Customer Reviews

Sony DRBT100CX Ear Bud Style Stereo Bluetooth Headset

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

OK, understand that I am VERY particular about my gadgets and read tons of reviews before ever purchasing anything... my wife absolutely hates it, but it keeps me from having to return crap. In this case, I spent a good 15 - 20 hours in all researching bluetooth headphones.

I previously owned a pair of the BestBuy brand Insignia headphones which have started to crap out over the past few months. While I am not a super heavy runner, these seemed to stand up to the sweat OK, but rather started having a pairing issue when connecting them to my Iphone... About 1 out of every 20 times I would connect, it would somehow lockup the headphones and I would be unable to get them to pair again until I had let the headphones fully discharge. This became a big problem for me as I would then have to go for about a week w/o my bluetooth headphones every time that they would lock up. That said, it was time for a new pair.

When initially searching for my next set, I was looking at the Motorolla S9's, as these seemed to be intended for people who worked out with their headphones. I was discouraged however by the $99 price tag at the time and the so-so reviews and decided to wait. Upon the S9 HD's releasing, I almost bit the bullet and bought, however continued to hear bad reviews and that ANY sweat whatsoever seemed to break the headphones and warrant a return. This was not the quality that I was looking for and therefore I decided to wait some more.

Next I came across the Plantronics 903. This seemed to be a better contender than the S9's, however still only had so-so reviews and sounded as they may have some similar hardware issues that the S9 suffered from.

Next I started looking at the JayBird JB-200-01, as these are suppose to be nearly waterproof and much more solid than the Motorollas or the Plantronics. That said, they still had a large price tag (much more than the S9 and S9 HD's now) and I began seeing a trend of only so-so audio quality... While I am not expecting a bluetooth headset to match the quality of a standard wired pair, I would like to make sure that I am at least relatively pleased with my $100+ headphones so that I am not looking to replace them in another 6 months. Also, while these headphone look very cool in the pics, I think I would feel somewhat goofy wearing these cyborg like headphones in the gym.

Finally I thought I had found my headphone with the Sony DRBT160AS. These might still be a little goofy looking and some users have said that the back side of these push your ears out very bad.... Still though the reviews seemed to be mostly positive (newegg, amazon, sony, etc). I was just about to order them when I cam across the Sony DRBT100CX/SLV....

The first thing that caught my eye was the great reviews, next to a price that was half of what all of the other headphones I had looked at cost. Previously I had a huge biased against earbud style headphones, however upon purchasing a pair of skull candy headphones a few months back to hold me over, realized how far the earbud has come along. Earbuds now can offer the deep base and 'semi noise canceling' effect that over the ear headphones use to only provide. Additionally, you dont have to worry about having a large uncomfortable plastic piece dangling behind your head when going down for a bench press. One thing that has been a problem for me with earbuds is that I have smaller ear canals, and I would always have to re-push back in the earbud to get the seal to have a good sound... with this pair I was please that it came with 3 different sizes of adapters to fit my ears. The only thing that I was, and still am a bit, weirded out by with this set is that it has the clip with the actual bluetooth adapter on a wire about 24 inches from the headphones themself. This means that you will have to clip these to your shirt or belt area... this almost defeats the purpose of bluetooth headphones, as this means wires hanging down your shirt and the fact that to adjust the volume you have to go to your belt area and not your ear. It is almost like wearing an iPod nano. Still though I decided that this would be the way to go, as everyone seemed very happy with theirs.

Upon receiving them in only a matter of days, i quickly have unboxed these and paired them up with my iPhone with ease. I am tall at 6'3", and I would have preferred about another 6 inches on the wire to the receiver portion of the headphones, as I can just barely stand up straight and not have this tugging down on my ears... anyone taller would deff be annoyed by this. While not an audiophile, the sound is pretty damn good, especially considering the fact that they are bluetooth..in fact, I can barely tell that there is any loss of quality. This may be partially to do with the iPhones superior bluetooth, as my previous pair sounded pretty good on the iPhone but sounded pretty crappy on a WinMo phone that I previously used. I cant remember what pair of headphones it was, but one said that it had a very short range and would not suggest it for more than a few feet away... I just forgot my phone in my office and walked out into our warehouse, where at one point I was well over 75 feet away and had several wall in between... I was blown away! My previous set did not give me even a 1/3 of that distance. Now I am not saying everyone will get 75 feet as that seemed odd to me, but I am in an office where I rarely even have a cell connection because there is so much interference in this area.

I am sure that there is plenty more to talk about, and there are several other headphones that I looked at as well, but my overall suggestion is that as long as you are not taller than me (or would just clip this to your shirt top) that this is a great pair of headphones and well worth the money!

Hope this helps someone! Ill update this if I find anything negatives, but for now I am very happy with my purchase.

