Customer Reviews

Sony Drbt101/Blk Over Head Headphones

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(47)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I am by no means an audiophile, but I was very impressed with these headphone from Sony. As others have said the Bass is by no means deep, but it is acceptable for headphones. Music listening was a joy with these as I was able to move around my house and still be connected (Isn't Bluetooth great). My main reason for getting them was to listen to movies and TV on my desktop and laptop, the pairing was a cinch with both of my computers. The sound quality was very good for both movies and TV, there was also no lag that I noticed between the headphone sound and the actors lips (sometimes happens with wireless things). The fit of these headphones was perfect for my head, they fit snugly but not too tight, they stayed put with movement (Standing, walking, head bobbing to music). Overall I am very happy with these Sony Bluetooth Headphones, I would recommend these to anyone looking for a nice low cost wireless alternative for use with a PC.

See my images for style and fit.

Just got these yesterday. I thought sound quality was average and a notch lower than the Samsung SBH170 bluetooth headphones I also have. Range was excellent, crystal clear and no skipping when you're in range. I'm going to use this primarily with my computer and Nokia 5800 when at home. These are definitely not suited for use at the gym or in the train. I also tried out the Sony DR-BT22 and thought sound quality of the BT101 was a tad better. Also, the BT22 was flimsy and I found the fit a little uncomfortable. Now, I have a large head and that's probably the reason why I found the BT101 pretty comfortable. Yes, the plastics aren't the best, but a definite improvement over the BT22.
Annoyances: No wall charger, charges via a mini-usb cable. You would have to be extremely lucky if you're going to throw these into a travel bag and find them undamaged when you open the bag up.
I'm going to keep these since I couldn't find a better pair of headphones at this price. Oh, If you don't mind spending twice the money on a pair, Get the Samsung SBH600.

I wasn't sure about these, but bought a pair because of the relatively long battery life as far as bluetooth headsets go and the convenience of having no wires to mess with at all. There are some good points, but, unfortunately, they are overwhelmed by all the drawbacks, especially their loose fit. Here are my thoughts:

Pros:
- Sound quality is right where I expected for the price. They aren't audiophile phones by any means, but they are a significant step up from the cheapy phones that come with MP3 players and the like. I tried some jazz, big band, vocals, brass ensembles, organ, piano, and orchestral music on them. Everything sounded just great, not phenomenal, but very good and clear overall with good balance between bass, mids, and highs.
- Excellent streaming bluetooth music quality. I noticed absolutely no difference in music quality between this set with streamed music over the bluetooth connection and a wired set with similar sound quality.
- Excellent reception range. With my MP3 player in one room and me down the hall with two closed doors in between us, the headset still kept pumping out the tunes with no static or signal loss. I couldn't get far enough away from the source in my little condo to get it to drop out or even skip. Pretty impressive.
- Nice control layout. The play/pause/skip, volume, and call answer buttons are all very easy to access. The one problem with the button layout is that the pairing button is behind the headband, so you can't really get to it while you are wearing the headset. That's not too big of a deal though, because you only need that button for the initial pairing. At least it has a dedicated pairing button so you don't have to remember some odd combination of other controls to get it into pairing mode.

Now for the drawbacks.

Cons:
- They are heavy for their size. I was quite surprised by the weight.
- They just have cheap foam covers over the earpieces. These tend to fall apart, get dirty, and get scratchy and uncomfortable over time and cannot be changed out.
- The connection between the earpieces and the headband is something of a little ball and socket joint that feels very fragile. The first time you accidentally put a little pressure on that joint, I imagine it will fail.
- All of the plastic is a very hard, brittle material. One fall or unfortunate squishing in a backpack and I'd expect to find the unit in lots of little pieces.
- The earpieces only rotate enough to accomodate your head, but do not fold flat for transportation. Since they don't come with a case of any kind and the earpiece connection does feel so fragile, these would be very difficult to transport safely.
- The tactile feel of the buttons isn't very pleasant. You can tell when you've pushed them, but they feel cheap. I wouldn't expect them to last long.
- The little plastic cover over the charging port is cheap and inflexible. A few cycles and I'm betting it will break off.
- It only comes with a USB charging cable (mini, not the smaller micro that's being used on the newest phones). If you want to charge from an outlet, you have to buy a separate charger. (It did only take somewhere between 2 and 3 hours to charge from a USB port, though. So, at least that goes reasonably quickly.)
- The headband forms a little loop over the earpieces. At first I thought it looked kind of cool. Then I put them on and looked in the mirror and almost laughed at how odd they look. You won't win any points for fashion or discreteness with these on.
- Here's the deal-breaker. This is why they are definitely going back. The gap for your head is too wide. When I first put them on, I was kind of like, "Oh, that's nice, they don't squeeze your head at all." Then I moved, and they almost fell off. With no wires attached, if they do come off, they aren't stopping until they crash to the ground. I have an average size head and they grip it so weakly compared to their weight that you can feel them moving around every time you move. If you look down, they slide most of the way off your ears then catch. But, when you look back up, they fall completely off. It's absolutely unworkable. The only way I could get them to stay on at all was to kind of put them at an angle so they would wedge in place a bit with the band going over the crown of my head towards the rear. That made them feel a little more secure on there, but looks pretty stupid and got uncomfortable very quickly.

