Good Inexpensive Voice-Oriented Headset: JBL Free WFH

Okay, I’ll start by confessing this is the definition of a first world problem. I have a Sennheiser PC38X headset I use at the office for the “new normal” of Zoom/Teams/etc. meetings, Google Voice calls, etc. It’s great. It sounds great with music, the mic quality is “perfectly acceptable,” etc. It came with two cords, a longer one that splits into separate microphone and headphone 3.5 mm jacks, that works perfectly with the Sound Blaster Play! 3 USB DAC/amp. It also came with a shorter CTIA TRRS cable that works with the iPhone Lightning adapter and other combined 3.5 mm jacks (e.g., laptops, etc). The problem is, that cord is too short.

I have a colleague now more or less permanently working remotely, and for whatever reason she always calls us on our cell phones. (I kinda get it, if we need to go hunt for something we can’t really do that using Slack or our PBX desk phones.) Swapping the PC38X to the shorter cable to hook it into my iPhone was a hugely cumbersome process, and I’m loathe to constantly put the jack on the headset through insertion cycles.

So I decided to pick up a cheap headset I could leave setup for iPhone calls. At first I tried the HyperX Cloud Stinger - I’d read some discussions about how these were not all that bad, and some online reviews had said the microphone was pretty good (“everything is clear and intelligible [...] it’s a perfectly adequate option for voice chat on Discord or a Zoom call for work” — SoundGuys).

It isn’t. A number of 1- or 2-star Amazon reviews complain about the mic volume being “too low,” about “echoes,” and “static.” I tried a couple of test calls to coworkers and they complained it sounded like I was in a tunnel, they could barely hear me. Sigh. Returned it, back to the drawing board.

It took a minute, but I finally stumbled across the JBL Free WFH Wired Over-Ear Headset with Detachable Mic. The same price as the HyperX, this headset describes itself as having a “voice-focused” microphone (um, one would hope so, in a headset...) and “JBL Signature Sound.” I don’t know what the latter is supposed to mean, but I can confirm, these sound great — for voice calls. They’re not at all what I would ever listen to music on (I tried a few tracks; the bass was thin, the mids overemphasized; e.g., M.I.A.’s Borders lost any sense of driving intensity). But for my intended purpose, they’re superb.

I picked up a dual headphone hanger and have the 3.5 mm TRRS cable always attached to a Lightning adapter, so when a call comes in I can just toss the JBLs on and deal with it.

Mission accomplished.