An interesting (and objective) article about computer headsets:
I ended up getting a Sennheiser SC 160 – it is amazing at blocking out background noise. Kids can be tearing through the office while I’m on a call and it pretty much blocks out all noise except my voice. Even when I type on my super clackety mechanical keyboard only inches way from the mouthpiece, very little of that gets through.
What headset (or other audio equipment) do you use?
I use my Bose QC2 headphones with an Antlion Modmic Business microphone attached to the side. Both connect to a Schiit Audio Fulla 3 USB DAC.
I think the audio quality is pretty good, but I still get self conscious that it’s picking up my breathing. I likely can fine tune this by moving the mic to a better location, but I haven’t yet so I still use mute when I don’t have anything to say. The Modmic also cannot cancel out the fans from 3U of servers sitting next to me if I have the servers on, so mute comes in handy still.
At my old job I had a Jabra headset with an in-line mute button that lit up a nice red LED when mute was enabled. That was super handy and I’d like to have a similar simple mute with an easy to see indicator, as then going on/coming off mute is a very quick action and I could easily stay in a conversation while muting myself if others were speaking.
Sounds like a good setup. Lately I’ve gotten into the practice of putting the mic boom below my mouth so I’m talking over it instead of into it – I think that is what the podcasting experts recommend for MIC placement. Also have a QC2 which I use mostly for music, but never got used to it yet for calls – something about not being to hear myself very well during calls or what is going on around me as I work from home with kids 
I’ll try that mic placement, thanks!
Yeah, with the QC2 on in calls I can’t hear myself very well. I wish there was an easy way to provide some sidetone, maybe I’ll have to dig into pulseaudio and see…