Logitech Premium USB Headset 30 Headset

...me it had detected a Logitech USB sound device. 2 minutes of automated driver installation later and it was done, my little green LED came on and I donned my headset.

Wocka, wocka, wocka, wocka (and assorted other helicopter sound effects).

But what was this? My light was on, but nobody was home. Or if they were, they weren't making much noise. Not through the ehadphones at any rate. All the sounds from my PC were still ...
...root through the control panel revealed the reason. Because the USB headset contains it's own sound-card, it had been installed as a separate audio source, reasonably enough I suppose, alongside my existing soundcard. And because my machine was all set up to output through the existing soundcard, nothing was coming out of my new headset. Bummer. But, as it turns out, easy enough to sort. You just go to the Control panel, open up the Sound & Audio ... more

Hands up if you've ever wanted to pretend you're a helicopter pilot.

Ok, now put your hands down if you were only humouring me.

Right, those of you with your hands still up (I can see you, sat in the corner at the back), this could just be what you've been looking for.

Alright so maybe it's not quite got the flight helmet with the tinted visor. Nor the flight suit with all the badges and medals. NO, it's not got rotor blades, guns or rockets either. What you have here is your stereotypical helicopter pilot headset. A nifty pair of headphones, complete with boom microphone that swings down from one of the ears. You know the sort (hopefully).

Only this one isn't for use in a helicopter. Which isn't to say that you couldn't use it if you had a laptop and happened to be flying in a helicopter, it's just that you couldn't use it while actually flying said helicopter. It is actually intended for use with your home PC (or Mac).

"But why would I want to fork out £30 on a pair of headphones for a USB socket when I can get regular ones for a lot less?" I hear you ask. Well the answer could be that you found yourself in PC World, unable to leave the shop without buying something. Or it could be that your home PC is, like mine, stuck under a desk, tucked in a corner and entangled in such a horrific nest of cables that you haven't dared go near it for months. Finally, it might be that your soundcard has blown up or (slightly less believable) that you don't have a sound card installed. If your purchase was driven by anything but the first scenario above, then this headset could actually prove to be a pretty neat investment, provided you have a USB port that is more easily accessible than your headphone & microphone sockets.

While I do have a soundcard installed in my PC, it's about as accessible as an inaccessible thing that's stuck in a very tall and prickly tree. Then there's the fact that I don't always want to use headphones, preferring instead to use the stero that I have it plugged in to. Put these two factors together and the problem is clear. If I leave my headphones plugged in, I can never listen to music on my stereo. If I plug them in/out when I need them I have to undertake an almighty struggle, at considerable risk to life and limb. Fortunately I have a USB hub that sits on my desk, in plain view and easy reach and this is where the USB headset comes in.

On the face of it, things don't look too different from many other of the headphone/microphone headsets on the market. The ear-pieces are nicely padded, the head-band is comfortably wide and slightly rubberised to stop it slipping. The microphone isn't too long and is on a kind of repositionable bendy-bit at the end so you can make fine adjustments to the "fit" if needed. A generous 1.5m cable is provided, so you're not goint to be too tightly leashed to your PC while wearing it either.

Nothing special so far, apart from the extra comfiness appropriate to the "premium" tag. It's in the cable that things start to get interesting (if that sort of thing interest you)...

The cable enters the headset through a single ear, so no strangly "Y" shaped wires to deal with. Two feet down the wire and you come to a flattened oval control panel, much like you see on the more upmarket MiniDisc players, complete with a little clip on the back. On the control panel you find three buttons and a green LED. The first button serves to mute the mic, which is something that's otherwise relatively tricky to accomplish with a regular headset. Next in line is the LED, which lights up steady green when the Mic is working and flashes when it's muted. And then you've got the volume buttons, up and down, which allow you to (surprise, surpise) change the volume, but without needing to open up fiddly Windows applications etc.

"This is great! Does it make helicopter noises too?" Unfortunately, no. But if you follow the cable you get to the box of tricks that makes it all work. Measuring a compact 7x5x2cm and just before the last 15cm of cable (which ends in a standard USB plug) sits the "soundcard". It's this little box that contains all the gubbins that allows the headphones to work without needing a traditional soundcard in the PC. Pretty gyoovy, and best of all, no batteries required, all the power is taken from the USB socket.

Installation is a doddle. I plugged it into a spare USB port and WindowsXP told me it had detected a Logitech USB sound device. 2 minutes of automated driver installation later and it was done, my little green LED came on and I donned my headset.

Wocka, wocka, wocka, wocka (and assorted other helicopter sound effects).

But what was this? My light was on, but nobody was home. Or if they were, they weren't making much noise. Not through the ehadphones at any rate. All the sounds from my PC were still coming out of my stereo.

A quick root through the control panel revealed the reason. Because the USB headset contains it's own sound-card, it had been installed as a separate audio source, reasonably enough I suppose, alongside my existing soundcard. And because my machine was all set up to output through the existing soundcard, nothing was coming out of my new headset. Bummer. But, as it turns out, easy enough to sort. You just go to the Control panel, open up the Sound & Audio settings, click on the "Audio" tab and change the default playback device to "Logitech USB Headset", remembering to click OK afterwards. This done, any programs you start up will use the new output device. The only thing to note is that only programs styarted after the change will use the new putput device. Anything already running will continue to use whatever was the default output when it started. This caused me some confusion at first but it can actually be quite neat, as I can have music playing on my stereo while I play games with my headphones on, meaning I can change the volume of the music or the game independently of each other.

So on to the final verdict then. It's a fine headset, easily the most comfortable of several I have tried. It's well constructed and should last a fair while (unlike others). The USB interface is an excellent idea (although Bluetooth might have been even cooler), and the inclusion of it's own soundcard-in-a-box is neat. If you had a PC with no soundcard in it (and who has one of those these days?!?!?) then this would easily be a 5-star addition. Unfortunately, the fiddling around with audio settings takes the edge off it a little (plus it doesn't make helicopter noises), so in reality, it can only score 4. 

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