I needed a headset for my beloved Google Voice and Zoom meeting communications on my iMac. The Beexcellent USB Gaming Headset for PC, 7.1 Surround Sound Computer Gaming Headphones has worked nicely.

Many have recommended the OBi ethernet to phone adapter and that would probably have worked with a cheapy phone, but the OBi doesn’t allow for multiple Google Voice numbers—it only works with one, so I needed to stick with using my iMac as my phone because I can have multiple gmail accounts open allowing incoming/outgoing calls for multiple phone numbers on one browser.

Other USB headsets made my voice sound really bad (evidently there’s a specific driver or protocol that is necessary for the USB audio to work—I’ve had similar issues with a USB microphone). And the 3.5mm jack headphones/mic were difficult to use with Google Voice and zoom because each app has an audio setting for the USB device, which allows you to listen to music and hear the phone ringing while it’s still connected. When I used the 3.5mm jack headset, I had to unplug it when I wanted to listen to music or hear the phone ringing, then plug it in every time I wanted to hop on a call.

This headset fixes all that. It’s great.

One flaw is that the volume buttons seem to work—they show the system volume going down, but the volume out of the headset doesn’t change. It stays loud. Not sure if this is just a Mac issue with these. It’s not a dealbreaker though and I appreciate the other features enough to endure a little extra loudness.

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