While there is some variety of mobile headsets, they
only come in certain styles and tend to be of low quality. It's a
little-known fact that
with the right adapter, you can use a professional office headset with
almost any cell phone and many cordless phones.
Why would you want to use a professional headset? Professional
headsets come in a huge number of styles, including styles that you
might not find for mobile headsets, e.g. binaural (both
ears), behind-the-head, over-the-ear, and in-ear.
The main benefit of a professional office headset is its
comfort: they're designed to be used all day. Professional headsets tend
to be high quality - light weight, well-built, with
decent audio quality, and with low-cost replacement parts (e.g. ear
foam). Many people use their cell phones as their primary
phones, so it makes sense to use a high-quality headset instead of a
cheap mobile headset. Any headset can potentially save you a lot
of neck pain.
The Plantronics
2.5-mm adapter, part number 43038-01, costs less than $10 and lets
you connect any Plantronics
H-series headset to any cell phone or cordless phone with a
standard 2.5-mm jack. Nearly all new cell phones and most
high-end cordless phones have these jacks (older Nokia phones had a
proprietary 2.5-mm jack). You can find 2.5-mm adapters for most
old cell phones as well. H-series headsets terminate in a
Plantronics
"Quick Disconnect" plug.
I use a Plantronics
H101N with my Nokia cell phone. The ~32-inch cord on the headset
plus the 18-inch length of the adapter
cable is a comfortable length for use with a cell phone or cordless
phone. The H101N is binaural, which for me, means I can hear
more clearly without the need to turn the volume up to potentially
dangerous levels. The audio quality is decent - good enough for
typical voice applications, though if you listen to music, a lack of
high frequency response becomes apparent. The headset is extremely
comfortable, even when used for long periods, thanks to its light
weight, soft foam, swiveling earpieces, and adjustable headband.I also
have a Plantronics
H31N. This is an in-ear model, designed to make a
seal in your outer ear canal, thus blocking some background noise.
The audio quality is not great - just good enough for voice. And the
supposedly "noise-canceling" microphone picks up a lot of background
noise and is susceptible to wind. But the in-ear ear pieces do what
they're supposed to: they block a great deal of outside noise, making
this headset my first choice for loud environments. Using
the dual
VersaTip kit, the H31 and H31N are binaural - though the passive
nature of the VersaTip means that the sound in one ear is somewhat
louder than in the other.
With the right adapters, the same headset can be used with other types
of devices:
- A Quick
Disconnect-to-modular cord connects to many office phones with a
modular
headset jack.
- Amplifiers like the M12
Vista connect to almost any normal phone via the
phone's modular handset or headset jack.
- The MX10
amplifier connects to a normal phone and a PC.
- The sound
card adapter cable connects to your PC's audio-out and
microphone-in jacks.
- The DA55
and DA60
USB audio adapters connect to your PC's USB port.
Other accessories: (see the Plantronics
Products + Accessories Guide PDF)
Don't forget to check eBay for good
prices on headsets.