Amazing Sound w/ Some Minor Flaws; Not a Viable Mobile Headset
Written: Nov 25 '07
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Sound quality, comfort, long battery life, easy setup, voice dial button, outside noise effectively eliminated
Cons: Poorly designed navigation/volume buttons, useless microphone, not a good choice for head set users.
The Bottom Line: I would buy a second pair if these broke tomorrow.
|
|
|
| wallyanti's Full Review: SONY DR-BT50 Bluetooth Heaphones Earphone / Headph... |
I have owned these headphones for over two months and can say that they are a joy to listen to. Though I am no audiophile I live with musicians all of whom were very impressed with the sound quality. I detected a hint of gadget envy. At work I use these cans as portable speakers. Yes, they are that loud.
Connecting these to your phone or computer is very easy and is pretty standard to other bluetooth stereo headsets on the market. On the right can you have volume up/down buttons, navigation rocker switch, a power button, and a special features/voice-dial button. This is where it gets ugly. The volume and navigation buttons are fairly ambiguous and crammed together on the backside of the can. This orientation is extremely awkward and you will constantly find yourself pressing volume up when you wanted a decrease instead. More annoyingly you will frequently brush the navigation rocker-switch which changes your track. This is a major party foul when it was likely when you were trying to crank up the volume on a good track. The rocker is also unintuitive, at least for me. When I think of my play-list I think of a top to bottom orientation and expect the rocker to act in kind. It doesn't. It acts inversely from top to bottom and instead operates on a former(press down) to latter(press up) basis. This rocker-switch can also be pressed inwards to pause/play the track. The annoying bit in this is that there is a 3 second delay on the pause so you are left wondering if you pressed hard enough. Often this leads to a cluster-f**k of subsequent mashing and a downward spiral of play... wait.. no pause... PAUSE!??..JUST PAUSE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!!!
I have to be brutal when it comes to the built in microphone. The developers must have decided on making this a cellphone headset at the last minute. I say this because the mic simply does not work, period. That is unless you consider inaudible wind induced static on the receiving end working. The mic will pick up even the slightest draft and amplify it to a point that only the meekest of callers would not complain. It also picks up all background noise. I've been told that the experience is even worse than being on speaker-phone. It is unfortunate because this also renders the rather large voice-dial button useless. I have had equal misery with the mic while sitting inside with A/C off, riding my bike, walking, and driving my car. So mobile headset users beware. This is not for you.
In spite of these annoyances the headsets redeem themselves in sound quality. They are also light weight, very adjustable, and comfortably padded. Only after several hours of use will you get some ear pain. Speaking of long listening periods the Lithium-ion battery is great and I have yet to run it down (9 hrs). What is troubling is that the battery does not seem to be removable. At $229USD I feel the price is justified for anyone who likes their music often, on the go, and very loud.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
wallyanti
|
|
Reviews written: 5
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2010 Shopping.com, Inc.