🎧Q: How to connect a Cisco Headset 730 with a Windows computer?🎧

[davidfit]

A: There are three options, you may:

1. Plug the USB HD Adapter into the computer

• Simply plug the adapter into your computer’s USB port.
• Turn your headset on. Unless you have disabled audible notifications, you should hear an announcement saying that the USB Adapter has been connected. If not, you may need to pair your adapter with your headset. Please consult the troubleshooting section, for how to pair your Cisco Headset 730 with the USB HD Adapter.

Note: If your computer only has USB-C available, you can purchase an additional adapter to convert the USB HD Adapter from USB-A to USB-C.

2. Connect via Native Bluetooth if your computer has Bluetooth capability.

• Search for bluetooth on your windows machine.

• Select Bluetooth and other devices settings 

• If your machine has native Bluetooth, turn it on, then click Add Bluetooth or other device

•  Select the Bluetooth option

• Put your 730 in pairing mode by holding the power slider up for 3 seconds. Select your Cisco HS 730-xxx (where xxx is the last 3 characters of the serial number).

• You should see a success message saying that your device is ready to go

3. Connect directly via USB cable

• Plug the USB cable which came provided with the Cisco Headset 730 into your computer’s USB port.
• Ensure the Cisco Headset 730 is turned on.

[Adam Pawlowski]

Is there a way to improve the audio quality when using the USB cable?

It seems to be like 16kHz or worse, "tape recorder" quality according to windows.

[davidfit]

Hi Adam,

Could you provide me any more information to help determine the root cause of the issue?

Are you using the USB cable which came provided with the Cisco Headset 730?

Which device are you connecting to? A Windows PC?

Are you able to hear it at higher quality if you use native bluetooth on the device? Also are you able to hear it in higher quality with the provided USB Adapter (dongle) or with the 3.5mm aux cable?

Additionally, I can assist you further over Webex. My username is davidfit, so feel free to message me directly on Webex if you have access to that.

David Fitzgerald

[Adam Pawlowski]

Hi David,

I searched for you on Webex but was not able to find you as a contact.

I am using a Windows PC yes, and the supplied USB cable. The sound quality is not very good, and the sound control panel shows this as the only option for quality:

The 3.5mm sounds fine, but it is not a TRRS connection, so there is no microphone available that way.

The USB adapter does sound just fine, with some latency to the audio. Bluetooth as well sounds okay until communications are engaged, then the headset switches profiles which turns the audio into lower quality mono audio. I believe that's a limitation of Bluetooth, and not much to be done about it.

[Adam Pawlowski]

@davidfit Any thoughts? I haven't been able to get it to work any different

[bill.king1]

Just curious if you notice any improvement if you do the firmware upgrade (like here https://upgrade.cisco.com/accessories)

[Adam Pawlowski]

I just got a pop today for 1-7-0-138 which … doesn’t line up with the 2.X versions in CCO.

I was on the latest beta, but I’ll try this and see if it makes a difference.

[bill.king1]

Please let us know if you see any improvements.

Also, was your popup from Webex or from the site I provided or something else? Just curious.

[Adam Pawlowski]

The popup was from Webex, but it immediately put the USB adapter into DFU mode then said the headset was unplugged.

I went to the website which updated the adapter, but said the headset had the latest software.

I don't see how that would have impacted the USB connection, which still shows tape recorder quality only.

[davidfit]

If you are talking about the software download for the 730 on https://software.cisco.com/ then the confusing thing is the version number 2-3-0001-13 is for a zip file which contains a multitude of firmware including the 730 firmware with version 1-7-0-138. So they do actually line up correctly even though it is misleading.

[davidfit]

I have tested it and experienced the same audio quality drop via USB myself, however I don't think this is a bug, this is by design. The 730 is primarily a wireless headset so I think the wired connection hasn't been given the same level of focus as the more important wireless Bluetooth connection. Can I ask what your use case is for keeping the headset cabled in directly?

[Adam Pawlowski]

Sure!



I’ve tried to use the headset for communications applications other than phone, via Bluetooth. Be it a limitation with Bluetooth or otherwise, the change in profile to support the microphone turns the audio into mono lower quality audio. It doesn’t appear to be possible to use both stereo audio and microphone.



I was hoping that connecting the device to the computer with a cord, as awkward as it was, would help get around that. However the USB lead actually works, I guess this is not possible. I can sort of understand perhaps a design limitation, but why the 3.5mm is not a TRRS I am baffled.

[Martin_Garvey]

Clear and helpful advise - thanks.