Koss SB40 Computer Headset with Microphone, black/gold

I bought one of these Koss headsets for use with my ham radio gear, after another headset's (an expensive four letter brand) plastic turned brittle and it disintegrated into a pile of junk. The Koss has worked well, is comfortable to wear, and there have been no issues. You can pay more for a more rugged product, but at this price replacing it would not be painful.

Overall, these headphones were affordable and had some stunning sound quality for the price. I would definitely recommend if you are sick of other more expensive headsets like Triton Kunai's breaking or just being awful overall. I have had both those brands before, and neither of them hold a candle to these! My Triton Kunais gave way too much feedback to the point all my friends heard was static if I had the volume turned up for the game or music in the background. I especially hate the Kunais though because if you buy the universal set for 70 dollars from Gamestop, the mic mute switch doesn't even work with anything but a ps3 and I was needing to use them for the PC. For less than 40 bucks, I will never have to buy another computer headset and neither will you! These have a LIFETIME WARRANTY which means so long as you aren't slamming them into the ground and overall abusing them, if anything happens to break send them back in! I have done this with a few Koss headsets before, and the process works pretty well and takes about 5 weeks on average. Its only a 9 dollar return shipping charge you have to cover, and they will waive that for you sometimes if you ask really nicely. So onto the pro's/con'sPro's1. Very comfortable for prolonged usage (sling style head band)2.Extra long cord3.Deep Bass (I was impressed) and crisp highs (not tinny at all)4.Microphone is accurate and doesn't pick up a bunch of background noise5.About the cheapest decent sounding gaming headset you will buyCon's1.They don't look cool (but who cares)2.No mute switch (but most games on steam are push to talk or have a mute option in them)3.Not USB powered, uses the old headphone and microphone jack (which is okay but takes some tweaking, will explain below)Since this is not USB powered, there is an extra step required of you after you plug these in. They do not have a software "driver" so they use the default Realtek audio driver from your motherboard. Usually every windows PC has this very same driver (although the menu for it will look slightly different based upon your mobo manufacturer). Once you plug it in, the realtek menu should pop up, you need to do three things(all under the MICROPHONE tab at the top)1. Checkmark noise suppression2. Checkmark Acoustic echo cancellation3. Next to what looks like a volume slider, you will see a little microphone icon to the right of it. Click that icon (it opens what looks like another volume slider), and increase the microphone boost to +10db. This will ensure you won't have any trouble being heard in game. You can ALSO do this through the Steam settings menu and I recommend that you ALSO at least go to that menu as well and tweak your mic settings there before playing any game.

Great reports with Yaesu ft-891.Use Vox or Ptt switch . Good audio reports . Great for contesting , or field day .

Bought this for my Yeasu FT991A Hamradio Transceiver., as I wanted a dynamic microphone. BUT NOTE: You will need to modify the microphone plug as the Yeasu uses a RJ45 type on it's existing microphone socket.The Koss comes with the standard 3.5mm plug and that will NOT fit the Yeasu. The Yeasu manual has the Pinout of the RJ45 and making a small adapter is not too hard.Audio is loud and clear and for the price you cannot go wrong.I have enclosed a photo of my home made adapter cable to convert the 3.5 mm plugs to an RJ45 terminated adapter cable. You only need the MIC input 2 wires and the PTT lines, another two wires.BUT NOTE: The Yeasu socket FT991A also carries a 5V DC output line, which you should NOT connect!Called a station on the 40 meter band. To my delight, got an excellent Audio report. Both Microphone and the actual headphones themselves working to perfection !So... all in all... while not in the very expensive professional category.... for the price of the Koss, a 4 inch bit of cable, a female 3.5 mm socket and a PTT push button (latching or momentary, your choice) you probably saved yourself a few hundred dollars.Recommended.PS: DO NOTE: I paid full price for the KOSS, this was NOT a frreebie !PSS: For those of you interested... a photo of the Yeasu Mic Connector is shown in this post.Do note: you only need 4 wires, being the Mic and mic GND and the PTT and PTT GND. Do not connect any others as the Phone 3.5mm plug of the KOSS cable goes into the dedicated headphone socket on the 991AAlbert. EI7II.

Note to Amazon: On Koss’ own website they do not say that this headset is designed for computers, so why do you say it is a “Computer Headset”?It's very unfortunate that this product is titled as a "Computer Headset", because it isn't designed to direct-connect to a computer/cellphone/tablet. For those that find that the microphone in this product does not work with their computer/cellphone/tablet, that is because the microphone in this headset is a DYNAMIC microphone, just like the product description says it is. If you want a headset to use with your computer/cellphone/tablet you need a headset with an ELECTRET microphone.But if you want a headset to use at your broadcast radio station, with most any decent quality audio soundboard, or with your ham radio HF transceiver, the microphone in this headset is likely a perfect match for those applications. I just finished the ARRL Sweepstakes ham radio contest using the Koss SB40 Headset directly connected (no interface electronics) to my Yaesu FT-991A SSB transceiver and was pleased to get compliments on my transmitted audio. It's rare for a radio contester to comment favorably on another station's transmitted audio during a contest (no time for that), so based on that I give the Koss SB40 headset good marks for microphone audio quality. At less than $30 I think this is a great headset for those that want a dynamic microphone.Note to ham radio operators: Most HF tranceivers are designed to use with dynamic microphones, like that found in the Koss SB40 headset. Most VHF/UHF transceivers use electret microphones. To use the Koss SB40 on your VHF/UHF rig will usually require a small audio amplifier to boost the low level signal from the dynamic mic to a larger signal like that produced by an electret mic.