Customer Reviews

Plantronics .Audio 655 USB Multimedia Headset

5 star:		(65)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(32)
2 star:		(21)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

I've worked in radio and as a voice over announcer for 30 years. I needed something for some simple recording at home that wasn't going to break the bank. I'd love to have a Shure RE-20, my all time favorite workhorse, but it's pricey and requires more of a set up that I need at home. So after some careful research I came across the Plantronics line. The audio tests done by some folks online really impressed me and the fact that they are being used by some large companies for training audio also impressed. When I saw I could get it for under $30 I was happy but a little leery too.
Well I've had it at home for two days now and run it through it's paces. I'm VERY impressed! The audio on the mic is very good, I have no idea what the problem is for some folks. I know the clunkiness of the headphones will put some people off but having worked in studios for years they don't bother me at all. It took some very minimal tweaking to get my software to get the great sound down "on tape". I'm looking forward to working with this set up for years to come.

I recently ordered the .Audio 655 to replace my old Plantronics DSP 500, which I absolutely loved (for about 5 years until the mic stopped working). I was hesitant to buy a headset that had no reviews, but so far I am very pleased.

I use Skype regularly and everyone says the sound quality of my mic is superb (although they said the same with the DSP 500). The mic itself is attached to a stiff piece of plastic that swivels very smoothly (I don't anticipate it loosening any).

The USB cable is pretty thin, although plenty long. I feel like I need to be cautious with it around my kitten.

The buttons on the headset work nicely, although I preferred the DSP 500's method of having the volume controls located along the USB cable. Also, there is a blue light on the left earphone in the center of the audio controls. This light appears to be on at all times.

I have two complaints about the headset so far:
- My ears are slightly too large for ear cushions. I would rate my ears as slightly larger than normal (but not by much). Initially putting the headset on, it is extremely comfortable, but after about 20 minutes of use it becomes a little uncomfortable (this is a very mild uncomfortability).
- The headset has no drivers, and Windows XP recognizes it as "Generic USB Audio Device" whereas my old DSP was registered as a "Plantronics Headset". This may not be important to most people, but I have a lot of audio devices attached to my computer (my old DSP, a Skype phone, webcam mic, speakers, and now this headset). All of my other sound devices are appropriately named; it's a shame my newest toy is not. Again, this is a very minor complaint.

I am a quite fussy about sound quality and to my ear this headphone is quite musical even though playing music is not its primary application. I bought this headphone for my daughter who is learning French using Rosetta Stone. Plantronics is renowned for its headsets designed for voice communication, so I bought this without much research. When it arrived, I found it is actually quite big in size and its padded ear piece sits around the ears, thus eliminates any long time wearing discomfort. The speakers are enclosed type so while you are listening to it, sound does not leak and disturbs others. It has a fold able noise cancelling microphone which has a red tip, adding some cool factor. The headphone does not need any driver, just plug it in and Windows detects it as a sound device. From usability point of view, nothing can be more easier.

It works flawlessly with Rosetta Stone, but as I have not used it with any voice chat application, I do not know how that noise cancelling microphone sounds at the other side. You can adjust volume by pressing two buttons on the left ear piece. The microphone also incorporates a cleaver design, you can mute it by raising the boom. This is quite nifty for voice conference.

I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of music it plays through. For a value multi media headset, I must say the sound it rich and not muddy like many other cheap headsets. If I do not have my Ultimate Ears, Shure or Audio Technical ear/head phones around, I may still use it for listening my musics through it.

The only drawback of this equipment is: it is made of plastic, it is quite big and kind of clunky as per my taste. However, if you factor in the price, I must say it is a very good buy.

I used to have a bluetooth headset to chat with my friends and teammates through the playstation network but it hurt my ears, its battery drained up with each gaming session and the sound was really really lacking. That why I searched for a USB headset and was recomended this brand plantronics.
Now I dont have to worry about those 3 problemas. The build is high quality, the sound is excellent and its so easy to use: just plug it in and the OS will recognize it as an audio device. If you are looking for an economic gaming headset solution, look no further.

The microphone on this headset is good. Possibly too good. It's way too sensitive to noise. It will pick up ever single background noise. It will pick up and transmit your breathing. It has no filter on the mic to soften your pops (P's are very hard letters and tend to pop loudly when you say them). If the sensitivity could be turned down quite a bit, and had they included a couple pop filters, this product would be perfect. As it stands, the people you are talking to are going to pick up every little annoying sound you have. And good luck trying to find a pop filter to cover this mic. If they exist for sell somewhere, I would love to know where.

