Sennheiser PC 36 Call Control USB Binaural Headset

Recently ordered 6 different headsets: The Microsoft LX-6000, Microsoft LX-3000, Logitech H390E, Logitech H650E, Sennheiser PC 36 (this one), and the Sennheiser SC 660 USB CTRI'm still waiting on the SC 660 (the fanciest and most expensive of the Sennheiser wired line), but I've done some thorough split testing between all of the above to be able to report initial result.Even though I generally trust the Sennheiser name for audio, I didn't expect to like the PC 36 much at all because it was the flimiest (and therefore cheapest) feeling of the bunch. Reviews they say last a long time, so perhaps I am misinterpreting Sennheiser's efforts to make the headset light for flimsiness.That said, the mic on both a males and females made the speaker sound the most alive. Very enjoyable hearing people through this mic. I enjoyed hearing my coworkers through this set, and they enjoyed hearing me. It's a bright mic with good treble, but not so bright as to be harsh.The earphones also made it perhaps the easiest to hear the people on the other side for tasks like Skype. Again, just the right amount of brightness.The best group out of the 5 I got to test so far for both hearing other's speak and being heard in a natural state (as if the person is right next to you).It's good enough for basic video voiceovers, podcasts, YouTubes, etc. Not as nice as something like a desktop mic such as the marvelous AT-2020, but the best I've heard from a headset so far (including a few gaming ones, as as the Turtle Beach and Sony units I've tried over the years). Unlike some headsets, it doesn't make you sound distant or like you're on a cheap cell phone with 2 bars.I also ultimately appreciated the lightness of this headset. You could wear it all day easily, because gravity doesn't have much to drag down on. Reviewing the Sennheiser website, I now see that they're quite proud of how light they're able to get their headsets. It's an engineering feature. Much be some sort of German thing, because Americans tend to equate heft with quality. :)There isn't, as far as I know, an type of DSP processing included. Instead it relies of a cardiod or hypercardiod pattern mic to try to limit it's listening to your mouth area. Additionally, it's one of the few where the boom goes right in front of your mouth instead of the side.Like all headsets tested, though, the noise canceling doesn't quite fully work... you can always tend to hear certain sounds in the background on all brands, but it works surprisingly better than some other brands like the awful Logitech H390E.In one test, I had a male coworker sitting next to a very loud fan talking to me. Could hardly hear it on this set, while on some other brands it sounded like he was in wind tunnel. On the other hand, when a loud YouTube was played about 7 feet away could still be heard. So it gets rid of normal ambient noises like fans nicely, but if you're going to use these for business purposes, it's still advisable to move to a quiet area away from music, and people talking loudly. If noise reduction is even more important to you than quality, then perhaps the Logitech H650E or Microsoft Lifechat LX-6000 would suit you more. Neither sound great (the H650E sounds like a bad cell phone and the LX-600 sounds like a good cell phone) compared to the realism of the Sennheiser, but they do have some additional noise reduction circuitry.Since this headset was so lovely, I'm hoping the SC 660 will have all the best traits of this headset amped up.All in all, I think Logitech and Microsoft really need to go back to the drawing and beat this simple, inexpensive headset in their next round of offerings. It may not be fancy (except for the cool looking blue glow USB plug), but it certainly sounds great for both calls and voiceovers, easily besting an almost $80 pair from Logitech.PS. One last thing I should mention is that for Skype purposes, you don't hear yourself with this headset. This doesn't matter to me, but it does matter to my partner, and also to the male coworker I tested these with. So if you're happier when you hear yourself, I'd recommend the MS Lifechat LX-6000. It's a step down in quality for sure (more like a high quality cellphone), but some people are happier hearing what they sound like on calls.On the other hand, if you need to hear yourself when making a training video or a YouTube or what have you, there's usually a software option that'll feel back your voice to the earphone part. So, for example, in Garageband (a music and podcasting recording program), you can still use the PC-36 to hear yourself -- you're just gotta dig around the options menus, and find out how to turn this on. It's usually called "monitoring" in most programs.

