The TaoTronics TT-BH041 is a mono Bluetooth headset designed for phone calls. Unfortunately, despite having a dedicated boom microphone, speech sounds thin, muffled, and unnatural, while the mic’s AI noise cancelling system garbles your voice and makes it hard to understand, especially in noisy environments. However, the headset itself is well-built and decently comfortable, with a swiveling mic that allows it to be worn on either ear. Their 35-hour-plus continuous battery life should also be more than enough to get you through a couple of work days.
Our Verdict
The TaoTronics TT-BH041 is inadequate for mixed usage. While it’s decently comfortable, fairly well-built, and can last a long time on a single charge, it isn’t especially versatile. Its mono headset design and unbalanced sound profile make it a poor fit for listening to music. It also barely blocks out any background noise, so it’s ill-suited for office work or commuting. Despite being touted as a dedicated professional headset for taking calls, its boom microphone delivers poor performance across the board.
- Long continuous battery life.
- Decently comfortable, stable fit.
- Disappointing microphone recording quality.
- Poor microphone noise handling.
- Awful noise isolation.
- Very unbalanced sound profile.
The TaoTronics TT-BH041 isn’t recommended for neutral sound, as it's a mono headset meant for phone calls, not for listening to music.
- Very unbalanced sound profile.
- Closed-off soundstage.
The TaoTronics TT-BH041 is sub-par for commuting and traveling. It blocks out very little background noise and isn’t very portable, since it doesn't have a folding design or a carrying pouch. That said, its long continuous battery life is helpful if you tend to take calls when you’re out and about and don’t have access to an outlet.
- Long continuous battery life.
- Awful noise isolation.
- Not especially portable.
- Very unbalanced sound profile.
The TaoTronics TT-BH041 is surprisingly adequate for sports and working out due to its stable fit and light weight. That said, since it's a mono headset, it isn't meant for listening to music. Also, since it doesn’t fold and lacks a carrying case, it’s a little annoying to carry around with you when not in use.
- Decently comfortable, stable fit.
- Not especially portable.
- Very unbalanced sound profile.
The TaoTronics TT-BH041 is middling for office work. Its mono headset design barely blocks out any ambient sound, so you’ll hear every bit of your nearby coworkers’ conversations. It also can’t connect to more than one device at a time, which is annoying if you frequently switch between taking calls on your phone and work computer. That said, it does have very good battery life, as it’s capable of providing more than 35 hours of continuous playback on a single charge.
- Long continuous battery life.
- Awful noise isolation.
- No multi-device pairing.
- Very unbalanced sound profile.
The TaoTronics TT-BH041 isn’t suitable for wireless gaming. Its latency on Bluetooth-enabled PCs is probably too high for most gamers, and it can’t connect to PS4 or Xbox One consoles.
The TaoTronics TT-BH041 is wireless-only and can’t be used for gaming on a wired connection.
The TaoTronics TT-BH041 is bad for phone calls. Even in quiet environments, speech sounds muffled, thin, and unnatural. In noisy settings, the mic makes your voice sound garbled and significantly lacking in detail, so people on the other end of the line may have a very difficult time understanding what you’re saying. Even worse, while its mono design lets you hear your own voice, it also barely blocks out background noise, so you may have trouble hearing incoming speech.
- Disappointing microphone recording quality.
- Poor microphone noise handling.
- Awful noise isolation.
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Popular Headphones Comparisons
The TaoTronics TT-BH041 is a poor choice for phone calls. It isn’t as portable as in-ear rivals like the Jabra Steel Bluetooth Headset and lacks the microphone quality of the Logitech Zone Wired. For more options, take a look at our list of recommendations of the best Bluetooth headsets for phone calls or, for something that’s even better suited for sports and working out, the best earbuds for running and working out.
