I was recently asked for advice on buying a headset for use with Skype and for recording calls. Buying equipment can be a bit of a minefield, especially when there are so many different options on the market, from £5 sets to wireless ones costing over £70.

The best advice I can give someone when choosing a headset is to use one with a USB connection - it’s a ‘cleaner’ connection and will give a better sound quality than the standard jack plug, which can come loose.

After that, I’d probably advise them to go for a brand like Plantronics or Sennheiser, both of which are tried and trusted (my current headset is from Plantronics and cost around £35). I use this to interview people for my podcast and whilst the sound quality is never perfect (I’m going through Skype with this) and nowhere near as good as my studio mic, it’s generally pretty ok.