Two years on and so many of us are still doing a lot of our work conferences remotely. This doesn’t seem likely to change any time soon given how complete the solutions for video conferencing are. No matter how good the programs and apps for video conferencing are though it won’t be much good unless you have a decent microphone and speakers.
EPOS’ mid-range conference headset solution, the EPOS Adapt 360, offers some great features at a reasonable price. Read on to hear our thoughts on them and whether they should be part of your video conferencing setup.
Design and features
The Adapt 360 are an over-the-ear set of headphones with comfortable ear cups and a lot of buttons on the right earcup. The memory foam in the earcups is covered in an incredibly soft leather that feels incredibly comfortable on the ear, no matter how long you wear them for.
The head band of the Adapt 360 is padded but I would make sure that it is placed loosely on the head because the padding is not as comfortable as that on your high-end Bluetooth headphones such as the Bose QC45. Having the headband loose though the headphones were comfortable, with the soft and comfortable earcups holding them securely in place. Now I’m not sure they would last on your head through a rigorous workout but that is not what they are designed for.
The right earcup is where all the controls for the headphones are located. On there you will find the hook button (call controls such as answer, hold, hang up etc), media control button, volume button, USB-C port, audio jack (for a wired connection), power and mute button and the microphone. Looking at the headphone it looks extremely “busy” but let’s face it, if you are using it for video conferencing you are unlikely to need to use much of these aside from the volume button.
The media control button is useful though because it means you can also use these headphones when not in a video conference as a media headset. The quality drivers inside combined with the ANC results in some decent sound coming from them. It is notable too that the Adapt 360 also allow multi-device connectivity so you can be listening to music on one device and answering a call etc on the other.
The headphones come packaged with a USB-C cable, a 3.5mm cable and a USB dongle (in case your device does not have Bluetooth).
How good is the microphone?
The microphone, when connecting via Bluetooth straight to my desktop – because most of our PCs have Bluetooth nowadays anyway – is good, really good. It uses the noise cancelling microphones on the outside of the earcups to cancel out any noise that may affect the conversation. It does this well too – I tested it next to my AC unit and next to my stove top with the overhead fan running at full power.
Now you can be cooking your lunch while on a work call at the same time and those on the other end will be none the wiser. When on the call, using Zoom, the person on the other end could barely hear the fan of the stove top at all – although it was there it did not affect the ability of them to hear and understand me clearly. With this capability it is no surprise that these headphones are Microsoft Teams certified.
How is the sound?
Whether using the USB Bluetooth dongle or connecting your headphones directly to your devices using the in-built Bluetooth, you can connect them to multiple devices. I was able to connect directly to me desktop as well as my Pixel 6 Pro at the same time allowing notifications from both devices to notify through the headphones.
Receiving a call while having both devices connected to the headphones was simple with the music from the PC stopping when the call notification came through. Once the call was finished on the phone the music from the PC started again automatically – just how it should.
So how was the quality of the music? It was good – not great but certainly passable. I was comparing them to the $500 Bose QC45 though and the EPOS Adapt 360 come in at around the $300 mark. The EPOS Adapt 360 lacked some of the clarity of the mids and high-end sounds and the bass sounded not as deep, nor as crisp but by themselves they are certainly good enough to listen to music with although audiophiles may want to look elsewhere.
Do I recommend them?
To buy a set of headphones such as these you need to consider just what you want them for. If your primary use is for video and tele-conferencing, then you should definitely consider them. The noise cancellation and voice mics allows for great voice on the other end of the call. Their ability to provide decent audio in the over ear earcups is a bonus.
On the other hand, if your primary purpose for the headphones is to listen to music or other media then you may be better off purchasing a set of dedicated Bluetooth headphones from a more reputable audio company such as Bose, Sony, and even Skullcandy. These headphones can provide a better, more rounded audio experience while at the same time providing decent talk features — although usually at a higher price than the EPOS Adapt 360 headset.
The EPOS Adapt 360 over-ear Bluetooth headset will set you back around $300 and if you want an all-around headset that will provide you with all your video and tele-conferencing needs then you should definitely head on over to the EPOS website and check out their official reseller list — a simple Google search for them though will provide many more resellers.