I've been using the Logitech USB headset for the past couple of years, and generally pretty happy with the brand. There is a very thin area of plastic on the headset, and they tend to break after about a year. So, I decided I would try a different brand this year. After a screwup by the company, who sent me the wrong headset, I finally received my replacement today ( about 10 days after my original order). To their credit, the company did follow through and get me the correct item, and provided a return label.The headset itself is quite comfortable; the cord is of ample length. Unlike some other headsets that really squeeze tightly around your ears and give you a case of "headset hair", these only put minimal pressure on your head. There is what seems like a ratcheting mechanism in the microphone itself, so extremely smooth in operation and easy to position. I tried the headset with Dragon NaturallySpeaking, which tends to be on the particular site for microphones, and it worked flawlessly. In fact, I think it works a bit better than the Logitech.Sound quality seemed to be at least as good as the Logitech. I generally just use the headset for Skype and YouTube videos, so I did not evaluate for music, and really, if I listened to more music I probably would have chose something different anyway.Overall, I'm really pleased with the headset. Very comfortable, smooth operation with good sound quality and microphone input. There is a volume control in the cord, as well is a switch to go between speaking and listening. I never really felt a switch was necessary, but nice touch. Setting it up and getting it recognized from the system was painless. Recommended by this user.

The Sennheiser PC 36 Call Control headphones sound really good. I do not normally prefer on-ear headphones, but I have to say that these were the most comfortable on-ear headphones I have tried. As others have mentioned, the headband is plastic with no padding, which sounds uncomfortable, but they are so light weight you hardly notice the band on your head. Also, the headphones themselves are open, meaning that air can pass through from the outside, including sound. I prefer open headphones because I do a lot of voice work and I want to be able to hear myself. With closed type headphones I tend to shout because I cannot hear my own voice. The frequency response of these little headphones is quite impressive, most headphones this size usually do not extend to the higher or lower frequencies, but Sennheiser is of course known for high quality headphones.I played a variety of music and audio samples through these headphones and they preformed well, with everything sounding clear, accurate, and having a balanced sound stage. These headphones do not compete on the level of hifi or studio monitoring headphones (like the Sennheiser HD 598), but they are not suppose to. As you can see in the product picture, these headphones have a right and left cable exiting the bottom of each earpiece, and they remain apart for about 12 inches (30 cm) until the merge back into a single cable. I thought I should mention that because some headphones use only one cable connecting to only one of the earpieces that then runs up through the headband and over to the other earpiece. The volume control and mute switch are 24 inches (60 cm) down the cable from the bottom of the headphones. The USB plug is rather large at 2.5 inches (6.5 cm), with a full 2 inches (5 cm) still sticking out when plugged in. Also, the Sennheiser logo on the USB plug, which is about half inch square (1 cm square) has a blue LED light that comes on and stays on while the headphones are plugged in and the computer is on. I found no way to turn of this blue light on the USB plug, which I thought was distracting. The entire length of the cable is about 9 feet 10 inches long (3 meters), so you can easily plug this headset into the back of a desktop and have plenty of cable left over to move around.The microphone arm is actually flexible and will stay in place to how it is bent, with exception to the last 1 inch (3 cm) where the microphone is. The microphone arm also rises and lowers by rotating on a type of dial where it is connected to the headphone earpiece. As far as I can tell the noise canceling feature on this headset is passive noise canceling and not active noise canceling. I was expecting active noise canceling, which is were there are two microphones, one for input and the second for listening to background noise so to know as to what to cancel out. For reference, iPhones have active noise canceling. Sennheiser does not say one way or the other if the headset is active or passive noise canceling, but my guess is passive noise canceling.I had quite a bit of trouble getting the microphone to work. For reference, I am using a 2014 15" Retina MacBook Pro running Mac OS X 10.10.2 Yosemite, and the headphones were plugged into one of the USB 3 ports on the MacBook. Once plugged in I could barely hear the audio from the microphone. I first opened up System Preferences and then the Sound panel to select my audio inputs and outputs; along with the input volume. At max input volume I could still barely hear any audio from the microphone. Also, under Application > Utilities there is "Audio MIDI Setup" where you can adjust more audio settings. The Audio MIDI Setup app confirms that the Sennheiser PC 36 headset is 16-bit with a sample rate of 44,100 Hz. Another note for Mac users is the additional sound features software Sennheiser has for this headset (which can be downloaded from Sennheiser's website) is Microsoft Windows only.My main reason for ordering this headset was for speech recognition (Dragon and Rosetta Stone) and VOIP phone calls (Skype and FaceTime). However, my problems with the microphone input level lead me to return this headset and continue the search for another. I was really hoping these would work out as a light weight portable solution. My current setup is a Blue microphone's USB Yeti and Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro headphones, which do work great, but are more desktop focused.

