Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Best Bluetooth option available for sport use, June 6, 2008
I have an iPod Nano with video.
My most extensive use of the iPod is working out. I need music at the gym where my routine is a combination of weight training, functional fitness (balance/other work on a stability ball mostly) machine cardio, yoga - music fuels my workouts.
I have nothing against wired headphones, except when I am working out. I have had the headphone cord yanked out of the iPod headphone jack many times, or the wire just gets in the way.
I tried the Jabra. It feels loose, seems too big to allow freedom of movement (my workouts have me standing, prone, supine, angled, twisted and inverted). It does not stop working when I get sweaty as I have heard happens with the Motorola (I look like I came in from the rain mid way through a workout). But the sponge on the ear pads feels icky when they are`wet with sweat. Horribly so. I cut short my workout the first time I tried the Jabra and never wanted to use it again.
I got the jaybird gear with the iPod adapter. It worked exactly as stated in the manual (reading which is an absolute MUST - no winging it like with most headphones because the instructions are really needed to avoid a lot of frustration) to pair with the ipod nano, charge and to wear. They look of durable build quality and are unbelievably light.
I am very satisfied with them after my first long cross training workout to test them out:
a. Getting Sweaty: These headphones are a sweaty person's delight. Sweat did not impact comfort or audio performance in any way.
b. Comfort: They did not fall out through weights, treadmill running, elliptical cardio or yoga. I was not conscious of needing to control my head movement. I pretty much worked out like I had nothing in my ears. No pain like some headphones give you with prolonged wear.
c. Drop outs: None for about 12 feet (and I was 10 to 12 feet away a LOT when I worked out). Split second drop outs beyond that.
d. Controlling the iPod: Very convenient to pause, skip, turn volume up or down without touching the iPod using the tiny controls on the right ear.
e. Sound Quality: Pretty good. Better than the headphones that come with the iPod (or with most mp3 players). Sounds excellent at mid-volume. Sound clarity suffers a bit at almost full to full volume (I set the volume lower on the iPod and used the volume control on the headphones as the manual suggested). For freedom from wires during a workout, I will trade off gladly, the difference in sound with an equivalent priced, wired set of headphones. Since bluetooth compression is inherently supposed to impact sound quality, I am surprised by how good these sound.
Cons:
a. Take longer to wear than most headphones - Or maybe that is just me. I use the angled covers. The headphones are like a cross between bud and in ear. They sit snug at the entrance of your ear canal and have a little "spout" on the ear peice cover that channels the music into your ear. You need to put these in 10 o clock and 2 o clock position right and left sides, and then ease them gently into place. The website has a video tutorial where the founder demonstrates how to wear them, and that is the best place to learn. The manual does a decent job of explaining too, but the video tutorial lets you see exactly how to do it. Not a big deal - versus 3 to 4 seconds with in-ear styles, these take about 20 seconds.
b. The bluetooth adapter draws on power from the iPod so be prepared to see your battery drain a bit faster
I am not givng up my wired Shure anytime soon, but I dont want to use anything else but the jaybird when working out. Other great uses for the jaybird - when cooking to listen to an audio book, when cleaning if other people in the home dont want to hear your music - any activity where you move around and dont want wires getting entangled.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good But Limited, August 15, 2008
These are good quality headphones even with the steep price. They do have a hard time staying in the ear canal even with simple movements from the neck like turning your head, a result of the wire connection that rests behind the head. My biggest grievance is the signal strength of the headset to the adaptor. Even jaybird states that the best possible distance from the headphones to the receiver should be two feet or less. Great if the ipod is on the arm but if its in the pocket and you're a tall guy (6 feet or more) the signal will cut out massively to non existent. This creates an even greater problem with the Ipod Touch as it will pause your music and shut the ipod down. I don't know how on earth another reviewer was pulling a 12 foot distance without cut outs but I don't buy it. Another major problem is the volume is only adjustable from the headset over the right ear and not from the ipod. Which is ok for working out but when it comes to just wearing them, it makes it a burden and not to mention embarrassing walking and constantly hitting your ear. Not to mention the buttons are incredibly hard to press on the headset. And a minor problem, not really a problem though, more of a annoyance is the dock and the ear phones have to be slid in tight to make contact with the charger pad to get it to charge. Other than that, they're good headphones to work out with but as far as a overall replacement for all headphones, i wouldn't go that route. Definitely fun to exercise with, but if you want great sound and the better bang for the buck, the wires are still the way to go for everyday use.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just about everything you could want, June 13, 2008
I've had the pleasure of owning this Jaybird headset for quite a while now, and let me tell you I've looked all over the place for something that would fit my particular needs and I believe this has done it.
