Bluetooth Headset

All of you who know me know that I love technology. You also know I expect a lot out of technology. Form and function is important but looks is too. Finding a device that has a balance of all these things seem more difficult than it should be in today day and age. With the California law signed by the governator and coming into effect July 1st of 2008 it's important to find a good handsfree headset. More importantly, a handsfree headset makes it easier to concentrate on the road when driving.

Motorola H700

Plantronics Voyager S510

Plantronics Discovery 640

I've tried a few of the top brands such as Motorola H700 and Plantronics Voyager S510 and Discovery 640 (pictured above in that order), but I have not found a perfect one yet. My requirements are as follows. A wireless headset that pick up my voice clearly without the ambient noise and the has the ability for me to hear the other party clearly. The small headset like those feature below are small and compact, but because of its' form, the boom or mic does not extend close to your mouth where the sound is. Thus it must work to pick up your voice and in turn pick up other unwanted noises as well. Each of the headset I listed have some form of noise cancellation circuitry but none of them work as well IMHO. Now, headsets like the Aliph Jawbone with it's supposed "Military Grade Noise canceling" technology seem to work pretty well according to the demo, but I don't really like the looks of it too much.

Aliph Jawbone

I even try to mate a couple of devices into one. I took the Nextlink Bluespoon AX2 and combined it with the Etymotics ER22C wired headset to create with the people on Howards Forum call the AX2 Pro (See the picture of the one I built below).

AX2 Pro built by me

I like the hack, with the mic being close to your mouth and is directional, meaning it picks up your voice and not much of the ambient. However, I didn't really get a chance to put it through it's paces because after I built mine, I ended up losing it. :( But reports of others who have used it claim it to be very good and that's what lead me to build one in the first place.

So, I am still on the search for the perfect wireless headset. My friend Ham uses the S510 and loves it. But I think it kindda suck as I want him to throw it away when I am on the receiving end of the phone call. But perhaps it's his phone that is the cause of the problem. I am interested to find out if the newly announce Apple bluetooth headset is any better. But the price Apple is charging for it, $129 is a bit pricey. And given Apple's track record, it'll be hard to get it for any cheaper. There's the new Motorola H9 that I don't know if it's any good. But from what I know, it's the released version of the announce Motorola H5 Miniblue, which could have been the perfect headset with it's inner-ear mic that picks up your voice through your ear canal. But Motorola decided to release it as the H9 without that cool feature. Additionally, it's battery life is horrible (~ talktime of 1.5hrs?).

Motorola H9

So, my point in all of this is that I am still in search of the perfect wireless headset. If you own one that you love and would recommend, let me know so I can give it a try. Thanks.