Light and comfortable, DSP USB sound card, very portable folding design, good microphone
Questionable build quality, distortion at high volume, expensive
Expert Rating :
Expert Review
We have been reviewing headsets for long now, but it's only once in a while that we get a product which looks different from the rest. The Plantronics .Audio 400 DSP headset is one such product. It is a folding headset that takes up very little space. It also has an attached microphone that makes it ideal for voice chat. That is not all; it comes with a USB sound card, so you have a stereo headset with voice chat solution ready even if you do not have any sound card installed.
Plantronics is a veteran of sorts in the field of acoustics and initially started manufacturing lightweight headsets for aircraft pilots in 1961. They eventually specialized in lightweight headsets and one testament of how big this brand really is comes from the fact that the first words uttered by man from the moon were on a Plantronics headset. In 1969, Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon and uttered the famous words, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind " Lastly if you are not aware, this company bought well-known computer speaker manufacturer Altec Lansing in 2005. We therefore expect the .Audio 400 DSP to perform well and will find out if it does so in this review.