Is there ANY quality in the hands-free telephone market?

March 16, 2006 5:24 PM

Help! I need a regular desk phone that has a GOOD headset for my business. I'm tired of dealing with inferior, poorly-made headsets.

Next month I am going to be doing a service where I need to type on the computer and take calls. So I need a headset or a speakerphone. Since this is for relaying information back and forth while working on the computer (like a broadcast control room) I want everything to be loud, clear, and understandable. QUALITY is important!

Speakerphones have a bad reputation. I did find on eBay and Office Depot "conference phones" for boardrooms going for about $180-200. They're advertised as full duplex, which sounds like this gets rid of the awkward pauses. However on Amazon reviews I found that some of the $200 phones are just as crappy as the $20 speakerphones! I have not seen one good speakerphone review (except for the Polycom SoundStation, $500 is probably indeed too steep) so this may not be the way to go.

Now for headsets -- I have a popular Panasonic office phone (KX-2000B/KX-4000B). A couple of years ago I tried the add-on headset (don't get me started on the proprietary jack, it's like a 3/16" phono plug), and sure enough, callers started complaining they couldn't hear me well. No wonder -- the headset has a microphone with a hole so small it could be clogged by a grain of salt! I'm betting a lot of other headsets out there are like this -- nothing but a pinhole with an unamplified dynamic mike.

Also a lot of the "allegedly" good headsets (like Plantronics) are very vague about what they plug into... like this one -- no information... maybe that cord just magically connects to a telephone pole or something.

I'm not sure what to do, and I don't know how to pick from what's on the store shelves, most of which is probably crappy. Amazon reviews seems to be a very helpful place to start (47 reviews on my KX-TG2000 base set alone), but everything I put in gets like 1000 hits.

It occurred to me there might be a way to do this with a voicemodem card, using a high-quality studio microphone (pre-amped to the line-in) and a good old pair of studio headphones. However due to the mess of different jacks and signals I'm not sure if this is possible.

posted by zek to technology (8 comments total)

If you still want to use your Panasonic KX-TG4000 phone, Plantronics lists these compatible headsets. Here's the Plantronics website tool where got that result.

I recall Hello Direct is the big office telecom retailer. A headset and amp combo like this may be what you need - we have similar headsets for our office call center. Give them a call to check on compatibility.
posted by junesix at 5:43 PM on March 16, 2006

Speakerphones are a terrible waste of time and money.

I use a regular Panasonic cordless with a regular headset from Staples and it works fine for two-hour long conference calls. I've never had a problem.

The Hollywood agents I know who spend all day on the phone use this kind of thing.
posted by unSane at 6:59 PM on March 16, 2006

The Hollywood agents I know who spend all day on the phone use this kind of thing.

"Enter Canadian Postal Code" wtf?
posted by ZenMasterThis at 8:17 PM on March 16, 2006

Hey unSane, your link is a bust! Can you re-post? The B
posted by thebarron at 9:15 PM on March 16, 2006

unSane's Staples link was for the Plantronics CT11 cordless phone with handset.
posted by junesix at 11:18 PM on March 16, 2006

Search AskMeFi. There were similar phone equipment queries about few weeks ago. My answer: hellodirect.com .
posted by intermod at 5:03 AM on March 17, 2006

I've used a very similar Plantronics cordless for about 5 years, trouble free.
The most important thing here is to remember those are little tiny wires and break easily, if you don't yank it around by the cord, they last a long time.
posted by unrepentanthippie at 5:27 AM on March 17, 2006

I'm in the phone business....

There are two types of wired you will find - handset taps and direct-to-headset jack types. The former are easy to find, the latter usually depend on the specific model of phone and are designed more to work with specific ACD telsets in call centers and PBX phones.

I wouldn't go cordless unless you need it. More expense. If you're stationary and typing, why bother?

Plantronics and ACS are good if you stick with the higher-grade stuff - 911 centers generally use Plantronics and they're on the phone all day.

If you can, find one with an external amplifier that has a volume control and a mute. It's worth it, and the call clarity is better, plus, if you have a caller on a crappy trunk line on their end you can boost the signal somewhat.
posted by TeamBilly at 6:57 AM on March 17, 2006