Nokia Bluetooth Stereo Headset BH-905

by Nokia

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 10 x 22.2 inches ; 5.1 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B002SUEYU2
• Item model number: 02716J5
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (78 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #20,639 in Cell Phones & Accessories (See Top 100 in Cell Phones & Accessories)

Product Description

Active Noice Cancellation. 10 Microphones; 8 for capturing noise and 2 for capturing speech in noisy surroundings.Wide compatibility, can be used with any compatibile mobile phone or music player, wired or wirelessly.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Noise Reduction, Descent Sound Quality, Ugly Design, April 6, 2010

By 

oritpro (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nokia Bluetooth Stereo Headset BH-905 (Wireless Phone Accessory)

I've been using the Nokia BH905's daily at work for over three months and spent enough quality time with them to post an honest review. I practically live in a noisy computer lab eight or more hours a day and noise canceling headphones was a mandatory check box in my purchasing decision, wireless was another. I was constantly catching and breaking the audio cable on my Sennheiser PXC 250's and JVC HA-NC250's while moving around the lab.

First of all, I really like the Nokia BH905's. They work well with my Blackberry Bold for music and phone conversations, and all of the control functions on the headset work. I also have an application that reads my email over Bluetooth which is a nice convenience. It's too bad that a Blackberry app doesn't exist that can read the caller ID or I'd really have it made! Noise cancellation is awesome, the best I've ever had in a pair of NC headphones, but unfortunately it does nothing to help the person at the other end of the phone hear me better in a noisy environment. That really isn't a big deal, I can step out of the lab easy enough.

The BH905's come with a nice leather storage case complete with battery charger (for the non replaceable battery inside the headphones), an audio cable for corded connections, and just about every kind of adapter you could possibly need. No point elaborating much further on this.

Now as much as I like these headphones, I do have a few complaints. For one they look really dorky on your head. It's like the headband was designed around a piece of cauliflower. If you have a cauliflower head then your in luck! But for the rest of us, well...we look ridiculous wearing these headphones. And because the headband bows out so much, they weren't staying on my head very well. I wrapped a couple of black Velcro strips around the top of the headband with the poky side facing outward. This makes them stick to my hair which helps a lot.; your mileage may vary. Still, they are very comfortable to me, and I can wear them all day long.

Another complaint I have is the sound. Mids and high's are great but bass is noticeably lacking. These are not audiophile headphone like Nokia makes them out to be in their advertising videos. If you've seen these videos you know what I am talking about. I've tried increasing the bass a few db's on some of my music but the headphones just made the music sound distorted or unnatural. According to Nokia's specs, the low frequency range is 15Hz. I tested their claim by generating a 15hz MP3 file with Goldwave and BH905's could not reproduce it at all. I'd say that the low end is more like 80-100Hz. In comparison, my Sennheiser's and JVC's can reproduce the 15Hz sound file. Sound quality is the same whether a wired or wireless connection is used.

One final complaint I have is the price. $150 is an excellent price, $200 is a fair price, anything more than that is too much. At the moment the BH905's don't have any real competition. Sure there are cheaper headphones with similar features but they're not the same quality. Until someone comes out with something that is more-better-cheaper than I'd say that the BH905's are the best you can get right now.

The bottom line is that I am reasonably happy with them, I can't imagine not having them (at work), but they could be so much better.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Incredible for noise reduction, A2DP Bluetooth, and wired connections. Only so/so for voice calls, November 30, 2009

By 

J. Sims (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nokia Bluetooth Stereo Headset BH-905 (Wireless Phone Accessory)

I've been keeping my eyes out for high-quality A2DP headsets that would allow me to cut the cord to my iPhone and provide high-quality audio. It's a tough find; few of the good noise-reduction sets support Bluetooth, and few of the Bluetooth sets provide high-quality sound. After some research, I decided this was the best on the market (in fall of 2009).

Pros: Comfortable, great noise reduction (wonderful on an airplane), excellent sound over A2DP bluetooth, iPhone 3GS range is impressive - over 30 feet with no sputtering, kit includes all kinds of wired connections if you choose to not use Bluetooth, nice leather case.

Cons: Bluetooth call quality might be better. Some said I sounded like I was in a tunnel. Expensive.

