[BBInCinci]

I recently (yesterday) bought a plantronic voyager pro. I thought I'd share my limited experiences in trying the three earpieces named in the title for other folks considering a purchase. I will also update the thread as I get more use out of the pro.

Synopsis: In side by side tests, the voyager pro out performed both the jawbone prime and Q1 in sound quality for widest range of conditions. For non-wind environments, Q1 and Pro are equally excellent performers.

I found the comfort of all three to be equally satisfactory. Very lightweight and fit in ear pretty well. The voyager pro is a little more difficult to get on, but once in place I hardly notice it. I wear glasses, so was a little concerned, but pro does not interfere with glasses or ears.

I tried the plantronic first at Best Buy. They had an actual demo model that they synced to my BB, a tackle box of earpieces to help you identify the right fit for you & for the phone and they cleaned each with alcohol pad after use. Associate synced phone in moments. Store was a medium noisy environment. I called my husband's cell to test sound quality in store environment. To me, sound was crystal clear, sufficiently loud and no crackles/static. To husband, I sounded mostly good, but came across occasionally 'muffled'.

Next I tried the Jawbone Prime in same Best Buy environment. It took more effort to sync the device to the phone. To me, the sound was more tinny, and some feedback. Also, I did not like the button configuration. I couldn't figure out if I was turning on the noise cancellation or not. Husband heard choppy conversation, with some breaks in words, electronic feedback/static at tail end of words and it picked up more of the background sounds.

Q1 currently sold only at Sprint, but local sprint store had demo model. Lightest weight of the three. Liked the voice commands. I was incredibly impressed when husband heard my voice loud and clear but not one single peep of the music in the speaker above me. Rep let me walk outside to see how it handled wind and street noises (store near highway and busy connector road). The Q1 did not handle direct wind as well as the Pro. Without wind, it handled the outside environment fine. Barest amount of background noise. Husband could hardly tell I was outside. However, if wind (gentle breeze that day) blew directly over mike, I heard static/wind noise amplified such that it drowned out both ends of conversation. If I turned body/head to block direct wind, the conversation was feasible but quality degraded for both me and the person I called. I tried adjusting earpiece contact/position on face, but there was no noticeable improvement in sound quality.

Sprint had just gotten in the Pro, so they setup one for me to try again under the same conditions as the Q1. Again, music in speaker next to me was not picked up by Pro, but my husband could hear the baritone voice of rep across the room talking. The rep was actually 30 feet away, but my husband could understand his conversation. Not sure if that's a plus or minus . My side of conversation was natural, at a comfortable level and crystal clear. Husband said I sounded as good or better than on the Q1. With reps concurrence, walked outside with call. At first, wind noise caused some cracking and popping - but then I realized I did not have the earpiece adjusted. Once it had light but firm contact with my face, the wind issue was less of a problem. It sounded clear at my end of the conversation, and had only occasional instances of low level, short static-ey shk, shk bursts at my husbands end.

On ride home we wind tested the earpiece with a/c fan on high, 1 - then 2 - windows down at 70 miles per hour highway speed and with music set at a medium high level with windows up. Conversation was possible and relatively clear in most cases. Music was cancelled out, even at the relatively high volume. Only issue with wind was when earpiece was on same side as window. If on inside ear, noise cancelling handled the wind fairly well. Also, it automatically adjusts call volume as windows went up and down - which changed the overall noise level in vehicle compartment. I did not have to manually adjust sound using the rocker switch.

Finally, my father could not tell I was talking to him through a cell phone when I called him from inside our house using the Pro this morning.

On the look of the Pro - chunky earpiece hidden behind hair leaving only minimal boom mike visible. Once in place, there is very little pressure on ear or scalp and felt comfortable even after an hour.

Buttons on Pro's earpiece easy to use to activate voice dialing or answer call - btw even on the Q1 I had to press a button to initiate a call. It did not seem to be 100% voice activated - but it is at least 98% voice activated!! 'Course, maybe neither I nor the reps knew the command to start a call without touching Q1 multifunction button.

So, in my limited real life experiences, so far I would concur with the reviews that state that while the Q1 is close in quality to the Pro, the Pro is the best overall BT earpiece out there for sound quality. If you don't like the look of the Plantronic Voyager Pro or really love the voice command feature, and you are not in windy environments much, you'll probably be extremely pleased with the performance of the Q1. I have a vehicle without a/c and drive with windows down, so in my situation the Pro's handling of the wind edged out the Q1 as the ideal BT for all my needs.

[alwayspalm]

I am trying both the Prime and the Pro and while I get what your experience has been did you notice that:

The one area where the Prime out performs is voice dialing, Vlingo and speaking prompts to an automated call system. the Prime was spot on and the Pro just did not cut it.

I would be interested to hear your take on that including the performance of the Blue Ant.

[thewaffle]

I'm curious if you had the same issue I am having with the pro though, I can't mute a call through the BT headset at all. Even following the instructions, just not happening. Any Ideas?

[seabreezer]

I too tried all of the BT devices mentioned in this thread (and several others) for at least a week each before deciding which one performed the best. I found the Q1 to be not only far inferior to the PRO with regard to sound quality - both incoming and outgoing - under a wide range of conditions, but also found the Q1's voice system to be almost completely useless since it did require using a button and limited me to only numbered speed dial commands. Further, the Q1 was far less stable in my ear than the PRO (I had to use the included ear loop) and the microphone often rubbed against my cheek muffling the sound of my outgoing voice. Lastly, the Q1 has a truly dismal daily battery life duration of about 4 hours (using it only moderately). The PRO, in contrast will easily last a day under heavy usage and STILL have ample supply for more use the next day. In fact, I haven't yet even reached the battery limit on my PRO, even with heavy use on two consecutive days without a charge.

As to its design, I think it's cool, extremely comfortable, and care most about its unparalleled performance. Yes, the Q1 might be a bit more inconspicuous, but the immense difference in performance between the two made it easy to choose the PRO.

As to the Jawbone, I found it to be somewhat better than the Q1, but a bit difficult to use because of its small buttons and less stable fit. The Jawbone performed only marginally better than the Q1 with regard to ease of use, overall sound quality (incoming and outgoing), and battery duration.

I enthusiastically post about the PRO here since I hope there will be someone like me who really takes the time to test these products and share his/her opinions to save us all the hassle of buying and returning products upon which we must rely every day.

These reviews of course shouldn't only be limited to BT headsets, but to all products in connection with cell phones including the phones themselves!

Kudos to the OP for posting such a comprehensive review!