Customer Reviews

Plantronics Foldable USB Stereo Headset (Optimized for Laptop Use) (Audio 470 USB)

5 star:		(65)
4 star:		(57)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Okay,

I'll be honest and reveal that I bought these on a lark. After moving to a new home, I found that my Telex Digital USB microphone that I'd been using for DNS 9 Preferred and had been training for so long had been smashed inside a packing box. This was disconcerting because that microphone is no longer made.

Coming to Amazon.com, I specifically looked for USB headsets that reviewers said worked well with DNS 9 Preferred, and I was amazed that so few people had reviewed microphones for use with this program. Just about the only USB headset that anyone had mentioned at the time as being good with voice recognition software was this one. At about 30 bucks, I thought it was worth a try.

So I plug it into the USB port and do the shortest training I can find, creating a new user for use with this microphone. To my shock, dictation on this microphone after such short training was even better than I had achieved in many months of training on the Telex USB Digital microphone! This fact was made all the more bizarre because DNS 9 Preferred's user set up did not appear to like this microphone at all: this microphone only achieves a signal-to-noise rating of 18-19, while the Telex was easily up into the mid-20s consistently and easily. Go figure. But I sure am NOT complaining.

True, the build is a bit fragile feeling, so I'm not sure just how "optimized for laptop use" these truly are. Yes they fold up very small, but they don't do so without resistance, and I'm not quite sure how much folding and unfolding they will take before breaking into tiny pieces. But, for a desktop where I can simply hang them up when I'm not using them, I think their build quality will not be such a big issue.

I didn't think I'd use it, but the shirt-pocket volume control and mic mute have come in quite handy when watching streaming video, catching up on some TV shows I've missed during the move.

I'm not quite sure how significant the Dragon/Nuance/ScanSoft/whoever-owns-them-this-week rating of the low signal to noise ratio for these is. It might not be great for all programs, but it seems to work well for DNS 9, and that's all I use them for.

The one star negative I added in, making this a four-star rating, comes from what so many of us have come to experience as the "Chinese Build-Quality Syndrome." (Don't try to make an acronym out of that) I hope these are sturdier than they appear, and I hate to have to handle them with kid gloves -- o.k. I don't own any kid-gloves (it's a metaphor!) -- but it's solid tech, and for 30 bucks I don't think one can do much better. IIRC, I think the Telex was in the $90 neighborhood some years ago.

Lastly, I don't think that the Plantronics stereo headphone-component of these will replace my Grados or AKGs any time soon, but the sound quality is much better than expected, and it definitely is useful for speech playback. If you want to listen to Strauss, Mahler, Tchaik, or Branford, well, refer to the above models....

I purchased this headset mainly for use with Skype and TeamSpeak. I tried it for the first time last night and it did not disappoint. The sound quality from the mic was better than I expected when I did a Skype test call. The guys I was chatting with in TeamSpeak said it sounded great.

One pleasant surprise was the audio quality of the headphones. I played some of my music and the bass response was quite acceptable for everyday listening. The headset was truly plug-and-play on my MacBook Pro in both Windows XP Home (using Boot Camp) and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

I just got this new Plantronics 470 microphone with a USB adapter to replace two old Plantronics headset/microphones that I have been using for the past 2 1/2 years. I use the microphone primarily for speech recognition, using Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 8.0 professional.

The first thing that I've noticed using this microphone is that the recognition accuracy increased tremendously! The playback is also loud and crystal clear. I could barely hear the playback on the older Plantronics microphones, but the playback volume and voice quality on the new Plantronics 470 microphone was about 10 times better! I have tested the Plantronics 470 on my IBM laptop and work desktop computer using the USB adapter, and the volume and quality appears to be the same on both machines. In the past, I usually get worse recognition accuracy with my laptop than my desktop computer.

The superior quality of this microphone is due to the external USB soundcard and adapter that comes with it. This external soundcard appears to minimize electrical interference and noise that plague the internal soundcards. I am glad I bought this new microphone, because I don't have to make as many corrections in my dictation anymore!

The only problem I have with this headset is when I put it all my neck and bring it back to my head, I would lose a few strands of hair which are trapped by the top folding mechanism.

This is a great product that functions as advertised. I use them with Skype primarily, although they work great as headphones as well. The sound quality is good and those who I speak with through Skype have told me I sound great - just like I was on a normal land line.

