Hybrid Sennheiser BW 900 Wireless Microphone

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We found the BW 900 to be exceptionally good with NaturallySpeaking after adding the proprietary PC Switch/Cabling device that we use to convert the Plantronics CS55 and Plantronics CS70N microphones into speech recognition mics. This microphone exhibits exceptionally high accuracy and noise cancellation. From an accuracy point of view we found the BW 900 equivalent to the Hybrid Plantronics CS55 and Hybrid Plantronics CS70N. The BW 900 surpasses the CS55 in noise cancellation and is equivalent CS70N which falls just below the Hybrid Samson Airline 77.

One of our favorite aspects of the BW 900 is the auto-level control. Auto-level control is commonly used on digital and analog recorders but we've never seen it incorporated into a microphone. Many end users, including ourselves, tend to run the Audio Setup Wizard at a slightly lower volume level than we should because we are reading. When free-form dictating we tend get a little excited (especially when writing reviews); not to mention occasionally frustrated, which results in raising our voice. Raising your voice on a typical microphone will have drastic effects on NaturallySpeaking's accuracy but the BW 900s built-in auto-level control catches volume increases and decreases seemingly instantly which translates directly into higher accuracy. The only other microphone we've tested with a similar feature is the Samson Airline 77 which can handle even more drastic volume changes but it incorporates a noise gate which is better but can take up to 2 seconds to register. The BW 900 auto-level control can't handle extreme volume input changes but it is literally instantaneous. When you factor in slight volume changes that go on throughout the day, we consider this invaluable.

Additional perks include the best Bluetooth microphone we've ever used with a cell phone. It seems like we have tested every Bluetooth cell phone microphone on the market and there have always been pairing issues and dropped connections. We gave up on using Bluetooth cell phone microphones until the BW 900. It's easy to pair, has no problem establishing a connection and is very easy to change the volume level on those hard to hear calls when driving our Jeep Wrangler, which is about as noisy as a dune buggy. This microphone is also good in the wind where even a slight breeze will render most other luetooth microphones useless.

The BW 900 works exceptionally well with standard landline telephones as well as cell phones and although you can add an optional hydraulic telephone handset lifter, you may not find it practical for use with dictation because every time you turn on your microphone, the lifter will pick up your telephone headset. We like the hydraulic lifter so we just unplug it while dictating into NaturallySpeaking.

Unfortunately not all the news is good. The BW 900 has a 150 foot range but the included rechargeable battery only lasts about 4.5 hours and takes up to 3 hours to acquire a full charge. Fortunately the unit is capable of simultaneously charging a 2nd battery in the base station. If you plan on using this microphone half as much as much as we do, it would be highly advisable to purchase a 2nd inexpensive battery and even if your battery goes dead while you are on the phone, you can change it out without losing the connection. Changing the battery couldn't be easier. It's just slides in and out.

The Achilles heel of the BW 900 is the headset itself. Like other Bluetooth headsets, it basically clips to your ear with a clever hinged speaker that pinches the interior of your ear canal against the back of the headset which rests on the back of your ear. We are not saying that it's uncomfortable but because this microphone is clearly designed to handle all your cell phone and landline needs along with your speech recognition requirements, you could easily be wearing it continuously throughout the workday and in today's workplace, you could even wind up wearing it through lunch and dinner too.

Final thoughts: Although the Senneheiser BW 900 isn't quite as accurate or noise canceling at the Samson Airline 77, it is far more universal in that it doubles as a wireless very accurate very noise canceling Bluetooth cell phone headset, landline headset and speech recognition microphone. We would like to see the Bluetooth portion of the microphone work for speech recognition software but it currently doesn't fulfill this need. That is why we will be including our pc switching device. Senneheiser will hopefully work on this issue. Our PC switch works fine on desktop computers and notebooks which are typically used in one place but is not well suited for mobile professionals or tablet computers.

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