U2

I used this headset for my last job, and we had RingCentral that we used with laptops. It was great for hearing the caller - volume at the lowest was enough most of the time. Call quality was good, even on conference calls. Other people said they could hear me very well. At my new job we have Cisco 8800 phones, with option for USB headset. I tried a Logitech one, and the cord connections gave out in a few months. Decided to see if the headset I liked at the last place would be compaitible and work and IT DOES! It's great, because I'm in a rather noisy school guidance office now, and I can turn the volume up quite high. Callers can hear me great, so it does a really good job at cancelling out the background noise. These held up to a lot of abuse by my colleagues at the former position. They were also good for listening to music - it wasn't tinny like you'd expect. CAD makes great products, and I'd recommend this for narrating, conference calls, making videos, and noisy environments.

My previous headphones were an ultra-cheap set from the local generic box store. They started to irritate my ears after only a few minutes of use, so they had to go! I do a lot of gaming, and using Skype to call family members long-distance. I bought the CAD U2 headphones a year and a half ago, and still use them daily. Pro: *Sound quality. NOT 5.1 surround sound, but very good stereo sound. Crisp high, mid, and balanced bass. Plenty loud enough to cause hearing loss(it's Bob Cramer, from Artillery!), and as quiet as you like. *Microphone. I've compared Skype voice test with these versus the cheap set I had previously, and there is a huge positive difference with the CAD U2's. One other reviewer mentions muffled sound, and I wonder if they had the foam on the end of the microphone backwards (opening in the foam should be facing your mouth). Con: *Ear Comfort. It took me a while to find a comfortable position to wear these. The ear pieces just barely cover my ears {which are small). They are not large enough to go around your ears. *Head Comfort. There is no padding on the top of the headphone band. I have the headband size maxed out and position it somewhat forward so it lays as flat as possible. Other: *Noise blocking. While not noise-canceling, they diminish background noises enough to make it impossible to understand my wife speaking from 10 feet away. At least as far as she knows. :} *USB connection. If you use a sound card, you will probably not be looking at these instead of surround-sound headphones. On the other hand, it's a good thing in case your headphone or microphone jack is already occupied or doesn't work. Not the most comfortable headphones out there, and not surround sound. Good quality, durable, does the job. I can't justify spending 3 times the money for something else, and I would buy these again today.

For those of you considering purchasing the newest version of Dragon Naturally Speaking, try these headphones before you invest more money. You may find that the voice recognition software in Microsoft Office will work just fine with this headphone. I have Microsoft Office 2003 and I'm using Windows 8. Over the years, I purchased Dragon versions 6, 7, 8 and 9....generally with a fair bit of frustration...hoping the accuracy would improve with each version. I also purchased various microphones, but experienced only nominal improvement. I intended to try the most current version of Dragon Naturally Speaking, but decided to try these headphones first. I had not yet trained the Microsoft Word voice recognition program, so I expected some errors for the first dozen hours of dictation while it became familiar with my voice and the terms I use. These headphones are amazing! I would say the accuracy was about 99%....which is unreal. Once you train the program to understand what you're saying, it always improves remarkably over time. I have to say, I didn't expect such perfection right out of the box like that. Bottom line? If you're having difficulty with your voice recognition program, it's probably the microphone. With these headphones? Problem solved. The USB connection works much better than the standard microphone jack. BTW...although I didn't purchase them for the earphones, I'm pretty impressed with the sound. Although I don't use headphones for much other than my iPhone to save on my poor little eardrums, the sound produced is very clear with a very balanced stereo output and they pick up even the tiniest tinkling sounds and guitar picks. I had to reduce the volume to almost nothing or it would have blasted my head off! If you're getting less than stellar results from the headphones, I'd say you probably need to take a look at your sound card. I doubt your problem is the headphone! I couldn't be more impressed with this headphone. Best purchase I've made in awhile. It's only beat by my recent purchase of the Klipsch RC-52 center speaker. Not THAT'S music!!!

I hated this microphone. It doesn't pick up my voice at all, all I hear is static. I rated it one star.

