Plantronics Foldable USB Stereo Headset Optimized for Laptop Use Audio 470 USB
The Plantronics .Audio 470 USB headset combines portability with your choice of analog or USB connection. Outstanding digital sound quality makes Internet calls, music, and DVDs sound even better. A personalized fit, lightweight design, and fingertip controls deliver hours of comfortable use for discerning mobile professionals -whether working or relaxing.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Plantronics USB 470 Headset
This item was well worth the money. The sound is great and I am enjoying every minute of use!!
5 Stars My Second Pair
I bought these headphones one day after a particularly awful experience at Best Buy trying to trade in my extended warranty for the umpteenth time and encountering some of the worst customer service and policy use I’ve ever witnessed. I was actually told I was buying a USB headset from someone who claimed to have looked it up when, in fact, I was not. It was wasted money and time.
So I came home and looked on Amazon to see if I could find something better and so I did. I even price-checked this set against other places online and when you factor in the free shipping it really is the best deal for them. Thirty dollars for a headset that is not only USB but it doesn’t squish my head!
Maybe I have a big head. Maybe my ears stick out too far. I wouldn’t think so, normally, but I seem to have an issue many different designs of headphones that the inside ridges of my ears get rubbed funny or pushed towards my head and that results, at the very least, in a gradually increasing discomfort and, at worst, immediate pain that worsens over time. Even the soft cushioned ones have a tendency to squeeze too tight and I have a delicate jaw that doesn’t react well to being caught in a clamp.
Ideally, I would prefer a pair of headphones that are light enough to wear for several hours at a time padded in fabric (anyone who spends long amounts of time chatting online knows that your ears get sweaty and plastic or leather padding just gets funky after a short while) and enclose the ear without squeezing the head, have in-line volume control and a cord long enough to lean back in my chair a little or stand up and grab something from a high shelf without taking them off. I would like an adjustable, noise-canceling microphone that is unnoticeable when it’s tilted up (or “holstered”, as I like to call it) and a little button on it to call a manservant to freshen my lemonade with exactly four perfect cubes of ice.
This headset does not enclose the ears but the sound is really quite good so I don’t need them to. They’re padded with mesh (so they don’t get too warm) and very comfortable, have in-line volume and mute and a cord that’s so long I actually end up bundling it up a little so my chair doesn’t roll over it, and still have room to move around. This would be ideal if I wanted to sit somewhere else while talking on my computer and, someday, I just might.
It also does not have a button to call a manservant, nor does a manservant come included, but I suppose it’s just as well; that model would cost way more.
It does have this handy-dandy collapsible feature that seems very unstable at first but can take quite a beating despite appearances and actually contributes to the comfort of the device (watch the hinges around your hair, though). Although I don’t use a laptop, the space-saving design is still appreciated because it lets me store them in my desk drawer when not in use, even when they’re still plugged in. Headphones are difficult to store neatly and these are designed to do just that.
I’m very hard on a pair of headphones. I work and play at this machine so I use them for everything I do, from listening to music and watching video to using voice chat programs and games (on Windows XP Media Center) such as Second Life, Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2, Steam Community chat, Skype and Yahoo, and filming program tutorials. The microphone quality is fantastic. Nobody complains of shrill or disturbing sounds (unless I make them), and believe me when I say that the people I talk to would most certainly complain if some innocent plastic bag rustling in the background became shrill to their ears. That has happened with other headsets, though usually those that only offer copper plugs and are not USB.
That’s the other thing about them. They have USB and copper plug connections (and the USB connection is compatible with all the other Plantronics USB connections of this kind, too) so if I did take them somewhere, I’d be covered no matter what I’d need to plug them into.
These headphones lasted a really long time, too. I bought my first pair in September and even after accidentally splitting the rubber on the cord (not advised) in a few places, they still managed to hold out eight months and that’s better than even my most expensive pair of headphones ever ($110, six months). I am not nice to my headphones, as hard as I might try. They get dropped, kicked, chewed on (by the cat, not me), squished between cushions, sat on, and loud music pushed through the speakers at top volume for long periods of time. Occasionally, they even get a little damp when I accidentally duck my microphone into my icy fresh lemonade. This set keeps going. In the end, the sound in the left ear gave out and that’s how most of them finally go. No set of headphones is meant to last forever, but I’ve gotten some very impressive value out of this pair.
I bought my first set of headphones when I was nine for the purpose of listening to my Walkman (they were actually still called that, back then) and I’ve been going through them like paper ever since. This is the only pair I’ve actually wanted to replace with the same model and I’ll do it again when this new pair gives out. I’m confident that will take a while.
In short (too late, I know), they’re light, comfortable, durable, good sound quality for both listening and making others listen, and all for thirty dollars. Free shipping, too (although they took a week to ship it).
PS – The collapsible mechanism seems stiff at first but after some use will loosen up and become more fluid. I’ve found the best way to do it is to hold the headphones upright in both hands, facing you (with the microphone to your left) and brace your thumbs beneath the hinges. Then, use your index fingers to ease the top of them until they are about halfway bent. Now gently bring the ear pieces towards each other and everything will kind of fold together on its own. They open in much the same way, only in reverse.
5 Stars Just right!
This product was purchased as a birthday gift and was exactly what was expected. It works well…has cut down on the “yelling over the sound” on the computer and makes the interactive W.O.W. game even better.
Recommend for households with lots of noise; cancels out all other sounds and makes for a more realistic play.
2 Stars Too fragile for regular use.
Sound quality, sensitivity, fit, ease of use and compatibility with Skype are all great worthy of lots of stars.
I was worried that the cheap plastic feeling headphones would break at the mechanical joints, but careful handling has mitigated that concern. Light weight and the ability to be folded into a small space are not the only issues related to a travel optimized product, the ability to survive being jammed into a bag with other items is important too. I haven’t tested that function until the headset finally achieved its unreliable state. For the sake of this review I decided to test this ability and I am delightfully surprised at its resiliency.
Why the product gets only two stars is that after four months of desk use where I treat the whole apparatus as fragile as it appears, I find that the connecting wires are the real weak link.
For the life of me, I can’t figure out why Plantronics provides this lengthy run of wire for a travel related item. I don’t plan on standing ten feet away from the notebook computer (what else would one take when travelling?), yet the wires are so cheap and thin that a third of a year of wearing and standard desk head movements (no acrobatics or vigourous activity) results in intermittent operation in the ear piece. Shaking the wire restores sound in both ears until the first breeze from the fan, or the slightest head movement. If the earpiece goes out, I can assume that the microphone wire will suffer the same fate.
Sadly, it appears that all consumer grade manufacturers of these kinds of devices have conspired to make all their devices fail due to crappy wiring – so I am going to a rechargable bluetooth headset and junking traditional wired versions.
My recommendation for manufacturers is to do what Philips did with their noise suppressing earbuds – they encased all of the wiring in a fabric sheath that absorbs the stress of simple everyday desk bound wearing. Several years later and all is well.
4 Stars Technically excellent – not sure of durability
I use this product with Dragon Naturally Speaking software on a laptop. Technically the headset is excellent but I am a little concerned about the plastic parts that fold. They don’t look substantial but so far have proved to be very durable. I regularly carry the headset in my backpack where everything is subject to stress and strain – so far nothing has broken. I have found the headset to be better than several non “portable” models. Certainly is much superior to the headset that comes with the software.
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