Here in the year 2001, it's too bad we can't talk to our computers in the same easy, informal way Dave addresses the HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Still, speech is one of the most progressive, futuristic methods of bringing data into a computer, and it's beginning to play a prominent role in voice recognition, Internet telephony and broadcasting, video conferencing, and voice chat.
To engage in any of these activities, however, you need to buy a USB microphone, since Macs no longer come with mics and use USB for all sound input. Fortunately, there's no shortage of options. We rounded up ten head-worn mics and one desktop mic and put them through their paces with voice-recognition and recording software. The Plantronics DSP-400 and DSP-500 were the best performers overall, producing excellent recordings and offering the most amenities, while the Telex M-560 and Andrea Electronics NC-7100 performed the worst with speech-recognition and recording software -- which is surprising, since the latter model ships with both ViaVoice Millennium and ViaVoice Enhanced editions.
Meet the Mics
When you plug one of these mics into a Mac running OS 9, the option to use a USB mic appears in the Sound control panel, so no drivers are required. (In OS X, the Listening control panel -- which governs voice-command preferences -- assumes a USB mic as the default.) The Plantronics mics come with Mac drivers, which allow you to modify the mics' firmware. You'll have to run one such patch for the mics to work with speech-recognition software, such as IBM's ViaVoice or MacSpeech's iListen. Thankfully, the process is quick and painless and doesn't require a restart.
In 1000 to its rugged construction, Voyager delivers all-day comfort, hour battery life and outstanding noise-canceling technology; all plantronics dsp 100 attributes for professional drivers who spend most of their working hours on the road. It worked on a PowerPC Mac, intel Macs, and Windows. It's natively supported by all the operating systems, and it always worked. However, it has gotten to the point where if you jostle it, the sound dies in windows and you have to unplug it, plug it back in, go to the Sound control panel, fuss with a bunch of things, and sometimes it comes back.
All the mics use USB exclusively except the Parrott Jamaica and the NC-7100, which use a one-eighth-inch audio jack for the speaker. If you have a newer Mac that lacks audio jacks, you'll want to go with a different mic.
- PLANTRONICS dsp-100 windows 7 drivers Windows 7 correctly identifies the Plantronics DSP-100 headset. I can get sound by selecting it as an audio output device and running the windows 'test' but Windows says the device needs troubleshooting.
- SOURCE: iTunes or sound card line in with my USB Plantronics DSP-500 headset Recently on an HP desktop computer I found setting the device in the Sounds and Audio Device Control panel Voice Tab (and possibly Audio Tab) to reduce the issues with the device ceasing to work.
Most of the mics we tested are head-worn 'boom' mics -- that is, the mic itself hovers near the corner of your mouth on a stem that extends from the headband. The sole exception is the M-560; this long, thin mic sits on your desk, aimed at your mouth, and attempts to isolate your voice from the surrounding sounds.
Most of the other mics come with speakers built into the headband, which is a useful addition. (The Telex H-531 and H-831 lack speakers. Don't be fooled by the Telex H-531's foam speaker cover -- there's nothing inside it.) With speakers, you can monitor your mic's sound quality, as well as talk with others over the Internet without disrupting those around you. Also, these headsets' foam-covered speakers make them more comfortable to wear than those without speakers. The NC-7100, the Plantronics DSP-100, and the VXI Parrott Aruba and Parrott Jamaica have a single speaker on the left side of the headband and a clip on the right, to keep the headset in position.
In contrast, the Parrott Caribbean and the Plantronics DSP-300, DSP-400, and DSP-500 all have stereo speakers. Those of the DSP-500 are especially large, light, and comfortable, fully encasing your ears in foam. The stereo speakers sounded better than the monophonic ones, but I preferred the DSP-400's speakers even over the larger speakers of the DSP-500 -- they packed a bit more punch.
Stereo speakers not only make mics more comfortable to wear but also make it easier to adjust the boom, because you already know where to put the earpieces. The monophonic (and speakerless) head-worn mics require a bit of futzing before you can use them with delicate sound programs, such as speech-recognition software: you have to position the boom so that the mic is just to the left of your mouth, but not touching it. The DSP-500 was the best in this respect: I was able to toss it on and position the mic with a minimum of fuss. The DSP-300 was a bit harder to adjust than the others because it uses a rigid boom that only slides forward and back, for a narrower range of positions.
A handful of these mics have some useful, distinguishing features. Unlike the other mics, the Parrott Aruba and Parrott Caribbean have volume and mute controls in a small unit that you can clip to your shirt (the Plantronics models do, as well, but their controls work only with Wintel boxes). The DSP-400 is unique in that it folds and comes with a vinyl pouch, making it that much more travel-friendly.
![Drivers Drivers](/uploads/1/2/6/4/126473298/762547199.jpg)
Do You Read Me?
I tested each mic with MacSpeech's iListen 1.1 (which ships with the Parrott Jamaica). Without correcting mistakes -- so the program wouldn't 'learn' and create an unfair advantage for mics tested later -- I dictated a 94-word passage and counted the errors to see if there were significant differences in the mics' speech-recognition performance. Then I double-checked the mics' performance with ViaVoice's Mic Setup utility.
