Plantronics DSP-500 Digitally-Enhanced USB Gaming/Multimedia Stereo Headset and Software Electronics

Average Rating:

Perhaps these headsets are too expensive for casual consumers but for business users, they're excellent.

Right now it may be worth the price(I wouldn't value it more than 80$ that's for sure). IF you use it for the voice recognition, or chatting or phone calls this is great!

Downsides: No EAX or 3d surround sound support. Gamers beware. Not "fantastic" if you want high quality music.

For those who listen to a lot of MP3s and watch a lot of dvds, it would be better to stick to those better manufacturers such as Sennheiser for those.

The DSP-500 is a stereo VoIP/game/dictation/whatever headset. It has two large 40mm speakers that sound quite good. The headset itself is extremely comfortable and uses a pretty standard two-part headband--there is a plastic connection that keeps the two halves together and contains the audio wire, and a rubber bit that supports a lot of the weight of the headset, and keeps your hair from getting in the various sliding joints. The rubber is a bit sticky--maybe that washes out, certainly never tried. The microphone unit is standard stuff, don't know its specs.

The major selling point of the DSP series is, to me, it's most questionable and pointless-- the Digital Signal Processor, that box you see on the cable. Basically, it's a USB sound card with built-in sound. Or to less generous consumers, it's an excuse to charge $50 or $70 more. The DSP, I suppose, is nice if you don't have a sound card, or have a bad sound card--not most people, certainly not somebody who would spend this kind of cash on a headset. The DSP is not particularly good, either--there is a LOT of "buzz" in the headset as soon as Windows turns the thing on, that's seperate from any volume. It is quite loud. The sound quality is not great. The microphone acts quite strangely indeed--it has "noise cancellation" which does seem to do SOMETHING, but not anything effective like a good cartoid microphone, and when you're not actively making noise, it records a gawdawful buzzing and clicking. Another reviewer has mentioned some sort of update from Plantronics, which perhaps might fix that problem. Either way, the cheap little DSP is not anywhere near as good as the emu10k1 in the Sound Blaster Live! I have (which is, incidentally, a very nice mid-end DSP). The other issue is, this is a _computer_ mike... only. The only connector is the USB connection. That's an awfully expensive headset for a single use. The one other issue with the USB sound is the way Windows handles it--it treats it as a different audio device, so you must select in the "control panel/Multimedia" dialog which device you want for playback, and for recording; you cannot play to both at once. Also, some software has minor technical issues with things not being "normal."

The Plantronics software _appears_ totally useless... it has a few equalizer presets that could possibly be of use... to somebody else. The microphone equalizer is sort of pointless, and the playback equalizer definitely so. Other than that, it has buttons "play movie, listen to MP3" that you can map to different programs. Yawn.

So, why am I writing this middling review and giving it 4 stars? Well, on the second bit, because it _is_ a damn good headset. However, I wish to compare it to my NEW headset, the Plantronics HS1. The HS1 is probably not available on Amazon--you can buy it from Plantronics' distributor (...). The HS1 is the DSP-500's older, cheaper twin: Plantronics sells it for (...)and I've not found it available anywhere else. The major difference is the lack of the DSP, but it's not an identical product: the headset itself is minorly different in a negative way: it's a little bit harder, is purple and blue instead of black and grey (basically, the DSP-500 looks way more "professional" or if you will, "l33t"), the microphone boom an microphone are formed a bit differently (don't know if there's any functional difference, it's the same rotation-extension system), and the little inline volume control is not a nice--it's analog, not digital, so it's bigger, it's got a big wheel and an actual switch to turn off the microphone. The main difference for me is the end of the thing--two normal 1/8" stereo jacks. So for the "price" of -$20, a _slightly_ less comfortable and sechsay headset, having to use a normal soundcard, and (probably) getting to deal with Plantronics' distributor (not that that's bad--it came a couple days after I ordered it, normal shipping time). I'd advise you to choose the HS1.

Other than that, however, the DSP-500 is your buy if you want this type of device. If Plantronics has something to fix the problematic signal processor, this could well be the almost-perfect USB headset: comfortable, light, good-looking, and did I mention, it sounds _great_ with those big 40mm babies. It'd be nice if Plantronics would update the HS1 to include the various nice parts of the DSP-500.