The Logitech Zone Wired are better for phone calls than the TaoTronics TT-BH041 Bluetooth Headset. The Logitech’s boom microphone does a better job of filtering out background noise and makes speech sound fuller-bodied and less muffled. More broadly, it delivers a far better-balanced listening experience and it can block out more ambient noise, mostly by virtue of its full on-ear design. With all that said, the TaoTronics is more stable and is wireless.
The Mpow EM12 Wireless Earphone is a better all-around wireless mono headset than the TaoTronics TT-BH041 Bluetooth Headset. The Mpow features a more well-balanced sound profile, blocks out more background noise, and has a higher-quality microphone. It can also connect to two devices simultaneously. Conversely, the TaoTronics has a far more comprehensive control scheme, lower wireless latency, and lasts roughly ten times as long as the Mpow on a single charge.
The Plantronics Voyager 5200 Bluetooth Headset is a better Bluetooth mono headset than the TaoTronics TT-BH041 Bluetooth Headset. The Plantronics is far more portable, easier to use, and is far more stable on the ear. It also has a microphone that isolates speech from ambient noise with greater effectiveness, not to mention it has multi-device pairing as well as a dedicated companion app. Meanwhile, the TaoTronics has a substantially longer continuous runtime and does a better job of reducing audio leakage.
The Jabra Steel Bluetooth Headset is a better mono headset for phone calls than the TaoTronics TT-BH041 Bluetooth Headset. The Jabra is significantly more portable, has a higher-quality microphone, and supports multi-device pairing, which is useful for when you take calls on your phone and computer. However, the TaoTronics has a more comprehensive control scheme, feels sturdier, and lasts much longer off a single charge.
Test Results
The TaoTronics BH041 is a standard-looking on-ear mono headset. It’s fairly sleek and low-profile with a conservative design that won’t stand out in any professional setting. However, some may dislike its asymmetrical headband, which sticks out much farther from one side of the head than the other. Aside from a metal headband, the rest of the unit is made of matte black plastic.
The TaoTronics TT-BH041 is decently comfortable. It isn't tight on the head, but the on-ear fit can start causing a little bit of fatigue during longer listening sessions. Thankfully, since the boom mic can pivot 180 degrees, you can simply wear it over your other ear if you start feeling some discomfort.
The TaoTronics BH041 has a reasonably comprehensive control scheme. There are four buttons on the headset: a mic-mute button, volume controls, and a multi-function button. The latter is used to turn the headset on, pause and play content, and use all manner of call functions, including answering, rejecting, ending, transferring, redialing, and swapping between incoming calls. Due to the sheer number of functions accessed via this one button, it isn't an especially intuitive control scheme.
The portability of this headset is only acceptable. While its overall footprint isn’t very big, the headband doesn’t fold and the microphone can't detach, which adds potential snagging hazards if you just throw them into a bag.
The TaoTronics BH041’s build quality is good. The ear cup and swiveling boom microphone are made of dense-feeling plastic, while the padding on the ear cup is lined with faux leather. The headband, meanwhile, is metal and is fairly flexible. Overall, this headset feels like it could take a couple of drops and bumps without issue.
This headset feels decently stable. Unless you’re making frequent, intense head movements, it shouldn’t fall off your ear.
This headset has an unbalanced sound profile. While mids, which comprise human speech, are clear and present, some voices can sound boxy or veiled and lacking in detail. Bass is heavily underemphasized, resulting in an overall loss of punch and kick. A similar underemphasis is present in the treble range, which makes mixes sound dull and closed-off.
The TaoTronics BH041’s frequency response consistency is mediocre. You may experience differences in terms of how bass and treble sound on separate listening sessions due to their semi-on-ear fit.
This headset’s bass accuracy is awful. It’s underemphasized across the range, resulting in an overall lack of not only thump and rumble but also punch and warmth. That said, bass reproduction is dependent on its fit and positioning, so your experience may vary. It's also worth noting that this lack of bass probably won't be too noticeable when listening to other people talk on the other end of the line.
