The Plantronics CS361N Supra Plus headset with the optional HL10 lifter is an excellent combination that can greatly improve the efficiency of professionals who, like myself, spend the majority of their working hours on the phone. Anyone who spends a lot of time on conference calls knows the drill: holding a handset to your head for the duration of a conference call that goes on and on for 30, 60, or more minutes is just not practical. A speakerphone can free you up, but unless you spend most of your time on mute, your background noise floods the call bridge and when you do speak, others on the bridge must ask you to repeat yourself because they can't hear you clearly for one reason or another. I tried adding one of those fancy Polycom conference phones to my office and while the folks on the other end of my calls agreed I sounded "pretty good," it was still clear that I "had them on speaker."
Not so with the Plantronics headset! I've used other headsets that were chintzier, had static, were less comfortable and, while an improvement over holding the phone to my ear, still had significant drawbacks. In terms of sound quality and comfort, there are no compromises with this headset. I hear my callers and they hear me great. No one I polled suspects there is anything "funny" with my phone when I use this headset: I sound clear and they suspect I am talking right into the phone handset when I have asked. (I wish I could say the same for the more expensive Polycom...no one was fooled by it.)
The HL10 lifter is a great gizmo. Press the answer button on the headset and the lifter lists the handset on the phone up to answer the phone. When a call comes in, I don't have to be in the same room as the phone to answer it so long as I have my headset with me.
My one complaint with this Plantronics headset is that it is picky about what phones it is compatible with. It didn't work at all with my original Uniden TRU9496 phone. When I searched for a decent two-line phone to use specifically with this headset, the good, but not perfect, Panasonic KX-TS3282B fit the bill. There are no compatibility problems between the Panasonic and the Plantronics; they work great together right out of the box without any tweaking.
Range on the wireless headset is excellent; better than my 5.8 GHz Uniden TRU9496 phones. I don't know the maximum, but it works fine all over my home and into my garage. I haven't ventured down the driveway to see just how far I can push this thing, but suffice to say, it's the best of any wireless phone technology I've tried with my landline.
Aside from the need to buy a new phone to be compatible with this headset, I have no complaints. This headset exceeded my expectations. It's a truly quality product.