Getting the best sound from your Athena headset

1. Version Information 

This document is intended to provide the reader with information on how to Get the best sound from your headset

Getting the best sound from your headset

Whether you use a headset in an office, call centre or in a hybrid working solution, getting the best sound from your headset makes all the difference to your experience using your headset.

It’s important to remember that getting the best from your headset is about more than the user, the experience of the call recipient can be impacted too and we’re going to take a look at some of the factors which can improve your headset experience.

Improving Your Headset Sound

There are a number of factors which can impact the sound you get from the headset you choose to use with your phone, laptop or other devices. None of these factors will work in isolation to get the best headset listening experience, you need to consider everything you can control to get the best experience.

Whether you’re using an entry level headset or a more advanced bluetooth headset, they can all be impacted by environmental factors, controlling these is the key to getting the most from your wired telephone headset or wireless headset.

Key factors to consider in improving your headset sound:

• Background noise
• Headset fit
• Headset comfort
• Cable length

Background noise is perhaps the most obvious contributor to sound quality, everything from printers, to the general hustle and bustle that you hear. All of the noise that exists in an office can contribute to making it more difficult to get the best sound from your headset.

Where possible, try to reduce background noise in and around your working environment, this will make it easier to hear the audio from your headset without turning up the volume and risking ear damage.

Headset fit can also make a big difference to the impact of background noise and therefore sound quality. A well-fitting headset will have a good seal round the users ears, increasing passive noise cancellation to improve headset sound.

If you’re struggling with your headset fit, consider a new ear cushion for your headset, our leatherette ear cushions offer great levels of padding to ensure user comfort and improved earpiece fit.

Not all comfort issues can be solved with a new ear cushion though and sometimes investing in a headband with increased cushioning may be required. If you’re using a JPL modular phone headset, changing the headband is quick and easy.

This flexibility comes into its own in providing changeable wearing styles, easily allowing our Element modular headsets to be changed from monaural to binaural and vice versa. This might seem like a small thing, but many headset users have a personal preference as to how they like to wear a headset. Enabling users to wear a headset how they want can impact their productivity as we’ve spoken about previously.

Cables can also cause sound issues, snagging cables can easily dislodge a headset during use causing discomfort. Even when there’s no snagging though, cables rubbing on other items can transmit noise into a headset, causing a distraction. Keeping cables free or even upgrading to a wireless headset can remove this issue all together.

Reducing Noise on a Headset Microphone

Getting the best from your headset also means thinking about the end user. A badly positioned microphone boom can seriously impact the quality of the audio pick up, resulting in difficulty hearing for the call recipient. We’ve all been on a call where we struggle to hear the caller, it really impacts our ability to hear and understand the topic of conversation, not ideal if it’s a sales call.

As with the listening experience, background noise can have a huge impact on what your headset microphone picks up. Headsets with active noise cancellation, such as the JPL Surround Shield™, will digitally remove some of this noise, but ensuring background noise is as low as it can be will always help.

If your headset doesn’t have active noise cancellation, consider using a windshield, a small foam cover for the headset microphone which will help to deaden some background noise.

Perhaps the most important thing you can do to improve audio for your listener is ensure you have your microphone positioned correctly.

Whilst looking for the best headset, headphone, or video conferencing solution the term noise cancellation may have been a key selling point. But depending on the context, noise cancellation can have a range of meanings.

To begin with, in headsets/headphones there are 2 types of noise cancellation; within the microphone, and within the headphones. The noise cancellation within the microphone will help the call receiver hear you without the distraction of any background noise that may surround you. Noise cancellation within the headphones helps your concentration by reducing surrounding disturbances. In webcams, there is a variation of noise cancellation called automatic noise suppression (ANS) which gives a similar outcome to microphones in headsets and reduces the background noise for the receiver.

Noise cancellation in microphones

Noise cancellation in microphones benefits the receiver on the call by blocking out the background sound such as dogs barking, children, or the busy office. This can be achieved in several ways. The first is the overall design of the microphone including shape, length, flexibility and the way it is positioned in proximity to your mouth. It is recommended that the boom stays in a fixed position 2cm or 2 fingers depth away from your mouth.  Having the boom correctly positioned helps the directional microphone pick up the correct noise – your speaking voice – and not your surroundings.

The second is the software processing within the headset. The software processes all the sound waves picked up from the microphone and intelligently distinguishes the difference between speech and background noise. At JPL we have our Surround Shield™ noise cancellation technology in all our headsets to give clarity and professionalism to your calls.

The third which is included in some headsets, but more commonly as an optional accessory, is a windshield. This can be placed over the tip of the microphone which helps to eliminate all wind noise. We recommend these for hybrid workers who may be using the headsets in public settings or outdoors.

Noise cancellation in headphones

Noise cancellation in the headphone is what benefits you, the wearer. This helps to reduce the ambient background noise to help you concentrate and focus on your call or music.

There are 2 types of noise cancellation in headphones: passive and active.

What is Passive noise cancellation

Passive noise cancellation is the most commonly used and refers to the effect you get from wearing the headset. This is achieved from the physical features of the headset such as materials used, ear cushion size, and headband design. For example, some headphones will include larger ear cushions that will sit over your ears to create a sound barrier for external noise. Passive noise cancellation is better for filtering out irregular sounds found within a busy open office or at home with high pitch barking dogs.

What is Active noise cancellation

Active noise cancellation uses software to analyse the sound of incoming noise from a call and intelligently removes the sound waves associated with background noise. Some headphone designs will use a variation of this called adaptive active noise cancellation that uses the microphone to pick up the background noise around you and allow you to adjust how much you would like to hear this. Options such as transparency mode will allow you to quickly switch between fully immersive during your call, to talking with your colleague without taking off your headset. This is better for filtering out steady continuous noises such as the hum from your refrigerator or the office radio.

Most headsets will use both the microphone and headphone noise cancellation at different levels to give comfortable, clear, and professional sound to the receiver or the wearer.

• This link is to a USA reseller partner of JPL that does a great job explainer. https://youtu.be/SaDeWZxn20M?t=189 It will start at the most relevant place but is worth a watch.