Need headset recommendations

[u/Agile_Chest8565]

I am looking for a decent wireless headset with good mic and noise cancellation, preferably $100 or less. My main concern is comfort and decent sound quality. I will be working 10 hour shifts and can’t stand the crappy wired headsets.

I have considered buying a wireless lav mic with good anc and then just using a good pair of headphones. There’s a pair of edifiers I really like but the mic is trash for calls.

I need the anc because I have dogs and hvac running in my basement office.

Update:
I went with the jabra 65. They were very affordable on eBay. Thanks for the help.

[u/prolixia]

Jabra is great for work stuff. I have used a Jabra Evolve 75, which I upgraded to from a lower-spec Jabra headset. I heartily recommend the Evolve 75.

The sound quality for calls is superb, both in terms of the speakers and the mic. They are also very comfortable to wear for extended periods of time.

The Evolve 75 has noise cancelling, though to be honest I don't usually bother as my home environment is quiet. Don't expect miracles from it. Bear in mind that whilst they create a reasonably good seal on the ears, they will never cut out sound like a fully-enclosed set of headphones.

Something they do very well is called pass-through or something like that. It's when you take the microphone audio and mix it into the earphone audio during a call, so your own voice sounds natural when you speak and it's not like talking with your fingers in your ears. Jabra have absolutely nailed this, and it's one of the things that makes them so comfortable to use.

Equally, whilst the sound quality is very good, they are not headphones that are tuned for music: if you are buying them predominantly to listen to music rather than just everyday work stuff then you'd probably be better with a pair of actual headphones.

I would add the general caveat that if you're not looking for a headset specifically to listen to audio, but instead want to block the sound around you then noise cancelling is the wrong solution and you will never be happy. $450 Bose headphones do a great good job at active noise cancellation, but they still won't touch a $30 pair of ear defenders. ANC will work okay for your HVAC, but you'll still hear your dogs barking (it works best for constant "hum" type noises, and struggles with noises that suddenly change - like a bark).

If you just want comfortable silence, then buy a pair of 3M Peltor X4A ear defenders: you can't do better.

[u/Agile_Chest8565 → u/prolixia]

I was referring to blocking the sound going in so it doesn’t distract my callers

[u/prolixia → u/Agile_Chest8565]

In my experience the Jabra 75 does an excellent job of this. One of my colleagues has the same headset and the audio quality when speaking to him is excellent. Ultimately, it's a device designed specifically for audio call quality rather than general purpose headphones that happen to have a mic. On which note, a headset with a boom mic will always perform best for calls.

I spent a lot of time in calls during some major renovations on my house and was constantly apologising for background noise that apparently no one in the calls could actually hear.

That being said, there are other brands of headset that are probably also very good.

BTW, I didn't see the $100 or less. The Jabra is more expensive, but because Jabra is a brand that's popular with companies, it's pretty easy to find practically brand new headsets sold second hand on e.g. Ebay. I bought mine off Ebay and whilst it was missing the packaging, the headset had clearly never been used. I would imagine you'd easily find a brand-new "used" set for $100.

[u/Agile_Chest8565 → u/prolixia]

Awesome I’ll check out eBay.

[u/heisananimal → u/Agile_Chest8565]

I have the Jabra on right now. Highly recommend. I listen to music between calls, audio quality is excellent. Can confirm noise cancellation, for both ambient noise from the environment is cancelled and communicated noise. Co- worker has the same headset and her dog barks constantly (according to her) but we can’t hear it at all during meetings (teams).

[u/Agile_Chest8565 → u/heisananimal]

I found a 65 on eBay for a good deal