Others say...

"second headset works fine . . . . ."
The second Plantronics Foldable headset works fine,so far.
The original headset worked for a few days before the microphone failed. Amazon customer service responded heroically and replaced the defective headset by overnight air delivery service. Amazon gets five stars, but in the words of our great leader, George W., "the jury is still out on the longevity of the Plantronics Foldable Headset" . . . . . thomast

"Electronics Dummy"
I had just suscribed to Skype and had just bought a new computer. I browsed numerous choices on Amazon. I decided to purchase this Platronics model based on reviews. Very pleased with the quality of sound ( in & out); and head-gear comfort is a plus . Great buy !!!!

"good product"
I use this product for Dragon Naturally speaking 10 and it works well, no complaints. good product.

"simply amazing"
Highly recommended for SKYPE users, watching movies, listening to music, etc. Blocks out unwanted noise in the surroundings. High sound quality.

"Disappointing."
I bought these headphones because they are recommended by MacSpeech for use with their Dictate speech recognition software (well, this is actually the successor to the one they recommend. Amazon apparently ships this one in place of the Audio 400)

First off, the build quality on these headphones is rather poor. I can't see the headband staying intact for more than a few months and looks like it might snap at any minute just by putting them on my head. The foam ear pads are flimsy and uncomfortable and the cord is also very flimsy and tangle prone. Overall, they remind me of the free headphones that airlines give out with an added microphone (which is no gem to look at itself)

Sound quality, both microphone and headphone, was subpar (or worse). The sound was clear, but had a very quiet maximum volume as far as maximum volumes go. It got distorted at max volume too, forcing me to keep it at about medium. I suppose this would be fine for conversation as long as the other party spoke loudly enough, but don't expect to use them for music (very poor bass and mid range).

And finally, the purpose I bought this headset for: speech recognition. I use a Macbook Pro, and I originally tried the Dictate software out with the built in microphone. Sitting about 3-4 feet away from my computer and talking at a normal conversational volume and pace with no particular regard for where the microphone was relative to myself, I was able to get a 2/5 star rating from the Dictate software. In actual use, I managed to speak about a page worth of text (after the software had calibrated everything and I was speaking into a text editor). I averaged about 8 misspelled or misunderstood words per paragraph.

Again, that was with my built in mic 3-4 feet away. So I figured with a proper, certified, headset I could get that inaccuracy down to nearly zero words per paragraph. Well, the audio 470 certainly did not perform. In fact, I couldn't even get the software to advance past the calibration stage. It asks you to read several lines of text and the software checks to see if it can understand you. After about an hour of trying and frequently having to repeat words and sentences up to 8 times before they were recognized (something I never had to do when using the computer's built in mic), I gave up and decided to return the headset.

Others gave this headset good reviews, which makes me wonder if I just got a lemon. Regardless, the build quality and performance combined don't even warrant giving this product a 1. Buy at your own caution.