Best Bluetooth Headsets for Dictation – I hope you found some help in this review. My main goal was to do the necessary legwork that will push you in the right direction as you are searching for a good headset for dictation.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions regarding dictation in general and please share with us your experiences with any of the headsets above all the one you’re currently using for dictation.
Wireless headsets are usually not recommended for use with speech recognition software because of the inherent problems that come with having to send the audio signal over the air. From dropouts of voice, to static interference, to the strength of the connection between the host and the headset, there are just too many factors that can work together to greatly reduce your dictation accuracy.
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Combine this with the high price most of these headsets go for and you start to weigh if it’s even worth it to buy and try these types of headsets.
That said, there is nothing that beats the freedom that these headsets provide, especially for those who just can’t be constrained to a chair for their dictation sessions. You can get up at any time to pace around the room and gather more inspiration from a nearby window for example.
1.Philips Audio
Pros & Cons
- 50mm neodymium drivers deliver full spectrum of sound
- 1.5m cable gives you freedom of movement for indoor use
- Comfortable double layered headband cushion, breathable ear cushion for longer wearing comfort
- Finishing of connector: gold-plated, acoustic system: open, Magnet type: neodymium
2.AILIHEN I35
Pros & Cons
- AILIHEN Comfortable Volume Limited 85dB Kids Safe Headphones: A must gift headphones for your children with a volume limited hearing protection and an adorable design and pillow soft headband for ultra comfort. What’s more, memory-protein cushioned earmuffs also help you minimize tiredness
- Foldable and Portable: Collapsible design provide convenient take out. Fold the headphone up and take it anywhere while you are on airplane, travel or in a car. Just enjoy your music everywhere with your kids
- Adjustable design: Adjustable headband meets the requirement of all head sizes. Lightweight design for kids aged 3 and up, and won’t become their burden. The wonderful sound is matched by standout comfort
- Inline Microphone: The HD microphone on the braided cable provides clear, hands-free communication, with one button to control music play and phone calls
- Wide compatibility: With standard 3.5mm audio jack suitable for listening to music or audiobooks. Compatible with your devices like cellphones, laptop, computer, Chromebook, MP3, MP4 and other Audio devices
3.Elecder i36
Pros & Cons
- Excellent Sound: Stereo bass headphone with excellent sound effect, 3.5mm plug compatible with all 3.5mm jack devices
- Durable & Not Tangle: The headphone cord length is 4.9 ft (1.5m), using high quality cloth, so it's very durable, and not tangle, suitable for kids, children, not easily damaged
- Adjustable: The adjustable band allows you to get the perfect fit for your head shape. It is not only suitable for your children, but also for many adults
- Easy To Carry: Folding design make it convenient to carry, you can easily put it in the suitcase or bag, more easy to carry it. When you take your children out for a trip, take a plane, take a car, this headphone would be a good companion
- Support: 1 Year Hassle-Free-Protection and quickly response customer service, for any questions while using, please contact us at any time via Amazon email or through the contact information on the instructions
4.Jabra
Pros & Cons
- HD Voice - High quality audio for crystal clear conversations Enjoy high-definition sound with HD Voice and get crystal clear, intelligible communication
- UC Plug-And-Play - Jabra devices feature intuitive call control and seamless connection to all leading UC applications and softphones.
- Flexible boom arm tip for optimal positioning - The Jabra UC Voice 750 headset has a flexible boom tip arm to ensure the ideal microphone placement.
- Noise Canceling Microphone reduces unwanted background noise and the noise-canceling microphones reduce unwanted background noise and are ideal in crowded and noisy, open office environments.
