Plantronics Audio 400 DSP Corded Headset Review

The Plantronics Audio 400 is a digitally enhanced USB headset for PC with a noise-cancelling microphone, foldable design, and DSP technology. Engineered to offer exceptionally clear audio, and ease-of-use; this is an ideal headset for daily office use.

Available at just £35.00 + VAT from The Headset Store, the Plantronics Audio 400 headset comes at a very tempting price point but is it worth your money, or would you be better off with a different model for a similar price?

Design

One unique design feature of the Plantronics Audio 400 is that it’s foldable, and comes with a stylish leatherette travel pouch. This makes it the ideal USB headset for portability, since it won’t take up too much space. Overall, we were impressed with the design as it looks good, feels relatively well-made and is comfortable to wear.

The headband is adjustable from each side and there is a QuickAdjust boom so you can position the noise-cancelling mic to your liking. The foam ear cushions are of a slightly better grade than those typically found on cheaper headsets and truly do cushion your ears from the plastic. The foam ear cushions also help to keep your ears cool if you’re using the headset for a long period of time.

Sound Quality

As a binaural corded headset, the Plantronics Audio 400 delivers stereo sound. Whilst we have tested headsets with better sound quality, we have also seen worse sound quality at a higher price point. Overall, we were impressed with the quality of the sound on offer from this Plantronics Headset.

The headset further benefits from Digital Signal Processing (DSP) for a reduction in background noise and clearer audio. We tested the audio quality on Microsoft Teams calls, Call of Duty and with Spotify. For a budget headset model, the sound quality of the DSP-400 is very good whilst not perfect.

This corded headset also includes noise-cancelling technology. We have tested the Audio 400 in depth over the last couple of years in a variety of environments and in all instances the headset did a great job of blocking out all but the loudest background noise. Admittedly, it’s not the most advanced noise-cancellation we’ve heard – but given the price, it is certainly better than average.

What you get

The Plantronics Audio 400 headset comes with a standard two-year warranty from Poly. We have sold literally thousands of these units over the last few years so first hand we can tell you that returns on this headset are almost non-existent. Could the price point make the hassle of returning a broken or faulty Audio 400 pointless? It’s possible but its doubtful as Poly have generally done a good job with the unit and its generally very well made.

With this headset, you also receive a stylish leatherette travel pouch and the normal instructions / paperwork you would expect. The box the headset ships in is pretty basic given its entry level price point and could be improved.