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Plantronics is a well-known manufacturer of high-quality telephony
headsets, so we were intrigued when we discovered their digitally enhanced
USB stereo headset. Called the DSP-500, it was designed for both PCs and
Macs. At first, we were a bit hesitant to review a product that was
designed for multimedia and gaming applications, and not necessarily any
telephony applications. However, with the DSP-500’s superb
noise-canceling microphone, the DSP-500 can be utilized for high-quality
speech recognition applications as well as for PC- or Mac-based Internet
telephony applications. Also, with improved reliability in Windows, “soft-phone”
clients are starting to become both a popular and cost-effective
alternative to traditional desktop phones. Thus, the DSP-500 combined with
a SIP or H.323 soft-phone can be a good telephony solution. With this in
mind, we decided that it was worth evaluating this product.
The DSP-500 was easy to install. You just plug in the USB connector and
install the necessary software off of the CD. We were impressed with the
large 40 mm speakers, which were especially light and comfortable. They
fully encased our ears in a thick, soft foam which not only dampened
external ambient noise, but also packed quite a punch with an impressive
dynamic bass response. The headset is labeled L for left and R for right
in big letters, so it is easy to figure out which way the headset should
be put on. The microphone is connected to the left side and unfortunately
does not swivel a full 180 degrees to reverse which side the microphone is
on. However, the end of the microphone boom is flexible for adjusting how
close the microphone is placed to the mouth.
Some of the technical specifications include a 24-bit high
signal-to-noise ratio audio codec that converts digital sound to enhanced
analog sound for high-quality audio. In addition, the DSP-500 contains a
32-bit DSP which Plantronics claims modifies and enhances the audio signal
for superior stereo sound and higher speech recognition accuracy. The DSP
is on a fairly bulky, nearly rectangular shaped box approximately 1 inch
wide, 4 inches long and ½ inch thick, but fortunately is out of the way
due to its location near the front end of the USB cable that connects to
the PC/Mac.
The DSP-500 comes with an impressive list of bundled software,
including MusicMatch, Lernout & Hauspie’s VoiceXpress speech
recognition application, Net2Phone’s VoIP application, FireTalk, Audion’s
Mac MP3 player, and even a voice-interactive game — Soldier of Fortune.
The included game was intended to demonstrate how a headset with superb
sound quality and deep dynamic bass response can improve the gaming
experience. After a few rounds of “shoot-em up” action with explosions
that were so penetrating, we wondered how we ever got by playing games on
tinny-sounding PC speakers.
The DSP-500 comes with Plantronic’s PerSono Audio Control Center
Software, which has several headphone equalizer presets, including voice,
rock, classical, jazz, gaming, and more. From this application you can
also set the headset volume, microphone volume, balance, bass, and treble.
Other than setting the initial equalizer, we didn’t utilize this
application very much. For volume control we instead utilized the physical
“+” and “–“ buttons located on a small control unit in the
middle of the headset’s USB cord. Also on this control unit is a
convenient mute button that lights up when turned on, as well as a clip on
the back of the control unit for mounting. Unfortunately, the mute button
only mutes the microphone and not the speakers. We’d like to see another
mute button and be able to quickly mute the speakers in the event of an
interruption, such as an incoming call.
We tested the DSP-500’s microphone quality by utilizing it with a
L&H’s Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional Version 5 speech rec
software (also reviewed in this issue). Using L&H’s microphone sound
quality check revealed a very good signal-to-noise ratio. We transcribed
some text from some magazines and the accuracy was excellent. Since
NaturallySpeaking supports playback of the words we spoke, we were also
able to verify audibly that our recorded voice quality was excellent.
We should mention that Plantronics sells other USB models, including
the DSP-100, which is traditional single-ear-piece (mono) headset, the
DSP-300 (lightweight stereo headset), and the DSP-400 (stereo), which
actually folds in half for storing in a laptop bag.
With a microphone designed for superior speech recognition accuracy,
and first-rate speakers, we can’t complain much about this product. Even
the most demanding audiophile and gaming enthusiast will be impressed with
the deep bass sounds and impressive maximum volume that can be achieved
with Plantronics DSP-500.
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