Bought the CAD U2 USB Stereo Headphones with Mic for creating some tutorial videos for family and friends, and love them. For the price on these, they are great. Recorded voice sounds great, no hiss or ambient noise. Cord length is great, nice and long enough for me to be able to move around in my office chair without having to unplug them. Louder than my regular headphones. Headphones have good sound, nice bass reproduction. The only , ONLY complaint I have about these are the ear pads could be a little larger to fit on the ear a little better, but works nonetheless. The ear pad size was not enough for me to take away a star for the review as I have a big head anyway (LOL)! For $36, one of the best sets I have ever bought. Very light as well. I have started using these for my podcasts, and they sound great! UPDATE: It is February 6th, 2012, and my headphones just suddenly quit working! I was in the middle of a song, heard some crackling, and then they died. I've spent 4 hours now trying multiple solutions to get them working again. They are simply kaput! Went on CAD Audio's website to check warranty info, and nothing but an email address for support. So, I'll get back with how this turns out. It is now February 10th, and three emails to support at CAD Audio have gone unanswered. Just a stupid auto responder. Apparently CAD doesn't support their products. I know it's not Amazon's fault that CAD doesn't respond, but it sure makes me think twice before purchasing from Amazon, and their suppliers again.

First and foremost, I am an audio engineer so I am going to be a bit harsh on this product. I wouldn't ever use something like this but that isn't the point of the product. Lets face it, you can't buy a useable mic, useable headphones, and a useable audio interface for this price. To connect all that up, you probably will spend the price of this product in cables alone. So right there, you have a bargain. I did not buy this for myself, my wife bought it, as the radio station she was doing internet radio for, recommended it. I felt the headphones were only good to monitor tracking, I would never want to use these for much else than that. What I mean by that is, they are good to hear yourself and know what you are saying, but you can't really tell if it sounds good, bad, or in between. The mic was Ok, very good if you half the cost of the product (or 1/3 if you include the converters) but was on the dull side. One big issues was the boom. It seemed to not be sturdy and would hit my wife's face, transmitting the sound as she did her radio show. We could never get it right. For this reason she ditched it. That said, for nonprofessional use, this is a perfectly good product. As said, it is less than the cable I use for my own mic. I replaced the setup using other low dollar equipment (AT USB mic and the cheapest closed back Sennheiser headphones I could find, both on clearance and paid more than double for similar results. No issue with the boom with a dedicated mic vs and all and one in the mic had a headphone input and converters. It sounds better and is a better setup overall, but would have been 3x-4x more if I paid retail and still is far from impressive. However, this setup just was a bit under what I consider useable, outside of a 100% consumer product. I may have had too high of expectations because CAD makes decent mics for studio recording, though not at this price point, so I was hoping to get the same (or maybe better) bang for the buck.

The USB cable length is about 9ft 9inches. The mic boom is adjustable and extends out about 5.5 inches from the center of the left earphone. I'm using these headphones on Ubuntu Linux with pulseaudio. Purchased from the seller "Musician's Friend". PROS Microphone- Above all else, I bought them because I needed a headset with a really good quality microphone for recording voice audio. It has a cardioid microphone. Compared to other similar priced headsets I've used, the microphone on this headset is definitely far superior! (Another reviewer said it "picks up too much background air", but this is not the case for me at all, and I have a relatively noisy computer about 3 feet in front of my face.) Install- Easy Plug and Play in Ubuntu Pulse Audio. Open up the sound preferences and select the new headset under input and output. (See issue at bottom) Comfort- The headset fits comfortably on my head. Earphones do not completely engulf my ears, but they seem fine, resting on my ears. CONS Microphone Rotation- I would like to be able to turn the headphones around and use the microphone on the right side of my face. Unfortunately, the microphone can only be rotated to be used on the "proper" left side of your face. Refit- The headphones seem to slide position very easy while not worn. So every time you take the headphones off and put them back on, they tend to need to be readjusted to fit your head again. USB- I knew these were USB when I bought them, so this was not a surprise to me. I just wish they used standard jack input/output instead. :) ISSUES (for Linux) Loud Volume- The audio defaults to "Analog Stereo Output". This sets the audio to be very LOUD in the headset, and only allow the volume to go down to about 35% or -27dB. (This level is still a little loud for my ears, but this could be great for someone hairing impaired.) If the slider is moved below 35%, the audio just cuts out completely. To resolve this, go in sound preferences, set the hardware to profile "Digital Stereo (IEC958) Output", then double check that input/output are correctly set.

Before you get these, ask yourself what you are going to use them for. If your answer requires you to wear them for extended periods of time, then look for a more comfortable pair. Others have commented on the lack of comfort and I concur. I have given these headphones two stars. Had the audio been really really good, then I would have given them three stars. The audio is okay, but not great which is unfortunate as I like CAD's equipment. These guys make some really great mic's.