Overall: Not perfect, but the best the market has to offer if you want high-quality, bluetooth audio with noise reduction.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I just keep on using it, December 10, 2010

By 

Imre Oliver KOZAK "bioengineer, MSc, PhD" (Hungary) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nokia Bluetooth Stereo Headset BH-905 (Wireless Phone Accessory)

I have been using the Nokia BH-905 every day for about 9 months and many different situations and setups, here you are my experiences. This is probably longer than a usual amazon.com review, but I haven't found a good thorough review about the BH-905 on the net, so here it is.

Nokia E63 phone + Nokia BH-905 (daily usage):
Bluetooth connection: good sound quality both as headset and music listening. BH-905 buttons control all functionality.
Wired connection: good sound quality both as headset and music listening. BH-905 buttons controls calls, and play/pause/forward/volume, as I would press the buttons on the phone.

Palm Treo 680 phone + Nokia BH-905 (I tried, but didn't use often)
Wired connection: headset mode caused echo at other party, call buttons control call. I didn't try the music. 3.5 -> 2.5 headset adapter needed.
Bluetooth connection: headset mode was reduced volume, but no echo. The bluetooth menu is a pain to use on my treo, and it only has Bluetooth 1.1, so limited. I didn't try music.

Dell D620 and E4310 laptop Windows 7 + Nokia BH-905:
Wired connection: stereo 3.5 converter needed to convert the headset cable into audio cable (if you are not aware, a 3.5 mm headset cable phyisically fits into a 3.5 mm stereo audio socket, but audio will be distorted without the proper adapter). Good sound quality.
Bluetooth connection: after pairing, the required drivers were installed automatically (default Win7 drivers). Buttons control play/pause/forward/back in most applications.
There are two modes: headset mode and headphone mode. This can be controlled in the Control Panel/Sound menu. Headset mode enables the microphone, but lower audio quality, headphone mode is hifi sound, but no microphone. Play/Pause/Forward/Rewind works in Windows Media Player (but not in VLC player). Sometimes the wireless connection was completely gone after a standby, and my laptop needed to be restarted.

Desktop Computer Win XP with Hama Bluetooth 2.1+EDR USB + Nokia BH-905:
Wired connection: same as above.
Bluetooth: altough I could pair the headset, there were no drivers to enable the headset/headphone modes.

Notes on Bluetooth connection and pairing:
- 8 devices can be paired with the Nokia BH-905.
- When the Bluetooth is turned on the BH-905, it tries to connect to the last device used. So to make it find the a new device (that I have previously paired with), it is good to disconnect it from the last device used, and make sure only 1 audio source has the bluetooth enabled.
- If the BH-905 doesn't find the device I want, I just press Volume Down+Forward+Call buttons on the headset to reset the bluetooth connection, and then it works fine.
- Audio quality is about 80% compared to the wired connection. However, I found this was really good enough for me, so I just use it via Bluetooth when possible.

To make good use of the Bluetooth functionality, you need Bluetooth 2.0+EDR (or 2.1+EDR) on the host device. The audio quality and connection stability over bluetooth is first limited by the bluetooth standard and on the bluetooth stack of the phone/computer. Ex. I have seen many complaints in forums about the Nokia E900 (connection and audio problems), BH-905 buttons don't control the functionality on the iPhone 3G(S). I think the best host is a Nokia Symbian phone with a polished firmware (E71, E63, N97, N97 mini, etc.).

Noise reduction:
Airplane: Airbus A320 near the wings: listening to music and watching movies was good with the headset. I tried my Etymotic passive noise canceling earbuds, too, but they don't block the noise enough for watching movies. So noise canceling makes watching movies from no-go to a good experience.
Train 1: RER and Metro in Paris - this a noisy environment. Blocked out noise quite well, great for music listening from my phone over bluetooth.
Train 2: TGV train - this is a high speed train in France. There is excessive noise sometimes, phone call was almost not possible with my regular headset. The BH-905 reduces environment noise also for the microphone, so the other party has clearer voice. I made several conference calls: the headset transforms from no-go to acceptable.
Train 3: Old train - the noise canceling was disturbed by the sudden noises, and was late, creating sound bumps. Here it didn't work.
Bus: the low frequency engine noise was canceled, but not the high frequency sounds. In general I found better with noise canceling.
Office/home: humming noise of computer and air conditioning was well blocked. Talk and other office sounds were reduced by the good cushioning (but not by the active noise cancellation).
When there is no environment noise, turning on/off noise cancellation doesn't make much difference, so I turn it off.
Car/Taxi: engine noise is canceled. Radio and irregular traffic noise is blocked to some extent by the good cushioning, but not canceled.