My complaints -
1. The wire is way too long; I had not considered this factor when purchasing. Because I use this exclusively on my laptop, I only need about 3 feet of wire at the most, but the wire is probably around 8 feet long.
2. I use this on the road, so I have to pack it up and carry it every day. The headphones do collapse, but with the 8 feet of wire and the collapsed size they are still fairly bulky. Even when collapsed they are a fairly rigid unit, making it difficult to stow and also making me concerned about them breaking in transit.

I would recommend this to anyone who does not have to move the headset very often. Otherwise you might want to find something a little more compact.

I purchased this headset to be used primarily with my speech recognition software - Dragon NaturallySpeaking. After spending money on various headsets, I finally found the perfect one. This headset is very lightweight which makes it extremely comfortable to wear practically all day. The product folds nicely making it very portable. Additionally, it comes with an in-line control that lets you mute the microphone with a touch of a finger. It appears to do a very good job of canceling the background noise. When I dictate, the translation accuracy rate is close to 99%. With other headsets, I use to spent so much time going back to correct the text. I am even thinking of buying an extra headset, just to have it as a backup. Thank you for a great product.

Having gone through 2 other headsets, and returning them both because of either poor fit or poor sound quality, I turned to the ever-reliable Amazon products reviews to aid in my search for a quality headset at a great price. I don't do audio recording or anything like that - my primary uses for the headset are Skype and listening to iTunes. The voice and sound quality are more than adequate for these purposes. In addition, I wear the headset for long periods of time, so comfort is key. The light-weight feel of the headset is great, and the ear pieces cover just enough to drown out excess office noise w/o making me completely unaware of my surroundings. Finally, several reviewers commented on the folding mechanism and size. Yes, they could be more compact once folded, but it does the trick, and they fit just fine in my laptop case. When unfolded, they hold their shape just fine. The only thing that would be of great improvement would be a carrying case. In any case, this is a great purchase for the quality and price.

I purchased this headset to bypass the audio buzz problem I was having with my laptop - and it succeeded there with flying colors; I no longer have a loud humming noise when I'm trying to record on screen video. However, to get the noise to go away (it's a ground/power issue on my laptop), you have to use the USB attachment.

Some good points:

The chord is super-long - you can walk around quite a bit & still stay attached.

I can hear audio well with this headset & it's improved my accuracy with my voice recognition software.

Some bad points:

The mouthpiece is on the left side - for me, this is something that took some getting used to.

The headset folds up - while this could be seen as a good point to some, I'm finding it too easy to get the headset tangled up with the chord while it's being stored.

If you notice - these "bad" points are weak... this is a great headset overall.

I compared the performance of this headset against two others in my arsenal, and the quality of the sound/microphone is far, far superior to any other headset I tried. Speech is just far clearer. (I played the other two headsets into the USB sound card that comes with the Plantronics headset, so it was a fair test. I recorded my voice and played it back with all 3 headsets.)

I would have rated it 5 stars except that the folding mechanism of the headset is a hassle...it needs a way (besides tape) to keep it from folding on its own or flopping around at the folding joints. But, even with that difficulty, it's probably the best headset you can buy for the money.

I bought these headphones one day after a particularly awful experience at Best Buy trying to trade in my extended warranty for the umpteenth time and encountering some of the worst customer service and policy use I've ever witnessed. I was actually told I was buying a USB headset from someone who claimed to have looked it up when, in fact, I was not. It was wasted money and time.

So I came home and looked on Amazon to see if I could find something better and so I did. I even price-checked this set against other places online and when you factor in the free shipping it really is the best deal for them. Thirty dollars for a headset that is not only USB but it doesn't squish my head!

Maybe I have a big head. Maybe my ears stick out too far. I wouldn't think so, normally, but I seem to have an issue many different designs of headphones that the inside ridges of my ears get rubbed funny or pushed towards my head and that results, at the very least, in a gradually increasing discomfort and, at worst, immediate pain that worsens over time. Even the soft cushioned ones have a tendency to squeeze too tight and I have a delicate jaw that doesn't react well to being caught in a clamp.

Ideally, I would prefer a pair of headphones that are light enough to wear for several hours at a time padded in fabric (anyone who spends long amounts of time chatting online knows that your ears get sweaty and plastic or leather padding just gets funky after a short while) and enclose the ear without squeezing the head, have in-line volume control and a cord long enough to lean back in my chair a little or stand up and grab something from a high shelf without taking them off. I would like an adjustable, noise-canceling microphone that is unnoticeable when it's tilted up (or "holstered", as I like to call it) and a little button on it to call a manservant to freshen my lemonade with exactly four perfect cubes of ice.

