Very short Plantronics 925 review
I bought one at Best Buy for $119. Took a quick look at the manual to see how to pair it and use the basic functions, and also to make sure it had enough charge in it to use right out the box, which is a pretty cool feature.
So I'm sitting in the parking lot, paired it to my Curve (no problem there) and tried it out. Having tried a number of Bluetooth headsets that are useless I figured this time I'll check it out before I go home so I don't have to drive back to the store to return it.
First of all, none of the silicone ear bud things fit my ear very well, which is surprising since their older ones did. But I got a reasonably good fit and called a friend of mine who's a seasoned audio engineer, currently doing quality control on Blu-Ray DVD's. The conversation went something like this:
me: Hey Mike, I bought a new headset, how does it sound?
Mike: It sounds like you're in a wind tunnel. (the car was parked and the engine and cabin fan were turned off)
me: Really?? It's Plantronic's latest and greatest, the 925, cost me $120.
Mike: What?
me: It's Plantronic's latest and greatest, cost me...
Mike: What? It sounds lik...
me: What?
Mike: Guberbadoodlegrungynoisefizz (not a direct quote)
me: What?
Mike: It sounds like **** whatever it............hear you..........hello?
me: I'll call you back. (no reply, he hung up)
So I double checked the battery level again and it was fine, so I called a friend who mixes the sound for major Hollywood blockbuster movies.
me: Hey Bo, I just bought a new headset, how does it sound?
Bo: What? Who is this?
me: It's Kevin, can you hear me?
Bo: (silence)
me: It's Kevin, can you hear me now?
Bo: Oh, Hi Kevin, uh kind of ya, but I....grrrrffffftttt...busy now so...czbfttttg...beer tonight?
me: What?
Bo: What?
me: I'll call you back.
Bo: What?
Those conversations took place in a parked, non-running car with the windows down in a relatively quiet environment. Two friends with finely tuned hearing couldn't hear me worth a dam and the dropouts were ridiculous. So I walked back in and returned it. The floor sales gal who helped me saw me in the return line and came over to ask why I'm returning it. "Because nobody can hear me, the audio drops out, and it doesn't fit very well."
Oh well. FWIW I've tried a number of BT earbuds including the Jawbone and BlueAnt and they aren't any better. The only thing that really works is a proper cardioid (directional) microphone, with a foam tip for wind, on a boom in front of your mouth. All that DSP and multi-microphone nonsense is no match for the basic, simple physics of audio technology that's worked just fine for half a century.
And there's only one company that makes a decent one with Bluetooth, VXI's BlueParrot 250. Not available in stores, and currently back-ordered due to high demand.
925 too big for little ears
I got the 925 with my curve and it sounds great but I have hold it in my ear most of the time. Other than that I have a small apt., but can only get about 15 ft max from the phone before it breaks up.
Even with the smallest plastic cover it does not fit in my ear. A few times I really mashed it in there so that I could justify spending all of that money.
I was worried that if I took it out, I couldn't get it back in again. The result was that wearing a smashed in ear phone for hours results in a really sore ear. :(
Does anyone have recommendations for smaller ear fits? Does the jawbone have an earbud? If anyone has good experiences with smaller fitting bluetooth headsets please let me know!!
Thank you in advance
P.S. Bought the Samsung 410 and it fits great, but it will not talk to the BB. I try to search and it never detects it. If anyone knows any tricks to get it to work please let me know!!