Customer Reviews

Plantronics Multimedia Stereo Headset (Music, Gaming, Voice) (Audio 350)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I've been using variations of this headset for years of gaming and they are great. They have great sound and the mike works very well (as per the people I tall to via IP). Volume control and mute in-line-cable is very handy. These have always had problems with pulling out of the cable from the headset, damaging the mike function somehow, so make sure and tie the cable around the headset's ear-cup holder to prevent this. Over the years, the prices have been droping on this base model in it's various forms, and the overall quality feel to them has also dropped, but they still work well and can't be beat for the price! Hope this helps!

8/16/08 Update:
I needed another headset/mic for doing screencasting at work, so I ordered up another one of these. It works great for screencasting in Vista. For anyone who also has the folding 470, it's USB adapter works great with the 350 in Vista. I still highly recommended this headset for it's price-point.

I wanted a decent-but-not-too-expensive headset to replace the old, worn-out freebie headset that had come with a computer many years prior. My requirements were few:

--I wanted standard audio/mic plugs rather than USB, as my ridiculously old employer-issued laptop had but one USB port.

--Padded headband, as I often have conference calls that last over an hour.

--Decently long cord, so I am not tied to my chair when on a call.

For relatively little money this headset delivers all those things. It's been a nice addition to my laptop bag.

The cons:

--The bass isn't fabulous. Hardcore gamers will notice this most, especially if they're used to playing on a system with a subwoofer. I find my music isn't as good as it could be.

--The earpieces aren't the most comfortable I've worn. The pads are sort of squarish, and are meant to sit on the ear rather than surround it, but my ears are small and want to kind of squish up inside, resulting in some less-than-pleasant ear-folding sensations.

--I have to do some serious fiddling with the boom to avoid the Darth Vader heavy breathing effect during Skype calls, but I have yet to find a headset that does this effectively anyway.

--It's not compact at ALL. The boom folds away up against the headband when not in use, but otherwise it doesn't break down further. It's pretty bulky.

All that said, however, I still like them, especially for the price tag.

I bought this headset to replace my old one. I have tried the USB port headset for alot more money and didn't get the effect I wanted. When I saw this one, it was just like my old one so I thought I'd give it a try. I can't say enough about the performance. The sound is great, and I can put the headset down and go in another room and still hear on my speakers. The metal plugs are color coded, so it's not hard to find out where to plug them in next to the sound card. The ear phones are comfortable and the whole set is light weight for maximum comfort.

I bought this headset after returning another model to the store due to finding it too uncomfortable to wear for any length of time. This particular headset I've found to be comfortable enough to wear for several hours at a time without problems. Obviously comfort is something that can vary greatly by the shape of your head, and your ears, so your results may be different. What I have found with headsets is that if they seem to be pressing too hard on your ears, setting them around a tissue box (width is similar to a human head) helps to break them in a little and relieve some of the pressure.

I've had no problem with the sound quality. While these certainly aren't high end audiophile equipment, I can hear clearly and I've had no complaints from others about the sound quality of my microphone, and everyone seems to have no trouble understanding what I say.

In gaming it has been my experience that these are adequate to distinguish the location of a sound (which side of my character it's on, and whether at the front or back). I would suspect that most people who play first-person shooters regularly would want either proper surround sound speakers, or a somewhat higher end headset to help them pin down the location of sound even more closely, but for my casual gaming purposes I've been extremely happy with these results.

The cord is almost 3 meters, so in my personal experience it has an excellent balance of being long enough to allow me to move around in the area of the desk, without being so long that it's prone to get tangled badly. I've also enjoyed the on-cord controls to turn the mic on and off and to adjust the speaker volume. I've found them easy to use and conveniently placed.

I use this headset primarily to transcribe notes from meetings I have recorded with Microsoft OneNote. The voices are sometimes difficult to hear but sound much better on these headphones (that cover most of one's ear) than other ones I have used (Plantronics and Logitech).

I also sometimes use Dragon Naturally Speaking 9.0. When testing the accuracy on this software (voice to noise ratio) this headset comes out lower (17) than some of my other headsets but it passes more consistantly and is good enough for my uses.

It's also more durable than the lightweight Plantronics I used.

Well... this is a great evolution for the Plantronics Audio.90, as you can see is the same sound system but diferent design, the mic is well placed and the retractil system works fine, the only thing is that the plugs are very very poor, they break pretty quick if you dont care of them and the ear cups make your ear sweat very quickly...

I bought this headset from retailer (offline), and returned it the next day. First off, I have to make it clear that I had NO problems with sound. Even though the speakers could have been just a tiny bit bigger (they use 40mm drivers), the sound quality of the headset was just fine.

However, when it comes to wearing these headphones, the only words that come to mind are "uncomfortable as sin". The awkward squarish shape of the cups made it hard to get any kind of decent seal around the ears (and a bad seal on closed-back headphones ultimately leads to poor sound isolation). Also, I have no idea what material they used for the cup pads, but it is nowhere near soft enough... in fact, I litterally couldn't wear these things for more than five minutes without my ears turning red (flush) from discomfort. Mind you, I also own a cheap pair of Koss headphones I can keep on for hours at a time, so my ears are definitely no stranger to being cupped in speakers either... but these things, they just plain hurt to wear after a very short period of time, which isn't good at all. Discomfort and being unable to obtain a good seal around the ears were ultimately the main reasons for the return.

If your ears are tough, you should have no problem with this headset. The sound quality is decent and it should work just fine for you. However, if you're looking for comfort and good sound isolation, you'll want to look elsewhere...

I found these to be very uncomfortable. Maybe I have big ears and don't know it, but the cans did not fit over them and I had to return them. Very surprised, I love my plantronics headset for my cell phone.

I bought this exact pair of headphones 6 years ago. Im still using the same ones. 100% perfect working condition. I lost the small foam cover for the microphone years ago and the clip on the volume changer cracked years ago as well, but other then those tiny tiny defects this thing is amazing. Excellent quality, fits perfect, never had a problem with them. Not once in 6 years, and i raid with these things. I literally have used them probably 4 hours a day almost every day for 6 YEARS! I cannot emphasis enough what an great buy this is.

I just bought another set off of amazon as a 'just in case' purchase. If the ones i have ever give out, again 6 years and counting, i definitely want another pair of the EXACT same ones to replace them. This has got to be one of the best damned purchases Ive have ever made.

The best headphones ever made, replaced by the trash 355s.

crisp clear sound, very comfortable headband, you can barely tell your wearing it, the earcups are overly large, perfect for people with larger ears.

if they had just made the wiring a larger gauge they would last forever, sadly they will wear out over time, usually the left ear dying first then the mic and finally the right ear.

but hey, last pair worked for 4 years and a new set is currently $30 - $35.