Customer Reviews

Motorola MotoROKR S9-HD Bluetooth Stereo Headset

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

I originally bought the Motorola S9 headphones (not HD). The S9's are good but they are similar in size to regular ear buds. I have never been able to wear ear buds because they hurt my ears. I even used the S9's without the ear cushions hoping they would not hurt as bad, but to no avail. After using the S9's for about a week I discovered the S9 HD's. The S9 HD's, I saw, had different ear cushions, one's that fit inside the ear. I figured I would order the S9 HD's and return the regular S9's if I liked the way the HD's feel better.

I was kind of disappointed when I opened the HD's because they looked exactly like the regular S9's. Then I noticed the HD's came with 3 different sets if ear cushions versus the one set with the regular S9's. I put the smallest ear cushions on the HD's on and paired them up with my phone (a Samsung Upstage). I had no problem pairing either the S9's or the S9 HD's to my phone. At first I did not notice a difference in the sound between the S9's and the HD's, but the feel in my ears was dramatic. The ear cushions on the HD's were much more comfortable and felt more natural than the cushions that came with the S9's.

When I first put the HD's on I thought the sound quality between the S9's and the HD's was the same. Then I read the manual on the HD's and discovered the HD's have an additional sound mode, the SRS WOW HD mode. All I can say is WOW, there is a huge difference in the sound quality between the S9's and the HD's when this mode is on.

I feel I need to point out some differences to the HD's versus the S9's.
1. I think the S9's have better distance range than the HD's.
2. The ear cushions that come with the HD's also fit on the S9's.
3. The battery life on the S9 is longer than the HD's.
4. The sound on the HD's is without a doubt much better than the S9's.

Overall I'm not sure if I think the plus's to the HD's versus the S9's warrant a $30.00 price difference. I guess that would have to come down to how they feel in my ears and the sound quality. Personally, not getting a headache from listening to my music because of the pressure applied to my ears is worth $30.00. If Motorola offered the regular S9's with the ear cushions of the HD's I think I would have been happy.

By the way, I ended up giving the S9's to my roommate who also has a Samsung Upstage, along with one pair of the extra cushions that came with the HD's and they love the S9's.

I originally bought the S9's, which sounded O.K., but failed after one 30 minute workout with moderate sweating. I said in a review of those that I was going to try the Jaybird's, but I liked the S9's so much that I decided to try the S9 HD's instead. I had read that the S9 HD's were much improved in sweat resistance. Not true.

On the positive, I will say there is no comparison between the S9's and the S9 HD's as far as sound quality. The HD's simply blow the older model away. I was very happy with them initially, although I was so paranoid after my earlier short lived experience, that I found myself CONSTANTLY wiping the headphones off to make sure they didn't get wet while working out. Well, even that didn't work. Sadly after only 3 workouts, these too have failed. This time the headphones themselves still function, as well as the volume controls, however the pause, phone, and forward/back controls have all failed. Sigh...I really do want to like these headphones, but they are obviously not an appropriate product if you want to use them for workouts. At least they had the decency to fail within the 30 day return period!

This time I actually did order the Jaybirds instead. I know they don't have the same audio quality as these do, but hopefully they will function for over a week!

UPDATE: I looked at my review this morning, and decided that I was too harsh in rating these 1 star (although I can't go back and change that). They really are very good as far as sound quality, and if you aren't using them for workouts, then you will probably really like them. It's just the only time I ever use headphones is during workouts, so for me at least they are unacceptable.

Oh, I so wanted to love these. I've been on the hunt for a wireless headset for working out and at first glance, these seemed perfect. But after a few tests runs, I'm sad to say they're not as ideal as I'd hoped.

The pros:
-- No problem with pairing to my iPhone.
-- Good sound quality.
-- Fast charging (went from empty to fully charged in about 90 minutes).
-- No trouble with sound cutting out outdoors (using an armband for my iPhone).

The cons:
-- The fit. And that's a big con for me.

Nothing on this headset, other than the earbud cushions (it comes with three sets), is adjustable. The headset itself felt a little too wide for my head, so the earbuds never seated well enough to give me great sound. In addition, the ear hooks were huge on me, causing the back of the headset to drop down and constantly hit the back of my neck instead of "floating" as advertised. I'm not abnormally small-headed or small-eared, but as a woman it could simply be that these are sized more for men.

I even tried resting the back of the headset on my ponytail to keep it from bonking my neck when I ran -- but that just made the earbuds fit even less securely.

They seem well made and look cool, and I love the idea of no wires. But sadly, I think it's back to my standard earbuds for now -- unless they figure out a way to make this headset adjustable.

I purchased what I thought was a set of new S9-HD headphones from VibeCellular. What I received was an old, refurbished set of S9s in bulk packaging (essentially a zip-loc bag). Since the two models look almost the same (the refurbished S9s are all black)its hard to tell the difference between the S9s and S9-HDs. Reading some other reviews here, this practice appears to be an epidemic on Amazon with some of the more ghettofied merchants like VibeCellular. So don't get sold on a low price. Make sure you're dealing with a dependable/reputable vendor. Paying a little more in the beginning is preferable to later paying for return shipping and maybe some bogus "restocking fee" in order to get a refund. Clearly Amazon has gotten too big to properly screen its featured merchants.