- Peak Stop - Peak Stop technology immediately removes potentially harmful loud sounds or tones before they reach your ears and keeps the sound level within the safe range to protect your hearing
5.Mpow 071
Pros & Cons
- Crystal Clear Chat Headset: Built in unidirectional microphone which can be twisted discretionarily picks up your voice loud & clear; Reduces unwanted background noise for clear conversation; Great ideal for Dragon speak, Online courses, Skype chat, call center, conference calls, webinar presentations and more
- 3.5mm Jack/USB Plug Connection Options: The 3.5mm jack audio cable can be detached from the control box which gives you an additional connection option for cell phones and tablet; Or you can use the USB plug with control box to work with PC; Long headset's cord offers flexibility to move around; Notice: Please do not connect with power amplifier
- Noise Reduction Sound Card & Easy Access Control: Convenient inline volume control & Mic/Speaker Mute for easy access; Built-in noise-reduction sound card of the control box lower noise output from devices; Provide outstanding audio on both transmit and receive
- Extended Wear Comfort: Headband and fluffy earpads pad with memory foam and wrapped by skin-friendly protein leather; Comfortably fit your head with the adjustable steel slider; Gentle Reminder: Depending on your head/ear size/shape, it may be a little tight for someone to wear which is designed to avoid sound leakage; In case of that and to get both audio and wearing comfort, please take off the headphone every 1-2 hours to get your ears relax and protect them from muggy environment in use
- Multi Purpose & Wide Compatibility: This headset can be used mainly for chatting, secondarily for music, and if needed, as a backup to a priority gamer headset (It is NOT specially designed for gaming, please DON'T compare it with professional gaming headsets); Wide compatible with Windows 2000/7/8/10/XP/Vista, Mac OS X, iOS, Android, Tablet PC
6.Cyber Acoustics
Pros & Cons
- FREQUENCY:Headset: 20-20,000 Hz. Microphone: 100-16,000 Hz.Headphones fit type:Over-Ear
- Ideal for K12 Classroom or Home Learning: Stereo headset with unidirectional noise-cancelling microphone to reduce ambient noise. Universal Fit & Durable Design: Adjustable headband with easy to clean leatherette ear pads. Headset and cable designed for hard wearing and to be long lasting for student and personal use
- Universal Analog Connectivity: Single 3.5mm plug headset connection or use 3.5mm Y-adapter to separate headphone and microphone connections
- Easy to Use: Simply plug in and play, no installation needed. Connect 3.5mm cable directly to your Mac, PC or any electronic device with a 3.5mm audio jack connection
- Includes: Cyber Acoustics AC-204 Headset, 3.5mm Stereo to Y-Adapter, User Guide. Includes 1 year hassle free warranty
7.HelloCreate Headset
Pros & Cons
8.KIXAR Wired Headphones
Pros & Cons
9.Kithouse Headset
Pros & Cons
- NOISE-CANCELING MIC DESIGN: Kithouse USB Computer Headset can reduce unwanted background noise for clear conversation. Great ideal for Dragon speak, Online courses, Skype chat, call center, conference calls, webinar presentations and more
- PLUG AND USE: Wide compatible with Windows 2000/7/8/10/XP/Vista, Mac OS X. This headset can be used mainly for chatting, secondarily for music, and if needed, as a backup to a priority gamer headset(It is NOT specially designed for gaming , please DON'T compare it with professional gaming headsets).
- ALL-DAY COMFORT: Comfortably fit your head with the adjustable slider. Gentle Reminder: Depending on your head/ear size/shape, it may be a little tight for someone to wear which is designed to avoid sound leakage. In case of that and to get both audio and wearing comfort, please take off the headphone every 1-2 hrs to get your ears relax and protect them from muggy environment in use
- FRIENDLY NOTES: Please adjust your computer volume when you still can't hear clearly even you've reached the highest volume on our USB HEADSET.
10.Emaiker
Pros & Cons
- PLUG &PLAY USB HEADSET: this communication headset with USB adapter is Plug&Play.No installation driver is needed for Computer, PC, Laptop, Mac and other USB compatible devices. As well as work for Skype, Skype for Business/Lync, Microsoft Teams, Cisco, Zoom, 3CX, Avaya, Countpath Bria, and most other well-known softphones or softwares. With convenient in-line controller, easy to adjust this PC headphone volume up/down and microphone mute/un-mute.
- EXCELLENT AUDIO QUALITY:Professional USB microphone headset is specially designed for clear communication on business calls,skype chat Zoom meeting, Voice Dictation, on line onference etc. With Hi-Fi Stereo speaker headphone delivers crystal clear sound, the wideband and bi-directonal noise cancelling microphone blocks out unwanted background noise and pick up loud and clear sound.The communication headphone with noise cancelling microphone ensures talking clearance for every word.
