Microphone headsets are usually included with speech-recognition products, such as Dragon NaturallySpeaking, and are used for demonstrations, presentations, computer telephony, internet chat, language learning, recording, broadcasting, performance, voice-overs, and games.

Although the USB Store includes a USB Headset Adapter, there's little point in using it with a poor quality headset. So, as most people don't know which headset to buy, and let the salesman read from the box, the Talk Mic Headset has been included.

Does technology go right over your head? Talk Mics Headsets do just that. They use bonded micro-electronics and precision pressure-gradient acoustic technology to improve the audio quality and minimise the effects of local noises. They're neat, light, black, and stylish.

They're so good that they're used by the BBC, BT, Shell, IBM, Microsoft, L+H, the MOD, the OU, demonstrators, solicitors, surveyors, doctors, musicians, writers, and voice technology companies.

The headset has a 1.8 metre low-loss multi-strand cable, and two international-standard moulded-on 3.5mm mini-jack plugs.
The red microphone plug has: a tip audio connection, a ring power connection, and a body return connection. A three-contact mono mic plug is often incorrectly called a stereo mic plug, probably because it looks like a stereo headphones plug. Most sound cards and applications only support mono mics.
The black earphone plug has: a tip audio connection, no ring connection, and a body return connection. Although a two-contact mono ear plug cannot be true stereo, the stereo channels both come through the same earphone. Most sound cards and applications support stero earphones.

Talk Mics Headsets can be adjusted easily and quickly: the microphone capsule moves four ways; the reversible earloop rotates; and the slim headband extends.

Talk Mics Headsets have the microphone and earloop on the same side, so nothing covers the other ear. This means that you can use your phone without moving or removing the mic.
The microphone stem can pivot well away from your mouth, and then re-position it, easily: so you can still have your morning coffee and Danish: unlike some headsets, where you have to bend the plastic stem to adjust it.

The microphone capsule is small: not much larger than a coffee bean. Although it looks like a moulded bit of cosmetic sponge, it's not. A moulded windshield would have a sealed surface, where the foam made contact with the mold, so there'd be no airways. It's machined from special acoustic foam.

The speech-quality earphone, within the earloop, is set just off your ear for comfort and hygiene. The hygienic non-contact design is ideal for private listening: you can listen to CD music, enjoy a DVD movie, use a net phone, play memo recordings, listen to dictation, or have emails and text read to you by text-to-speech software. But, as it doesn't cover your ear, or even touch it, everything in the room still sounds normal.

Unlike most headsets, they do not have a heavy uncomfortable headband and a large foam earphone pad completely covering one ear.

The hygienic non-contact design may be important to you, particularly at home or in a school where headsets are shared.

Adjustment is often limited, or you need to bend the microphone stem. The headband can be quite tight, and the earphone pad can slip on your ear.

Price-sensitive devices use the cheapest microphone technologies. It doesn't matter where sounds come from, or how far away they are, the mic responds to them all. This is why, when someone calls you on their mobile from a busy bar, the background noises often swamp their voice. And why, when you record yourself using the multimedia mic that came with the computer, you can hear the radio in the next room and someone eating crisps next door.

Slightly better mics, usually described as noise cancelling, expose the mic element on both sides, or use bi-directional circuitry, to cancel out noises equally from both sides. Of course, in real life, noises do not come equally from both sides. In fact they often come from a specific source in a specific direction.

Most headsets have a heavy uncomfortable headband and a large foam earphone pad completely covering one ear. Modern work situations, and a more casual use of office space, need us to be available. We have to talk, listen, and telephone. Covering one ear seriously decreases our audio-spatial awareness, increases our sense of isolation, and makes personal communication difficult. Also, the pad is unhygenic in a shared environment.

Companies that make speech recognition software generally use microphones that cost a few dollars, although some boxes used to say free luxury headset included. However, comfort, design, stability, adjustability, noise rejection, weight, internal noise, hygiene, gain, sound quality, and the signal-to-noise ratio, are all partially sacrificed to keep the final product cost as low as possible.

Most environments are acoustically unpredictable. Noises come from different directions, at different times, at different volume levels, either directly or as reflections. Generally, you don't perceive the noises as disturbing because you filter them out, and can, more or less, focus on the teevee or a conversation.

Talk Mics Headsets use precision pressure-gradient acoustic technology designed to minimise the effects of local noise. This rejects environmental sounds, rather than trying to cancel them out. So, how does it work?

Sounds are a radiating sequence of pressure waves in the air. Measurements made every millimetre from a sound source show that the greatest pressure difference, or gradient, occurs over the first millimetre, diminishing over every subsequent millimetre as the sound energy dissipates.

Talk Mics Headsets are pressure-gradient sensitive. They only respond to a pressure gradient above a set threshold. So they respond to sounds very very near, but progressively ignore sounds from farther away: no matter how loud, or from which direction.

This means that, in the real world, you can talk normally into the microphone, at home or at work, with unpredictable and inconsistent environmental noises, and still get good results.

Pressure-gradient microphones are used by pilots, broadcasters, sports commentators, the military, and in any situation where clear communication in a noisy environment is vital.

Microphones can't reduce, cancel, or reject, electronic noise created inside the computer, particularly by the sound system. The USB Store Headset Adapter routes audio directly to and from the processor, bypassing the sound card.

Sometimes, with speech recognition products, you may find that the audio setup is difficult to get right, the system seems over-sensitive, the noise levels are high, or the recognition seems erratic. With a USB adapter, you'll get a cleaner data stream, and it's the best connection option.

Also: if you're using speech recognition software and want to move your speech files to a new computer, you won't have to re-start or re-train because the speech data won't have been coloured by the old sound card.

For schools, colleges, universities, resellers, retailers, and catalogues, there are lower prices. To order, you don't need to set up an account: just mail or call.