Our editorial director Keith Dawson wrote this about headsets in an article last January:

"The headset market has consolidated in the past few years. There are fewer manufacturers, fewer vendors, and a whole lot of commoditization. The result is that it is easier than ever to buy headsets in bulk that are comfortable and reasonably durable. The flip side of that, though, is that it’s also a lot easier to buy headsets in bulk that are cheap pieces of crap."

"Word of advice. Don’t skimp. These things are so important, so supercritical to agent performance, and yet you often don’t stop to measure their impact on agent behavior. If you think you can save money in your call center’s budget by buying the lowest priced model, even from a major manufacturer, you’re being penny wise and pound foolish. Agents sit with these things in their ears, messing up their hair, literally in their heads, all day long. Day after day."

Our technical editor Joe Fleischer pointed me to three articles we've run about headsets. In January of last year, Allan Rosenberg compared a few wired headsets in an article called A Headset is a Headset ...Or Is It? One of things Rosenberg tests is background noise, but he admits the test was conducted in a quiet place. The noise-canceling microphones filter noise for the caller, but what about the agent? Can the earphones block the noise in the call center?

ProTech Communications has a line for loud centers called Trinity, which have large cup-like earphones. The company has a line of consumer audio headphones called NoiseBuster. For some reason the company hasn't used this technology for their call center headsets.

Rosenberg liked the Sennheiser headsets the best, though he says they were the most expensive. The company says the CC500 series "the best choice for extended periods of heavy-duty use in high noise-level, open-plan offices and contact centers." The retail price I found for the CC520 was about $150, but I found online sellers offering it for between $90 and $120.

The advantage of VXI headsets, Rosenberg said, was that they fit a variety of amps, and the company makes cords for its own amps that fit other manufacturers' amps. This is a valuable feature if you're replacing some of your equipment, but not all of it.

Another company, Starkey, offers a "no-risk trial."

For something really different, check out the Korean company Vonia. They make bone conducting headsets that transmit sound through your skull, not your ear. The company website explains the fascinating concept: "The Bone Conduction Transducer converts electric signals into mechanical vibrations which transmits sound. Converted vibration signals go through the temple of a person’s head and stimulates the auditory nerve via bone vibrations. This process allows sounds to bypass the eardrum." It's apparently great for people who get sore ears and headaches from regular headsets, but we're not sure how well they'd work in a loud center. However, the company seems to suggest that when you use something else to cover your ears, the bone-conducting headsets work great in loud places.

We did headset articles in 2004 and 2003, too.

Here are some of the headset vendors we know of. Let us know if there are others we should include in this list:

Plantronics
Sennheiser
ProTech Communications
VXI
GN Netcom
Smith Corona
Vonia
Danacom
Andrea Electronics
Starkey

Again, if you have any experience or wisdom you can share about headsets for loud call centers, tell us about it.