Hello Steeve,
What if you're just starting out with pcs but you don't yet have internet, 
how are you suppose to get the software for those headphones?
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Pattison" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "PC Audio" <Pc-audio@pc-audio.org>
Sent: Monday, June 04, 2007 12:52 AM
Subject: Review of Plantronics Audio 550 DSP Headset


I came across the following review recently.  I
mainly use this USB headset with Skype and find it works very well.  -Steve.

Plantronics Audio 550 DSP Headset
Makaveli - 2007-05-14 19:38:13 in
Reviewed by: Makaveli
Reviewed on: May 15, 2007
Manufacturer: Plantronics
Provided by: Plantronics
Price: $119.95 USD

Introduction:

Everyone has heard the phrase, "Get your head in
the game". What's a better way to
get into the game than by absorbing the sound and
blocking outside noises? Can a
Plantronics .Audio 550 DSP headset put your head
into the game so that you can play
the game how it's supposed to be played? Let's
get these things on and find out!

Plantronics has been manufacturing lightweight
communications headsets since 1962.
Recently, the company has offered mobile headsets
and next-generation computer audio
headsets. Plantronics continues to pursue being a
trend-setter in its respective
markets.

Closer Look:

The package sets a good tone for the enclosed
product because it looks simple, professional,
and it displays the product.  I like to see what
I'm getting into when I purchase
a product, so it was good to be able to see the
headset up close and personal before
I opened the package.  The back of the package
lists the specifications and features
of the product with a picture of the headset all
laid out. I was also intrigued by
the message at the top of the back side of the
packaging. It boasts about how a set
of Plantronics headsets were used to communicate
from the first moon landing crew
to NASA in 1969.

Enough babbling, let's get this thing out of the
plastic! Now while it's not impossible,
it is fairly difficult to open the plastic. I had
to pry it open with quite a bit
of force and I almost thought about getting a
pair of scissors. Once it was out,
I could already tell that the cable was going to
be very long, which is a huge plus.

I'm not going to lie, I have a big head, so I had
to make sure the headset could
accommodate me, as well as other users who have
big heads. Below you can see a picture
of one side of the headset pulled down the
farthest it can go, along with the other
side pushed up as far as it can go.

The top of the headset is a very comfortable pad
which can, to an extent, move horizontally,
though it does not move vertically.

The ear cups have the same padding as the top of
the headset but slightly thicker.
The speakers themselves are 40mm large. I like
the red color of the speakers because
it goes well with black and it's discreet.

Closer Look:

The microphone is very unique on this headset.
For starters, it has a very nice level
of resistance when you pull it down. I like that
because it gives you a sense of
sturdiness; it's not going to move when you move
your head or the headset.  The mobility
of the microphone isn't as good as I would like
it to be. The image on the left shows
the microphone in its up position, and the
picture on the right shows how far the
microphone can be pulled down. Something that
disappoints me is that the microphone
can't be rotated 360 degrees because I know some
people who like to have the microphone
on the right side of their headset.

Let's examine the cable now. The cable is three
meters long, so it should suffice
for most people. There is a volume control about
a foot down from the headset which
is very cool. It has 3 buttons: volume up, volume
down, and mute. The mute button
is very useful because it mutes only your
microphone, so you can still hear others.
When you have mute on, the outer ring of the button glows red.

Down the wire you'll find an orange band that has
7 different languages telling you
to go to www.plantronics.com/downloads and get
the PerSono software.  I think this
is kind of weak because what if you don't have internet access?

Before I forget, the cable is connected via USB.
Near the bottom of the cable is
a little casing surrounding the cable which
displays the Plantronics logo and the
technology that the headset uses (DSP - Digital Sound Processing).

Installation:

To install your headset, just plug it into a free
USB port. The only down side to
installing it is that the headset disables your
speakers immediately. Now, go to
the download page on Plantronics' website and
download the PerSono software and install
it.

