Plantronics .Audio 40 Headset

Author's product rating:   

Reliability	Excellent
Ease of Use	Very Easy
Quality	Excellent
Durability	Excellent
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Cheap, good quality sound reproduction
Disadvantages:	None

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I work from home, and as such, need to keep the cost of any business calls as low as I can. So with that in mind I decided to install Skype, which effectively allows me to use my broadband connection for voice, so free calls!! If you want to know more about Skype, there are a couple of really good reviews on this site (not by me I hasten to add!!)

*** What is it? ***

Well to effectively use the Skype connection, you need to have headphones and a microphone, so off I went in search. Some colleagues of mine recommended I get the Plantronics .Audio 40 multimedia headset, so that is what this review is about.

*** Where did I get them? ***

I was recommended an on-line site, where they cost £14.95 plus £4.00 postage, which I didn't think was too bad. However I just happened to be passing my local PC World, so I dropped in and I found the same headset for £14.99, so I promptly bought them. (I did notice a range of different headsets, some up to £60)

*** What are they like? ***

The headset comes in quite a large clear plastic blister pack, the card inserts are predominantly Orange in colour, so it certainly stands out!
In the pack you see the headset, and the cable disappears to a small box at the bottom of the pack.

There is a label advertising free internet telephony, basically it gives you 120 minutes free using Skype, just log onto the Skype web site, and quote the code on the pack. One point here, If you are using Skype to connect across the Internet to other users it is free, so really that is not so much of a good deal!!

OK moving on to the headset, it is black in colour, the headband can be fully adjusted to cater for any size head!! As can the ear pieces, which swivel
On the ear piece marked L, there is a microphone on an arm, which again can be adjusted.

The ear pieces have a kind of foam covering, as does the microphone

The headset comes with about 3m of lead, I have found this to be ample.
The end of the lead has two small (3.5mm) jack plugs, one for the microphone socket, and one for the headphone socket. These I found to be of really good quality, they fitted into the appropriate sockets very comfortably, with no sloppiness.

*** Techie Stuff ***

If you get turned off by all those numbers and generall techie stuff, then just miss out this section!
The speakers are 28mm in diameter, the speaker response range is 20Hz through to 20kHz, so allows for quite a wide range. The speakers have ferrite magnets, and a 2e Ohm impedance.

The microphone is an electret unidirectional, and has a frequency response of 100Hz to 8KHz (the human voice is only up to 4kHz) and the impedance of the microphone is 3kOhms.

*** So what are they like? ***

The first thing that I have found is the sound quality is second to none, the ear pieces are really responsive, and I found no distortion in the voices of those I was talking to. The background noise suppression is excellent (a colleague of mine has two budgies, and speaking on a mobile, they deafen you, using this, they are just a chirp in the background!!)

Using the microphone is easy, just speak. I purposely spoke quite softly, to see if I was asked to repeat things, the people I spoke to never asked me to repeat (they either heard me, or couldn't be bothered to listen!!)

I wear them for quite a long time, and I actually find them very comfortable!

So if you want to get into the money saving possibilities of voice over IP (Internet telephony) and you need a headset, I think you could do a lot worse than these.

Thanks for reading this

Larry