Customer Reviews

Sennheiser PC 166 Binaural Multimedia/Gaming Headset with Noise-Canceling Microphone

5 star:		(52)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

So I work on a video conferencing product as my day job, so I have been through a fair few headsets at this point. My last pair was a plantronics dsp 500, before that I had a series of logitech usb headsets. So, here is my 2p:

This headset is quite good- i have a pair of grado 225s that soundwise blow away anything with a microphone attached- but this is one of the better sounding headsets i have tried for awhile (i listen to music- not gaming). The sound level on the cans is a little quiet, it could use a little amplification- but all in all they the sound you do get is excellent- very even across all frequencies, as you would expect from sennheiser. The microphone sound is good, low noise, very good for conferencing. There is a manual volume control and an on/off switch, and it does come with a nice little spool to wind up your cord into (no auto wind unfortunately).

One other thing to note here is that this is a usb dongle with a sennheiser headset, so you could theoretically use this dongle with other non-usb headsets-

In comparison to what else is out there I would take this one over the plantronics sets any day- my first set of plantronics were defective (one speaker was broken)- amazon graciously replaced them- and my second plantronics had a horrible microphone buzz, and the headset sounded generally muddy when used for listening to music. Also, even the portable plantronics are hard to haul around because of the bulky dsp component that is attached to the cable- it creates a cable snarl wherever it goes.

The other sets I have used, the logitechs (all different types), have all fallen apart in some way, including wires falling out, ear pieces falling off, losing fuzzy parts, etc- and the audio playback was mediocre at best, though the microphone was ok- you get what you pay for and if you only want to spend $20 then they aren't bad-

Anyhow I hope that helps someone else trying to make the same decision- there are a number of other gaming oriented headsets out there I haven't tried yet- so ymmv- but i would take the sennheisers over the plantronics at this point.

I'm not an audiophile; I'll get that out of the way right here. This review is from the viewpoint of someone who can appreciate good sound as well as a good value.

These headphones are expensive, and I was semi-afraid that I was just buying into a name when I bought these. I can safely recommend them, despite the price, because they are worth the cost for a few reasons:

- If you find yourself using headphones for more than a few hours at a time (work, games, whatever) then you're, no doubt, familiar with how your ears will start to hurt after a while, and you'll want to take them off for a while. I'm not kidding at all when I say that it feels like they've put pillows on the ear pieces. This is easily my favorite part about these headphones. Very, VERY comfortable.

- The sound quality is better than any other pair of headphones I've owned. To be fair, I don't own any that would claim to be better in the first place, so the best I can say here is that they're clear and responsive.

- The mic quality is good. I haven't had any complaints from people on the other end of a conversation.

- The included soundcard module (which, of course, you don't have to use) I'm not sure about. I haven't directly compared with and without. It's somewhat of a pain when you have to go into sound configuration settings to switch between headphones and speakers, if you use both.

- These are also "open ear" - If you're playing music loudly, people close by will be able to hear it faintly. It keeps outside noise out relatively well (I wouldn't use them for sound isolation, though.)

All in all, highly recommended.

I am extremely satisfied with purchasing the PC166's.

I'm sort of an audiophile, but not obsessively so and the sound quality is phenomenal. I bought a Sennheiser headset because I previously had a set of closed-ear Sennheisers which I was content with. As of late, however, they have been irritating my salivary glands, so I had to go for a pair of on-the-ear headphones and I thought I might as well get a headset for gaming while I was at it.

I thought I would sacrifice some sound quality by going to a non-closed ear set, but I was pleasantly surprised. Bass is full and satisfying and the microphone quality is what you'd expect from a high end headset - clear, concise and intelligible.

I bought these headphones for comfort alone and I was not disappointed. They're very lightweight and the extra padding on the ears is very comfortable. I wear headphones many hours throughout the day and they're comfortable throughout.

I really don't have any complaints about this headset. If you have the money to spend and quality is important, this is a very good buy.

After owning at least three of each of Logitech's past hundred thousand generations of $10 Wal-Mart headsets, I finally decided it was time to hunker down and buy a real one. I'm glad I did. After having used the headset for several months now, I can share the following experiences:

The product name for this headset is misleading. This is not a USB headset in the normal sense of the word. You can use it via usb, but in order to do so, you must use the included adapter, which acts as a sound card. This means the headset will have its own volume mixer within Windows. I found it extremely annoying trying to keep this mixer in balance with my default mixer due to different volume levels between games, movies, etc. There is an alternative, though. You can use this device with normal pink / green analog connectors. Doing so will retain the full functionality of a headset while eliminating the annoyance of the addon sound card.