- SUPER WEAR COMFORT/HEALTHY for 24H: Lightweight call center headset with protein leather ear cushions makes comfortable wearing experience. The computer laptop headset with 80 mm adjustable clip-stop headband and 330° rotatable microphone arm for left/right talking. Binaural USB headset for Dragon/Zoom /Skype with adjustable headband to fit different head sizes. The microphone headset is designed with built-in hearing protection circuit Acoustic Shock to protect your hearing health.
- WITH MIC MUTE & VOLUME CONTROL: this binaural USB headphone is designed for chatting, calling and audio listening.This office communication headset is designed with in-line volume control to easily control the volume up or down, microphone mute on or off, it greatly improves work efficiency. And binaual headset with mic with passive noise cancelling function make you not to be disturbed by noise arroud.
- STRONG DURABILITY WITH 2 YEARS WARRANTY: Emaiker office headset with mic mute and volume control for PC laptops with stainless headband, plush protein leather ear cushions, quality ABS, superior retractable microphone and hearing protection speaker allow for heavy use. Lightweight and stainless steel headband provides high strength and super comfortable wearing.2 years worry-free warranty is offered for all emaiker office communication USB headphones.
Best Bluetooth Headsets for Dictation – BUYER’S GUIDE
Headset weight and overall comfort
It’s very important to consider the total weight of the headset. You going to be wearing this for long hours of dictation/office work and so it is very important that the headset doesn’t put strain on your head and neck. You want to be able to wear a headset and almost forget it’s there.
The overall comfort and padding of the headset are also very important. Cheap materials used on cheap headsets are only going to cause discomfort, pain, warming up of the ears, sweating etc. Sometimes it’s better to spend just a little bit more on a well-known brand headset built with better materials.
Length of the headset cord
Depending on your dictation style, if you like to pace around, a longer USB cord may come in handy. It could however also become a nuisance as you always have the cable wrapping itself around things simply hanging around weighing down your headset.
Noise-cancelling microphones.
If you’re going to be dictating with speech recognition software like Dragon Professional Individual, you need a headset with a very good noise-cancelling microphone. This is going to filter out noise around you and isolate your voice for your software. The better the noise cancelling, the higher the accuracy of your dictation.
Make sure it’s a USB headset
For speech recognition, you definitely want a USB headset. It’s actually a necessity. If you don’t buy USB headset you will be forced by very low accuracy, to buy a USB soundcard to convert 3.5 mm jacks into digital output via USB.
The reason you want a USB headset is to bypass your computer’s 3.5mm analogue input and internal soundcard which are always affected by the various computer internal noises, vibrations and other static frequencies.
Make sure to have a flexible microphone boom arm.
The microphone capsule has to be placed on the side of your mouth not directly in front of it. Placing the microphone directly in front of your mouth is going to expose it to breathing sounds from your mouth or nose, plosives etc. You want a headset that allows you to position the microphone capsule correctly by adjusting the flexible boom.
Make sure it has a foam screen over the microphone capsule.
You want to make sure your headset microphone has a form screen over its capsule. This is to help smoothen out your voice as well as keep out wind noise. It also helps to limit the intensity of vocal plosives in your recordings. Some headsets, even of well-known brands, come without this foam screen so pay attention to this.
Frequently Asked Questions
Single or dual ear headsets?
If you are going to need the headset for listening to music etc then you’ll benefit more from a stereo dual ear headset. If this is going to be strictly a dictating headset then, the biggest benefit to having a single ear headset is the reduction in weight hence, increasing comfort over a long period of use. Seconded very closely by the benefit of having the other ear free which will enable you to pay attention to other things and other sounds coming. This type of headset is very popular in office work and call centres. It is also popular with drivers who by law (in some parts of the world) can’t have both ears occupied by a headset.
Left or Right side use of microphone boom?
While this is not one of the most important points, it could come in useful to be able to use your microphone boom on the left or right side of your mouth. Wherever it’s more comfortable. Oddly enough, I get better accuracy with the microphone boom on the right side of my mouth. My Jabra UC voice 750 headset enables 180°+ rotation so I can choose which side of my face I want to have the boom on. Consider this when looking for your next dictation headset.
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Here it is guys and gals. The review for some of the best headsets for dictating with dragon professional individual (formerly naturally speaking,) or any other speech recognition software.
Amazon.com