The Telex H-831 helped iListen perform extremely well -- the software made only five errors. With all three of the VXI mics and the H-531, iListen made eight errors or fewer; with the Plantronics mics, it made between 10 and 12 errors, which is still quite good. With the NC-7100, iListen made 16 errors.
The freestanding M-560 didn't work at all with iListen; the program crashed whenever I tried to run it with the M-560 plugged in. The mic did work with ViaVoice Enhanced Edition, but the program's Mic Setup utility rated the mic's sound quality as merely Fair (on a scale of Poor, Fair, Good, Very Good, and Excellent). ViaVoice rated the DSP-400 and 500 as Very Good and all others as Excellent.
For the Record
To evaluate the mics' ability to faithfully capture a voice with a minimum of noise, I recorded a snippet of speech using each mic and saved the recordings as AIFF files. Then a four-person jury listened to the files and compared their clarity and the amount of white noise they contained.
The DSP-500 produced by far the clearest recordings. The Parrott Aruba, DSP-100, DSP-300, and DSP-400 all produced acceptable, relatively clear sound files. The H-531 and H-831, though they both did very well at speech recognition, produced sound files that were very noisy and muddy. The Parrott Jamaica, Parrott Caribbean, and NC-7100 also produced poor sound files. The M-560, despite its attempts to capture just the voice and bypass the surrounding noise, produced the worst-sounding files, inspiring two jurists to comment that the files sounded as if they were recorded on a freeway.
Many of the mics offer ways to cancel noise, but the presence or absence of such a feature had no effect on the recordings' overall sound quality. With some files, such as those of the H-531, there was very little noise but the signal was still weak; the DSP-500, although it produced the best-quality recordings, also captured some noise. In the end, we found that the DSP-500 struck the best balance between sensitivity and clarity.
Plantronics DSP-500 How to Update Device Drivers Quickly & Easily
Tech Tip: Updating drivers manually requires some computer skills and patience. A faster and easier option is to use the Driver Update Utility for Plantronics to scan your system for free. The utility tells you which specific drivers are out-of-date for all of your devices.
Step 1 - Download Your Driver
To get the latest driver, including Windows 10 drivers, you can choose from a list of most popular Plantronics downloads. Click the download button next to the matching model name. After you complete your download, move on to Step 2.
If your driver is not listed and you know the model name or number of your Plantronics device, you can use it to search our driver archive for your Plantronics device model. Simply type the model name and/or number into the search box and click the Search button. You may see different versions in the results. Choose the best match for your PC and operating system.
If you don’t know the model name or number, you can start to narrow your search down by choosing which category of Plantronics device you have (such as Printer, Scanner, Video, Network, etc.). Start by selecting the correct category from our list of Plantronics Device Drivers by Category.
Need more help finding the right driver? You can request a driver and we will find it for you. We employ a team from around the world. They add hundreds of new drivers to our site every day.
Tech Tip: If you are having trouble deciding which is the right driver, try the Driver Update Utility for Plantronics. It is a software utility that will find the right driver for you - automatically.
Plantronics updates their drivers regularly. To get the latest Windows 10 driver, you may need to go to Plantronics website to find the driver for to your specific Windows version and device model.
Step 2 - Install Your Driver
After you download your new driver, then you have to install it. To install a driver in Windows, you will need to use a built-in utility called Device Manager. It allows you to see all of the devices recognized by your system, and the drivers associated with them.
How to Open Device Manager
![Plantronics Dsp 100 Drivers For Mac Plantronics Dsp 100 Drivers For Mac](/uploads/1/2/6/4/126473298/228042453.jpg)
- In Windows 8.1 & Windows 10, right-click the Start menu and select Device Manager
- In Windows 8, swipe up from the bottom, or right-click anywhere on the desktop and choose 'All Apps' -> swipe or scroll right and choose 'Control Panel' (under Windows System section) -> Hardware and Sound -> Device Manager
- In Windows 7, click Start -> Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Device Manager
- In Windows Vista, click Start -> Control Panel -> System and Maintenance -> Device Manager
- In Windows XP, click Start -> Control Panel -> Performance and Maintenance -> System -> Hardware tab -> Device Manager button
How to Install drivers using Device Manager
- Locate the device and model that is having the issue and double-click on it to open the Properties dialog box.
- Select the Driver tab.
- Click the Update Driver button and follow the instructions.
In most cases, you will need to reboot your computer in order for the driver update to take effect.
Plantronics Dsp 100 Drivers For Macbook Pro
Tech Tip: Driver downloads and updates come in a variety of file formats with different file extensions. For example, you may have downloaded an EXE, INF, ZIP, or SYS file. Each file type has a slighty different installation procedure to follow.
If you are having trouble installing your driver, you should use the Driver Update Utility for Plantronics. It is a software utility that automatically finds, downloads and installs the right driver for your system. You can even backup your drivers before making any changes, and revert back in case there were any problems.
Try it now to safely update all of your drivers in just a few clicks. Once you download and run the utility, it will scan for out-of-date or missing drivers:
When the scan is complete, the driver update utility will display a results page showing which drivers are missing or out-of-date. You can update individual drivers, or all of the necessary drivers with one click.
Plantronics Dsp 500
For more help, visit our Driver Support Page for step-by-step videos on how to install drivers for every file type.