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Reviews For: YAMAHA CM500 HEADSET W/BOOM MICROPHONE

Category: Headphones & Boom-microphone Headsets

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Review Summary For : YAMAHA CM500 HEADSET W/BOOM MICROPHONE
Reviews: 61MSRP: 60.
Description:
Double side headphones with boom microphone
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00614.5
K7XDX Rating: 2021-12-20
Search no more Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I looked around a bit an ran into the Yamaha CM500
headset. Easy to wear for long sessions. Not heavy. I get excellent reports over and over with nothing added into my Icom 756 pro III. I often get feedback from others that it sounds much better than the dedicated communications headsets. Nice balanced sound without that hard to listen to edge of others. I turn the compression on when I want to punch through.
NO9E Rating: 2020-08-18
Good price ratio Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought it perhaps 15 years ago. Was working fine. Replaced by almost 4 times more expensive Sennheiser, a much better set. I tried to used CM500 recently but it disintegrated. Still good service for the time it worked at its price.
EA8TN Rating: 2020-08-18
CM-500 Time Owned: more than 12 months.
no me gusta nada el sintético que va al oído se rompe con un poco de sudor no lo a consejo.
WO6W Rating: 2020-05-01
Works great after serious RFI solved with a 0.01uF cap. Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I closed my original review with the comment "time will tell on durability". A fairly short 6 months elapsed time has told.

The headset worked really will for 4 to 6 months and has now developed 60 Hz microphone hum that I'm unable to resolve without cutting into the headset - push, pull, rotate, flex... connectors, pivots, cables... nothing external to the headset helps.. I'm unable to tell where the hum is introduced on the failed set.

I have a second set of CM-500 that I've plugged into the same station which is again hum free.

(As an aside, I've used several Pyle PHE-300 2-channel transformer isolation boxes... 1/4" TRS in and out. Cost effective, sturdy enough and work great...)

My original review continues below:

Works and sounds great (TX and RX), light and comfortable with modest isolation, but two issues to address:

1) KC4VO reports poor mic performance on new production headsets... see review immediately below. I bought a near new and lightly used CM500 on ebay avoiding the most recent production and saved a bunch on the price. This in September of 2019.

2) A few users have reported RFI problems... Yup... RFI made the headset worthless on 80 and 40, no problem on the higher bands tried up to 10. The RFI was easily solved by adding a 0.01uF/50V ceramic cap across mic input and ground near the transceiver mic plug. No noticeable impact on TX audio quality.

Note that adding clamp-on ferrites using various low and mid-frequency compositions had no noticeable effect.

In my experience, rates a 4, but needed a tiny bit of help. Time will tell on durability.
KX2T Rating: 2020-04-20
Great Value for Icom radio's Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had the CM500's for about two years, first off I used them on my 7610 which I did feel the Heil IC boom/headphone set was slightly better in the RX department and for DXing the IC element has a little more punch but I did buy another 7300 for a backup and glade I kept these around. The 7300 is a very good radio but the 7610 is slightly more refined but these CM500 work excellent on this rig, the only mod I did was wire a new mini mic jack on the CM500's mic line, there newer mic jack did not seem to make a good connection to any mic adapter cable I have used but once I rewired a new mini jack things were TB( I think Yamaha changed the mini jack configuration plug on the newer models of these sets ). They work great with the 7300, just some simple adjustments in the tone control menu's for both TX & RX and away you go plus they are more comfortable than the Heil headset so if ole Bob is reading this he might just be taking some notes.
K6YE Rating: 2019-11-22
STILL A BARGAIN Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I originally bought one on the recommendation of some of my K3 and PRO-III friends. I used it first on my FTDX-5000MP and noticed that the Mic gain setting used with the Heil Goldline had to be turned way down. The headphones are very comfortable and I can wear them for 3 - 4 hours. The cord is quite long and allows me to stand up with ease. I have encountered zero feedback with the 5000MP, IC-775DSP, or FT-1000D. While I have used it less than 30 days, time will tell with respect to its durability. A great product for the price and really does its stuff.