Notes about noise cancellation:
- Active noise cancellation (ANC) can only reduce low frequency stable sounds. High frequency sounds cannot be canceled, and rapidly changing sounds (like loose windows in a bus). It works for: plane, bus, ventilator, air conditioning, distant traffic. It doesn't work for: talk, nearby traffic, people activity. It will block the drums from a music, but not the singing. If you haven't used active noise cancellation headphones before, I suggest you read the Wikipedia article on noise cancellation (the headphones use 1 dimensional active noise cancellation), so you have adequate expectations.
- There is a 1 sec delay after turning on ANC on, but it was no problem for me.
- ANC works both in wired and Bluetooth mode.
- When the battery is empty (therefore ANC and Bluetooth cannot work), the headset still can be used over a wired connection as a normal headset.
- There is a small static when the ANC is on, but is acceptable. But I can only here it when there is no music, when I listen to something, I cannot here it anymore.

Build quality and comfort:
In general I find the Nokia makes excellent hardware, and the BH-905 fits my expectations.
The build quality is excellent. The headband is metal based, with leather cushioning. The earpads are leather covered and are very soft to the touch. Several hours of watching movies and listening to music and talking on the phone was no problem. I used several times this headset for 6h train trips in Europe, and it is great.
The cables have just the right length (shorter headset cable, and a longer audio extension cable), all connectors are gold plated.
The carry case is strong enough to protect the headset. It is rather large (I wish it was smaller), but the cases from Bose, Sony, etc. of similar sized headphone are of similar size.


Experiences in general:
- Before, I didn't listen to music and watched movies that much on the go. Somehow, the BH-905 transformed my behavior. Now I take it always with me, despite the bulk.
- The BH-905 is the easiest to be used with one Bluetooth device. When I want to switch between devices, I need to pay attention to disconnect from the "old host", turn off all other bluetooth sources, and then connect it to the "new host". The connection has to be controlled always on the host device (phone, laptop, music player), and the bluetooth experience largely depends on the quality of the Bluetooth implementation of the host device.
- I didn't think wireless headphones are such a fun thing to use. I used analogue FM transmitted AKG wireless headphones at home, but they were painful even for watching TV. But Bluetooth audio listening on the go is really good, my headset on my head, my phones in my trousers pocket, and I can freely take on-off my backpack, take on-off my coat, etc. At home, it just gives freedom to get up and walk around and still be connected to the music source.
- Sound over Bluetooth is good for audiobooks, phonecalls, skype, etc. but is not sufficient for music. This is not a fault of the headphone, this is a limitation of Bluetooth. I stick to the wired connection for music and movies indoors, or when I don't really need the flexibility of Bluetooth.
- The headset also works as a general Bluetooth headset, with noise reduction for the microphone. It doesn't do miracles, but works. I find myself to prefer the original cheap Nokia wired headset that came with my phone.
- The play buttons are great on the headset to control playback of the PC or of the phone, it works over wired, too, for Nokia phones.

There is the new Nokia BH-905i available now. The differences are in the carrying case (smaller, separate pouch for adapters), and slightly modified curving of the headband. In fact, I like the casing of the original Nokia BH-905, as it gives direct access to the adapters and cables, no need to fiddle around with yet another pouch.

Unfortunately, the plastic broke at one place, but I could easily fix this with a cable tie (2.5 mm wide, just make an amazon search for it, 2-5 USD for a 100 pcs pack). See uploaded photo.

Based on reviews, iPhone 4 and this headset don't work well together. I think this is can be more a limitation of the iPhone 4's Bluetooth implementation, as all devices I connected the BH-905 with, worked fully without issues. So if you have an iPhone 4, look elsewhere.

The Bose headphone have slightly better noise cancellation, but in general, they are much less practical - lack of full set of cables, an extra accessory needed to be used as headset, only wired mode, doesn't work without batteries. This Nokia provides about 80-90% noise canceling performance of the Bose system, but is much more practical... Read more ›