The headset is very comfortable when worn without glasses. I can wear it for hours on end without discomfort. This brings my headset inline with my regular high-end cans. I can wear one or the other all day depending on my need for voice. When wearing my glasses, the headphones put enough pressure on the side of my head to cause my glasses to dig a bit into my temples. It's not enough to hurt, but it does get uncomfortable after an hour or two. This could be something that would resolve itself in time as the headphones "mold" to the shape of the glasses, though, as I rarely wear my glasses when at the computer. I'm nearsighted.

The quality on the mic is fine. It's hardly amazing by any standard, but your voice will go through crisp, clear, and without distortion. More importantly is mic volume: while other mics I've used have lacked sufficient amp power to let your voice be a voice rather than something of a whisper, this one worked well right out of the box. No more dealing with "Turn your mix up!" and "Stop talking, your mic is breaking up," requests in Vent or online games.

The sound quality of the headphones is above average as well, as far as headsets go. I personally wouldn't use this to listen to music--it seems to play back gunshots and explosions far better than harmonies and melodies for some peculiar reason--but for gaming it does a grand job at sound placement and such. I'm able to tell well enough where enemies are from the sound alone. Though hardly a first in the headphone world in general, this is something I haven't been able to find in a headset until I bought this unit. There very well may be others--just none in my price range. And though I said I personally wouldn't listen to music with this thing, there's really no reason you can't. It sounds good. Just not as good as I like it to sound.

For final notes, the volume dial is marked with a curved line rather than numbers or the like, making volume adjustment something of a guessing game if you don't already have sound playing. This is annoying to me, but this is probably a personal preference. Also, my cat likes to sit on my lap and chew on the plastic shirt clip. When he gets bored with that or I make him stop, he sometimes walks up onto my desk directly in front of the monitor, plops down in an upright sitting position so as to block as much of the screen as possible, and watches whatever I'm playing. He can do this for hours if I don't throw him down. This never happens when not using the headset, and it never happened before receiving it. Therefore, the headset is hypnotizing my cat. Beware pet owners!

Overall a great buy considering the money I will save by not having to buy a new $10-$20 headset every 6 months. It's holding up very well and looks like it will last a good long while, provided my cat doesn't eat it.

I originally bought the PC161's, but due to soundcard issues with my Notebook someone recommended I buy the 166USB headphones to fix the problem. Not only did my soundcard issues resolve, the quality sound I got from the 166USB was unreal! I didn't think it could be any better after having the older 161, but the 166USB has really blown my mind. They sound great, they fit perfect and I love them totally. The built in mic is clear as a bell for in game chat. People always comment on how well my comm sounds using prgms like Ventrillo and Teamspeak. Buy these HP's and you'll never buy anything other than Sennheiser again.

These headphones seem outstanding. They are very comfortable to wear and they produce outstanding sound quality. The boom microphone is fairly long and easily adjusted so it is readily placed alongside your mouth. As others have noted, they seem very well designed and sturdily constructed. A lot of packaging material although at least you don't have to cut open the plastic package and almost all of it can be recycled. I recommend them.

A few tips from my experience with these headphones:

* When I first plugged them into a USB interface and tested them I found playback static noise present in the background. Reducing the sound hardware acceleration from maximum to standard eliminated this static.

If you need to do this, in Windows XP: Go to:
Control Panel
Sound and Audio devices
Audio
Sound playback
Performance

Then reduce the slider for hardware acceleration.

* Initially the volume controls were set rather low. I adjusted the microphone volume to maximum and the speaker volume to between 1/2 and 3/4.

If you need to do this in Windows XP; go to:
Control Panel
Sound and Audio devices
Volume
Advanced

then adjust the sliders as desired.

I am a heavy gamer and an appreciator of music. I have been through my share of Logitech, Sony Ericsson, Altec Lansing; Plantronics headsets just to name a few. They all have failed me. After a couple months of daily use they all shorted out. Granted, I do not take very good care of the headsets like I should. I do tend to just pull them off my ears and toss them aside when I stop using them, instead of properly rolling up the cord and putting them away. But I figured what the heck... they are pretty much considered disposable to me.

That was until I purchased my 1st set of Sennheiser Headsets. The quality of these headsets is far superior to any others I have owned in the past...and I have owned quite a few. The ear cups fit comfortably over my ears and I can barley notice they are on my head. The microphone is adjustable and designed perfectly to reduce any noise when adjusting them. The best thing about these headsets is the durability. Like I said before I don't take very good care of my headsets, but these have lasted far longer than any others I have owned in the past. So far I'm going on 8 months and I haven't had one problem at all. Not only is the solid engineering of these outstanding, but the sound quality is superb. They also come with a USB adapter so you can hook them up to almost anything.