Configuration:

The software which you use for the headset is
called PerSono. It is a small program
that goes hand-in-hand with the Windows audio
controls. There are two different tabs
- headphone and microphone. Under the headphone
tab, you can change the balance,
bass, and treble of your headphones, as well as
which style you'd like to have on.
The different styles you can choose from are
shown on the right-hand screenshot.
The speaker test is a sound file that starts by
making a whooshing noise in the left
ear and it gradually gets louder and moves to the
right ear. At the end of the test,
it makes a crashing noise with bass in both ears.

Under the microphone tab, users can change the
microphone's volume as well as test
it. When you test the microphone, it tells you to
start talking and then plays it
back.

The display in the middle of the program shows
your selections below with blue bars.
You cannot make changes within the display; you
must do your modifying in the section
below with the sliders.

Specifications:

Speaker Driver Size
40mm diameter
Speaker Frequency Response
20Hz - 20kHz
Microphone Frequency Response
100Hz - 10kHz
Cable Length
3 meters (USB plug)
Digital Signal Processing (DSP):
Full stereo 16-bit, 48kHz data from USB
24 bit 100dB signal-to-noise CODEC
32 bit digital audio processing

Testing:

Test System:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Processor
ASUS P5N32-SLi SE Deluxe Motherboard
OCZ Gold 1GB (2 x 512MB) DDR2 800 Memory
eVGA 7950GT KO Video Card
XG Vortec 600watt Power Supply
Western Digital 250GB IDE Hard Drive
Western Digital 160GB SATA 3.0GB/s Hard Drive
Seagate 80GB IDE Hard Drive
LG DVD-R DL Burner
Windows XP Media Center 2005
Audigy 2 Sound Card
Enermax Uber Chakra ATX Full Tower Case

Finally, we can do some good old testing by
slapping this headset on and playing
some games, listening to music, and watching
movies.  The first thing I tested was
music. I played many songs trying to get the
speakers to crackle or sound bad. I
succeeded, which is not a good thing. The bass
really interferes with the music and
sounds terrible when you turn it all the way up.
I found that if you turn on the
bass boost, it sounds much crisper than without
bass boost. If you leave the bass
slider in the middle, it doesn't sound too bad,
until you crank up the volume almost
all the way up. Until that point, everything
sounds crystal clear. In gaming, I still
noticed that the bass wasn't good when the volume
was way up, but it was tolerable
with the Gaming mode on. While I watched a movie,
the bass didn't sound bad at all,
no matter how loud I turned it. These headsets
absolutely clobber my old DCT Factory
$5.00 headset, which has absolutely no bass at all.
To test the microphone, I went on TeamSpeak, as
well as Counter-Strike: Source, and
talked to all my buddies with the microphone.
They all said that I sounded crystal
clear. I knew that I was sounding that good
because of the microphone test in the
PerSono software - the playback that I heard was
just outstanding. It honestly sounded
like I was talking to myself because there were
no sounds being picked up from the
background.

Conclusion:

To wrap everything up, these headsets are
absolutely wonderful when the bass is turned
off. The bass sounds very bad when you turn the
volume up near the max that the headset
can achieve because it interferes with the sound
and just sounds horrible. So I was
let down in the bass aspect of the headset. The
microphone couldn't be better because
it didn't pick up any background noises while I
was talking. The comfort of these
headsets is a huge plus. I can say that these are
the only headphones that I have
ever worn for more than two hours that haven't
hurt my ears the slightest bit. The
volume control is nice, but the mute button is
even better. I love being able to
have the microphone on mute and still hear
everything people were saying. These headsets
are great for everyday users who won't be messing
with the bass levels on the headset.
I think this headset is good for gaming as well,
because you can keep the headset
on for hours on end and never have sore ears. The
microphone is the best that anyone
can ask for on a headset because of how well it
records sound and doesn't pick up
outside noises.

  Pros:
Comfort
Microphone
Volume/Mute Controls
Sound

Cons:
Bass at high volume
No software CD


Regards Steve
Email:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Skype:  steve1963
MSN Messenger:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]


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