Plantronics DSP-400

Folding USB headset

The Good

Very comfortable on the head and the extra long cord lets you move around the room when you need to. The External DSP means you have all the controls right at your fingertips for easy sound adjustment.

The Bad

The headset has an external digital sound processor that’s bulky and rather heavy. It also doesn’t fold up very small. This is not the best mic to use with dictation programs.

The Verdict

A nice idea but this compact foldable USB headset falls short in a number of areas. It’s portable, but not very compact when folded up.

Technical Info

Digital signal processor: 5-channel, 16-bit, 48kHz data from USB, 24-bit, 100dB signal-to-noise CODEC, 32-bit digital audio processing
Headphone frequency: 60Hz-16kHz
Microphone: Mono, 16-bit, 48kHz data, Microphone gain stage >50dB range, Up to 25 dB noise rejection (hypercardoid response), Frequency response: 100Hz-10kHz, Electret condenser microphone, Sensitivity: -38dVB/Pa
Speaker diameter: 28 mm
Cable length: 9.8'
System requirements: Pentium II 166 Mhz or equivalent, 10 MB free disk space, 16 MB Ram (32 for Windows 2000), SVGA Monitor, 4X CD-ROM, USB Port
Shipping weight: 2 pounds
Warranty, parts: 1 year
Warranty, labor: 1 year
In the box: Foldable PC headset, PerSono Audio Control Center software, QuickAdjust microphone boom, soft earpiece covers, cable, user's guide, warranty card

More USB Headsets

Plantronics DSP-400 – Easy Folding

A nice idea but this compact foldable USB headset falls short in a number of areas. It’s portable, but not very compact when folded up.

This Plantronics DSP-400 USB headset for the computer combines a neat folding feature with an extra long connection cable for both PCs and Macs. The headset is plug-and-play, meaning it needs no special drivers or anything else. Just plug it in and you’re good to go. Some Mac users may need to reboot their system once this unit finishes the auto-detection routine though, and it doesn’t always work with Mac OS 9.

There’s over 9 feet of cord, so that leaves you plenty of room to move about if you need to. But, watch out – with this much cord, it could definitely get in the way and cause somebody to get tangled and trip.

They say the headset uses Digital Sound Processing to enable full and rich sound quality for both the headphones and the boom mic. The mic claims to include advanced noise-canceling technology and a deep bass resonance to ensure good sound quality for speech and voice recognition.

Ironically, this headset doesn’t work very well with dictation programs. It works decently with voice recognition packages such as Dragon Dictate and Dragon Naturally Speaking but you’ll need to do an awful lot of proofreading. The boom mic features a flexible arm and if you’re having trouble with dictation try adjusting the distance. This could help a lot.

Purchasing the headset gives you access to a software suite called PerSono which allows the headset to communicate and sync to voice recognition. This is neat because you’ll be able to control programs from your chair without having to use your keyboard or mouse.

Sound and voice quality are somewhat scratchy and hollow, which obviously reduces the overall quality of the Plantronics DSP-400. I’m not sure how long this headset will last, considering its plastic foldable hinges. I suggest being very careful with the way you fold them.