Prior to COVID, open plan offices were increasingly common, but they posed a challenge with employees getting distracted by background noise. The most effective solution is a high quality headset featuring noise cancellation in both the speakers and microphone.
It's not uncommon at first for companies to allow employees to use whichever headphones or earbuds they were using at home, but I would strongly encourage you or your organization to avoid this at all costs.
Here's why:
- It creates an inconsistent audio experience which causes a worse customer experience for those customer facing. Having to repeat yourself is bad for the employee and bad for the person on the other end.
- Gaming headsets, music headphones, earbuds or any other sort of audio device that isn't a professional headset made for work won't give the microphone performance you need in an open office to be heard clearly without background noise.
- Many companies today are using computer softphones like Zoom, Teams, RingCentral and many others. It's important the headset you get is compatible and works seamless when being used on your computer. Or, if you use a desk phone, compatibility is even more important to ensure you get a proper headset that works.
- IT support tickets increase and it then requires IT to figure out troubleshooting of various models, which takes time away from bigger tasks and causes frustration. Standardizing on a few best compatible headset models for people to choose from is a much better way to go.
That being said, these are 4 of the best headsets you can get with top tier noise canceling microphones.
Epos Impact 1000 (Wireless)
Epos Impact 860 (Wired)
Yealink BH74 (Wireless)
Yealink UH48 (Wired)
Compare Some Tech Specs
Headset | Microphone | Speakers | Wireless Range | Bluetooth Version | Battery Life |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
EPOS Impact 1060 | Four digital MEMS microphones with EPOS AI noise reduction | 36mm speaker, on-ear, hybrid adaptive ANC, super wideband audio; good for calls, decent for music but not Bose/Sony quality; immersive with customizable settings. | Up to 30 meters (98 feet) with Bluetooth or dongle; DECT not used. | Bluetooth 5.3 | Up to 19 hours talk time; 300 hours standby; full charge in ~2.5 hours. |
EPOS Impact 860 | Four digital MEMS microphones with EPOS AI noise reduction | 36mm speaker, on-ear, hybrid adaptive ANC (optional), super wideband audio; clear for calls, comfortable but less noise isolation than over-ear; firm fit for some. | N/A (Wired, USB-A/USB-C) | N/A (Wired) | N/A (Wired) |
Yealink BH74 | Four premium microphones with Acoustic Shield 3.0 | 30mm speaker, on-ear, hybrid ANC, good noise isolation; clear call audio, decent music quality; oval earcups with memory foam for comfort. | Up to 50 meters (164 feet) with USB adapter; Bluetooth range ~30 meters. | Bluetooth 5.3 | Up to 32 hours talk time; 65 hours music playback; 45 min talk time with 5-min charge; full charge in ~45 min. |
Yealink UH48 | Four premium microphones with Acoustic Shield 3.0 | 30mm speaker, on-ear, hybrid ANC, same as BH74. Oval cushions for comfort, good noise isolation; clear audio for calls. | N/A (Wired, USB-A/USB-C) | N/A (Wired) | N/A (Wired) |