3.5mm headset or maybe earbuds with a good mic

[Chuchichan]

Hi Everyone,

Can anyone recommend a good 3.5mm headset or earbuds that have decent microphone quality for Zoom meetings to use with a MacBook Air M1?

I've also thought about AirPods Pro, but I like the idea of the stable connection of 3.5mm.


Thanks in advance.

 

[seggy]

Airpod and Airpod Pro connections are stable unless you live in some sort of 2.4ghz hell. I use them for marathon meetings. The only issue is the battery life - if you have interminable meetings like me then there is absolutely no way a single set of Airpods will last for even half a day especially if you have transparency or ANC on. And that's where the capabilities of the H1/2 chips come in - I usually carry two pairs of Pros when outside / reach for the nearest pair of either Airpods or Pros at home, so that I can simply pop one set out of my ears and put another in with barely a break in my participation.

(and I would recommend anyone who wants to do this does wear the pair and get two pairs instead of trying to alternate single sides of one set because *that* actually can result in connection issues)

If you're definitely after wired, well for one, Apple do still sell the Earpods separately in either USB-C or 3.5mm TRRS flavours and they are very cheap.

Beyond that it really depends on budget and how actually good you want the mic to be. e.g. For wired earset use on my PC laptops I use a Final B1 earphone with an Antlion Kimura microphone cable which have partially universal connectors so you can fit it to the MMCX or 2-pin connector earphone of your choice. The Kimura can actually be had as a complete set with a pair of earphones (The Antlion Kimura Solo/Duo series), though the earphones themselves haven't been particularly well reviewed.

FYI: The Amazon links auto-include Macrumors ref tags.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

I use USB rather than 3.5… seems to work better (levels, etc) and is more universally compatible with adapter for lightning.

 

[StoneJack]

wired airpods are very good (3.5mm for Mac) because of higher quality of recording.

 

[MRrainer]

Are there actually still any wired, headsets with good mics and good ANC?

I don't want to buy "new" used QC25 again at this point.
My current ones look like they are giving in (and not just the pads).

AirPodMax2 are nowhere to be seen.

 

[BrianBaughn]

The headphone port on an M1 MBA does not work with a headset mic! It's audio-out only.

If you want a wired solution you'll have to connect either a compatible USB headset w/mic (my recommendation) or connect a 3.5mm headset (somehow) to a USB audio in/out device.

I've always like the fit and sound of the wired Apple earbuds (compared to others). Apple makes a USB-C version of those and they're $18 on Amazon.

 

[seggy]

Are there actually still any wired, headsets with good mics and good ANC?

I don't want to buy "new" used QC25 again at this point.
My current ones look like they are giving in (and not just the pads).

AirPodMax2 are nowhere to be seen.

It really depends on what you're specifically after.

The Sony XM4/5 can be used in wired mode, but there's a lot of circuitry in the way even though when wired (since it's not a usb cable) it works analog - so there are various functional issues depending on whether you have the phones off or on while wired. It would have been nice if they for example made the internal DACs accessible via USB-C to make wired use simpler, but that's only for charging.

If you're after best sound quality with ANC, it's actually generally better to use the Sony wireless...
...except on anything Apple, which doesn't support any of the high-quality BT codecs (including on the Max, kek).

However, it remains to be seen whether you'll actually notice anything off over the QC25 when running the XM4/5 with AAC support over wireless.

 

[StoneJack]

Hi Everyone,

Can anyone recommend a good 3.5mm headset or earbuds that have decent microphone quality for Zoom meetings to use with a MacBook Air M1?

I've also thought about AirPods Pro, but I like the idea of the stable connection of 3.5mm.


Thanks in advance.

any TypeC usb headphones with mike will suffice. They will give also much better audio quality than anything wireless. Having said that I use Air Pods Pro 2 for Macbook air and found them to be fine even during hour long meetings.

 

[MRrainer]

It really depends on what you're specifically after.

The Sony XM4/5 can be used in wired mode, but there's a lot of circuitry in the way even though when wired (since it's not a usb cable) it works analog - so there are various functional issues depending on whether you have the phones off or on while wired. It would have been nice if they for example made the internal DACs accessible via USB-C to make wired use simpler, but that's only for charging.

If you're after best sound quality with ANC, it's actually generally better to use the Sony wireless...
...except on anything Apple, which doesn't support any of the high-quality BT codecs (including on the Max, kek).

However, it remains to be seen whether you'll actually notice anything off over the QC25 when running the XM4/5 with AAC support over wireless.

Well, the XM5 is the cheapest of the lot (APM, NC Ultra), only the NC45 is cheaper.

I'm not interested in sound. Mostly voice. I listen to classical music at times, but my ears are not trained.
I would not hear much of difference or could not quantify or qualify a difference if I heard one.
In the office, I often just put white-noise on them to block out the office noise....

 

[seggy]

Arent you better off with a pair of isolating wired IEM's in that case?

The only noise ANC will actually block out in an office environment is the AC noise and any other type of fan noise - it certainly doesn't block other voices, and in that respect whatever you're not hearing with the Bose is the passive isolation a close-phone design would provide.

 

[mk313]

FWIW, I was in the same situation when we went remote back in 2020. I tried multiple headsets & Settled on using the Apple EarPods that used to come free with iPhones & apple now sells for like $20 or $30.

Here's what led to that. First, I wanted a small headset package. Work gave us some plantronics (or similar) headsets and they worked fine, but they were big and bulky & there really wasn't anywhere to put them that got them out of the way when I wasn't using them. Sure I could pile them on the desk, but I don't want to look at that all day.

I tried aipods, but there are 2 things I don't like about them (I have AirPods & use them extensively for personal use). 1. I don't want to be buying new headphones for work when they wear out. Just a personal preference, and if your work reimburses you, then that may not be an issue. & 2. I only wear headphones when I am on calls & with a Windows PC, I found that sometimes I would still be connected to the AirPods after a call & would have to go into settings & remove them. That could 100% be user error, but it was annoying enough that I didn't want to deal with it. Also, I did some testing & the wired headphones sounded cleaner. (that being said, most headphones, including the AirPods are totally fine for work purposes.)

I tested the EarPods using a 3.5 mm connection, using the apple 3.5mm to USB-C connector. and using a third party adapter from amazon (both USB-C & USB-A versions of it), and also my AirPods & the Plantronics one from work. This wasn't a scientific test & YMMV, but I recorded what I sounded like on webex using each of the connection methods & found that the generic adapter (both USB-C & A) provided the best audio (the plantronics was equally good when used with the plantronics-supplied usb adapter, but not when plugged into the 3.5 mm jack). I've been using that same setup since 2020 with 2 different companies/ brands of laptops/ video conferencing solutions & haven't had any complaints about sound quality on any work call ever.

I'd be happy to share the specific adapter that I use, but it's a generic adapter that looks like most of the other ones & I suspect that they all perform about the same (that being said the apple adapter was noticeably 'flatter' in playback), and I don't want to turn this post into an advertisement for some adapter.

 

[MRrainer]

Arent you better off with a pair of isolating wired IEM's in that case?

The only noise ANC will actually block out in an office environment is the AC noise and any other type of fan noise - it certainly doesn't block other voices, and in that respect whatever you're not hearing with the Bose is the passive isolation a close-phone design would provide.

I don't want anything in my ears.
I could just buy APP2 else and stop agonizing over when APM2 comes out.....