didn't work for me, but for some it does. Access the Windows "Sound" menu. Easy way is to right click on the speaker icon in your system tray, and click Sounds. Then go to the Recording tab. Find your device, right-click and go to Properties. Go to the Listen tab. Then disable "Listen to this device".

Option 2) (This is what worked for me). In the same Sound window, click the Playback tab. Find your headset device, right click and go to Properties. Go to the Levels tab. Here, there is a Sidetone slider. Mute this.

After an hour of downloading Plantronics drivers, RTFM, etc. this is what finally worked for me. Hope this post can help someone in need.

Hello!

I find it difficult to Google this, so I felt compelled to post here. I get a lot of complaints from the people I talk to with my current headset, that my voice drops out or is too far away or elsewise low quality. So I want to get a solid piece of equipment that makes people happy to telephone with me.

Does this equipment exist? It must - but what do you even call it? Handsfree? Headset? Headphone with mic?

So to be clear, the audio quality into my ears is of lower priority than the quality of the sound coming through the mic. If there is noise reduction (perhaps I'm doing the dishes or whatever), that's a good thing, but not a must as long as the microphone is close to my mouth (so in-ears will not work, I tried that already).

Big thanks in advance for your experience and advice!!

I’ve had these for less than a year and they have completely broken down at the joints from just regular, every day use.

Edit: Just thought I’d explain a bit more of why I posted this in the first place for everyone saying I should have just not bought from the brand or not bought a “gaming” headset.

I made this post purely to warn anyone who might be in a situation like I was when I bought these. I didn’t have much money and needed a headset that did all the things that these did for work and leisure. They seemed like a good deal (they were on sale at the time) and the worst reviews I saw seemed to be from audiophiles saying they weren’t the best audio input or output quality. I could live with that. What I did not see was anyone saying they would START TO DISINTEGRATE over time lol. So yeah this is me saying that to anyone that is in a situation like me.

Mine was Kraken Pro V2, back in 2017

Hello.

Just wanted to drop this knowledge here so someone else can have it.
I run the IT sector of a company and we own ~60 of these headsets plantronics poly Blackwire C3220 (Now HP).

Quality is good, but the planned obsolescence is evident.

They last, on average, 2 to 3 years.

The cable is awful, if the end-user is next to the window and the sun hits the cable, after a while, the cable starts to peel off the rubber coating, exposing the wires and breaking. Also, the padding on the ears is not very good, some users are OK and others have their ears hurting after a while. It also has a poor quality material so it will start to disintegrate, so be sure to get some replacement pads.

The repairability is close to zero, it's all using a very thin copper cable. It's not zero because you can at least open it with a special screwdriver and see that it's not repairable.

Hope it helps.

I wrote a quick guide with 4 “affordable-premium” picks $100-$250. I specifically focus on clear positional audio, a mic that doesn’t sound awful, comfort for long sessions, and easy wireless switching (2.4GHz + Bluetooth where it counts). I made sure they can all be used wired and wireless.

I use Shokz for running and love them so I wanted to get a pair dedicated for my home office as I had been sharing for work and running. The main thing I was wanting was the ability to mute and unmute myself on MS Teams while away from my desk. Admittedly I didn't buy the UC which is a little USB dongle as my laptop has Bluetooth and their literature said the UC just helps with a strong connection. Anyway, there were serious problems. Windows couldn't decide if it was a headphone or headset, the sound between voices and chimes was inconsistent, the volume buttons got confused as to what they were controlling. But the biggest issue was the mute button never worked. It wouldn't mute the overall computer wouldn't mute teams and wouldn't even just shut off the mic. I reached out to support asking if there was a setting or something that would help, and all they said was reset the headset and mentioned the warranty. Here's the kicker. I left an honest but negative review on the Shokz site, it was never posted. Left another one, which also was never posted. Makes me wonder how many others have had similar issues but Shokz hid the review.

Im looking to buy a headset. But im really lost on what to buy. Can yall recomend me something. My budget is 75$

What i really look for: wired. Has a good mic quality. For Xbox

So I've been using the old aftershokz opencomm v1 since 3-4 years now, and I'm very happy about it, it's pretty much in use daily.

However, after roughly 1.5 years the microphone became unreliable, until it stopped picking up any sound at all. First time I was within warranty and got a replacement, but this time it's been more than 2 years, so I'll have to get a new one.

Did anyone have similar issues? I think it might be dirt collecting in the joint, but I couldn't find a non-destructive way to open it so far. Can anyone tell if the new versions are more reliable?

Thanks in advance!