The problem with all other bluetooth capable headsets seemed to be the same everywhere I looked.
1. The headset was so bulky to where you couldn't possibly workout in them. You end up looking like Princess Leia sporting a hairdoo from a galaxy far, far away - with the addition of a flasinh blue light.
2. Other headset were not moisture proof at all. And that ones that claimed they were faild within a few weeks. You'll see those in reviews.
3. And, the headsets that were small enogh typically only worked with music and not with phone calls as well.
I could add more to that list but these were the most common reasons.
Somehow in my searching I discovered these Jaybird headsets ([...]). There wasn't a whole lot of news about them at the time, maybe a review hear and there, but I decided that since it met my criteria:
Low profile
Moisture resistant (you can run in the rain folks)
Stereo Streaming
and the ability to answer phone calls, that I would order them.
Let me start by saying I love these things! I immediatley paired them up with my ATT 8525 PDA phone with no problems whatsoever. I streamed music instantly from all of my music playing applications. The sound is great for me, and is plenty loud. Obviously, if you're looking for Bose quality sound you probably won't find that in any wireless headset. At least not now. You're expectations must match the existing technology of the times. For where were are now, these are excellent!
The A2DP controls work just fine (pause, forward, back etc)I use Coreplayer and PocketPlayer as my WM software of choice.
The fit is excellent. At least for my ears. They're not uncomfortable to me in the least. I can put them on and take them off quite easily and efficiently. With all of the running, sweating, and working out that I do they have never gotten in my way nor ever felt like they were gonna fall off. You'd be hard pressed to find that in any other set out on the market. It's fun watching all the other folks having to deal with the wires on their iPods, constantly adjusting them to their movement. Not here, not with these.
Typically I only worry about answering phone calls with the headset while I'm working out. This doesn't happen very often but when it does there's no problem in our two way communication. People her me and I hear them. I don't have a Jabra wiz bang headset so I can't really compare the sound quality between the two. It just works.
Some folks might complain about the buttons being a little stiff but it seems to me that if they were loose that you'd inadvertantly "press" a control by accident (eg. turning it on or off when you didn't intend to)
Some of you might be thinking, surely there has to be a negative to these. Well in all honesty the functionality is great and there really isn't much to complain about. I could nit pick at some things but the issues are so small that I believe they're irrelevant. But to be fair I'll mention them.
1. In a room you can walk up 30ft away from your phone and stream music just fine, but when you walk outdoors the distance is dramatically reduced. This is more of a problem relating to Bluetooth technology than the headset itself. Maybe increasing the power of the receiver or transmitters may help but at what expense, battery life? For me, I wear a armband when I run outside so no problem.
2. Sometimes, as I sweat, the wire that runs around the back of my neck "sticks" to me. Not really sticks as much as it doesn't slide as easily across your skin if it's wet. I really only notice when I turn my head left or right. If the wire is on your hair or clothing or your not dripping sweat this wont be a problem either.
See I told you these weren't big issues.
My recommendation is that you pick these up if your looking for some good quality headsets and freedom of movement is high on your list. Even if it wasn't high on your list why would you want to hassle with wires? You will not be dissapointed in these.
Customer service is top notch as well. I had a question one time and contacted customer support. Not only did I get an answer within 24 hrs but it was answered by the founder of the organization! I couldn't have been more pleased.
I look forward to every improvement and iteration of this product as it develops over time.
Ps
An additional item that I purchased from the Jaybirdgear site was for their Bluetooth Adapter for MP3. I like to watch TV as I go to bed and I'm always concerned that I'm disturbing my wife with the volume. Now, I plug this adapter into my TV and turn off the TV speakers. Now the audio is being sent out via the transmitter directly to my Jaybird headset. I can have it as loud as I want without disturbing anyone. It's great!
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