There are a couple of places you might use headsets in the context of Connect and they are different


Connect Meetings – VoIP for live sessions or recordings
Adobe Presenter or Adobe Captivate – Voiceover recording for on-demand content


The key point is to do what you can to avoid ‘analogue’ headsets (the 1/8″ plugs that we used to use in the past).  These have a noticeably lower quality of recording and are rarely able to do any reasonable noise-cancellation in my experience, USB headsets are a far better option


Connect Meetings


Cameras have excellent microphones these days, all of the mics in the cameras I use (see here) are perfectly good for conversation on VoIP in a meeting and of course the aesthetics of not wearing a headset are a benefit.  That said, the quality is not as good as a headset and the mics in the cameras are still somewhat directional so if you wave your head around when you speak you might be cutting in and out during your presentation


Of course if your camera is pointing at your face then chances are you should be speaking to your audience so this might not be an issue


There are often mics built into the computers and laptops these days, but be very conscious that laptop mics tend to pick up typing and it sounds terrible to the audience, not only the tapping noise itself, but the fact that you are so distracted from the meeting in their minds


Any USB headset is a good option, particularly if you are creating a recording purely for the purposes of on-demand content then the quality of the USB mic is well worth the effort, also the audience tends to be more understanding of a presenter with a headset when they are watching a recording


There are some USB desktop options, the only one I have really tried is the Phoenix Audio device set and they are very good, but I would say again that they are pretty directional in my experience, but excellent devices


Adobe Presenter and Adobe Captivate


This simply has to be a USB headset or quality USB mic.  The difference to get that ‘BBC World Service’ voice is well worth the effort


If you really want to go a little farther in quality then you can use a more professional mic setup.  As I record music as a hobby (badly), I have an excellent device from Roland which will take a professional mic, guitar feed, Midi feed or other professional option and pipe that into the USB of your computer.  This device is typically something I use with a mixing program on the computer, but I have used it for Adobe Presenter and in Connect Meetings because it allows me to add reverb and other effects to my voice and this gives an incredibly professional end-product.  It also has the advantage of being a very portable recording suite if you need to travel


The device is a Roland Edirol UA-4FX and you can see it here, it typically retails for around $150.  connect this to a good condenser mic and you can have a really good quality audio in meetings of for on-demand content