Over-ear heaphones for video calls

[offspring86]

I've recently returned to the office 2 days a week. For the last few years I've been using my rather expensive Sennheiser headphones for calls on Teams but I'm reluctant to have them in the office where they stand a higher chance of being damaged or stolen.

Work do offer headsets but they're on-ear models.

Can anyone recommend over-ear models that don't have a microphone that sits out in front of your mouth? I'd like to be able to use them on my walk to and from the train station, I don't want to look like I'm in a call centre while doing that!

There are plenty of models available on Amazon, I'm looking for recommendations from people who have actually used them

Budget would be ~£50.

Thanks in advance.

[rodericb]

I started using some Audio Technica open backed jobbies for my online university lectures on zoom and found them to be quite good. As they're open backed you can hear what's going on if you need to. I've just looked them up as I don't know much about them (i.e. model) and see that they're not cheap (got 'em for Christmas a few years ago). But they sound pretty good and are quite comfortable to wear. ATH-AD700X they are. My work supplied some Jabra headset/mic which I wear on one ear as I don't like how they block out lots of the ambient noise and the voices sound a bit overpowering.

[TimmyMallett]

I use Teams all day long. I am heartily sick and tired of people shouting into their laptop or trying to use airpods or cheap BT headphones will awful background noise filtering. It's a much less shrill experience having a call with someone that is using a decent mic that is designed specifically for VOIP calls.

Anything that doesn't have a boom mic is going to be compromised in some sense. The only ones I've tried that are ok are the Jabra 75e but they're well over your budget. They are very good though. Battery is excellent, but crucially not over ear. I was part of a company wide device trial for headsets with Teams and none of the ones we tried that are over ear and used a built in mic were any good, we just concluded that people were going use whatever they wanted to if they didn't want to expense something designed for purpose. I've got some B&W PX's and theyre not a patch on a cheap pair of Jabras. The issue is that 'music' headphones are designed for that, with a mic as an afterthought.

Edited by TimmyMallett on Wednesday 15th June 10:55

[QuartzDad]

I use these for Teams calls when in client offices, work well and I haven't had any complaints regarding background noise:

https://www.sony.com/ug/electronics/headband-headp...

The current equivalents are £80

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-WH-CH710N-Cancelling...

The next model down which is much lighter but doesn't have noise cancelling are £34

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-Wh-CH510-Headphones-...

[anonymous-user]

Mrs Internet is on Teams all day from home and refuses to have at least one ear slightly open to the elements.
It just results in shouty calls all day.
So me and the dog now work in another room.


I would imagine cheap over the ear jobs with build in microphone will be just as bad and make you look like a 'gamer' !

[offspring86]

I ended up ordering a pair of Mpow H12 IPO headphones. I had a couple of calls with colleagues who were using over-ear sets which sounded excellent. By coincidence they both had H12s. The reviews for were promising and £35 later they have been delivered.

So far I can't fault them and the people I've been on calls with have confirmed the mic seems very good. We'll see how they last in the office as they'll be pulled on and off of my head 20+ times a day!