Choosing your headset - What are your options?

Not all personal computers come with the same audio connections for headsets.  This handy identifier guide will help ensure you are using the correct headset for your device.  For ease of use, Tute strongly recommends a USB headset.

Identifying your computers audio connection options:

First of all, you will need to check what sockets are available on your device.  If you are not sure, USB connection(s) are available on all modern computers, but you will still need to check if there are any spare USB sockets on your computer.

USB Connections [1.1, 2.0, 3.0 +]:

These connections are found on all modern computers and come with the added benefit of providing the headset with power.  Wireless USB headsets are available, but Tute recommends wired for stability.

A USB socket on a computer is shown below.  Note that USB sockets can appear on both sides of a laptop, as well as around the back of a desktop computer.  Before purchasing a USB headset, ensure you have the spare USB socket available on your computer – otherwise another style of connection

[ such as a 3.5mm jack connector ] may be required.

USB connections and ports are identified by this symbol:which look like this on your computer: 

A USB Headset will look like this, with a USB male connector:

Twin 3.5 mm Audio Jack:

Older style computers may have twin audio jack ports, one for the headset speakers and one for the headset microphone.  These may or may not be colour coded as the image below, so you may have to locate the ports via the small headset and microphone symbol.

Twin 3.5 mm audio jack ports are always next to each other, so if you can only see one on your computer, the chances are it is a more modern combo 3.5 mm audio jack – which is discussed next.

Combo style 3.5 mm Jack:

The all-in-one style connection is found on more modern models of computers as well as smartphones such as the iPhone.  Rather than a separate microphone and speaker port, it just has one for both. 

This is normally indicated by a small headset symbol . 

If your computer does not have two ports for the twin style audio jack headsets discussed above,

then it is more than likely going to have a combo port like this one.

Headsets for combo jacks will have an individual connection, as below.

Adaptors:

You may already have a headset of which the connectors do not match the available ports on your computer.  Adaptors are available to solve this, although these are not covered in this guide.

Adaptors vary in quality, and can sometimes cause a loss in audio quality or fail altogether – therefore Tute do not recommend the use of adaptors.