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We compare products from their published specs and features; the verdicts below are our independent editorial opinions.
If you want a lightweight, dual-ear USB headset with an AI noise-cancelling mic and a clever magnetic control puck, choose Cyber Acoustics AC-404; if you need a Microsoft Teams-certified mono headset that keeps one ear open to your surroundings, choose EPOS Impact 100.
• Cyber Acoustics AC-404 — biggest strength: A dual-ear on-ear design weighing in at just 70 grams, with soft bio-leatherette earpads, rotating earcups, and an AI noise-cancelling mic that targets background noise like barking dogs or café chatter.
• Cyber Acoustics AC-404 — biggest trade-off: It's a stereo headset, so both ears are covered; if you need to hear a colleague walk up behind you, this isn't the pick. There's also no active noise cancellation — the AI processing is on the mic side, not the speaker side.
• EPOS Impact 100 — biggest strength: Microsoft Teams certification with a dedicated Teams button and notification alerts, plus a mono design with soft silicone side support that leaves one ear free for office awareness.
• EPOS Impact 100 — biggest trade-off: It's a single-ear headset, so if you want immersive stereo audio for anything beyond calls, you'll miss the second earcup. And its stated frequency response tops out at 8 KHz — voice-tuned, not music-tuned.
• Pick the AC-404 if you want both ears covered, a featherweight fit, and a mic that fights hard against room noise.
• Pick the Impact 100 if you live in Microsoft Teams and want one ear open to the room.
The AC-404 is built around a simple idea: keep your calls clean without making you feel like you're wearing a brick. At 70 grams it's genuinely light, and the bio-leatherette earpads are designed with a cooling feel in mind — a small detail that matters when you're on back-to-back calls in the afternoon and your ears start to cook under pleather. The rotating earcups and padded adjustable headband let you dial in the fit, and the boom mic rotates so you can wear it on the left or right side.
The real selling point here is the microphone. Cyber Acoustics describes it as an AI noise-cancelling mic with a multi-microphone design aimed at blocking background distractions — barking dogs, airport chatter, coffee shop hum. That's the pitch for call centers, home offices, and hybrid setups where your environment is unpredictable. The headset plugs in over USB, and it ships with a USB-A adapter if your machine doesn't have USB-C. In-line controls cover volume and mic mute, with an LED indicator so you can see at a glance whether you're live. There's also a magnetic base for the controller, which lets you park it in one spot on your desk instead of chasing a dangling dongle. Total cable runs six feet.
Who should buy it? Anyone who wants both ears covered for focused work, values low weight over everything else, and takes calls in noisy, uncontrolled spaces. Who should skip it? If you need to stay aware of your surroundings, if you're standardized on Microsoft Teams and want hardware that integrates natively, or if you want active noise cancellation on the listening side — the AC-404 has none of that. It's a wired stereo headset with a smart mic, not a UC platform device.
The Impact 100 MS is a different philosophy entirely. It's a mono headset — one ear covered, one ear open. EPOS pairs that with soft silicone side support, which is designed to keep the headset stable and comfortable through a full workday without clamping down on your head. If you work in an open-plan office, a shared space, or a front desk role where someone might walk up to you at any moment, that single-ear design is the whole point. You stay reachable.
The other headline is Microsoft Teams certification. There's a dedicated Teams button and notification alerts built into the in-line controls, so the headset talks to the platform you're already in. Call controls — volume, mute, Teams alerts — sit on ergonomic backlit in-line buttons, which is a genuinely useful touch in a dim home office or a poorly lit cubicle row. The boom arm is flexible, and the noise-cancelling microphone is aimed at filtering out office noise for busy workspaces and remote setups.
Connectivity is USB-C with an included USB-A adapter, so it covers laptops, desktops, and mobile devices that accept USB audio. EPOS also notes a robust build meant to handle extensive daily use, backed by a two-year manufacturer warranty — longer coverage than the one year on the AC-404. The impedance is 40 ohm, slightly higher than the AC-404's 32 ohm, and the frequency response is listed at 8 KHz, which tells you this is a voice-first device tuned for speech intelligibility rather than music.
Who should buy it? Teams-heavy professionals, call center agents, and anyone in a shared office who needs one ear on the room. Who should skip it? If you want stereo sound, a near-weightless feel, or a mic tuned to aggressively suppress a chaotic background, the AC-404 is the better fit.
• Best for Microsoft Teams environments → EPOS Impact 100. Dedicated Teams button, notification alerts, and official certification make it the obvious pick if Teams is your daily driver.
• Best for blocking a noisy room on the mic side → Cyber Acoustics AC-404. Its multi-mic AI noise cancellation is explicitly aimed at unpredictable background noise.
• Best for staying aware of your surroundings → EPOS Impact 100. The mono design with silicone side support keeps one ear open.
• Best for long-session comfort at minimum weight → Cyber Acoustics AC-404. At 70 grams with cooling bio-leatherette pads, it's the lighter, more padded-feeling option on paper.
• Best for desk ergonomics → Cyber Acoustics AC-404. The magnetic mount for the in-line controller is a small feature that makes a real difference in daily call control.
• Best for warranty coverage → EPOS Impact 100. Two years versus one year.
• Best for stereo audio and both ears covered → Cyber Acoustics AC-404. The Impact 100 can't do this by design.
• Best for voice-tuned listening in a UC setup → EPOS Impact 100. The 8 KHz response is clearly optimized for speech, not media.
In my opinion, the EPOS Impact 100 is the headset I'd buy for a Teams-centric office or hybrid job. Certification, a dedicated Teams button, backlit call controls, a two-year warranty, and the mono design that keeps you approachable — that combination is hard to beat for professional UC work. I'd only switch to the Cyber Acoustics AC-404 if my priority were a featherweight dual-ear fit and a mic built to fight genuinely loud, unpredictable background noise. Match the headset to your environment: open office and Teams calls, go EPOS. Chaotic home office and you want both ears covered, go Cyber Acoustics.
Neither is universally better — they solve different problems. The AC-404 wins on weight, stereo coverage, and aggressive mic noise handling. The Impact 100 wins on Teams integration, mono awareness, and warranty length. Pick based on your workspace and platform.
Yes. It's a USB-C headset with a USB-A adapter, so it works as a standard wired audio device on laptops, desktops, and mobile devices. The Teams button and alerts simply go unused if you're on another platform.
On paper, the AC-404 is the lighter option at 70 grams with cooling bio-leatherette pads. The Impact 100 counters with soft silicone side support designed for stable, all-day mono wear. Both are built for long sessions; the difference is dual-ear padding versus single-ear stability.
I don't quote prices here because they change often. Check the current price on Amazon using the button on this page for both the Cyber Acoustics AC-404 and the EPOS Impact 100 before you decide.
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See also: Cyber Acoustics AC-840 vs EASEMELO USB/XLR Desktop Dynamic, Avantree Aria Pro 2 vs Cyber Acoustics HS-1500USB, Cyber Acoustics ACM-4004 vs Aptkdoe Earbuds 75H