As more and more people are working from home, the requirements for headset features have shifted a bit. Now many people don’t want headsets that completely isolate them from their environment because they might also have a child nearby who needs to be heard from time to time, or they might want to hear when someone rings their doorbell.

When working from home, you will inevitably have much more calls, and so you end up wearing the headset almost all day long. They should be lightweight, with breathing cushions. Preferably, open-back style, not closed and not isolating.

Microphones should have good noise canceling to prevent your home sounds from creeping into your conference calls. No annoying loud ticking clock (that you yourself love so much), no noises from neighbors who might do some apartment repairs when you have an important call or a lawnmower behind your window.

Wireless is not that important when your headphones are always connected to your computer all day long. Better invest in durability and quality than wireless features.

Unfortunately, search results for “the best conference headsets” result in options that brag about good isolation - exactly the feature I want to avoid (or at least to be able to turn it on/off as needed), and their cushions look a bit leather-like or over-the-air, which might lead to excessive warmth for your ears, leading to sweating.

Budget is also important. If you have a small startup company in an East-European country you just cannot afford to buy 100 EUR headsets for all of your employees who work from home. I’d say, 30-50 EUR (which actually translates to the same USD values when we deduce European VAT) is the sweet spot.

So, I’ll really appreciate it if you can share your experience with a headset that satisfies these requirements:

• budget - under 50 USD / EUR

• not closed, not isolating, not noise-canceling speakers (or at least noise cancellation can be turned off)

• lightweight, with breathing cushions

• good noise-canceling for the microphone

• durable, solid design

• prefer functionality & durability over design - may look totally ugly, as long as they stick to time-proven design choices and do not try to innovate with something that might not always work as expected

• connectivity - USB or the good-old two 3.5 jack style is ok