This headset does not enclose the ears but the sound is really quite good so I don't need them to. They're padded with mesh (so they don't get too warm) and very comfortable, have in-line volume and mute and a cord that's so long I actually end up bundling it up a little so my chair doesn't roll over it, and still have room to move around. This would be ideal if I wanted to sit somewhere else while talking on my computer and, someday, I just might.

It also does not have a button to call a manservant, nor does a manservant come included, but I suppose it's just as well; that model would cost way more.

It does have this handy-dandy collapsible feature that seems very unstable at first but can take quite a beating despite appearances and actually contributes to the comfort of the device (watch the hinges around your hair, though). Although I don't use a laptop, the space-saving design is still appreciated because it lets me store them in my desk drawer when not in use, even when they're still plugged in. Headphones are difficult to store neatly and these are designed to do just that.

I'm very hard on a pair of headphones. I work and play at this machine so I use them for everything I do, from listening to music and watching video to using voice chat programs and games (on Windows XP Media Center) such as Second Life, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2, Steam Community chat, Skype and Yahoo, and filming program tutorials. The microphone quality is fantastic. Nobody complains of shrill or disturbing sounds (unless I make them), and believe me when I say that the people I talk to would most certainly complain if some innocent plastic bag rustling in the background became shrill to their ears. That has happened with other headsets, though usually those that only offer copper plugs and are not USB.

That's the other thing about them. They have USB and copper plug connections (and the USB connection is compatible with all the other Plantronics USB connections of this kind, too) so if I did take them somewhere, I'd be covered no matter what I'd need to plug them into.

These headphones lasted a really long time, too. I bought my first pair in September and even after accidentally splitting the rubber on the cord (not advised) in a few places, they still managed to hold out eight months and that's better than even my most expensive pair of headphones ever ($110, six months). I am not nice to my headphones, as hard as I might try. They get dropped, kicked, chewed on (by the cat, not me), squished between cushions, sat on, and loud music pushed through the speakers at top volume for long periods of time. Occasionally, they even get a little damp when I accidentally duck my microphone into my icy fresh lemonade. This set keeps going. In the end, the sound in the left ear gave out and that's how most of them finally go. No set of headphones is meant to last forever, but I've gotten some very impressive value out of this pair.

I bought my first set of headphones when I was nine for the purpose of listening to my Walkman (they were actually still called that, back then) and I've been going through them like paper ever since. This is the only pair I've actually wanted to replace with the same model and I'll do it again when this new pair gives out. I'm confident that will take a while.

In short (too late, I know), they're light, comfortable, durable, good sound quality for both listening and making others listen, and all for thirty dollars. Free shipping, too (although they took a week to ship it).

PS - The collapsible mechanism seems stiff at first but after some use will loosen up and become more fluid. I've found the best way to do it is to hold the headphones upright in both hands, facing you (with the microphone to your left) and brace your thumbs beneath the hinges. Then, use your index fingers to ease the top of them until they are about halfway bent. Now gently bring the ear pieces towards each other and everything will kind of fold together on its own. They open in much the same way, only in reverse.


Followup Edit:
The second pair lasted me another eight months. I'm now on my third, and still just as happy with them. At this point, I'm making an effort to outfit the people I speak to regularly with their own sets, because none of them get the sound quality I do.

Does what it says - foldable plastic headset with good speech accuracy in programs like Dragon Naturally Speaking.
The cord has a volume and mute switch. You can either plug its two output jacks directly into your laptop's twin audio/mic jacks, or, you can plug the 470's output jacks into the included small USB audio device, which is basically a tiny box with a USB plug on one side and two jack sockets on the other. On my system, speech-to-text dictation accuracy was the same via the USB device or by just plugging the headset right into my laptop. (Dragon NaturallySpeaking actually rated the direct-plug approach as a better signal to noise ratio than the USB-plug approach.)

Sound seems adequate while playing music, but oddly, I thought Skype telephony was better with a $10 budget cellphone headset than this $30 name-brand PC headset. (You get a little cord attachment for about $3 which lets you plug a regular cellphone headset into your two-jack PC; "2.5 mm mobile headset to pc converter" @ amazon.) A little spooky to watch the Amazon price of the Plantronics 470 go up and down 20% or 30% day to day.