EPOS ADAPT 165 II Stereo Headset — 3.5mm or USB-C

Both Ears In. Nothing Else Gets Through.

There's a kind of focus you only get when both ears are covered and the room falls away behind the call. That's what the EPOS ADAPT 165 II is built for. It's a wired, dual-ear (stereo) office headset that puts sound in both ears and a noise-cancelling mic in front of your mouth — so you stay locked on the conversation and your caller hears you, not the open-plan floor behind you.

It comes from EPOS, the enterprise audio brand spun out of Sennheiser, which is why the sound punches above what you expect from a wired headset at this level. Large neodymium speakers, hi-fi wideband audio, and a bendable boom you set once and forget. Pick how you want to plug it in, and it's ready for the workday.

Which EPOS ADAPT 165 II connection is right for you

One decision sorts the two versions: how you connect to your computer. The headset and sound are the same — this is purely about the plug and whether you want inline call controls.

Connection type — match it to your devices and how you work.

• ADAPT 165 II (3.5 mm). A single 3.5 mm jack, nothing else. The pick if you mainly plug into phones, tablets, or any laptop with a headphone port, and you don't need inline buttons. Simple and universal.
• [icon:usb-c] ADAPT 165 USB II (USB-C + 3.5 mm). Adds a detachable USB-C cable with inline call controls — answer/end, mute, volume — on top of the 3.5 mm jack. The pick for UC softphone calls on a computer, where digital USB audio and on-cord controls matter.

[callout type="tip"]The real reason to choose the USB-C version: inline controls and cleaner digital audio for softphone calls. The reason to choose the plain 3.5 mm version: it works with anything that has a headphone jack and there's nothing to go obsolete. If your day is computer-based UC calling, go USB-C. If it's mixed devices or mostly mobile, the 3.5 mm version is the simpler buy.[/callout]

Microphone and call clarity on the ADAPT 165 II

The noise cancelling works on the microphone, for the person on the other end. The boom mic sits near your mouth and the noise-cancelling element filters out the background — the colleague mid-call, the keyboard, the office hum — so your caller hears your voice cleanly instead of the room. Backing it is EPOS Voice, the DSP processing that keeps your speech natural and intelligible rather than thin or harsh, even on a busy line.

The boom is bendable — you shape it once to sit the right distance from your mouth and it holds there. Get that placement right and you stop being the person on the call who keeps getting asked to repeat themselves; it's almost always mic position, not the headset.

[callout type="honest"]Be clear on what the noise control is and isn't. This is a noise-cancelling microphone for your caller's benefit — not active noise cancellation (ANC) for your ears. The 165 II has no ANC. What quiets the room for you is the stereo design: cushions over both ears physically dampen the floor. That's passive isolation, and it works well in an open office, but it's not the electronic kind.[/callout]

Stereo sound that's good enough for more than calls

Large neodymium speakers and hi-fi wideband audio mean this handles music and media better than most call-first headsets bother to. Wideband carries more of the voice than a standard phone connection, so people sound fuller and more natural — and across a day of back-to-back calls, that's less listening fatigue, because your ears aren't straining to decode thin audio. When the calls stop, the same speakers hold up for focus music or a video without sounding flat.

Comfortable for the full day, folds flat for the bag

Soft leatherette ear cushions over both ears and an adjustable headband keep it comfortable through a full shift — no clamp-headache by mid-afternoon. And it folds flat, so it drops into a bag for the commute or a drawer at the end of the day without taking up half the desk. For hybrid work — some days at the office, some at home — that portability is the difference between one headset that travels with you and buying a second for the other location.

What the EPOS ADAPT 165 II works with

Both versions are optimized for unified communications, so they work with the major softphone platforms — Zoom, Google Meet, Webex, and the rest your team runs. The 3.5 mm jack connects to anything with a headphone port: smartphones, tablets, laptops, PCs, Surface devices, and MacBooks. The USB-C version adds a detachable USB-C cable with inline controls for computer-based calling. Either way it's plug and play — no drivers, no setup, working from the first call.

What you're choosing is dual-ear focus and Sennheiser-rooted sound in a wired headset that travels — clear to your callers, comfortable through the day, and ready whether you plug into a laptop or a phone. For a desk that runs on calls but doesn't want to fuss with the gear, that's the headset staying out of your way and doing the job.