Plantronics Audio 995 Digital Wireless Stereo Headset Review

Performance
From first plugging this device in I was very impressed. It is instantly recognised my Windows 7 and as such Skype recognises it as a headset without any hesitation. Within about 5 seconds the music that was playing out of my speakers was playing out of the headset and I was fumbling to adjust the volume controls. The speed at which these headsets turn on and lock on to the transceiver is pretty much instant so you can leave them turned off and turn them on for just when you want.

Firstly, we will talk about the sound quality. 99% of the time there is no distortion due to the wireless transmission and it is only very rarely that I have had problems with this when it hasn’t been due to being out of range. Interestingly it seems to dislike being very close to the transceiver and prefers to be slightly further away. That said, there is only a very slight hiss in the background when there is no music/sound being omitted which is a shame but it is very hard to cancel out all of this kind of interference. The sound replication is not bad for such a small pair of headphones, they produce a realistic sound and nothing feels amplified even when turned right up. The bass is fairly soft and always seems to be balanced just right – other headsets amplify just the bass sound to improve the balance but tend to overdo it – making it perfect to listen to most types of music. That said if you are listening to something very bass heavy it will struggle to reproduce the depth that other headsets produce but quite frankly it is pretty impressive how well it does do for the size of the speakers as it stands.

Comfort is always a very important point with headsets especially wireless ones as you are more likely to want to wear them for longer periods of time as they do not intrude quite as much as wired headsets. The ear cups themselves are maybe a tad small so they don’t quite fully fit over your ears but are very comfortable. The headband is also nicely cushioned and sits well on the top of your head, the adjustments are also there if you want to length the headband etc. All in all these are a very comfortable pair to wear, although larger headsets are more comfortable these are tonnes lighter and as such in my view are very nice to wear for long periods of time.

Moving onto the range of the device, it is surprising how far these work when in an open environment however within a house environment the range is drastically reduced that said, I could still use my headset outside with the laptop inside and upstairs. There were a few spots where the signal would drop out in my ‘quite small’ house but it quickly locks back on when you have walked round the corner. You will find these brilliant if you want to be able to move around your room freely and occasionally stray to the kitchen for another coffee, but if you do want decent wireless range you will have to look elsewhere. That said these are impressive as you would have to part with a lot more money to get a larger range than these provide.