My previous, and primary headset is either identical or similar to Plantronics GAMECOM 1 PC HEADSET ( 67003-01 ). Mine are actually a different brand due to some wonky discontinuation shuffle, the details of which I can't recall, but for the sake of argument that is basically the headset I started with, and hoped to more or less match. I wasn't looking to get rid of that headset, because after a few years of heavy use it still works wonderfully, but I wanted a second comparable headset for my PS3 so I wouldn't have to move my headset around the house all the time.

After some digging around on Amazon I came to these, the .Audio 655s. Initially the design grabbed me but I was further intrigued by the muting mechanic (lifting the mic boom) and the lack of a cumbersome in-line DSP unit (whatever one is) that my other headset has. Being that I live with people and play a lot of online games I found the mute feature to be appealing because it made when my headset was and was not muted more obvious and getting rid of the sizable DSP nugget allowed for less cord clutter in my computer area. It all sounded good so I went ahead and got them.

Right out of the box I realized I made a glaring oversight in that I didn't evaluate the ear pads enough at all. They're padded to be sure, but the covering is a rigged plastic material that I wasn't expecting. I assumed they would soften up a bit with use and didn't think much of it at the time. From there I plugged them in to my PC for a test run and they worked perfectly. Later that day I hopped on to TeamSpeak for some gaming and was further satisfied with the incoming sound quality but a little less excited about the outgoing sound quality. There is no foam dampener on the mic which may have something to with it, but this headset's tendency to relay static and distortion was greater than my primary headset. It wasn't an overwhelming problem, but at times it would make what I was saying difficult to understand which was a problem I wasn't used to dealing with. After about an hour the comfort of these, or lack thereof, became much more apparent. The padding on the ear cups I could live with, but there seems to also be a high amount of inward tension which gave me a notable case of headphone ache, that head pain somewhere between a typical headache and getting smacked in the nose. Again it isn't a crippling detractor to the experience but you start to become increasingly aware that you have headphones on and you don't really want to spend more time in them than you have to.

The comfort was a little disappointing to be blunt but this headset did come with a couple of features I was pretty fond of. Moving all of the volume adjustments to the headset takes some getting used to but ultimately I found that I preferred it more when compared to the in-line mute/volume controls of my previous headset. There's also some fundamentally nerdy satisfaction to pushing buttons on my headset, very sci-fi feeling. The raising-the-mic to mute feature seems to work. I wish there was more of an indication that it was working in the way of a boom mounted LED or something, but I so far haven't had any embarrassing "hey your mic is open" or talking for 30 minutes while muted kind of moments.

At the end of the day I can't say I regret buying them, they're a decent headset at a decent price. The comfort is really the only thing I have against them but reading this as a potential buyer keep in mind that no two heads are the same, others may very well find great comfort in them and even I am still harboring some hope that with time they will loosen up more. There may be better choices out there in this price range, so I'd probably recommend doing some homework, but ultimately I would recommend these as a fair enough buy with some room for improvement.

I am a gamer and demolish headsets at a rate or 3 or 4 per year. I wear them several hours a day almost every day, so I go through a lot of headsets and dont want to pay too much but did want something that is of decent quality and comfortable. I am so glad I bought this product. With the many choices provided it was hard to figure out which headset would suit me the best, so I entered a price range and picked this one from the list. I've never owned a USB headset before and I love how easy it is to use. The sound is awesome for the price and I like that the mic boom mutes it automatically when you flip it up. I use Ventrillo and got several comments about how clear I sounded with my new headset. My head is extra small and sometimes I have trouble with over with over-the-head style headsets because they dont adjust small enough. These do, so if your head is small these will fit you. They are not ultra light, but after 6 hours of use were not bothersome and didn't make me feel like I was wearing a bucket on my head like some headsets do. The ear cushions are comfortable and block out distracting noises very well. I would definately recommend for gamers. 5 stars - 06/2010

I bought this headset after some research. A previous review here was excellent in recommending this headset. There are pros and cons to this headset which didn't make it my first choice, but after giving it a test run for a week or so, I'm ready to return it to the store.

PROS:
Input quality: My friends on ventrilo on skype commented on the clarity of my voice almost immediately, noting I was much clearer and sounded younger.

