Jabra Speak 410 Corded Speakerphone for Softphones, MS-Optimized – Easy Setup, Portable USB Speaker for Holding Meetings Anywhere with Outstanding Sound Quality

I recently purchased the Microsoft Lync-compatible version of the Jabra Speak 410 (from Amazon), and have been using it daily for about 3 months. My experience has been excellent and I highly recommend it. This is a very well-designed product.Functionally, it integrates very smoothly with MS Lync and the audio settings of my laptop (the software downloaded via Jabra's website is very easy to set up and use). It's about the diameter of a CD, and about an inch thick - with the supplied soft case it tucks away nicely in my laptop bag for on-the-go use.The sound quality of the speaker is excellent - I've used it for both conference calls, VoIP phone calls via Lync, and listing to music and CDs from my laptop. In all cases, it sounded as good or better than any external computer speakers I have ever used (excluding outboard subwoofers, etc.). It gets plenty loud and can easily fill a small to medium size room with sound.People whom I am speaking with via the Jabra 410 have told me that my audio quality (i.e. the Jabra 410's internal microphone) sounds excellent, however I have not been able to actually hear how I sound to others when using the Jabra 410 so I can not compare the Jabra 410's mic sound quality to more traditional wired headsets or dedicated external mics. All my use of the Jabra has been from my own home office or small conference rooms, so I can not confirm how it performs in large conference rooms with many people speaking in a group (Jabra claims the microphone is multidirectional, and it does appear to be).It has a jack for an external headset, so you can listen to calls/music/audio privately if others are in the room with you, and when doing so it continues to use its own internal microphone in case you need to speak. I have not tried this, but I suspect the headphone jack would also allow you to connect the Jabra to an outboard audio system or the audio input of a computer monitor with speakers (and I suspect when doing so it would maintain full duplex audio).The onboard controls (volume, mute, etc.) are touch-sensitive and work very smoothly, and when pressing them the Jabra's LEDs light up and you hear a soft "click" sound through the Jabra's speaker to confirm (really slick, actually).A feature I particularly like is that when you press the "Mute" button, all 12 of the LEDs around the outer ring of the device light up red, and do NOT blink when you are on mute. The LEDs will stay red as long as the unit is muted, so at a quick glance you can verify that you are on mute, even from several feet away from the unit. I can't stand mute lights that blink when on mute, especially when on long calls where I am not a key participant and am on mute for most of the call.My only complaint is that it is a wired device and isn't wireless/battery powered. I'll bet Jabra's working on a wireless version though (if they aren't they should be). Also, it would be nice to have a hinged base or "kickstand" so you could angle it toward you rather than having it point straight up all the time.If you're looking for a true hands-free audio conferencing experience via MS Lync that is similar to that of traditional and far more expensive conferencing equipment (like Polycom, etc.), the Jabra Speak 410 will work nicely.

I work for a large global company with colleagues on nearly every continent. We're heavy users of on-line audio and video conferencing, and have standardized on Microsoft Lync and Lync-compatible in all our conference rooms. I wanted something comparable and compatible for my office so purchased the same Jabra Speak 410 speakerphone that we use broadly. It has proven an ideal solution as I get full audio control (volume up/down, mute, hang-up) from the speaker itself and so can use it both when I'm at my computer in a meeting solo or have other folks in my office and we need to participate as a group.It works great on my Mac as well as on Windows PCs, and is easy to connect and use as it gets signal, power, and control via a single USB cable. The built-in cable is long enough to allow easy placement and coils conveniently into the speaker's base so it doesn't snake all over my desk when I'm not using the speaker. Build quality seems excellent as the unit is both compact and solidly made. I like that I can easily take the unit with me and use it for team meetings in some of our open group space.Audio quality is great, and there's plenty of volume even with other participants are faint and hard to hear. The microphone seems to work well as I've never had any other meeting participants complain about sound quality on my end.

Plug and play and works great

My team is scattered around the globe and we use Skype and GoToMeeting to communicate & collaborate. Using the mic & speakers on my MacBook Air made meetings hard to understand and uncomfortable as my employees clustered around my machine. The Jabra Speakerphone has been a dream come true. The sound is true and rich, so much so that others within earshot think that the person speaking over the Jabra is actually in my office. The omni-directional duplex microphone picks up great and I never seem to have difficulty being understood. Its not designed for music, but the sound is good enough to double as a travel speaker for background music or podcasts when I'm in a hotel room.The compact unit is on a 3' USB cord. Touch sensitive controls on the face of the unit manage volume and mute. Cool little LEDs embedded in the speaker indicate volume level and mute setting. There is a standard headphone jack in the unit, allowing privacy when desired. The Mac OS recognizes the device immediately and I only had a small preferences adjustment to make in Skype & GoToMeeting to default to the Jabra. The unit comes complete with a disc with Windows drivers. I'm a HUGE fan!

It works well and I recommend it. Reasons it is better than other options I've explored to date: external mic can pick up more than a laptop mic and has better placement options that improve audio fidelity. The USB connection removes Bluetooth as a cause of chunking and other weird audio issues. The USB connection removes the need for a rechargeable battery: if your laptop is on the speaker is on. Indicator lights are obvious and make it clear when mute is enabled/disabled. Volume control on the device is much less fiddly than changing volume on screen. It isn't great for music but not awful either.