Please recommend a decent USB-headset to replace this rubbish one!

Help me, help me.

My USB headset is rubbish. Absolutely dire. It’s made by Gigaware and, if memory serves, I bought it for an outrageous price from one of those airport shops when I was on my way to America. You know when you pay something like £50 for bits of plastic that you know must have been manufactured for pennies? That’s how I felt. But I needed to have a headset as I had several important Skype conferences planned. Plus I didn’t want to rely on the MacBook’s own internal microphone as that can be a bit echoy.

The Gigaware headset, complete with rough plastic ear-muff things and boom mic has been with me for about 2 years now.

I need to do something about it.

When I use it, my Skype calls are fine for about 40-50 minutes before the headset just screws up. Literally it goes haywire and people can’t hear me. It’s like a build-up of static or something. So routinely, when I’ve been talking on Skype for more than 35 minutes I have to apologise to all concerned and briefly take the headset’s USB plug out… wait 5 seconds… plug it back in again and proceed as normal. To avoid this build up of… something.

I don’t know WHY I haven’t done something about this.

So.

Please help me out.

What’s the best USB headset you can buy?

Have you experimented with Bluetooth or infrared/wireless ones?

What do you recommend?

[Update: I found the exact headset model I've got. Must have bought it from Radioshack. $29 it says on their site. I'm sure it was more. Either way, I'm not a big fan.]

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  • Michael S

    Ewan: I’ve heard lots of good things about the Freetalk Everyman headsets. They’re sold on the Skype website, so Skype thinks highly of them as well.

    Have a great weekend.
    MS

  • http://patphelan.net Pat Phelan

    those Everyman ones are the dogs

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    Nice one Michael!

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    I’m going to take a close look at them. Quite like the look of the wireless
    ones:
    http://shop.skype.com/headsets/wireless/iss-talk-5195-everyman-wireless/

  • http://www.jim-newton.net Jim Newton

    I only do occasional skype calls, and mostly use them for tunes, but my Nokia BH-501′s work well for me (Bluetooth). There’s a newer in-ear model available I think.

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    Jim, I’ll have a look at that, thank you!

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    Jim, I’ll have a look at that, thank you!

  • Anonymous

    Just had a thought: that ‘static build-up’ – you don’t happen to be using a Mac, do you? A colleague has that self-same problem when he Skypes on a Mac using a Plantronics USB headset . . .

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    Oh no… so it’s not actually a problem with the Gigaware headset?

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    Nice one Mighty

  • Anonymous

    Well, I wonder if it’s related to using a USB dongle connected headset with a Mac. One suspects a problem with the drivers for the USB. My colleague assumed it was the dongle – the headset works fine when connectd via the headset/mic sockets (I believe).

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    maybe I should get a headset that uses those sockets rather than USB… I’m
    sure I’ve had other USB headsets that worked fine with the Mac though

  • Anonymous

    Maybe. But it is time/usage related and it seems to be related to use of the mic. I’ll see what I can find out as our afflicted here is the Engineering Director!

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    Ah very useful!

  • http://www.intomobile.com/ Stefan Constantinescu

    I’ve got a wired Everyman and I love it!

  • Anonymous

    I bought an external USB soundcard, that means I can use any headset I fancy – in my case http://steelseries.com/products/audio/steelseries-7h-usb or http://steelseries.com/products/audio/steelseries-siberia-v2-usb whihc both come with usb soundcards.

    Just a thought

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    Do you use a mac or a PC?

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    Right I will check those out too!

  • http://www.intomobile.com/ Stefan Constantinescu

    Work machine is a Mac (17 inch MacBook Pro), and I’ve got a Windows 7 running netbook (Lenovo X100e) I use when traveling both on business trips and for pleasure.

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    And do you get this static build up after about forty minutes?

  • http://www.intomobile.com/ Stefan Constantinescu

    To be honest I can’t remember the last time I made a phone call, Skype, cellular, or land line, that’s lasted more than 10 minutes.

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    Well that’s still good feedback stefan thank you

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    You have made me think why I bother with calls longer than ten minutes

  • AC

    have you thought about bluetooth?

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    I’m not adverse to it but I was thinking of a wired solution.what do you
    have in mind?

  • http://twitter.com/planetf1 Nigel Jones

    Plantronics 995. Comfortable, good quality audio for music and calls. Wireless (via USB dongle) – @planetf1

  • http://twitter.com/planetf1 Nigel Jones

    Plantronics 995. Comfortable, good quality audio for music and calls. Wireless (via USB dongle)

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    Nice one Nigel!

  • Jabra Boy

    You might want to check the Jabra Go 660 wireless headset with link 320 for your mobile and pc…

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    I will have a look thanks!

  • http://www.mobileindustryreview.com Ewan

    I literally stand corrected!

  • IrelandJnr

    Link broken, dodgy website anyway.

  • MightyMicro

    Not so much dodgy website as fussy – try http://www.best4headsets.co.uk

  • IrelandJnr

    I’m sorry but I don’t trust you.

  • MightyMicro

    What’s to trust? It’s a link to a commercial website. Oh well, please yourself.

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