Easy to use: Plug in and go. No drivers, nothing. It doesn't register as plantronics on your computer (could be a con, if you have multiple devices).

Cord: The cord is really thin which worries me some, though I haven't had the headset long enough to notice issues. What I do like is that it is long enough without being too long, nor does it have any awkward dangles/doodles on it for the cord to tangle itself on.

CONS:
Comfort: I have regular sized ears, and the muffs on this headset are too small. If you have larger ears this headset will crush your ears and become uncomfortable after ten minutes. And I wear mine in agony for hours while gaming. The band across the top of head is very comfortable, mind you.

Customer Service: I was plainly told the issue with the headset is not an issue with the headset since it worked fine on a 32-bit computer, but not any 64-bit computer (more about this below). I was informed it was an issue with my computer. Uh huh.

KILLING CON: The reason I am returning this headset is because it constantly crackles and cuts out like a blown car stereo system. It drives me insane. This only happens on 64-bit computers running Vista or Windows 7 (that I know of). 32 bit computers have worked fine. I have tried multiple USB ports, both front and back, and the problem continues on at least three different machines.

I have found problems with a similar Plantronics headset online, the GameCon 777, which uses the same chipset as the .Audio 655. Coincidence? The information I found on the problem believes there is a memory leak in the chipset, which causes the crackling.

Regardless. Whether I have a bum headset (which plantronics tells me I don't), or it's a problem with all their headsets, I'll be returning this one and picking up a better headset come payday.

So I have been using this for the past few months and wanted to review it. I know a lot of positive reviews over this product and I would like to talk about my experiences with it. So Here are my experiences with this Headset:

Pro's:

<->The Mic is excellent for podcasting. I have been using this for sites that request to do a podcast with me. This works really well and produces the highest possible quality without having a sound board. All the podcasts that I have been on have told me my audio was the easiest to edit due to the quality.

<->The Sound from the Headphones are really sensitive and can even pick up bass sounds. I use this for a game that uses a lot of bass sounds and I can feel it vibrate on my ear almost tickling my ear.

<->The Volume Control is on the left ear piece. Although this can be both pro and con because of the location, I find that it can be quite helpful when you are podcasting and don't want to make noise by using the mouse.

Con's:

<->It is bulky to a point. Now I don't mind bulky if it works well and it does but I had to put in the con's because I can't take this on the road so I have order the Plantronics Mobile Convertible Headset for when I am on the road. I will report back when I get a better chance to use it.

<->It isn't made for BIG ears. If your like me and have your ears being a little more bigger than average ears then you will find that the ear cushions will push down on parts of my ear and after while will start to make them hurt. This head set is good for short periods due to my above average ear sizes.

<->Sound Canceling isn't really sound canceling. While I was using this headset for a few podcast the sound sound canceling didn't really work. I don't know if was me or if it was the headset. For all I know it could be software, but no matter what I did, I would have to mute myself when I wasn't speaking, although the quality was good it was sometimes to sensitive.

All in all, if your like me and have to do some interviews over Skype for podcasting. This is a good headphones to use when you need quality in both headphones and Microphone!!

These headphones aren't real bad honestly. They do a decent job of isolating outside noise when listening to music, or whatever. They do have rather small ear cups for being what I had assumed were over-the-ear headphones, but I have rather large ears. For those that think music should be felt as well as heard, these have plenty of low-end response. My only complaint about the sound is that the high-end is a tiny-little-bit tinny, and that the overall volume is dictated by the on-board sound device (being USB, it's part of the headphones). I personally wish they were a little bit louder overall, but that is just my personal opinion. If you are thinking about buying them for any VoIP apps, like Skype, you won't be disappointed at all. The mic is good and clear, well constructed and tucks neatly away. My only other complaint(and actually my biggest one)is that the blue LED in the left-side earpiece housing lets a bit of light out the side, between the driver/earpiece and the housing itself, so if you happen to wear glasses, expect to see a bit of glare/reflection in the corner of your left eye at all times. This just may have been a deal-breaker for me at the time of purchase, had I known about it then. If you don't wear glasses, ignore those last two sentences and pick these up for sure. Overall, these have been the best thirty bucks I've spent in a long time. Also, as far as the other comments regarding them being too tight on the ears are concerned, I have a large head, and I've so far worn these comfortably for about 6 hours without issue. I guess it comes down to personal preference, but for the price, you won't lose anything trying these.