Hi all,

I was very happy with my BlueParrott VXi Xpressway headset, which I'd used daily for over 10 years. Recently it started randomly making sudden, very loud weird static noises. And the headset was cracking. And the foam ear cushion and leatherette ear cushion had both disintegrated over time and I was using the mic with nothing covering the ear piece. I decided to bite the bullet and get a new microphone. I considered all the expensive options, but decided that, with my good luck with the Xpressway, I'd give BlueParrott a chance again.

I love my new BlueParrott C400-XT noise canceling headset! I wear it with the headband, but it can also be worn with a neckband. It's fairly inexpensive ($119.99), lightweight, comfortable, and I get almost perfect recognition with it. I'm hoping I'll get another 10 years out of this mic!

Just thought I would share a good experience with everybody here.

Jacky

P.S. This isn't a paid endorsement, and I paid for the headset myself.

Dell XPS 15 9500
32 GB RAM
Intel Core i7-10750H Processor
Microsoft 365
BlueParrott C400-XT
DPI 15.61.200.010

thanks for the recomendation. got one on order (mid december delivery) and I'll post my experience.

I have been curious about BlueParrot. It seems like they really push the envelope with features. I think there is the ability to create a voice memo with the touch of a button on the headset. I  have wondered if those voice memos would be of good enough quality to feed in Dragon's DPI transcription feature.

I realize that other bluetooth headsets might have the ability to tie their buttoons to an app, but I have not had the chance to research that.

Also the range is claimed to be 300 feet.

Blueparrott is generic name. We are not mind readers so please be very precise when asking these types of questions. Which model are you referring to? M300-XT, B350 - B550-XT, B250-XT (legacy) or the C400-XT (legacy). We have tested some of these models.

The C400-XT was acceptable 15 years ago but no longer measures up to today's standards.

The M300-XT is acceptable but falls a little short on comfort. In our opinion, it's low-profile cute but not really designed to be worn all day. The microphone element is small and doesn't quite reach your mouth. You might think that environmental noise would be a problem but noise filtering is actually decent.

Forget the legacy B250-XT.

From a speech recognition point of view, the B350 - B550-XTs are equivalent. Accuracy is decent but not quite as good as the Sennheiser MB Pro1 UC/ML and this is why we no longer offer VXi microphones. The cover the ear speaker pad's are generally oversized and can sweat your ears. This is probably a matter of taste but we prefer smaller pads that let air circulate. Keep in mind that Blueparrott microphones are designed for occasional use while the Sennheiser MB Pro1/2 are designed more for continuous wearing. The Sennheiser models only have a 30 foot range but we're betting the 300 foot range was generally designed so that you can wander away from your cell phone. However, when it comes to speech recognition, does anything beyond a 6 foot range really matter? We are big fans of efficiency and we could dictate from our bathroom to our office computer but do we really need to be that efficient?

Change "No" to "Know" w/KnowBrainer 2020
Trial Downloads
Dragon/Sales@KnowBrainer.com 
(615) 884-4558 ex 1

I bought the Sennheiser based on your recommendation and while it's a okay headset, I'm not terribly impressed by it. The speech recognition responsiveness is the same for the C 400-XT and the MB one.

The MB one definitely wins in terms of comfort. Blue parrot hasn't learned anything about building a headset for long-term wearing but they certainly do know something about noise canceling.

I was disappointed by how the MB one handled multipoint devices. When I had it connected to both phone and computer, the phone wrong, it would automatically switch to the phone and disconnect from the computer. Not wonderful when you're in the middle of the zoom call. What should've done was bind to one device and not switch until there's a manual command.

I'll have to make some phone calls tomorrow to see how well the C400-XT headset works as a phone headset. the MB one worked okay as a phone headset as long as the phone was the only device paired to it.

I got the impression somewhere in the advertising copy that the C 400-XT would switch on a manual command but I'm when I have to do a little more reading between the lines and commune with tech support to find out if my assumption is true.

So far in this message, I haven't corrected anything so I might actually doing a little bit better with this headset that I was with the MB one.

I give this headset a weeks try and see what I think. I may stick with the MB one just because it's much more comfortable to wear even if it does have slightly less accuracy and can't be used with a phone and computer at the same time.

Well that didn't take long. Two hours of wearing the blue parrot headset and it was painful enough I couldn't stand wearing it. The headbands were too small for my head and the constant pressure from the ear pad and the other end of the headband make it unbearable.

Plus side, good audio, easy to use controls

negative side, must have a small head for comfortable wearing.

For what it's worth, the FAQ on this headset says it's not designed to be used with computer. Only mobile devices. If you do manage to connect to your computer, it's a "you're on your own" moment.

I think I'm going to return this headset if tech-support doesn't have any "larger head" headbands.

That's too bad that it didn't work for you. I wear mine using the over-the-head band, which I've stretched out a little to make it more comfortable. I could never figure out how to get the behind-the-neck band to work, even on my old one, but that band does feel like it would be really tight and it doesn't look like you can stretch it.

The fact that the details specifically said it's for telephones gave me pause, but because I'd had such good results with my first one, which was also for phone use, I decided to take my chances. I've had no difficulty connecting it to my computer. I have not tried connecting it to both my computer and my phone.

The one thing I don't like is that this one is bigger than the older one, and the boom is quite a bit longer on this one than it was on the older model I had, so I've had to bend it into position. But otherwise I'm still liking it.

Dell XPS 15 9500
32 GB RAM
Intel Core i7-10750H Processor
Microsoft 365
BlueParrott C400-XT
DPI 15.61.200.010

thanks. I don't regret buying the headset, it was worth a shot. I will say that the audio is much better than the Sennheiser MB-1. Right off the bat recognition was snappier and more accurate. Not sure why that is because the Sennheiser is quite a nice headset but it does somewhere things with Windows special and playing back NaturallySpeaking audio.

I may look at some of the other jabber microphones and see if there's anything there that works well.

as for the headband, you must have a much smaller head than I do. I do have a larger than average had which makes it a pain in the butt finding bicycle helmets and hats and whatnot.

I need to get to Kohl's to return it one of these days. Not sure I want to go there before Christmas. I was in Kohl's a couple of weeks ago looking for some jeans and I think they had only three people on the floor, hour plus weight for cash registers and everything looked like it was a teenager's bedroom. Products strewn everywhere, nothing organized. It was a real disaster.

Somehow I don't think the Amazon returns will be any easier