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Electronics : Wireless Office Headset System |
- new headsetthe quality of this is very good. only problem is that i wish the battery would last longer. lasts about 4 hours
Rating:
- love the convenienceI have the Plantronics BlueTooth for my cell phone, so when I was looking for a headset for my desk phone I knew that style and size worked for me. The fact that there are different sized ear buds is the key, since everyone's ear is shaped differently. My only complain about this headset is the fact that even though I have made the adjustments stated in the book, sometimes I get an echoing sound (only on my end) when I am talking. This does not always happen.
Rating:
- High sound quality, comfort and convenienceMost people would likely buy the CS70 bundle because the handset lifter is almost a must if you have a wireless headset. I owned an earlier version of a Plantronics "wireless" headset (the kind that had the headset wired to another unit about the size of a pager that had all the electronics and had to be clipped to your belt or what-have-you) so I already owned the lifter. I had enough of the wired "wireless" version because it was hugely inconvenient for someone as clumsy as I am, with that wire always getting tangled in something.
This unit is a dream. The design of the ear piece puts the bulk and weight behind the ear. After selecting from the variety of ear buds that come with it, the ear piece sits comfortably, securely and lightly on the ear. The sounds quality in and out (I am told) is excellent. There are a variety of volume adjustments, incoming and outgoing, that are easy to make as required. The main button on the unit lifts/drops the receiver. Two other buttons fine tune the incoming volume and activate the mute mode. Lights on the base let you know what mode you are in while a light on the ear piece lets others know you are on a call. Here's my only small complaint: the mute action is activated by holding a volume adjustment button down so it takes 2-3 seconds to activate. In a fluid conference call that's along time so you have to pay attention and be ready to come off mute with finger poised.
Even with its diminished size compared to the wired "wireless" headset I had previously I get the same range. I understand others may have issues with the distance but my expectations were set and met with this unit. I work on the second floor of a reasonably large house. When I go to the far side, on a different floor, I do get the range warning beeps but I haven't noticed any degradation in reception at that point. If I am outside within 25' of the base or so there is no range warning at all.
Battery life between charges has been very good.
Overall, I'm really very happy with this wireless system.
Rating:
- Expensive, but a great headset...I use the headset with a Cisco 7960 - works great. I strongly recommend this product - excellent range and battery life.
Too bad it's not possible to pickup/hangup without connecting a headset lifter (lame).
Rating:
- Great audio, good security, VERY SHORT RANGEAfter many disappointments with corded and wireless headsets and the unavailability of a Bluetooth(tm) option for our phone system, I purchased the CS70 because of its use of the 6.0 DECT (1.9 GHz) band, digitally-encrypted audio (Essential for our health care office, after having a local scanner hobbyist e-mail us some of our conversations from 5.8 GHz "analog" cordless telephones.), the reported 300 foot range, less chance of interference with 2.4 GHz WiFi networks (and the other myriad of gadgets in that crowded frequency band) and recommendations that the audio was "second to none."
Other cordless headsets that we had purchased in the past were useless when trying to communicate with some of our elderly, hard-of-hearing clients. The CS70 allows adjustments of both incoming and outgoing audio from moderate levels to almost painfully loud. At the highest volume settings it could almost qualify as a speaker phone in a quiet room! We have received many unsolicited compliments about our telephone call sound quality from the hard of hearing. Comments such as: "What telephone are you using? I can't understand anybody else on the telephone except when your office calls." Our clients who have difficulty hearing are much more likely to answer our calls when they see our number in the caller ID because of this. Apparently the Plantronics noise-cancelling and digital audio processing increases the intelligibility. The 64-bit audio encryption, sufficient for all but the most demanding security environments, does not degrade the audio quality - something that we noted with cordless telephones we've had in the past from Panasonic and Uniden that use FHSS or DSS ("frequency hopping spread spectrum" or "digital spread spectrum") although, as far as we know they are quite secure and our calls were never monitored successfully.
The optional Handset Lifter HL-10 is anything but "optional." It is a "must have" with this device. The whole point of having a cordless headset is not having to return to the base unit for every function - especially to pick up and hang up the phone! For the price Plantronics is charging, the HL-10 should be included. Furthermore, the HL-10's compatibility, even with models that are so listed on the Plantronics website, is a relative term that will require some ingenuity to insure reliability. In our experience, a small piece of Velcro(tm) to attach the handset to the lifter works wonders, but it took several hours of "trial and error" to figure this out. Use enough Velcro(tm) to secure the handset when moved by the lifter, but not so much that the handset cannot be easily removed without yanking the lifter out of position.
The biggest disappointment with the CS70 is the range. The listed "up to 300 feet" is a joke. Even in completely open terrain with no intervening walls in a flat rural area of Florida with no known powerful electromagnetic radiation sources. The best distance we could achieve was 60-75 feet and still have reliable, noise-free communications even with optimal base unit positioning in an elevated location away from all metal and other electronic devices. The range indoors, in an office environment, with sheetrock, non-metallic walls and the usual collection of office equipment and furniture drops to 50 feet AT BEST. With the metallic studs that are used as wall supports in many commercial building, the CS70 basically becomes a "line of sight" device over 25-30 feet. In one of our clinics, the range was so short that we thought that we had a defective unit. However, after exchanging it for another CS70, we got the same results. Of course, very few of us need a range of 300 feet, but it is very annoying to drop a call while making a short trip down the hall for a file. The short range reduces the CS70's usefulness as an aid to "multitasking." Could it be that the lack of an external antenna is responsible for this? Somebody needs to call Plantronics "on the carpet" for their bogus range claims.
The headset, although it appears bulky, is surprisingly comfortable. Battery life is outstanding. And the headset recharges rapidly, making it easy to use the CS70 all day. If you're a big talker, you might have to leave headset in the charger during lunch. We can't comment on battery longevity since we've only had the CS70's for a couple of months.
Although the CS70 touts its interference resistance, we've had trouble with the CS70 in our office near the airport. These problems did not affect the "frequency hopping" cordless phones in either the 2.4 and 5.8 GHz bands that we've had in the past. Also, some PDA telephones, like the Cingular 8125 and others, intermittently interfere with the CS70. Every few minutes there will be several seconds of static and the outgoing audio is dropped. What the source of this interference is, we still haven't determined. But it seems that it would have to either be the Bluetooth or WiFi transmitters.
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