I highly recommend this product to anyone who uses and abuses the heck out of their headsets and is tired if them constantly shorting out. Do your self a favor and pay a little more money for a good product like this and you will save money in the long run. A wise man told me once... Good stuff not cheap and cheap stuff not good. So do yourselves a favor and purchase these headsets...you will not be disappointed.

Update: 9/27/08...

Here I am another 9 months down the road with the same headset. Still no shorts, still alive and undamaged. Best Headsets I ever bought....In the past I would have been through at least 4 or 5 different sets by now.

I am a software developer who is working remotely in Germany for a company in Minnesota. I have a number of meetings and constantly had trouble with the basic headsets provided by my company. People always said I sounded real echo-ey or tinny and couldn't always hear what I said. I turn off disk intensive programs like my virus checker and disk search optimizer when I am talking; these helped get rid of the gaps where I couldn't hear at all (or be heard) but I still had trouble getting a clear voice.

I would ask people how I sounded and with my basic headsets they would say things like "a lot of static but I can hear you" or "sounds like you are in an empty room with a lot of echos". I had tried other headsets for $30 dollars or less and still the same result, my voice quality was not good.

So I decided to lay down some real money since this is how I make my living and it is worth the $120 that these headsets cost if it would fix the problem; so after reading the reviews I settled on this pair and bought them.

After switching to this headset I have heard things like "sounds perfect, like you are in the room", "could you send me the link I am going to get a pair", "Did you change something you sound real clear".

My wife was a bit skeptical about the price tag and if they were really worth it. So I let her try them for her weekly meeting with a colleague of hers in Minnesota and right away he said to her without prompting "what changed I can hear you perfectly". I now knew that I had a new problem: keeping them for myself.

One con is that I often wear my glasses when I work from home and the headphones rest on your ears. This pushes on my ear and makes the back of my ear lobe a little sore. So I have to shift the headphones a bit so it doesn't get sore. If they had this microphone with ear pieces that would go around the ear (like my Sony MDR-NC60 Noise Canceling Headphone) then these would be perfect.

I recommend them if you need to have a clear voice and do a lot of communications from your computer using Skype or other voice over internet communications.

I'm a pretty hardcore gamer, so I tend to abuse the heck out of my headsets. I've gone through many since 1999. I used to only get Logitech headsets and they would wear out within a few months. I finally decided to try a Sennheiser 3 years ago and fell in love with the sound quality. The older one isn't nearly as comfortable as this one though.

The day that I got this one in the mail I knew that this would be the perfect headset for me. I know that someone mentioned in another review that it feels strange sitting on the back of the head. I've never worn a headset with this type of band before, but I don't find this one to be awkward at all. In fact, you can hardly even feel it. The cushioned headband and ear pieces make this a joy to use. I will admit that I probably wear my headset a good 16 hours a day between both PVPing and raiding(geek girls ftw!!!). Even with my old Sennheiser, my ears and top of my head would hurt a little bit after the end of the day. When I take this one off, I don't even feel like it was there.

As for sound quality, it is amazing. Everything is amazingly crystal clear. I asked some guildmates how my voice sounded over ventrilo. They mentioned that it was crystal clear as well and did not have any static at all, unlike most of my other guildmates. I haven't tried this on teamspeak yet, but I will and revise my review to reflect that as well.

So if you're a gamer, this is the headset for you. It will last years instead of months and the wearbility is great!! <3


*EDIT* Almost two years later and I am still using this same headset. It is broken in now, so I can barely even feel it on my head at all. I haven't had any issues with wires giving out, and both of the speakers are still working beautifully. The mic still also sounds crystal clear. I loooooove it! I fear the day when it finally gives out. So far, though....two thumbs up!

*last edit* Well, my beloved Sennheiser finally began the downward motion a little over three years after purchasing it. I noticed yesterday that there was an odd vibration in the right speaker whenever anything was playing. As much as I loved it, I decided to go with another headset that had surround sound built in. It was a good run, old guy. Ya did me well. =P The saddest thing is that I wasn't even able to throw the headset away. Instead, I put it in a box in my computer room closet. R.I.P. *lol*

I was coming from a Logitech $50 headset and to wear this is like heaven in comparison. I only use it for gaming and it works great. It has great flexibility since it comes with a very long cord (but sits neatly with a slack spindle) and also the ability to go usb or analog via optional adapter included. You also get a microphone muff. I tried listening to some music on them for giggles but found they sounded very bland. However, I only need them for gaming so this a non issue for me. They are comfy, light and work very well.