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Decent headset for office use (telephony+music)

micard

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Nov 20, 2019
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Location
Aachen, Germany
Hey all,
currently we get issued Jabra headsets at our workplace (Jabra Evolve 65), which are good for telephony but listening to music is... *rough* for couple of reasons
- It has a "side tone" (a "feature") that gives constant white noise onto your ears
- Left and right channels are switched (also a "feature", so you can wear the mic either left or right)
- Obviously worst, music sounds really bad on it. On SBC this is expected, wired it's better but the side tone also becomes louder. I have tried around a lot with EQ APO (also fixed the left-right issue with it) but never got halfway satisfying results

Does anyone have a good recommendation? Requirements are:
1. Light/comfortable (wear for many hours every day)
2. On-ear (as over-ear can be considered offensive in the office environment "not ready for talking to colleagues")
3. Dedicated mic and very good telephony quality
4. Should allow for at least decent music listening, at least after applying EQ
[5. Not necessary but would be nice: wireless (with a good BT codec under windows AAC, aptX)]

I could of course use different headphone for music and telephony but this is not optimal, as it creates a lot of micro-stress when getting many calls
 

digitalfrost

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I also have the Jabra Evolve in the office. I bought Sony WH-1000XM3, but the microphones are not really good. I ended up using a dedicated microphone together with the Sony.
 
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OP
micard

micard

Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2019
Messages
17
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11
Location
Aachen, Germany
OP
micard

micard

Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2019
Messages
17
Likes
11
Location
Aachen, Germany
Thanks for your answers! My wife has the WH-1000XM3 so I know that. After EQ it's good but I can't wear them without getting hot sweaty ears :)

Also the Bose 700 seems to be nice but same thing.

I found a good deal on ebay for those Orosound Tilde Pro, which i will try out now
 
OP
micard

micard

Member
Joined
Nov 20, 2019
Messages
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Location
Aachen, Germany
So i received the tilde pro and been using them for roughly 2 weeks. Very happy so far, to sum it up, it's pretty much what i was looking for.
  • build quality and haptics is beyond anything Jabra, Plantronics, etc. Reminds me almost to the Elegia, which i shortly had
  • audio quality is pretty good, on par with good hifi headphones in the same price range. Much better than Sony XM3, they are quite neutral to my ears, no need to EQ bass or sibilence down. Most importantly of all, I can enjoy music with them!
  • very nice for office use, great call quality, busy indicator lights during calls
  • ANC ist very good and can be adjusted from transparent to max ANC with a small knob on the right earpiece, very intuitively. of course can be switched off. Audio quality (during playing music) does not/hardly change even between max and no ANC, which is good. ANC, I'd say it's *almost* on par with the Sony WH-XM3, esp. considering it's on-ear and doesn't have lots of passive seal. For me that's good, because normally i cannot stand ANC over longer periods of time due to a feeling of pressure on the ears. That is minimal with the tilde pro, much less than with the closed back overear XM3
  • Bluetooth 5.0 with multi-device is also nice for office, as i can take calls from teams, landline and mobile phone
  • It supports SBC and AAC, so under Windows 10 only SBC (however AAC support for Win 10 is announced!). I can't explain but still audio quality is WAY better than with the Jabra 65. Switching between USB and BT was night and day with Jabra.
  • One thing i love: connecting it via USB creates an additional USB audio device, so in Tidal/Amazon Music you can switch audio between USB and BT with a click to compare quality. The BT audio devices stay there, so when answering a call, it doesnt matter if USB was on or off, and you can just pull the cord and walk away without any anxiety that the call drops or other issues
    2021-06-24 11_29_37-Sound.png
  • The controls on the headset are perfect imo. You get haptically distiguishable hardware buttons (play/pause, vol +, vol - on left side, ANC lever, on/off button on the right side. On the right outside you have a big mic mute and on the left outside a big "voice" button (to answer/end calls, activate transparency mode, google assistant etc.). You can do everything important on the headset and never need any kind of software or app
  • There is a windows software coming with it that is used for firmware updates, support and softphone settings (sidetone, levels, switch off LEDs, idle timer, etc.)
    2021-06-24 11_35_36-Orosound Link.png

    2021-06-24 11_37_43-Orosound Link.png
  • battery is good, i need to charge them every second day (of 9hours constant usage). charging is super fast, so no issues. For music i mostly use them on USB so battery is always full anyways
  • ear pads are interchangeable and relatively inexpensive. They even offer larger over-ear pads, which i might buy for private use or travelling, once that comes back after covid ;)
  • One drawback for me is the weight (compared to a ultra-light wired office headset). They are like light hifi headphones and do not allow for rapid and reckless head movement or overhead work. They are comfortable and have good seat, so i can actually walk around the office with them, but it doesn't feel totally natural. For myself, i can live with it but would prefer a lighter option if there was one
  • Another drawback is the high price (300€ for an office headset...) but it's fair for what you get
  • A minor drawback is that the boom mic is on the right side, which is awkward if you're right-handed. if i drink coffee, the boom mic is right in the natural trajectory of moving the cup to my mouth. you can clumsily steer around or drink coffee with left hand. There is no option no wear the mic on the left ;(
  • A very minor drawback is, that also the USB-C is on the right, so using it wired, it's plugged in on the left side side of the laptop (mouse on the right), the cable crosses from right to left, sometimes colliding with your right hand doing something. Maybe the Tilde Pro was designed by the left-handed for the left-handed?
  • However, voice quality seems to be fine even without the boom mic. i tried a few days and never got any complaints (this was very different with the XM3, which has robot-like-voice issues during calls, which makes them plain unusable). I feel better with boom mic, though
 
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