Length:: 4:50 Mins

I decided to do a video review of this device. As you can tell I have nothing but good things to say about the device. I perhaps went a little overboard, but I am truly happy.

At a glance the highlights are that this device surpasses all my other BT devices in virtually all areas. The range exceeds that of all my other bluetooth devices. The popular devices among those are the Jawbone 1 and 2, Sony PS3 BT Headset, Blackberry BT Audio "Gateway", and the Motorola HT820 BT headphones(horribly painful and unadjustable shape).

The audio reproduction is what one would expect from all but perhaps the most expensive headphones of this class. Most notable, if you have tried previous devices in this market, is that the audio reproduction doesn't favor any part of the spectrum like many other devices. This is especially true of the Blackberry gateway which is very heavy on the bass, and though I've learned to live with it, it can be annoying.

The build quality is top quality and I'm sure it should withstand to pretty good use.

EDIT 10/21/11 Everyone please check out my review for this device's successor. [...] It is a superior device in everyway.

first of all I would like to say im big on music and the sound quality-- I have to say that these earphones have made me a happy camper:)
great sound you can leave your phone on your desk and wander about and still get great tunes coming in not too mention you can still answer your calls.
the only down side i would say is the clipper remote thing sort of awkward but if you get passed that you will enjoy these as well.
easy recharge with usb.

I've been using these headphones for about a month now as a replacement for my Sony HBH-SD980s that went bad on me. These headphones have great sound quality, better than my old buds, and great battery life, also better than my old buds. Sony is finally catching onto the industry standard mini usb on a lot of their products, so you can use any mini USB cable to charge this rather than one of their many proprietary cables. So this is a big plus. Sony is also using a newer design for their replacement earbud inserts which makes it much harder to accidentally take off and lose. Something that i've experienced so much w/ 3 pairs of sonys older wired and wireless headphones that i actually started super gluing the inserts to the headphones.
Unfortunately, the design of the headphones is a little less that practical. On the older sony units the buttons which were used to skip tracks were made in such a way that it was next to impossible to accidentally skip tracks. This unit on the other hand has a protruding button which is very susceptible to the occasional accidental nudge. The initial pairing process is very simple, but compared to my older sony units, the time it takes to turn on the headset and get it ready for use is a great deal longer. My older sonys would take around 15 seconds, these headphones seem to double that. Another thing that has proven to be a little aggravating is the auto off feature. Rather than the headphones sitting in low power standbye mode for a lengthy period of time, they will automatically completely power down. So when i get out of class at my college and find myself read to listen to music, i have to turn it on and wait for it to pair up again. Extremely annoying. A lot of these aforementioned minor details have really made me change my rating from 'i love it' to 'i like it' and sometimes a borderline 'its ok'. I would say the one thing that moves it from 'its ok' to 'i like it' would be the substantial drop in price from the previous HBH-SD980s from about $95 on amazon to $50 for these.

I went through two of these thinking I had a bad headset. It wasn't the headset.

I paired this headset to my iPhone & Macbook. It is an in-ear design meaning the earbud goes in the ear canal and creates a seal to isolate outside sound. I like this design but its not ideal for all situations (ie. jogging or whenever you need to pay some attention to things like oncoming traffic).

The clip is weak. If you attach this to your shirt and go jogging, it can ride up and fall down.

The forward/reverse, next song buttons do not work with the iPhone but did work with the Palm Pre. Volume buttons does work but does not control the iPhone's bluetooth volume.

Sound quality on the iPhone and Mac is bad. It sounds like it cannot handle the treble and makes it sound scratchy. I got this on two different headsets. It could be Apple's bluetooth drivers causing this. I even changed the audio settings on the iPhone with no luck. I paired this to my brothers Palm Pre and it sounded great (for bluetooth headset).

Overall, I'm not terribly dissappointed but I wish I waited for a better price...

I looked around at several stereo bluetooth devices before picking this one up. I really liked the design of the Sony Erricson HBH-IS800Z the most, but did some research and learned that there's no volume control on the device itself and when paired with an iPhone, the iPhone won't let you control the volume either. So, that one was out of the running. I also looked at the Sony HBH-DS980, but read reviews that said it had difficulty maintaining pairings. I wasn't completely sold on the Sony DRBT100CX, but used AMEX points to pay, so it was essentially free. It was also available for purchase on the apple store, so I assumed it would work well with an iPhone.