This headset's mid accuracy is good. Human speech, as well as vocals and lead instruments, should sound reasonably clear and full-bodied, though a bump in the mid-mid range causes a bit of boxiness.
The treble accuracy of the TaoTronics BH041 is terrible. It’s heavily underemphasized across the range, meaning that vocals and regular speech are missing detail, and sibilants like S's and T's sound dull. However, since this headset's treble response is heavily dependent on fit and positioning, your experience in the real-world may vary.
Its peaks and dips performance is unremarkable. An extended bump in the high bass range causes some tracks to sound slightly cluttered and boomy. A steeper rise in the mid to high-mid range pushes voices too far forward in the mix and makes them sound harsh. Meanwhile, a drop in the low to mid-treble range dulls finer details and makes them sound somewhat lispy.
This device is a mono headset and therefore has no stereo imaging capabilities.
The TaoTronics BH041’s passive soundstage is middling. It isn't especially accurate or natural, but it does at least provide a somewhat spacious listening experience. Sound is perceived as coming from an area in front of you, rather than the inside of your head.
This headset doesn’t have any virtual soundstage features.
The weighted harmonic distortion performance of this headset is mediocre. Some slight distortion is present at moderate volumes in the bass and treble regions, but it isn’t too noticeable for most people.
These are the settings we used to test the TaoTronics TT-BH041. Our results are only valid when using the headset in this configuration. Note that microphone tests were achieved using a Bluetooth 5.0 dongle, as we encountered issues in testing with the Bluetooth 4.2 dongle. The results obtained for the microphone were also validated with real-world phone calls.
Due to the fact that this device is a mono on-ear headset, it isn’t especially surprising that its noise isolation performance is bad. This is likely by design so that you hear your own voice while speaking.
This mono headset delivers great leakage performance. Even in a fairly quiet setting, people nearby probably won’t notice too much escaping audio unless you’re listening to content at an unusually high volume.
This headset has a swiveling boom microphone. Due to issues in testing with the Bluetooth 4.2 dongle, the microphone tests were conducted with a Bluetooth 5.0 dongle.
The headset's microphone recording quality is disappointing, especially for a dedicated headset. Speech sounds muffled, garbled, and hard to understand, even in a quiet environment. If you're looking for a headset with a better recording quality, see the Sennheiser SC 160 USB-C Headset.
The TaoTronics BH041’s boom microphone has awful noise handling capabilities. The mic’s AI noise cancelling system, designed to filter out unwanted background noise, has a serious impact on the clarity of speech when you’re calling from a noisy or crowded environment. Because of this, some people on the other end of the line may have a very hard time understanding you.
The TaoTronics BH041 delivers a very good battery performance. It lasts over 35 hours on a single charge, which should be more than enough to get you through a couple of long days at the office without a hassle. If you do run out of battery at an inconvenient time, you can still use the headset while it charges.
This headset doesn’t have a dedicated app. If you're looking for an office headset with a companion app that gives you a bit more functionality when using Microsoft Teams, check out the BlueParrott B450-XT Headset.
This headset's Bluetooth connectivity is alright. It supports Bluetooth 5.0 but not NFC or multi-device pairing, which is annoying if you frequently switch between taking calls on your phone and computer. If you prefer a headset with multi-device pairing, consider the Mpow Pro Trucker Bluetooth Headset. Also, the TaoTronics' latency on PC may be too high for watching videos without significant, disruptive audio lag, but it fares better on mobile Android and iOS devices. That said, apps compensate for this lag differently, so your real-world experience may vary.
The TaoTronics TT-BH041 is Bluetooth-only.
This headset is wireless-only and can’t be used with a wired connection for audio. It comes with a micro-USB cable for charging.
The TaoTronics TT-BH041 can connect to Bluetooth-enabled PCs with full audio and microphone support, albeit with significant wireless latency. However, it’s incompatible with PS4 consoles.
