[geeks] BT headset recommendations?

[Dan Sikorski]

Alois Hammer wrote:
> I'm in the market for a Bluetooth headset to replace my baseline --
> crappy -- Motorola H500.  Noise cancellation (or anything to improve my
> present, terrible voice recog), clear sound, comfortable fit all pluses.
>  After a lot of research on Amazon and NewEgg, what I'm mostly getting
> is that a) some people aren't hard enough on misfeatures b) decent
> headsets are in really short supply.  I'm seeing most of the common
> stuff -- Jabra and Plantronics -- get slammed for dropping connections,
> poor audio, and uncomfortable fit.
>
> I've got a couple of personal testimonials for Sony Ericsson, but too
> many of the headsets are of the jam-it-in-your-ear style, and the
> over-the-ear sets tend to have two to five reviews apiece.
>
> The most attractive thing I can find so far is the Motorola H800, but
> Motorola's quality (cable modems, mobile phones, headsets, cordless
> phones) has been pretty uneven for me, so I'm wary.
>   

I've used two different Plantronics units.  The Voyager 510, and the 
Discovery 610(?).  Between the two, i would recommend the Voyager, but 
not the Discovery.  The Discovery is a "jam-it-in-your-ear" but comes 
with a clip that goes over the ear.  My biggest complaint about the 
Discovery, however is that the earpiece and clip come off of the unit 
easily.

When used with my Nextel Blackberry, I could walk up to 15 feet away 
from my phone without any degradation of call quality with the Voyager.  
When i switched to my current Palm Treo 700w, my range went down 
dramatically, and now with the treo paired with the discovery*, the 
range is limited to about two feet, belt to ear.  This seems to be equal 
fault of the phone and headset. 

As for voice quality, the Voyager picked up much less background noise 
than the Discovery does.  With the Voyager, it was easy for people to 
hear me while driving, i get some complaints with the Discovery.  The 
discovery also has poorer battery life and a crappy connector for the 
charger.

I've stuck with Plantronics because they have been in the headset 
business for many years, whereas most other bluetooth headset makers are 
relative newcomers.  The only good thing i've heard about motorola 
bluetooth headsets is that they are cheap.  I'd rather pay $150 for a 
good headset than $20 for a annoying and frustrating piece of shit.

<rant>
And if i can convince you of anything, take the damn thing out of our 
ear when you're not using it.  I want to smack every idiot i see walking 
around with headset in their ear all day, regardless of weather they are 
using it or not.  It doesn't make you look cool, and it's distracting to 
everyone you have an in-person conversation with.
</rant>

    -Dan Sikorski

* - I had three of the voyagers, but kept leaving them in my breast 
pocket and the end of the day and putting them in the wash machine.  If 
they come out with a waterproof version, I'll buy it. :)