5 ms·

Wired headphones. I’ve never had to start a meeting by trying to mess with my audio settings, or had to think about charging another battery.

by habosa 4y ago

kimburgess 4y ago
I’ll add moderately high quality mic to this. If you’re spending a lot of working hours on calls, putting the resources into providing clear, intelligible voice for the people you’re working with will definitely be appreciated.
- massysett 4y ago
  I have a Plantronics (now Polycom, or Poly?) wired headset. Makes me look like a call center worker but the audio and mic are great quality. Sometimes I’m on a call and can’t hear someone well over the bad speakers I have in my monitor. The headset always clears it up.
  - kimburgess 4y ago
    > now Polycom, or Poly? HP: https://press.hp.com/us/en/press-releases/2022/hp-inc-to-acquire-poly.html https://press.hp.com/us/en/press-releases/2022/hp-inc-to-acq...
- esafak 4y ago
  Like what?
  - ianburrell 4y ago
    I like V-Mode BoomPro which is boom mic that connects to any headphones.
  - kimburgess 4y ago
    For my personal setup: Rode NT-USB Mini (https://rode.com/en/microphones/usb/nt-usb-mini https://rode.com/en/microphones/usb/nt-usb-mini). It also give me a physical volume control for attached headphones.
    - wasmitnetzen 4y ago
      I second that device, but it even though it says it has a directional cardioid polar pattern, it is fairly omnidirectional, only use it when you have little background noise next to you (other people, animals, etc).
  - Breza 4y ago
    Not GP but I love my WorkTunes. Excellent passive noise protection.
everyone 4y ago
Headphones are a "lesser known accessory" ???
- fuzzfactor 4y ago
  What about a USB radioactivity detector from 1998? How does that sound? If you like you can enable the audio and hear each time a particle hit the Geiger-Mueller tube, right through the headphones.
rektide 4y ago
Wireless headphones. Because sometimes I really have to go and it's literally no problem to walk to the bathroom. Or to go make tea. Or to do whatever. Freedom to not be chained up is amazing. Try it. I too don't feel like I've had to mess with audio settings. I have some SteelSeries Actis Pro's I bought a long time ago. They have bluetooth, but there's also a nice usb-based head-unit I use with higher quality, lower latency, and no pairing concerns. It shows present battery level quite clearly (which is highly enduring). The head unit also has a battery charger built in, and the headphones come with a secondary battery. I don't feel like I have to think about charging batteries either; if I have a slammed day of non-stop talking, it's easy to see at the end of the day I have half a battery left & I swap it (which takes <10s). People selling you Fear Uncertainty and Doubt about batteries seem misguided & silly to me. The freedom is amazing. Letting yourself get bothered & concerned enough to trap yourself into a narrow situation is dumb: be skeptical, at least.
- j45 4y ago
  Good to have both for different reasons. A good wired headset can be superior to wireless mic audio when presenting or interacting. If merely consuming, and hanging around wireless is good too.
  - rektide 4y ago
    I have some mid-grade Rode Wireless Go and nice >$100 Samsung lavaier mics I can use when needed, which is faultless, reliable, amazing prosumer gear no one could conceivably gripe about, but honestly the Actis Pro headset I have is probably a better choice for both cases. The Actis has better microphone positioning by far, which counts for so much. I'm interested to test the range versus the Rode, but given that I can be 3 floors away & the Actis still fine, I'd be surprised if the Rode really had shockingly better range/reliability/interference-resistance. I continue to think there's a paranoia & level-of-concern that does not match what modern hardware can do.
    - vladvasiliu 4y ago
      > I continue to think there's a paranoia & level-of-concern that does not match what modern hardware can do. I think this is related to the fact that most wireless headphones people have experience with are Bluetooth. BT headphones have lag, and, when used in duplex mode, have terrible quality. And this lag adds to the one introduced by the conferencing software. I've got myself a Jabra headset that communicates over DECT. This thing is spectacular. No discernible lag (as tested with games) and the mic quality is better than what I hear from people rocking Bose and Sony BT headphones. The range is great, too. Much better than what I get from my BT headphones.
lmm 4y ago
Sadly with today's auto-detecting OSes I've more than once found my audio output setting itself to speakers, or worse, to my monitor (which doesn't and has never had speakers, but that doesn't seem to matter).
- vladvasiliu 4y ago
  This. Never had any issue with my wireless headphones, but Teams insists on picking random outputs and inputs even from one call to the next. The only logic I've found is that it prefers devices that handle both input and output. So, it works OK with my combined headphones + mic, but if I want to use my external dedicated mic + headphones without mic, I have to fiddle with the settings whenever I join a new call.
  - ridgered4 4y ago
    We have webex and Teams at work. Neither one of them are great but unless I'm missing something Teams lacked a precheck feature where I can test my Mic before actually joining the meeting which is easily the main reason I despise it. Teams also occasionally just refuses to work with part of my audio setup until I rejoin so it also the one that I need the precheck for most.
  - theshrike79 4y ago
    Teams and Goole Meet have the worst UX for switching inputs and outputs. Dunno why they still insist on not doing in properly. On Zoom changing either is literally a click away. AND you can test your mic while already on a call so you can listen while you fix your setup.
    - mikestew 4y ago
      Yeah, and then Teams recently went out of its way to ask, "what if we buried Device Settings one more layer down the menu hierarchy?"
    - vladvasiliu 4y ago
      To me, Zoom's killer feature is that "use system settings" actually does what it says. In Teams, I may have "custom setup" selected, but it'll go right ahead and pick whatever it wants.