So, the bottom line is, unless you have a super-sized head, they just aren't secure enough to use them for anything but sitting very still and listening to music. I wouldn't dare wear them out on a commute or during any other activity because there is a very real risk of them falling completely off with any sudden head movement, especially if you look up or down. Since there aren't any wires to stop their fall and they are made of such brittle plastics, that would spell almost certain death if you weren't nimble enough to catch them. It's also just plain unsettling to feel them shifting around with every little movement you make. It's too bad. They do sound pretty decent and worked well otherwise, but I would strongly warn against buying these unless you are a very, very sedentary listener.

I got these when promised and used them ASAP, and I've got to say that they are the best bluetooth product I now own! I also own to Motorolas and I have tried the Samsung SBH500 Stereo Bluetooth Headset, and these fit better but the sound quality on the music side is a little behind the Samsungs! It may just may be my Nokia phone, but I doubt it. Overall, my opinion of the Sony DRBT101 is great! And I would recommend the Sonys for anybody who has a head slightly larger than a teenager, because the main reason I purchased the Sonys, was the fact that the Samsungs would not fit, and were not adjustible! The Sonys are a better fit all the way around, in size and price.

I've had these for a couple of months now, and can't be happier with them.

Durability/Quality: I saw other reviews complaining of hypothetical flimsiness - they are light, but don't seem to me flimsy or at risk of breaking in any way. (would you *want* a heavier pair of headphones hanging on your ears? light is good)

Sound: perfectly adequate. Very good for the price, weight, and battery life of the headset.

Range: I can go 20 feet and around walls/stairs and keep a good signal.

Battery life: I frequently use these for 9 hours at a time on a single charge. They've never gone dead yet, so I haven't even discovered the max battery life.

Use as a Phone: sound quality from the built-in microphone is surprisingly good, and answering calls is easy to do.

Ergonomics/Usability: I was surprised, but all of the controls are easy to use and to distinguish from one another, purely by feel, using your right hand. The headset has the following controls: play, pause, next track, previous track, volume up, volume down, answer/hang-up call.

Charger convenience: mini-USB for charging is very convenient, given that most smartphones these days use USB, so you can use most computers or phone chargers to charge the headset. Micro-usb would have been better (then you could use even the same cable as your phone charger), but mini-USB is still good.

I received the Sony DR-BT101 Bluetooth headphones yesterday. After charging them from my laptop via USB cable, they immediately worked well with the music player on my Samsung Gravity phone. Pairing them with my computer was a different story though. My computer does not have an internal Bluetooth radio. I purchased a Bluetooth dongle with USB 2.0 compatibility. My computer recognized the headset make and model number and would actually pair with headset. However, no audio would stream to the headset--I kept getting a message from windows saying the driver for headset was not present. I finally discovered the headset would only work with a dongle that ran USB 2.1 with EDR. I went to my local Fry's and purchased the correct dongle. Once installed, the headset works fine.

Overall, sound quality is pretty good. Of course, it depends on the source quality. My HD audio recordings sounded good. A little light on the bass and the highs were a little brittle, but for Bluetooth, not bad. The internal battery seems to have good life so far. Comfort is good and I think the headband is as good as any average headphone set costing under $40. For $38, these headsets are a good value. I will probably buy a second pair for my desktop at work--just make sure your Bluetooth hardware is 2.1 with EDR compatible.

I was really excited to receive these. And I do quite like them. Although like others have said they really feel like they're made from the cheapest plastic imaginable. The cheap feel is not a deal breaker for me though (I am very careful with my stuff). The battery life is quite good. I've managed to get 14 hours out of them without the volume all the way up. If I were sony I would have also made the buttons better as well. The buttons work just fine but they feel as cheap and tactile-less as the rest of the plastic. I had read some peoples reviews saying that these headphones don't fit there head right but they fit mine just fine and I have an average sized head. They have never slid off of my head once not even when bicycling around town. The bluetooth connection is of good quality and the sound is as great as can be expected from playing mp3 files. However, with my phone connection it will hiccup and skip every now and again when out on my bicycle. The hiccuping is perfectly fine with me since I know its just my phones connection. I've also used these with my computer and they didn't hiccup or skip once. Hence me saying when it hiccups on my phone I'm okay with it. All in all I think it was a good purchase.