Length:: 7:11 Mins

Hi, I'm Michael Soh. Linus is my nickname, which is why I use it in the video. I live Alexandria, VA.

Past reviews have nailed this product, so this one only augments these findings. If you don't read any further, read this: This product's ability to receive a bluetooth stream and play continuously without breaking up is completely unacceptable. It is not conceivable how this product can be used in a real life application with your bluetooth source, whether it is in your back pocket, on your belt, in the front pocket, on a table 3 feet away. The only environment found where a stream was unbroken was with the source within 18 inches, not moving, and no material/objects between it and this product. You might as well strap the source to the headphones to get this to work.

Other than this bluetooth problem, it does actually sound great. The quality of music reproduction from these tiny ear buds is exceptional.

Other previously reviewer issues to consider: It is not adjustable into your ears. The electronics section, which is at the back of your head and neck, will interfer with things like shirt collars and the like, get bumped, and will have to be bothered with to readjust.

Good luck with this one. I ended up returning it to the seller, who seemed to completely understand the problem, and accepted it back without question.

This design for the headset is not suitable for eyeglass wearers. The "over the ear" part is so intrusive that I tried with no avail to have the headset and my glasses on simultaneously and I returned this product before even a days use.
On the other hand, I did test out the audio quality (without my glasses on), it is excellent! I believe its one of the better if not the best audio quality I've heard in headphones. I have to really say that its a pity I couldn't use this headset just because I'm wearing glasses. Will motorola design something similar for eyeglass wearers?
Anyways, 2 stars only for this product because of how frustrating it was to want to experience this product's great audio, but can't, just because of its design.

Purchased S9-HD in late November 2009. January 2010 and one of the metal screens covering the earpiece has fallen out. Called Motorola for repair, and was told that they do not repair, only replace. Then was informed that the metal screen falling out is considered physical damage, and that the warranty does not cover this. I asked for a supervisor, and was informed that there was no supervisor available, as they are all busy. I said that I would wait, and the line was disconnected by Motorola support.

I have been a firm believer in Motorola products over the years, but this experience has soured my opinion of them.

This headset is very comfortable even though I'm not a huge fan of earbuds. The part that goes above/behind your ears are not too bad. They may get a little uncomfortable after wearing these for a long time but it's not horrible.

I've worn these on several occasions now but the real test (and the only reason why I bought these) was to take them on my really long runs. I did a 16-miler this weekend and the headset worked pretty well. I sweat a lot when I run and I was a little worried how they'd perform when drenched in sweat. They did ok until I REALLY started to sweat. The sweat welled up inside my ears and after awhile, the sound quality got a little muffled. After that happened, I had to quickly take the earbuds off to clear the sweat from my ears and put them back on. The process is a lot less complicated than it sounds. I just take the headset with both hands, pull the earbuds out of my ears and put them back in. That's enough to clear the sweat. After a little while, I wasn't sweating as much and it worked fine after that.

The sound quality is really good. The only time the quality may suffer is when I'm sweating real good and all of the sudden, it sounds like I'm listening to music underwater :-) As I said before, if I clear out the sweat it sounds fine.

I like how I can control the volume from the headset but it stinks that I can't control song selection from the headset using my iPhone. Not sure if it's just a problem with iPhones but that should be fixed.

I've only taken one phone call on the headset so far and the person on the other line said I sounded fine. I was skeptical at first because the mic is on the right-side earbud but apparently, this doesn't phase the sound quality.

I'm a total gadget geek and this gadget has my approval!

[UPDATED: 7/18/09]

Well, I continued using this for running and continued to sweat profusely on them and like many others have experienced, the volume controls shorted out. I'm not exactly sure when it happened but I noticed it yesterday when I tried adjusting the volume which I normally don't ever do and I could lower the volume, but I couldn't increase it. I also couldn't press the phone button to take a call. The skip forward/backward buttons have never worked but I expected that from a review that I read somewhere else but the stop/play button used to work. That no longer does. Tried power cycling the headset several times to no avail.

So, I let it charge overnight and got to it again this morning. Surprisingly, the volume buttons work again! The phone button still doesn't work which is unfortunate because this is very useful when out for a run and you don't want to fish around your pockets or bag to answer the phone!! What seems to have happened is, the phone button now also lowers the volume by 2-3 bars whereas the volume-down button lowers it by one bar. Well, I'm glad I can at least increase the volume back to where it was before so I can continue using them but I'm going to have to contact Motorola to get another pair. These are useless if I can't take calls from the headset

I purchased these awhile back and I am on my third set. The first set I noticed cut in and out constantly when outside where there is nothing for the Bluetooth signal to reflect off of. I called Motorola and they sent me a new pair. When I received the new pair a gave Motorola a call back using the S9-HD to get the instructions for returning the supposed bad headset and the customer service agent said she could hardly understand me. I told the agent that I was using my replacement headset so she transferred me to tech support who sent me another headset. I now have the third headset and still am unable to use it outside and on calls. It seems these problems are not defects with my particular headset but more of a design flaw. I would not make this purchase unless you only intend on using these indoors and not using them on calls.