[jeremy151]

I took this to a bit of an extreme, using a Sennheiser broadcast headset into a USB sound card. I also added a hardware mute button inline, with a big clicky button with which you can easily tell the mute status (and mute/unmute) regardless of which window is up front. It also lets you pipe your own voice back into your ear, which can be a bit more comfortable listening wise. It really takes the guesswork out of quality and makes it much easier to use, especially when you might have to use 4 different conference applications in a day, and can't quickly recall where the mute button is in a particular one.

[jborichevskiy]

I remember doing live A/V broadcast and we had a similar setup for comms for the whole team - a hardware push to talk switch was amazing. Might have to invest in something similar for my home workstation too.

[jeremy151]

Yes, exactly that. I was in live production for some years, that's where I grew to like the simplicity / bullet proof nature of that style. It would be nice if a manufacturer would release a USB headset that allowed monitoring of ones own voice, and a hardware talk switch.

[sneak]

What model headset do you use?

[jeremy151]

I use a Sennheiser HME 26-II. I like it because the quality is very good (headphones and microphone), it's comfortable to wear for long periods of time, and the second ear cup can be flipped back off the ear. Sennheiser makes a number of models designed for day-long wear, the models made for air traffic controllers are in my opinion also good in this regard.