Man, how good it is to use a gadget right out-of-the-box! Or almost: you need to charge the Clear Chat for a couple of hours before using it for real. But once this was done, we were already putting the headset through test. You just have to plug the transmitter to an available USB port and open the Windows Control Panel to set the audio and sound devices (so there is no conflict with some other audio in/output) and then it’s working hassle free.

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Figure 5: The charger and transmitter cradle.

First, we installed the wired cradle for the transmitter on the back of our PC. The cradle has a 7-foot cable to widen the range of the transmitter – Logitech states that the Clear Chat works within 33 feet of the USB transmitter but the actual distance in our test proved to be much less than that. Since the main reason for the device is to provide a cordless experience, we ditched the wired cradle and plugged the transmitter directly to the PC. We also used the remaining spare USB port on our Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard. That made the whole thing perfect, since now our keyboard handled both mouse and headset, leaving a spare USB port on the back of our PC.