Well, I was looking for a headset that let me use vent whilst playing online and here's my thoughts in a nutshell.First and foremost it's not a gaming headset. If you're looking for something that will showcase game Audio whether that's game fx or score then look elsewhere. Not that it doesn't do a decent job - it does, but for any gamer that wants to be immersed then this headset simply doesn't have the range to make it a viable choice. The clarity is excellent with pinpoint treble and midrange but little to no bass. Now you could say 'but it's over the ear' and you would be right, still however the point has to be made there is a distinct lack of any sort of bass unless you mix it up with your own software, and even then you would feel a bit let down.It's absolutely fine for a casual user, in fact the sound quality is well above average as tested listening to Mozart's Magic flute, but venture anything that requires depth e.g. Nickleback or even deadmau5 then, for me, it's lacking. Movies are the same. Very clear and precise but don't go watching anything by Arnie, Bruce or Sly.To address this headset's plus points - Skype, vent or any VOIP calls are a pleasure. The crystal clear results are remarkable and the amount of people that have commented on how well they can hear me can not be dismissed. The microphone on this headset is excellent and the improvement is tenfold from my previous kit. As far as comfort goes well, it's very light and the ear pads do a good enough job, it is extendable and I can't fault it except for the lack of cushion across the underneath of the headband.All in all I'd say you pay for what you get, and as Sennheiser goes this is a nice headset which has been optimised for telephony or internet chat, the mic quality is immense, and you will be able to tell who uses a good headset in guild chat and who doesn't when using this. But if looking for something better, then check out Sennheiser's upper range say the pc 163d.

Looks and feels more cheap and plasticky than the price would lead you to expect, and not particularly comfortable to wear, e.g. there is no padding on the underside of the headband. Also, the microphone boom has no horizontal adjustment so you can't position the mic one inch from the corner of your mouth as recommended by Dragon. But having said that, the level of recognition is very good. I'd rather have slightly Spartan feeling headphones with good recognition than luxurious headphones that didn't do the job properly.

I know you get what you pay for, but this really is one uncomfortable headset. Really cheap and plasticy, and the foam is REALLY thin. Good quality audio though, however the mic is a little quiet. Avoid if you are going to use this as a gaming headset. Would be ok for Skype calls though.

To be honest, with a history of buying a headset every 6 months to a year and getting shoddy sound/voice problems, I was a bit weary getting this one.However, I am weary no more as this is probably the best headset I have purchased.The output sound is great and the input sound is fantastic. I use many programs that use headsets, e.g. Skype, Teamspeak and I've not had a better sound performance ever.Works on both Mac and PC. The only thing to be done is to set it as your default headset on whatever program you are using.

Good sound and microphone. It was suggested that l may need a foam windscreen but so far not needed.

These are brilliant, much better than many more expensive alternatives. I use them for around 3 hours each day and take them with me on the road. Light and simple to set up. I've not experienced any feedback or echo issues as with many other headsets.

This is a good headset, with good audio through the speakers and good quality microphone. Was a bit worried when I ordered them that they would be no better than than the spekers and mic in my PC with Skype, but these are far better.I have a problem wth the recommended software that is downloaded from Sennheiser (Headsetup). This causes an error when shutting down Windows 7 with an error of waiting for csc.exe to startup!! csc.exe is a compiler for c#, and should not show an error when Windows shuts down after installin a program. As I don't see the point of getting Headsetup working other than it enabling the button on the headset to interface with Skype, I would suggest not installing it, and thus preventing the problem from occurring.

Works perfectly for short-medium use (Skype calls etc). Its comfy to wear and the sound is clear - as you'd expect from Sennheiser. Family have told us that the mic is much clearer than the Logitech headset we were using before, granted this could be due to its age though.

It was a present but the owner seems to like it very much. Perfect computer work or skypecalls.

use them every day, 8 -9 hours for work, good quality headset, sits well, no complains at all, would buy again.

This headset is good quality as you would expect from Sennheiser. The only problem with them is that the headband doesn't adjust. Apart from that its a good product and worth the price asked.

Good quality sound and very light - I could wear these for hours and forget I had them on. Come with a nice case to so can be put away neatly without tangling.

Only drawback--the cord is very long, and has a way of getting tangled around everything. Yes, I do have most of it tied up with a little bungey, but still it finds a way. Sound quality very good.

Bought this headset to Skype my son, just started at university. Needed this USB version to use with laptop which lacks the full range of sound card sockets on a PC. Comfortable to wear, excellent sound quality, does the job.

Sound quality and mic work well but the wires just below the ear pieces get twisted beyond fixing which becomes quite problematic and annoying. It also looks pretty silly if you are communicating via skype. If the makers can fix that it would be a very good product. I would not recommend buying them because of that feature however and I am now in the market for another pair.