Wired headphones. I’ve never had to start a meeting by trying to mess with my audio settings, or had to think about charging another battery.

by habosa 4y ago

Wired headphones. I’ve never had to start a meeting by trying to mess with my audio settings, or had to think about charging another battery.

kimburgess 4y ago

I’ll add moderately high quality mic to this. If you’re spending a lot of working hours on calls, putting the resources into providing clear, intelligible voice for the people you’re working with will definitely be appreciated.

massysett 4y ago
I have a Plantronics (now Polycom, or Poly?) wired headset. Makes me look like a call center worker but the audio and mic are great quality. Sometimes I’m on a call and can’t hear someone well over the bad speakers I have in my monitor. The headset always clears it up.
- kimburgess 4y ago
  > now Polycom, or Poly? HP: https://press.hp.com/us/en/press-releases/2022/hp-inc-to-acquire-poly.html https://press.hp.com/us/en/press-releases/2022/hp-inc-to-acq...
esafak 4y ago
Like what?
- ianburrell 4y ago
  I like V-Mode BoomPro which is boom mic that connects to any headphones.
- kimburgess 4y ago
  For my personal setup: Rode NT-USB Mini (https://rode.com/en/microphones/usb/nt-usb-mini https://rode.com/en/microphones/usb/nt-usb-mini). It also give me a physical volume control for attached headphones.
  - wasmitnetzen 4y ago
    I second that device, but it even though it says it has a directional cardioid polar pattern, it is fairly omnidirectional, only use it when you have little background noise next to you (other people, animals, etc).
- Breza 4y ago
  Not GP but I love my WorkTunes. Excellent passive noise protection.

everyone 4y ago

Headphones are a "lesser known accessory" ???

fuzzfactor 4y ago
What about a USB radioactivity detector from 1998? How does that sound? If you like you can enable the audio and hear each time a particle hit the Geiger-Mueller tube, right through the headphones.

rektide 4y ago

Wireless headphones. Because sometimes I really have to go and it's literally no problem to walk to the bathroom. Or to go make tea. Or to do whatever. Freedom to not be chained up is amazing. Try it. I too don't feel like I've had to mess with audio settings. I have some SteelSeries Actis Pro's I bought a long time ago. They have bluetooth, but there's also a nice usb-based head-unit I use with higher quality, lower latency, and no pairing concerns. It shows present battery level quite clearly (which is highly enduring). The head unit also has a battery charger built in, and the headphones come with a secondary battery. I don't feel like I have to think about charging batteries either; if I have a slammed day of non-stop talking, it's easy to see at the end of the day I have half a battery left & I swap it (which takes <10s). People selling you Fear Uncertainty and Doubt about batteries seem misguided & silly to me. The freedom is amazing. Letting yourself get bothered & concerned enough to trap yourself into a narrow situation is dumb: be skeptical, at least.

j45 4y ago
Good to have both for different reasons. A good wired headset can be superior to wireless mic audio when presenting or interacting. If merely consuming, and hanging around wireless is good too.
- rektide 4y ago
  I have some mid-grade Rode Wireless Go and nice >$100 Samsung lavaier mics I can use when needed, which is faultless, reliable, amazing prosumer gear no one could conceivably gripe about, but honestly the Actis Pro headset I have is probably a better choice for both cases. The Actis has better microphone positioning by far, which counts for so much. I'm interested to test the range versus the Rode, but given that I can be 3 floors away & the Actis still fine, I'd be surprised if the Rode really had shockingly better range/reliability/interference-resistance. I continue to think there's a paranoia & level-of-concern that does not match what modern hardware can do.
  - vladvasiliu 4y ago
    > I continue to think there's a paranoia & level-of-concern that does not match what modern hardware can do. I think this is related to the fact that most wireless headphones people have experience with are Bluetooth. BT headphones have lag, and, when used in duplex mode, have terrible quality. And this lag adds to the one introduced by the conferencing software. I've got myself a Jabra headset that communicates over DECT. This thing is spectacular. No discernible lag (as tested with games) and the mic quality is better than what I hear from people rocking Bose and Sony BT headphones. The range is great, too. Much better than what I get from my BT headphones.

lmm 4y ago

Sadly with today's auto-detecting OSes I've more than once found my audio output setting itself to speakers, or worse, to my monitor (which doesn't and has never had speakers, but that doesn't seem to matter).

vladvasiliu 4y ago
This. Never had any issue with my wireless headphones, but Teams insists on picking random outputs and inputs even from one call to the next. The only logic I've found is that it prefers devices that handle both input and output. So, it works OK with my combined headphones + mic, but if I want to use my external dedicated mic + headphones without mic, I have to fiddle with the settings whenever I join a new call.
- ridgered4 4y ago
  We have webex and Teams at work. Neither one of them are great but unless I'm missing something Teams lacked a precheck feature where I can test my Mic before actually joining the meeting which is easily the main reason I despise it. Teams also occasionally just refuses to work with part of my audio setup until I rejoin so it also the one that I need the precheck for most.
- theshrike79 4y ago
  Teams and Goole Meet have the worst UX for switching inputs and outputs. Dunno why they still insist on not doing in properly. On Zoom changing either is literally a click away. AND you can test your mic while already on a call so you can listen while you fix your setup.
  - mikestew 4y ago
    Yeah, and then Teams recently went out of its way to ask, "what if we buried Device Settings one more layer down the menu hierarchy?"
  - vladvasiliu 4y ago
    To me, Zoom's killer feature is that "use system settings" actually does what it says. In Teams, I may have "custom setup" selected, but it'll go right ahead and pick whatever it wants.