Right Headphones For Conferencing

A good pair improves your quality of life.

Working from home is a must for many people at this point, and so are the inevitable video conferencing meetings that go along with it. If you’re just starting to work online, you’ll probably want something better for talking to people than the dinky microphone in your laptop or mobile headphones.

Microphone Quality

This helps your coworkers to understand you. Audio quality for your ears is nice, but less important since the audio you hear is compressed anyway. You can have it as a secondary feature if you want to use the same headset for music or gaming.

Comfort

You might be in online meetings for an hour or more every day, so generous padding on the ears and headband is a major plus.

Stereo Earphones

Some headsets have a speaker driver for only one ear. This design is handy for call centers, but less so if you’re in your own office and don’t need to listen to people around you. Stereo offers more comfortable listening.

Connectivity

Most computers have the option of either USB or headphone and microphone-in ports, so you’re covered with almost any headset. If your PC only has USB-C, you might need an adapter cable. Some desktops might need a wireless Bluetooth dongle for wireless headsets.

MS or UC certification

This is of least concern. MS is short for “Microsoft Skype for Business.” “UC” means “Unified Communications,” a competing platform. The headsets with these labels are pre-configured to be used with their respective platforms. But any modern headset will work with any modern audio or video conferencing software, the only change might be a physical pick up/hang up button. Go for an MS option if you depend on Skype and it’s available for your chosen headset, otherwise don’t worry about it.

Wired Or Wireless?

Today’s premium Bluetooth wireless headphones are so awesome, sound quality is virtually indistinguishable from wired versions of the same thing.

The sense of freedom, no longer being physically tethered to a device, and so on — but why? This is a no-brainer: If you can afford wireless headphones, buy them. After all, almost every pair of wireless headphones on the market today also ships with a wire, so you still get the best of both worlds.

That said, there are still two big reasons to consider wired headphones. If you’re a serious musician, sound engineer and/or audio tech, you’re going to want wired headphones for the higher quality audio and consistently better sound – no matter the conditions.