Customer Reviews

Plantronics Voyager 815 Bluetooth Headset (Black)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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. :)

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?

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

I reviewed all of the most popular headsets over the last six months in anticipation of recieving my NEW BLUETOOTH ENABLED COMPANY PHONE. I went back and forth several times, but kept coming back to the 815. I am an IN HOME service tech that always has my head stuck in the back of a projection tv or am crawling around over a piece of fitness equipment while on the phone to TECH ASSIST (I need both hands free and no wires dangaling). THIS THING ROCKS....If you use the black foam ear pad and form the over ear piece to fit you ear then you can actually do jumping jacks while wearing glasses without it falling out. YES I ACTUALLY TRIED THAT. There is no mention anywhere of forming the ear piece to fit but trust me, all you have to do is twist and bend it to your liking. I wear mine 8+ hours a day while constantly moving my glasses from my eyes to the top of my head and back; and have NO PROBLEMS and NO DISCOMFORT.....I FRICKIN LOVE IT, Sound quality and volume (on both ends) as well as all other technical aspects such as pairing (with a SAMSUNG SYNC and MOTOROLA RAZR) are flawless. The only people that have issues with this device either got a defective one (which I doubt) or they just dont have a clue. It easily works through walls at the claimed 33 feet (in my house) and performs as advertised. I wear it hours after I get home from work until I am quite sure that no one else will be calling simply because it does not impede me in the slightest and just incase someone does call; all I have to do is touch that magic button. I am usually pretty hard to please, but I freely give KUDOS to PLANTRONICS for a very fine piece of technology as well as ANTONLINE for a very timely delivery.........oh yeah and also to AMAZON for providing me with the customer feedback that helped me to select this product. I LOVE THE INTERNET for what it offers. Please don't abuse it.

Batman.............A very happy customer.

Most of these reviews don't tell the reader which device or cell phone the writer is using with the headset, and being some reviews are all over the board, I'd guess that what you pair your specific headset to has alot of impact on how well it works. I'm using the Voyager 815 with a Blackberry Pearl, and it sounds excellent.

This device is very lightweight. It is the first and only bluetooth headset I can comfortably wear without an ear hook. I've tried probably 3-4 others, and they would NOT stay in my ear securely enough for me to wear them without a hook. This one fits snuggly and secure, and I have NO fear it will fall out!

It DOES block out all sound from the ear you're wearing it in. That does make it hard to hear out of the ear it's in, but if I need to hear, I simply remove it. It's easy and quick to put on, so putting it on after the phone has begun to ring isn't a problem at all.

Sound from this device is head and shoulders above other bluetooth headsets I've used! It sounds GREAT!

Buttons are slightly hard to press... the multi function button, while large, requires a rather strong press, and I find the device being jambed into my ear. You can also choose to answer calls by sliding the boom mic out, which I find easier and provides (slightly) better clarity, for the party on the other side.

Volume buttons are easy to press, and don't really require setting very often, once you set the volume, you'll probably leave it.

Which brings me to another common complaint on other headsets... sound volume! This device provides very loud and clear sound, even in moderate noisy conditions. It probably won't compare to the Jawbone (one device I've never owned), but it does seem to provide good noise cancellation.

Overall, this is a very attractive (black with silver trim, and the black is NOT a finger print magnet), lightweight device with excellent sound (when paired to a Pearl... can't say about other cell phones, PC's, etc.)

Comes with 3 soft ear buds, and two different size ear hooks, if you prefer wearing it with an ear hook.

One negative, it uses micro USB instead of the more standard mini-USB for charging... not a biggie, you can go online and purchase and adaptor for around $8 if you need one, but I wish it was mini USB as I already have a car charger for mini USB.

You can also multi-pair! Pair it up with 2 cell phones, and quickly switch between them!

Overall, Plantronics has a winner on it's hands with this one!

Among the three or four bluetooth headsets that I've owned or used, this one is the best. The scratchy sounds I've found with other headsets are minimal, and the range seems to be fine. That wasn't a high priority for me. My main goals were to find a headset that included the following:

1. Clip-less: This fits right into the ear and doesn't have a clip. I wear glasses and those can be challenge to put on while driving, etc. They do include one if you should prefer that. I like having the option.

2. Bluetooth 2.0: this helps with battery life and sound quality, both of which are great

3. Stylish and no blinking lights: clearly this is a sharp looking headset that is sleek and not overly "geeky". I have no idea why other headset makers choose to have a bright blinking light flashing while the headset is active, but thankfully this one does not.

However, though stylish, the headset could certainly be a little slimmer. Instead of making it capable of extending out, I wish they had just trimmed off some of the size. I haven't used the extender feature once since having this headset.

The good news is that you never really need it because Plantronics has created a very solid device that I would highly recommend.

Overall I am quite happy with this headset, but nothing can beat the Voyager 510. Unfortunately I lost my 510 while I was out Christmas shopping and decided to upgrade. The key pro for this new headset is the upgrade to Bluetooth 2.0. The Voyager 510 would lose connection to the phone about once or twice a week due to the Bluetooth 1.1 technology. It always seemed to happen at inconvenient times (while driving in bad traffic while my phone was just out of reach) but it wasn't that big of a deal. The 815 is less clunky than the 510, but I don't care for the sliding boom. I have hung up on people a few times and I don't always remember to slide it in after I finish a call or get disconnected, then it is difficult to reconnect to the call. Also the ear bud on the 510 seemed more comfortable and gave me a better fit. I think the earbud on the 815 is more sanitary, and although multiple sizes were provided for "personalized fit," I am using the largest size and it still seems a little small. I don't think I have large ears, but since the earbud is a little small it doesn't seal out the external noise as well as the 510 earbud. I believe people on the other end of the phone enjoy the sound clarity of this headset, but I strain to hear unless I am in a very quiet environment with the volume turned all the way up. Give me a Voyager 510 with Bluetooth 2.0 technology and I would be VERY happy.

I did a ton of research, and found this to be one of the best reviewed bluetooth headsets on the market today.

Sure it looks nice...but that's about it! It doesn't fit well into my ear - even with the additional ear loop. People complain that they don't hear me very well and the noice reduction feature is lousy.

I truly regret buying this item. In summary is doesn't do what it should.

- Uncomfortable in ear and doesn't fit well

- Poor microphone (outgoing) voice quality

- Poor noise reduction

I had high hopes for the 815. I previously had the 645, which suffered from an egregiously short battery life and a penchant for breaking with repeated uses of the ear loop. I also have a 510 which, despite its size is probably the best headset I've ever owned. It seemed like the 815 would be the best of both worlds, but it has definite issues. For me, the battery life, specifically in terms of maintaining signal strength, is ridiculously short. The fixed in-ear speaker has odd dimensions that do not fit my ear well. Finally, the call button recess is so shallow and requires so much pressure to activate that its more a hindrance. I really try not to use the thing at this point.

The Voyager 815 works great with the iPhone. Very little background noise. The only issue that keeps it from getting 5 stars is the volume to the other party is a little low. I would buy another one if needed.

Tried the Plantronics Voyager 510, but had background noise that was annoying (like standing in a bus shelter in the rain next to someone popping bubble pack).