A roundup of my headsets, headphones, and microphones

Roundup: My headsets, headphones, and microphones

Headsets and headphones are a reality of the Zoom/Spotify/podcast/YouTube era! Especially if you interpret/teach/present online, it’s important to have the right audio equipment for the task. And even if you’re just listening to webinars or podcasts, you want to protect your hearing, stay comfortable, and have the sound be pleasant to listen to.

As someone who does all of the things listed above, I have a pretty big equipment inventory: three interpreting headsets, a pair of noise-cancelling headphones, a pair of basic wired earbuds, a pair of bone-conducting headphones, and a podcast microphone. I’m sure that some of you have even more and better collections than this; feel free to hit Reply and give me your own recommendations.

My interpreting headsets

My most mission-critical equipment is my interpreting headsets. I interpreted about 180 days (half court, half conference) in 2025, and the bulk of that was remote, so I spend a lot of time wearing a headset.

First consideration: headset, or headphones plus standalone microphone? A lot of interpreters strongly prefer headphones plus a standalone microphone, and it’s true that very few headset microphones can match the quality of a standalone microphone. My issue is that I move around too much. I use a criss-cross chair (just Google what that is if you’ve never seen one) because I like to change positions, sit with my legs crossed, sit backwards, sometimes I stand up, or even kneel on the floor and lean over the back of the chair. None of that would work with a standalone microphone.

Next consideration: your head. There will be headsets that other people rave about, or that you even objective would love to love, but they just don’t work with your head. This is me and Jabra headsets. One of my interpreting clients bought all of their employees Jabra headsets during COVID, and I love the sound quality from them. However when I bought myself a Jabra Evolve 40, something about the earpieces felt like pleather muffins strapped to my head. I honestly hated how it felt and I returned it.

My collection: I have three interpreting headsets; my primary one, a backup to that one (so that we don’t have a single point of failure), and a spare for home (I work at an office outside my house) and traveling. They are:

1. My everyday interpreting headset, the Audio-Technica ATHGDL3BK. That’s kind of a mouthful , but it’s a headset style that I would recommend: an open-back gaming headset. Open-back means that the earphones are covered with mesh, not solid material, so that you can hear yourself talking without either shouting or half-removing one of the earphones (both are habits you want to avoid), and gaming headsets are designed to be worn for long periods of time, so they’re generally very comfortable. I really love this headset, and I get lots of compliments on its sound quality. I paid $139 for this headset and I haven’t had any durability issues after almost two years. The only downside of this headset: because of the over-the-ear headphone design, it’s huge, and not very packable unless you put it in the original box, which is about the size of a shoebox. Not something I want to take with me on a trip, for example.
2. My other two headsets are the Sennheiser SC60 and the Sennheiser SC75, which are what I would recommend buying if you just want a basic headset for things like webinars and online meetings. They’re small and light, and have a flip-up microphone, which my Audio-Technica does not. Also, they’re really inexpensive. I paid $40 for the SC60, and $60 for the SC75 which has slightly more features, like an adapter to use it with either USB or your audio jack. These headsets fold up very small, so I have one as a backup in my office, and one that I keep at home and take on trips. I’m a big fan of these headsets, they’re just slightly less comfortable and tend to shift around more, because the earphones sit on top of your ears rather than going over them. But if you just want to buy a decent headset without analysis paralysis, get one of these.

My wireless headphones

I have two pairs of wireless headphones that I use for different purposes:

1. The Bose QuietComfort noise-cancelling headphones. Aaaahhhh, for when you just want to shut out the world (which is a lot of the time, these days!). These babies are expensive, with a list price around $360, but I bought a factory-refurbished pair on Ebay for $195 a year ago, and they work just like new. To be accurate, these can also be used in wired mode, but they come with an audio jack cord only, which isn’t a ton of use on a phone these days. I use them on buses, airplanes, and when I do over-the-phone interpreting. The microphone quality isn’t stellar, but it’s acceptable; I’ve never had anyone complain about the sound quality when I use them for phone interpreting. And when you have them in high noise-cancelling mode, like on an airplane, you hear almost nothing around you, which I love
2. The Shokz OpenRun bone-conducting headphones. I bought these during COVID and can’t remember how much I paid, but the current list price is $125. Bone-conducing headphones (on a headband that goes around, not in, your ears) are a little weird the first time you use them, but they accomplish the opposite of noise-cancelling headphones: you hear everything around you. I use them for lots of things: when I’m outside and I want to hear what’s going on around me, when I’m in my house but I don’t want to seem antisocial (this was the case during the COVID lockdowns, where I would listen to hours of podcasts while hanging out with my family), or when I’m doing something like lifting weights where I don’t want do deal with a cord but I also don’t want to be sweating inside my Bose headphones.

My standalone microphone

If you want really, really crisp audio, there’s nothing like a high-quality standalone microphone. When I started the Training for Translators podcast, my interpreting buddy Amélie Roy suggested the Shure MV7+, which I purchased and have been very happy with. It’s not cheap: I paid around $300 and it doesn’t come with a stand, so you’re going to spend some money on that as well.

With standalone microphones, you’re always balancing various factors. In my experience, to really get that “radio announcer” sound, you have to put the microphone very close to your mouth. In a couple of tutorials that I watched, the suggestion was to position the microphone about one fist-width from your mouth, which is probably like four inches? Really close, which means that the sound is crisp and rich with no echo, but it picks up every single breathing and swallowing noise. Due to too many years doing intense vinyasa yoga classes, I breathe very heavily and audibly, so I have to edit those sounds out of all the recordings that I make with this microphone.

An easy first step if you use Audacity is to set up what’s called a noise gate, meaning that everything below a certain decibel level is automatically deleted. This saves me a ton of time when editing my podcast. In my version of Audacity, it’s Select All>Effect>Noise removal>Noise Gate, and I generally set it to 25 decibels.

A few other considerations:

• If you use your headsets for listening to live audio (where unexpected things can happen), look for a feature called acoustic shock protection. This automatically limits the headset’s volume to a certain decibel level (most headsets designed for children have this feature), for example if there’s a sudden, loud feedback sound, or if someone taps a microphone to see if it’s on.
• If you use your headsets for interpreting or presenting, you want to make sure that you can hear yourself talking without raising your voice. Interpreting is really taxing on your hearing and your voice, so you want to protect both of those as much as you can. I also find that when I’m interpreting for a really challenging speaker, it helps my own stress level to lower my voice rather than raising it. This is why I prefer an open-back headset. But at least don’t use a noise-cancelling headset to interpret, because you’re likely to end up talking too loudly so that you can hear your own voice.
• In my opinion, the bigger danger with remote interpreting isn’t so much sudden acoustic shock, but chronic exposure to not-great audio, where the only thing you can do is turn up your volume to get more of what you want to hear, which also means that you get the echo, static, etc. This is a constant struggle, and I really wish that more clients were willing to tell their speakers and meeting participants, if you want to be interpreted, you have to wear a headset. Particularly if you have a full-time interpreting job, this is definitely something to pay attention to.

I hope these tips are helpful if you’re thinking about your own audio-related topics!

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