Best Noise Cancelling Headsets to Work from Home
By Danny Hayasaka
May 11, 2020
With the dramatic shift of current events, the work landscape has drastically changed. And if you’re fortunate enough to be employed and you work from home, you probably received an inexpensive corded USB headset from your employer, or you’re using your gaming headset, or you’re even using the built-in microphone and speakers on your laptop.
To give you a bit of background, Call One, Inc has been in the headset industry since 1987. If there’s one thing we know well, it’s a headset. Our customers consist of primarily mid- to large- enterprise. We’re no strangers to work from home initiatives, as many of our customers have been implementing these programs for years. We field thousands of calls from clients when they need support.
This gives us valuable insight into whichever headset is best for you based on your needs, and this is all developed from customer feedback. It’s important for our clients to know we don’t give you the B.S. from the decision-makers, but the critiques from the actual end-users.
I’ve been in the headset industry since 1999, which equates to a long dawgone time. 😊 More recently, I work from home and have been doing so for more than 50 days now.
Prior to that, I did a fair amount of travel. I’ve worked in hotel rooms, airport terminals, lobbies, the backseats of rideshare cars— you name it. I build connections and foster partnerships. Beyond that, I make it my mission to personally test the majority of all the headset models that are available from major brands. You can find my first impressions and quick, concise product reviews on our YouTube page, where I frequently post to keep up with the expanding industry.
If you work from home, you need to know what’s absolutely essential to your prospective headset. When it comes to headsets, audio quality is the primary function. You have to be able to hear, and to be heard.
Other variables include:
- Compatibility (Is your headset compatible/certified with all voice, video and collaboration platforms you use?)
- Connectivity (Desk phone, PC/laptop [Mac/Windows], Mobile [Android, iOS])
- Service and Support
- Device Management Software
- Features and Functions (Active Noise Cancelling speakers, Microsoft Teams button, Call Control, etc.)
- Enterprise Pricing Structure
While there are several brands that make great headsets, not all of them check every box required by most enterprise customers. For this article, I’m sticking with the leading manufacturers that provide enterprise-grade headsets: Poly, Jabra, Cisco, Logitech & EPOS. In no particular order, these headsets below are the top performers. I’ve also listed some reviews along with them.
Jabra Evolve 75
The Jabra Evolve 75 was first introduced a few years ago, and it has since been a solid performer. It features PC and Mobile connectivity; and it comes with a quite sturdy travel case, which makes it great to transport between office and home. But what’s really cool is its Active Noise Cancelling Speakers to help block out distracting noise, and it has one of the better performing Noise Cancelling mics we’ve tested. See for yourself in our review.
Poly Voyager Focus UC
This is one our top-selling headsets, and for good reason. Along with Active Noise Cancelling speakers and pretty good Noise Cancelling mic, this headset offers great features like SmartSensor Technology. You can answer a call by simply putting the headset on. If you’re streaming music and remove the headset, it automatically pauses the music and then restarts it again when you place the headset back on your head. If you’re in a call and remove the headset, it automatically mutes the microphone. Those are just a few of the cool features. And did I mention how super comfortable it is? You find the quick overview here.
Cisco 730
This is a new headset; however, we’ve had the pleasure of being one of the first to be able to test and evaluate this device for several months before it was publicly released. It has a massive amount of talk time (up to 20hrs), and you can easily adjust equalizer settings, configure features, and discover all that your headset has to offer through the Cisco Headset App: right from your mobile device. And for being a “boomless mic” design, the Noise Cancelling mic has performed very well. You can see the review here, right from my home office.
Logitech Zone Wireless
This headset surprised me as to how well the sound and Noise Cancelling mic performed. From the Logi Tune mobile app dashboard, the user can confidently toggle, mute, view charging status, modulate sidetone controls and tweak the 5-band EQ sliders (or choose from the custom presets). The Logi Tune mobile app also makes it easy to download firmware updates. Even better, this headset also supports Qi charging. I review the whole Logitech Personal Video Collaboration Kit here in my home office.
EPOS | Sennheiser Adapt 360 (formerly MB 360 UC)
Full disclosure— we’ve only tested the MB 360 UC prior to the rebrand. I’m not certain if the ADAPT 360 headset performs differently. Our tests of the MB 360 headset performed well. You’re seeing the theme here: Most people who work from home are primarily using their PC or laptop and mobile phones. These headsets, now including the MB 360 (or rather, ADAPT 360) connect via USB dongle or Bluetooth. This headset is very comfortable, and if you prefer headphone style, this may be a great option. The Noise Cancelling feature in this MB 360 headset performed very well in an extremely noisy environment, so kudos to this brand for its performance. I briefly review the MB 360 headset while jamming to some music at a Sennheiser conference here.
