One fact about working remote is that you end up on a lot of video calls. Building rapport is tough and body language matters, so being able to see someone and communicate is important. Bad audio is a huge problem when most of your conversations aren’t in person.

Plus, if you like to work from coffee shops or while traveling, being able to block out the outside world and concentrate when needed is mandatory. Active Noise Cancellation comes on more than just Huge Headphones and it really does cut out a lot of outside noise.

Random Tangent – the best thing to happen in noise cancellation in the last 5 years is krisp.ai. It’s software that helps a shocking amount – give a try for free at that link! Seriously. Ok back to business here.

Thankfully Zoom has gotten pretty good at delivering a quality audio/video experience most of the time. Even so, having worked at a telecom / conference call company, I can say fairly forcefully that most audio problems are on the participant side. The biggest issue? Headphones.

Protip: You need better headphones than the ones that came with your phone. This isn’t the place to cut corners.

First, pick a style.

For me, this is the neckband / neckbuds. Unlike seemingly everyone, I don’t enjoy full wireless earbuds that apparently everyone loves or huge over the ear block out the world headphones. When I wear the giant ear covers, the heavy headphones hurt the top of my head. When I gave “True Wireless” Earbuds a shot, I could never find a pair that fit my ears. Plus, I often listen with only one earbud in, and switch ear-to-ear. Most True Wireless Earbuds won’t support that. So, neckbands are the best for me.

My Favorite: Neckbands

When looking for a high-end set of business-focused neckbands, there were two choices that stood out as the best neckband headphones:

Jabra Evolve 75e UC and Plantronics Voyager 6200 UC

The Jabras

The Plantronics

I also considered the Bose QuietControl 30, but at this price range 🤷‍♀️ can’t try them all. (Hit me up if you want to send me a pair to test drive, though, Bose!)

Second, figure out what pair works for you

I’m a researcher by nature. When I want to buy a thing, I do a load of research on what the right choice is. The headphone decision has been brutal, though, because it’s almost impossible to judge the comfort and fit based on someone else’s experience. And basically everything else is secondary to that concern! But, you’re here and reading, so here goes.

Since both of these are neck buds, the weight of the headset is mostly on your neck and shoulders. That means that in each case, the earbuds are extremely light. They both come with 3 sets of sizing inserts to try to fit both ears. For me, they both actually worked – unlike any true wireless buds that I’ve been able to try.

I like both, but the call quality on the plantronics seemed much better with my MacBook Pro, and since that’s the number 1 concern here, they’re my go-to pair. Ever heard robot voice on a call? Yeah? That’s what happened most of the time on the Jabras. It’s possible that it’s a firmware clash or something, but this stuff should just work. Surpisingly, the little USB dock so that I don’t have to plug in a USB cable is quite convenient and lives on my desk so the headphones stay fully charged. When you are on lots of back to back calls, that’s surprisingly important.

Since I’m a deal hunter, I got a good price on both sets, so I ended up keeping the 75e and pairing them with my phone. The call quality there is quite good, and since I’m out and about more with those, the earbud magnets connecting and hanging together is helpful! Plus, the wings on the Jabras tend to help them stay in my ears a little bit better, so for being out and about, they’re my go to. Last, they have a specific “Hear-through” mode, which is the opposite of noise cancellation. It makes them much safer to use walking the dog so that I can listen to my podcasts, but still hear cars coming!

Most people’s choice seems to be huge over-ear noise-cancelled headphones. If that’s your jam, it seems like you’d need a reason not to get the Top of the Line Bose set. Zapier’s suggestion (and probably the de facto standard) is Bose QuietComfort 35 II. In the realm of high end audio, it’s hard to go wrong with Bose – though do be aware that the new Bose 700s are supposed to be the next generation here. My suspicion is that the extra microphones in that pair will end up making them preferable for business calls, while the $50 price difference isn’t huge.

The curveball: Bose Soundwear Companion Speak

One of the Execs at Zapier swears by these Bose speakers. They make it so that he doesn’t need to wear headphones to be in calls all day, and having been on many calls with him I can say hat the sound quality, in his quiet office, is pretty good! If you hate wearing headphones even more than I do, check these out as an alternate option so that you don’t have to use the laptop mic and speakers.