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Comment by falcolas | Hacker News Reader

Wired internet and wired headphones make such a huge difference, it's almost unreal. My best video conversations are always with others are with those who do the same thing. There are just fewer gaps in the conversation, fewer "can you hear me now" moments when headphones unpair, and fewer "Mr. Roboto" moments.

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I took this to a bit of an extreme, using a Sennheiser broadcast headset into a USB sound card. I also added a hardware mute button inline, with a big clicky button with which you can easily tell the mute status (and mute/unmute) regardless of which window is up front. It also lets you pipe your own voice back into your ear, which can be a bit more comfortable listening wise. It really takes the guesswork out of quality and makes it much easier to use, especially when you might have to use 4 different conference applications in a day, and can't quickly recall where the mute button is in a particular one.

I remember doing live A/V broadcast and we had a similar setup for comms for the whole team - a hardware push to talk switch was amazing. Might have to invest in something similar for my home workstation too.

Yes, exactly that. I was in live production for some years, that's where I grew to like the simplicity / bullet proof nature of that style. It would be nice if a manufacturer would release a USB headset that allowed monitoring of ones own voice, and a hardware talk switch.

What model headset do you use?

I use a Sennheiser HME 26-II. I like it because the quality is very good (headphones and microphone), it's comfortable to wear for long periods of time, and the second ear cup can be flipped back off the ear. Sennheiser makes a number of models designed for day-long wear, the models made for air traffic controllers are in my opinion also good in this regard.

I had a lot of issues with bluetooth headphones as well, but at least Logitech's USB dongle headsets never caused any issues for me. I'm using a H800. The audio device is always available as long as the dongle is plugged in, even if you turn off the headset, so you never have the issue of your audio device not being available and your software switching to a different device. You only need to turn the headset on and it works.

Jabra has a similar USB dongle (Jabra Link), but I haven't used it yet.

Agreed. I use the Jabra dongle and it's great, even switching machines via USB hub

I find wireless headphones to be amazingly liberating - especially if they have their own mute button. Being able to pace around in the middle of a meeting, or even nip to the loo and not miss the conversation (we've been here 70min and I've been muted for 65 of them) means I actually pay far more attention to what's going on.

A lot of headphones have long cords, which can give you 10+ feet of movement options. Bluetooth may give you freedom, but you sacrifice latency and reliability.

The higher end Jabra's are wired _and_ wireless (USB cable that can be detached) so you can get the audio quality or the freedom depending on what is more appropriate at a given time.

Keep in mind: Bluetooth audio _sucks_ for calls, it's way lower bitrate than normal music-mode bluetooth audio.

I've been using a wireless corsair headset on the PC with it's own USB dongle. Latency, quality, range and comfort are all good enough for my needs. I've used long headphone cables (as the other reply suggested) but I usually end up getting twisted in them late at night or send drinks flying. I said for years that wireless was an unnecessary silliness, but I wouldn't dream of going back now.

Bluetooth headsets are impressively awful still. Even when they're really good they still fail in surreal and unexpected ways (ignoring all the problems I have pairing them to my laptop). Listening to an audiobook on the beach would regularly have problems talking from the phone in my pocket to the headset if I was laying down on my back or leaning on a wall. I've also recently moved near a railway line and whilst I don't get disturbed by the trains, 8 seconds before they go past I get a blip in my headphones which is screamingly annoying. There are still a stunning amount of upsides for me personally; I'm not sure I'd go back to cheap in-ear wired headphones readily at all.

What pro productions use for wireless microphones and audio is actually pretty decent with low or almost no latency. They present as a wired microphone to whatever sound source you plug them into.

Ex: http://www.rode.com/wireless/wirelessgo

Also old school wireless phones don't have the latency & low bit rate issues of bluetooth either and they allowed you to plug in a headset too.

It really comes down to the design of the system. I don't know how practical it would be although in a dense city or apartment building.

Indeed. All the latency (well most of it) adds up. If you're running wifi on the same spectrum as audio, that adds latency and jitter too.

In an ideal world, voice would be over (real) PTSN which has tremendously low latency compared to anything modern. Cost and convenience make that unlikely though.

Not everyone has a stable desk they can run wired ethernet to, but if you can it makes things better.

I was thinking about getting "better" bluetooth headphones than my current cheap one ear one mic headset Sennheiser headset but between your comment and the article

> (~$100) Buy open-back headphones, which let you hear your own voice normally and are extremely comfortable.

I think I might stick with what I have.

My understanding is that newer Bluetooth sets can at least get closer to being better. But still not as good as a wired set.

That's because the actual silent killer of conference calls is people that use speakers.

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