Plantronics Voyager 815 Bluetooth Headset (Black)

by Plantronics

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 2.2 x 5.5 inches ; 0.3 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000UBR3SG
• Item model number: Voyager 815 Bluetooth headset
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #81,413 in Cell Phones & Accessories (See Top 100 in Cell Phones & Accessories)

Product Description

Lightweight and comfortable, the Plantronics Voyager 815 Bluetooth headset is ideal for all business environments. Block out distractions and focus on the business at hand with sound-isolating earbuds that seal out external noise. Plantronics AudioIQ adaptive noise reduction technology digitally enhances sound quality regardless of surrounding noise. The discreet sliding boom enhances the clarity of your voice and provides a convenient way to answer and end calls. Multipoint technology lets you stay connected with two Bluetooth mobile phones.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Nearly Absolutely Perfect Bluetooth Headset, January 9, 2008

By 

:) "sah75" (chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Plantronics Voyager 815 Bluetooth Headset (Black) (Wireless Phone Accessory)

I've been an avid purchaser of bluetooth headsets for many years in an effort to find the "perfect" device. I'm on the road a lot and do a lot of typing/talking in sometimes noisy environemts. I'm an author and you can find my books for sale on Amazon (sorry, shameless plug) :) My name is acutally Christopher Huffman but I posted this under my wife's account since she just happened to be logged in ;).

Anyhow, my last headset was a Plantronics 610 that I purchased about a year ago. Unfortunately, the 610's noise reduction was too agressive and it would normally drop the first word of every sentence. Needless to say; I haven't used it much at all over the year.

Moving forward to today, I was looking for something with good battery life, small, could be used without and earloop and had good noise reduction. While in the airport last week I decided to jump on the Jawbone bandwagon.

My first impression of the Jawbone was great. I could nearly whisper in the baggage claim area and the person on the other side of the line would hear me loud and clear without any background noise. Unfortunately, the fit of the Jawbone in my ear was not good even with all of their ear plugs. I had to push the unit into my ear canal to just barely hear the other side of the conversation. By the recommendation of other I went out and put the Jabra minigels onto the Jawbone and while better it just wouldn't fit and many of the people I spoke with mentioned an echo and tunnel like sound. I thought that I'd just keep trying. I wore the Jawbone for about a 30 minute call and my ear started to get fatigued and sore. Needless to say; at that point the JB had two strikes 1) poor/fatigued fit 2) poor inbound audio quality. Therefore the unit had to go.

I was then on the hunt for a BlueAnt Z9. I didn't have much luck finding one in the mall(s) but came across the new 815 at an AT&T kiosk. Immediately I noticed the earbud which peaked my interest along with the specs that detailed noise isolation and a long battery life.

I bought the 815 on the spot and took it back to my hotel for testing. To my surprise along with the regular ear buds it also came with one black molding foam bud. This bud is nearly identical to those that come with the expensive Shure sound isolating headphones. At this point I was getting very excited.

I charged up the headset and popped it in my ear. Bingo! perfectly snug (in ear) fit which blocks outside noises and allows you to hear the other person with clarity that I can't even get with my handheld phone. I made a test call and got my next surprise. The the unit uses a technology called 'sidetone'. Sidetone is normally used in race car helmets and some other devices. It sounds simple but all it really does is provide a small amount of audio feeback of your voice into the earpiece when you're talkng. This is just like what most home phones do. With this feature if the wind starts blowing you will actually hear the distortion of the wind that your caller is hearing and it allows you move or adjust your head position to wind. Nice!

Now, it gets even better. The 815 actually has a small mute button right on the headset that is very easy to access. This is great for travelling/driving and sitting on those long con calls allowing you to quickly choose when you want to be 'on air' or off.

Finally, I wore the 815 for 3 hours with the foam earpiece and earloop with zero fatigue or pain. Almost every set I've had over the years caused discomfort for me after about 30 minutes of use.

The device also has a DSP for two way noise reduction which is really nice. Not only does your voice get the NR function but so does the person you're calling, sweet! Speaking of the noise reduction, while it's not as good outbound as the jawbone it's pretty impressive but people have commented that I sound more natural now.

[...]

You will notice that you won't be able to run a weedwhacker or drive a lawnmover while using the headset like you might be able to do with the jawbone - the 815 is more than sufficient for the business traveller in most cases. In a car drving 80 down the highway or in a modestly noisly airport you should be fine.

PRO's
* Great battery life
* Sound isolating foam earbud
* Great inbound audio quality
* Easy access mute button
* Pairing with multiple devices
* Can be used without the earloop
* Sleek design
* Better than average noise reduction
* Ability to turn off the annoying blue blinking light
* Self adjusting inbound and outbound audio gain based on the environment
* Can be worn for hours without fatigue
* Sidetone capability making conversations sound very natural
* Very small and light
* Adjustable mic boom just incase you need some extra mic gain
* Quick change L/R ear configuration
* Supports Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR (which should deliver even better audio quality with phone that support the higher bandwidth bluetooth technology)

CON's
* Outbound noise reduction not as good as the Jawbone
* No USB charging cable in the box (can be purchased seperately)
* Not really found to easy at most mobile stores/kiosks
* The quick chang L/R earloop not a fast as their other models but not difficult or tedious

In my opinion the 815 is definately a sleeper headset. :)

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good so far with some reservations...., January 15, 2008

By 

M. Doan - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Plantronics Voyager 815 Bluetooth Headset (Black) (Wireless Phone Accessory)

Christopher "Susan" gave a very thorough review. Thanks. I'll make mine somewhat short. Been using my Voyager 815 for about 2 days. Had the older Explorer 320 for a little over a year when it started to act funny (when not on a call, it would disconnect it's Bluetooth link with the handset, or even turn off completely even though it was just fully charged. Other than that, the 320 is great. My wife has the same and we bought it at the same time, but hers is still functioning fine.)

The 815, as Christopher stated, essentially plugs up your ear so that only the internal speaker can be heard in that ear. Great for the call clarity, but you can only hear external sounds out of one ear, while the other ear (one with the headset) has an "underwater" feel. Even with the Sidetone feedback, the "deafness" in one ear takes some getting used to and you wouldn't want it in your ear if you're just waiting for a call (that is, not actually on a phone call).

The extendable boom is neat, but since it can answer and end a call when extended or retracted, respectively, you can unintentionally hang up a call while adjusting the headset in your ear if the boom is unknowingly extended by a small amount. Not a real issue. Just be aware of it so you don't do it by accident.

- Good call quality. But I haven't used it in noisy environments yet.
- Sturdy design/construction.
- Buttons easy to use.

Last thing: What's the deal with the 3 different Plantronics series? Explorer vs. Voyager vs. Discovery?

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very Nice Headset, March 3, 2008

By 

R. Allen "Uptown's own" (New York N.Y.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Plantronics Voyager 815 Bluetooth Headset (Black) (Wireless Phone Accessory)

What I like most about this headset is ironically the thing that bothers me the most as well! That is the fact that the earpiece goes directly in the ear, this makes it a noise cancelling head set which is great because I really can hear the person that I'm talking to. Unfortunately this also takes a little getting used to because the noise cancelling is only in one ear, so that you feel like you have water in your ear or something. You will not want to walk around with this in your ear like you see people doing with other devices. As far as it staying in my ear, I've had no problems with that and so far no one has complained that they can't hear me. I especially like how light it is and because I wear glasses, this device doesn't interfere with my frames. I also like the sliding boom to open or close a call. All in all a very nice head set and I had no problem pairing up with the motorola Razr2 V8