Good luck to everyone involved with the new centre, not at work for a few days now so won't have a chance to sample the new service until Thursday. Rather worried to hear about the poor RT quality though, it's hard to be precise but I am sure that RT in the London area is not as good as it was anyway. I think it took a big dip with introduction of the new frequency spilts a few years ago, I don't know it it's the new aircraft radios or the ATC ones but a lot of London controllers are quite difficult to hear sometimes, there is certainly a very marked difference getting airbourne and switching from local tower r/t to the centre which I don't always rememember being the case.
Sorry you are having to deal with crap headsets, I was always amazed at the state of your headsets anyway, they all looked about 30 years old and most uncomfortable. You would think that after all that money and effort they could supply you something decent. A lot of guys at work, including me, have bought our own headsets now, the company ones are not very good and for about £125 I have a very comfortable, good quality set that you hardly know you are wearing. Hope you get it sorted out.