i read about the loose fit and the hard times connecting to some computers. no problems here. charged the headset for .5 hrs and then paired it to my acer aspire one in minutes. make sure the bluetooth is activated on your computer and away you go. the fitis comfortable and i have found the "loose" fit that some have complained about, but it only exists if you shake your head vigorously from side to side or are lying down, as the weight of the overhead band will pull towards the ground. sound is good enough for me, though i admit that my experience with headphones is non-existent. i am still tweaking my realtek audio while rocking my boys noize, so i gave sound a 4 for right now. not enough punch for me. but for 40 something dollars i dont think you'll find a much better deal. definitely look around if you can't pick these up for around 45 bucks, because there may be something better out there once you get up in the higher price ranges. the pause/play and fwd/rev function work just like they should with my win media plyr. overall i'd give this set of headphones a 4.799 star rating, but only as long as they are puchased within the 40-48 dollar price range.

While audiophiles will naturally shun this product and anything less than perfection, this headset is quite decent for the masses. Of course, an open-ear design will mean less bass response, but they handle the lows better than average.

Pairing was easy to my G1, but my PC was more finicky - not the headset's fault at all.

Range was surprising, but again half of this equation has nothing to do with the headset, rather the device it's being connected to and the amount of interference in the airwaves.

Overall, for the average masses, this headset will more than please. If you have strict tastes, then you won't be buying this anyway.

Update: As of 2010-10-14, Motorola S305 headphones are available at a price that is approximately the same as these Sony 'phones. There is now no reason to choose Sony. The Moto 'phones are equal or better in every aspect. In particular, the Moto 'phones stay on your head easily.

These headphones offer good performance for the price. As other reviewers have noted, there are significant problems with this gadget. I suggest a work-around for some of these problems.

Sound quality: not great. I have a pair of Sennheiser PMX60 mini-headphones that have better bass and a more "detailed" sound. But these little Sennheisers are about the same prices as the Sonys: http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-PMX-60-PMX60-Headphones/dp/B00009LI55/ref=sr_1_45?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1264384037&sr=1-45.

Construction: these headphones are built light. They are suitable for doing chores around the house, brisk walks, and so forth. For use during all out exercise with sweat and motion, I'm just not sure.

Fit: as other reviewers have noted, these 'phones fit the head very loosely. tilt your head forward, and they will slide right off. There is a related issue too. The drivers inside those big fat foam pads are tiny. You must position the drivers precisely over your ear canals, or the sound will be worse than "not great." It will be terrible.

My suggestion: in light of the above issues with fit and positioning, I recommend the use of a jury-rigged "leash" to hold the headphones securely on the head of the user. Such a leash fits the back of ones head. I fashioned my leash out of a cut-up Croakies eyewear retainer. I uploaded two photos to this review to illustrate my work, such as it is. I have used this idea with other headphones and I have had good results in all cases.

Compatibility and stability: I have paired these headphones with three devices. The pairing process was effortless. These 'phones work well with my Motorola cell phone, my iPod Touch, and my notebook computer. In fact, I have used these 'phones with my cell phone and iPod at the same time. Listening to music, when a phone call comes in, I can touch one button on the 'phones to answer. Very convenient! With the notebook computer, I can use the controls on the 'phones to do pause/resume, skip forward/skip reverse, and volume up/volume down. With the iPod Touch, I can do all of these except skip forward/skip reverse. By the way, you cannot use the microphone function with the iPod Touch either. Just Apple being Apple, I guess.

On the subject of iPod, here is a trouble-shooting tip: while listening to music with my iPod Touch, I encounter frequent dropouts. What happens is that the sound ceases for about one half of a second. It is irritating, and it happens to me several times per hour of use. The solution is to disable WiFi on the iPod Touch. It seems that the iPod bluetooth and WiFi radios have trouble working together. The "dropout" problem is especially bad if the WiFi signal is weak. It seems obvious to me that this is an iPod problem, not a Sony headphone problem.

Value: these are the only stereo bluetooth headphones I can find that are fit to purpose AND less than $100. Sony also gives you a telephone quality microphone. In fact, I got these for a lot less than $100, so I consider this to be an excellent value. Frankly, I wish that there were more choices in the marketplace. No matter. The marketplace is what it is, and this product is the best deal that I could find.

I suppose that I have presented a rather conflicted view of this product, but I am getting a lot of enjoyment out of it. I like to wear it while doing chores around the house. With conventional wired headphones, I have issues with my arms getting tangled in the headphone leads and pulling the 'phones or music player out of place. These Sony headphones are much more pleasant to use.