NA - quality, durable corded phone headset?

[G-Man]

Hoping for some POA wisdom...

I seek a good, durable, corded phone headset for my cell phones (3.5mm). One iPhone and one Android.

I've tried eBay, Amazon, and Best Buy. The corded headsets range from $15-30 and basically all die within two weeks.

(I've used silicone adhesive to secure all the connections for strength and strain relief, with little benefit.)

I've tried a mega-fancy bluetooth headset on sale for $100 - VXi Blue Parrot B350-XT. The bluetooth drains the phone batteries about triple speed from normal, and the headset is a pain to connect despite saying it can be used with two phones.

I prefer a corded phone to avoid the bluetooth battery drain and just make it simpler.

Anyone have good suggestions?
Thank you!

 

[John221us]

I use a Plantronics Voyager Legend and have had the same one for several years with frequent use. It also pairs to my PC. I do charge my phone every night though (iPhone 6).

 

[eman1200]

I use a Plantronics Voyager Legend and have had the same one for several years with frequent use. It also pairs to my PC. I do charge my phone every night though (iPhone 6).

I use that as well but he said 'corded'......

 

[John221us]

I use that as well but he said 'corded'......

Yes, I understood that, but he mentioned going through a corded one every few weeks. As far as the battery drain goes, current BT standards are much more efficient, so, if he is getting triple the drain rate, something else might be wrong. I have not owned an Android phone in years though, so I can't speak to those.

 

[denverpilot]

G-Man are you just listening or also talking through these?

When we had people working in loud data centers, the absolute best solution was always wired (8+ hours fixing something on a conference call or a massive maintenance window) and noise cancelling, preferably simply by being enormous via acoustic methods, not active.

How we usually accomplished that was to find the headset first, and then properly adapt it to whatever we were going to plug it into. Frankly at that site, cell phone coverage sucked so we had a boring old DECT cordless phone.

But... We had adapters to iPhone / 3.5mm TRRS connector - AHJ standard... Which is what I'm assuming you're saying you want with an iPhone and Android phone.

But there's really cheap in-ear solutions if that will work for you, too.

Are you looking for in-ear, over the head, single-ear, or dual-ear, mono, or stereo?

(Questions like, "Do you use it only to talk on, or do you want to listen to music through it also?" come to mind.)

We currently use some really spindly looking things in the call center from Plantronics, and they're apparently indestructible. They looked like they'd break in a week. Encore Pro 540. They run $75 refurbished on Amazon.

You can get adapter cables from their semi-proprietary "QD" or quick-disconnect connector to just about anything, including 3.5mm for about $15.

If you know you need dual ear, or don't care about the three way "convertible" of the 540 (girls with hairdoos always want an over the ear only, since ear, in call centers while the majority of other users want over the head, or dual-ear...) they make other models in the 500 series of those.

I have beat the holy hell out of mine hooked to my desk phone at the office and stepped on it, and yanked it off my head by the cord, and it hasn't died.

There's some other brands out there also, but I guess what I'm really saying here is, look for a vendor/product made for call centers, the absolute worst environment for headsets, and then just buy an adapter to the cell phones. Most will have one available.

Going back to other options, Jabra stuff always sounded better than anything else when someone didn't use the on-site monster headset. NONE could completely filter out mic noise in that environment but the Jabra and Parrot users came close. I had a Parrot and it worked well but it handled low frequency mic noise better than fan noise. I could stick my head in the engine compartment of the Cummins Dodge and nobody knew it. Driving it worked beautifully. Batteries on both the headset and the phone were problematic over a couple of hours, as you've noticed.

I've used a LOT of wireless headsets with bases attached to corded phones over the years and the Sennheisers beat everything hands down. Over $300 though. And you're not looking for that type.

 

[G-Man]

An overdue thank you and follow up to the helpful responses here:

I have been using a fancy Bluetooth headset I got on sale for $100 - VXi Blue Parrot B350-XT.

Been two months and so far, so good.

I'd still prefer the simplicity of a corded headset - plug it in, it's on. Unplug it, it's off. I switch between two phones a lot so this is more complicated, but seems to work well.

Thanks!

 

[denverpilot]

An overdue thank you and follow up to the helpful responses here:

I have been using a fancy Bluetooth headset I got on sale for $100 - VXi Blue Parrot B350-XT.

Been two months and so far, so good.

I'd still prefer the simplicity of a corded headset - plug it in, it's on. Unplug it, it's off. I switch between two phones a lot so this is more complicated, but seems to work well.

Thanks!

Those are spendy but they do work well. Above average in the background noise removal/reduction game too, which is why they're popular at truck stops.