Functionality:
I'm not a big audiophile, so may not be the most discriminating critic, but the sound quality is pretty good in my opinion. Pairing with my iPhone was very easy and the pairing remains solid with no drop-outs. I do notice a minor lag in audio when watching video on my iPhone (sound doesn't quite match lip movement) but I suspect that is a function of bluetooth in general. For phone calls, I can hear callers very well and they can hear me. I haven't had a chance to really use this in environments with a lot of background noise but I'm rarely in that situation anyway. The transition from listening to music to answering a call and back is smooth. Volume controls and pause/play work well with the iPhone, but the skip forward and back are not supported by the iPhone at this time (this is really a complaint against the iPhone's bluetooth capabilities, not the headset). I had previously (and still do) used a mono Motorola H15 bluetooth headset for phone calls. It pairs with both the Blackberry and iPhone simultaneously and will answer and let you make calls on either without changing pairing order. So, you can receive a call on your Blackberry, hang up, then make or receive a call on your iPhone seamlessly. The Sony DRBT100CX will pair with both my Blackberry and my iPhone, but only one can be used for phone calls, depending on the pairing order. [You can have 1) your iPhone paired for music AND calls, 2) your iPhone paired for music and your Blackberry paired for calls, 3) your Blackberry paired for music and your iPhone paired for calls, 4) your Blackberry paired for music AND calls.] I really would have liked this headset be able to pair with my iPhone for music and BOTH my iPhone AND Blackberry for calls. The charger that comes with this is a mini USB cable, which is perfect for me because it's the same as my Blackberry charger.

Form/Design:
I was a little hesitant on the form factor for this, but like I said, it was basically free so no real risk in trying it. The Sony HBH-IS800Z was so minimal with nothing there but the earbuds connected by a short wire. The Sony HBH-DS980 had the receiver on a lanyard with the earbuds branching off that. The earbuds on this one sprout directly out of the receiver. When I first opened the box I thought the earbud cord was way too long, but I've changed my mind on that after using it for a few days. I'd say the length is perfect. I can wear this with the receiver clipped to my inside jacket pocket with the earbud cord hanging around my neck and nobody can see that I even have it on until I put the earbuds in my ears. With no jacket, I can clip it onto my shirt between the buttons and do the same. For non-button-up shirts I can drape the whole thing around my neck and clip the receiver to the dangling earbud cord (wearing it like a necklace or lanyard) and the earbud cord is still long enough to put the earbuds in my ears. I've also used it at the gym on the treadmill, where I didn't want to have anything bouncing around on my neck, by clipping the receiver to the waistband of my shorts and the earbud cord is exactly the right length to reach my ears. I've even experimented with using a lanyard I already had looped through the hole in the top of the clip on the back of the receiver, but found that I really don't like having a lanyard after all. We'll see how this device holds up. It's very light and the receiver doesn't feel that solid, though I'd probably complain if it were more solid and weighed down my clothes when it was clipped on. I also hope the earbuds don't give out because they're connected directly to the receiver - there's no way to replace the earbuds and still use the receiver.

Overall, I'm very pleased with my "purchase" and, in retrospect, would have been fine actually paying my own money for this. When apple gets their bluetooth profile together and allows skip ahead/back controls I'll like it even more. My only improvement suggestion to Sony is to make this truly multi-pair by allowing two phones to be in control vs. 1 phone and 1 music device.

I'd bought this headset for running, it doesn't work too well for this activity.

The picture of this product is misleading, nowhere does it indicate that the receiver piece is large. And heavy. It is heavy enough that it droops however thick of a shirt you clip it to. And the clip is very flimsy compared to the weight it's expected to hold. So this didn't work too well on lightweight exercise shirts.

The earbuds fit very well, too well in fact. The seal created by the earbuds isolates you from external sound which I did not like at all. I could hear myself breath (well, huff and puff more like it) but not the traffic around me, so it was two strikes. Once I pulled the earbuds out a little bit to dangle in my ears rather than fit into the ear canals, the experience was better but most of the bass was lost.

The little volume toggle switch protrudes out and is easy to engage accidentally. More than once I found that I'd left the iPhone playing for hours.

I'm by no means an audiophile, I am happy with the sound quality of the stock iPhone earbuds, so was primarily looking for a headset I could run with. Though I'll keep this headset to listen with on the train, it's not my running buddy.

the collar clip which has the controls for power and volume is very bulky and looks awkward to wear. the wire is very very lengthy so that the bluetooth device can also be kept in your trouser pocket.the product image only shows front view of the clip. in fact it is as thick as its width.
has some good control features but a bluetooth head set should be some thing very light unlike this bulky product.

I have tried several (and failed) other BT Head Phones (both more and less expensive) and until now it's been bad. These sound great and have an incredible range (I use an iPhone). They are very comfortable and come with additional ear pieces to fit any ears. The block outside noise wonderfully. They also work well when talking on the phone, people I have talked to say they sound normal (I haven't used them outside, so I don't know how well the cancel wind noise and such).

I got these head phones to listen to music wirelessly from my laptop. I thought the headphones would come with a usb connector for bluetooth, but it didn't. So if your device is not bluetooth enabled be prepared for a second search to find the other half of the connection. In my case its a IOGEAR - Bluetooth USB 2.0 Micro Adapter.

All the best,
Ryno