Update 21/NOVEMBER 2019: The CM500 headset sat unused from May 2015 until October 2019. We moved from Colorado to California and I finally got back on the air. Unfortunately, the material on the ear cups began to flake badly. Then the microphone gave out. Prior to the microphone failure, I had searched for replacement cups but was unable to find anything suitable. I have reluctantly decided to discard and not replace with like as I do not want a phantom-power battery box on the table for my Yaesu radios. I plan to purchase just headphones for now as I own a plethora of great microphones. I still believe that for the money, the headset delivered great results. I wish Yamaha offered both dynamic and electret microphones.

Semper Fi,

Tommy - K6YE
DX IS
KC4VO Rating: 2019-06-13
Used to be great, but something has changed in the last year Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have been using the Yamaha CM500 headset with mic for many years, first on my Icom IC 7300 and most recently on my Icom IC 7610. I have found them to be excellent performers - good quality audio from the mic (with a little eq from the radio), comfortable to wear and very affordable. Recently, my good friend KP2XX (who also uses the CM500 on his Icom IC 7300) and I both bought new ones. This was both his and my third pair of headphones. Immediately, we both detected a problem with the new ones. The new headphones had was so bass heavy as to make them nearly unintelligible on the air. This problem was compounded by a much larger proximity effect from the microphone (electret condenser mic with a cardioid pattern) than was present on the older pairs, so much so that the boom had to be fully extended fully away from the mouth to reduce the bass to usable levels. On the Icom radios, reducing the bass eq to -5 and the treble eq to +5 (there is no parametric eq on Icom radios) only made the transmitted audio barely acceptable. A direct comparison between the two newly purchased pairs with the three older pairs (all over 1-year-old) confirmed that there was a huge difference in the quality and intelligibility of the audio on the older pairs versus both new pairs. All the older pairs sounded great on the air (with modest eq adjustments on the radio), while all the newer pairs were marginal at best. We can only theorize that Yamaha may have changed the microphone element that are using. We also tried using battery bias (3V) using the supplied battery adapter versus using the bias supplied on by the radios (8V). We noted that using radio bias actually made the bass problem worse for some reason. While the new CM500 may be perfectly acceptable for uses such as pod casting or Skype, both KP2XX and I cannot recommend them any longer for use in amateur radio.
WB7DND Rating: 2019-02-05
Very Comfortable Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I only operate cw so have no opinion on the mic, except to say that it easily folds up out of the way. These block out room noise well and are easy to wear for extended periods. They certainly enable me to focus on code characters without outside interference. Contrary to another reviewer's experience, I have had no problem regarding the headband holding a position.
Easily a solid 5.
AJ4XM Rating: 2018-06-30
Great with KX3 Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I got these for my KX3 because they were lightweight and inexpensive. I could have gone with something lighter weight but I like the cover my ears feel and sound of these for QRP work. The audio quality is great both listening and talking, They come with a inline power supply if needed and I have used that with them on my PC for work with a DV Dongle and with Dragon Naturally speaking for writing. (I have 2 pairs of Logitech I use for that also but these work better and I get 99.9% accuracy vs 95% with the Logitech). Fir the cost these can't be beat. I also have Heil Proset Plus for my Yaesu desktop and Heil PRO7-IC for my Icom. I would rate the overall audio quality comparable. For my KX3 this Yamaha was a better choice.
NW0LF Rating: 2018-04-14
Excellent value! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I received one this past December as a birthday gift. It replaces a Heil BC-10 Traveler. I get good audio reports with it on my Yaesu FT-1000MP and a W2ENY adapter without needing the battery back. Not sure about head band problems. I adjusted it the first time I put it on and it has stayed in that position. I put them on and adjust the mic boom and away I go. I was constantly adjusting the Traveler. I absolutely love the over the ear configuration. I shut out all the noise in the House. My wife has to tap me on the shoulder to get my attention. I would definitely purchase this again.

73, Wolfie, NW0LF