Koss SB45 Multi-Media Headset (156043)

Over-the-head

Owner Reviews, Ratings, Comments and Criticism
I'm a game developer and audio tech. I appreciate a headset with high-quality sound reproduction (especially bass!) and a sensitive noise-canceling electret condenser mic. It's confortable, durable, and even has a "no questions asked" lifetime warranty. It's THAT good. This headset is extremely comfortable even after 6 hrs of solid usage; and the wide, heavily-padded headband equally accomodates my size 9 head down to my 2-yr old's head. The full-enclosure pads even filter-out ambient noise better than most passive noise-cancellation headphones...t'was a real treat! (Note that the pads ENCLOSE your year; they don't rest ON your ear!) The mic is extremely sensitive and is perfectly clear whether you have a bass or soprano voice. The side-boom mic is metal wrapped in soft rubber, allowing it to be bent into any position you want while providing a high degree of flexibility which is very handy if you tend to bump your mic around like I do; it also rotates up and entirely out of the way. It's got a thin 8' cord (mine's actually 9') with separate gold-plated mini plugs, both stereo. Oh, and did I mention that this headset folds up for convenient storage? Nice. Very nice. Ok, so much for the physical features... I own a half-dozen headsets and over a dozen headphones; most are made by Koss. (Take a gander at Koss' heritage some time...you'll be surprised!) This Koss SB45 headset has superb audio reproduction (18-20,000 Hz) and mic pickup (100-16,000Hz); for movies, music, games, and VoIP, this headset can't be beat. If you use Ventrilo or TeamSpeak a lot like I do, you'll especially appreciate the mic's abilities. Note that this headset filters-out nearly all ambient sound. So if you want a headset that doesn't restrict room noise (TV, telephone, doorbell, people talking, etc), get something more like a Koss R70B that passes through more sound. If you want uninterrupted audio, then the SB45 is superb.