With so many options and headphones costing hundreds of dollars, how do Digital Nomads determine which ones are the best fit for their remote work lifestyle?
This report is unique because it compares a full range of headphones, and tests how they perform during web conferencing compared to wired headsets and microphones built into web cameras and USB speakerphones.
This is a neutral, non-bias review. I make no profit nor have any business relationships with the manufactures, however I happen to know individuals at these companies which is how I was able to request and obtain sample headsets for this report.
The evaluation starts by unboxing of the top headsets on the market, demonstrating how the phones sound to the far end during a web conference, and finally provides recommendations for practical use. Noise cancellation is an important consideration that is not covered in this review. That’s because there are lots of product videos on YouTube that demonstrate the noise cancellation abilities of these headsets, but few of those videos that quickly run through a side by side comparison of how these headsets actually sound on a web call. Keep in mind that zoom video call recordings are dependent on many factors including internet bandwidth. Bluetooth connections to PCs are also variable and the pairing results through my laptop were not as good as through the USB Links provided with some models.
The unboxing video is 9 minutes long and covers important features pricing and notable advantages. This is a reference video, and Digital Nomads may want to jump to part 2 and listen to the headphones first and then go back to Step 1 and focus on hardware comparisons for the specific products are most interesting to you.
Part 2 is three minutes long. The tests are performed by recording Zoom video calls.
Part 3 is two minutes long and covers my personal recommendations.
In summary, each headphone used for comparison has certain unique characteristics, such as the number of microphones, USB Links, weight and size of the speaker transducer. Some are better at picking up the talker’s voice than on others. Some are better for using on the road that others. I found the Plantronics/Poly Voyager PLT to be the bet fit for my home office and the Bose 700 UC to be the best wireless headset for the travelling Nomad. If you go wireless, choose headphones that come with a USB Link as that is much more reliable than Bluetooth pairing built into most laptops. For wired headsets, there are tons to choose from. I personally like the Poly Blackwire 8225 for its performance over web conferencing and noise cancellation features.
Photo by Piotr Cichosz on Unsplash