Database Users

Bluetooth Headset + MS Voice Command (I searched)

Considering this is my first post, I just would like to thank all the members of this forum. I have gotten so many programs, flashed, and learned a lot about my newly bought T-Mobile MDA. I have been searching for about an hour and a half and could not find a solution to my problem. Though I'm sure somebody will show me that there has already been a post.
Anyway, my issue lies with using my BT headset (Jabra BT150) and my MDA. It works fine, it listens, it comes on when I hit the button, etc. However, it does not seem to understand me correctly. Though I can dial contacts without much of a problem, it's when I try to give it a number to dial. It works perfectly on the device itself when I am not using BT, but either it gets really close or it's completly off. My main issue lies with the number "six". I don't think I've gotten it to understand me saying a "six" yet. I'm not quite sure what the problem is. I have voice recorded myself on both and there really isn't a huge difference except the BT sounds a good amount quieter.
If anyone can point me in the right direction, I would be very greatful. I'm beginning to wonder if it was my tempation to be "conservative" *cough* cheap *cough* when buying the 150 as opposed to like the 250.
Regards,
ChrisG

I, too, had a problem with VC recognizing the number six. A possible explanation lies here, where someone at Microsoft gives details on Bluetooth and the speech recognition technology.
Apparently, the Voice Command team team built their speech recognition engine around a 16Khz sampling rate. Unfortunately, the Bluetooth headsets we're thinking of only do 8Khz. I'm not sure if this is a Bth profile limitation so I'm not sure if the higher-end (maybe the stereo ones, for example) headsets/headphones support higher sampling rates.
Where does the sampling rate difference come into play? With higher frequencies. Sibilance (the 'sss' sound) is basically a bunch of high frequencies. A lower sampling rate means these higher frequencies can't be captured as accurately or even at all. (Related reading: Nyquist theorem)
So, not surprisingly, Voice Command has a lot of trouble recognizing the number six, which has a lot of sibilance both in its intial attack and its release*. Combine that with the fact that the user's environment may be noisy, the mic may not be placed at an ideal position, etc. and you have a difficult situation for the speech recognition engine to deal with.
Try this: Call yourself on voicemail and leave yourself a message, repeating the command VC has trouble with. Then, listen to the recording you just made. This is what VC hears. Find out where the mic on your headset is. Now, call your voicemail again, but try to adjust the position of the headset until it begins to sound clearer and sibilance more pronounced. If you have to, physically take the headset off your ear and hold it in front of your mouth--close enough to capture more sibilance but not too close as to cause popping or other nasties. Not the most elegant solution, but a solution nonetheless.
I noticed the speech recognition problems when I went shopping for Bth headsets. I tried four--Plantronics 510, Motorola HS840 and H700, and finally the Plantronics 610. The 610 was the only one that actually recognized my sixes sometimes. Still, though, there's only around a 30% chance that it gets the whole phone number correct, until I take the headset off my head and hold it some distance away from my mouth.
Sucks, but hey. This is a situation where we're doing something that's not supported, so quirks have to be tolerated. Sometimes stuff like this works flawlessly, sometimes it doesn't.
* (maybe these aren't the correct terms, but coming from a music background, these are the closest terms I can relate to)

Thank you for your reply. I have already tried your suggestions numerous times to no avail. I have used the voice recording feature to record both from the phone and the headset and they don't sound all that different. Since it does dial from the phone itself anyway, I might be inclined to buy it and hope for an upgrade. Thanks for your detailed reply once again.

Thanks for posting this -- I hooked up my HS820 with my 8125 and VC and seemingly had no problems on Day One. Then yesterday (Day Two), I all of the sudden couldn't get anywhere: half my "call [Contact]" requests didn't go through and my sixes were all eights:
Me: "Dial six one one."
VC Lady: "Dial eight one one?"
Me: "Dial six six six six six six six."
VC Lady: "Dial eight eight eight eight eight eight eight?"
Me: "No, you idiot!"
Sorry to hear it's a technical issue rather than a solveable thing. I suppose at least the contacts mostly work without voicetags, so it's slightly better than the built-in voice recognition.
As a note, my previous phone (RAZR V3C), which altogether wasn't anything special, had amazing voice recognition by comparison. No voicetags, always got digits and contacts via BT without issue. How can we install that software on the Wizard??
Y

Anyone Tried Motorola S9 Headphones

Curious if it works with the Kaiser and if you would recommend it.
Thanks!
http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/details.jsp?globalObjectId=177

Motorola S9
New to this site. First time poster. I just got these headphones for my Tilt. I tried them with my 8125 using mfrazz WM6 rom and they worked well. Volume got fairly loud and sound quality was pretty good.
I haven't gotten my microSD card yet for the Tilt, but listened to some of the music that came with phone. Volume was lower, but I don't know if that was the audio level of that particular file. I haven't tried it with any personal mp3 files. I placed a phone call with this headset and sound quality was average. The caller could only be heard through the left earphone, not stereo.
The headset was fairly comfortable to wear, but I haven't tried it for extended periods. I'm going to try using it while running this weekend to see how well it stays in place.

that combo works great for me, used them at the gym all the time

There are many many user comments about these headphones over at Howard Forums bluetooth message forum. I went thrui 2 paris of these. Both failed for the same reason, The first lasted 1 week. the second lasted 1 month. The issue is they aren't really sweatproof as they claim. if you sweat alopt (and running in Phoenix will make you sweat), they konk out (i.e. technical term for stop working altogehter) after a while. The seals aren't really tight enough to keep water out. I tried a second one cuaz there were rumors of a bad inital batch. so I got a one from a later batch a couple months after and it did the same.
Two other issues with them: they tended to skip alot and also people complained it wasn';t very good for calls. So, if you have had good xperience with them that's great. But if you are still considering them, be forewarned. I loved the concept of them. But they just didn't meet their own marketing's expectations IMO.
Im now looking at the Plantronics 855, which is just becoming avail. No it's not sweatproof (but at least they don't claim to be). I;ve given up on getting a sweatproof BT headset for now. But otherwise, it looks like it might be a great solution for both calls and "casual" music.

Here's my two cents...
I bought the S9 headphones a few months ago after using the Motorola HT820's for close to a year (the HT820's are the ones that make you look like Mickey Mouse when you wear them).
The pros:
- The sleeker design of the S9 dont make you look like Mickey Mouse or Princess Lea. In fact, many people don't even realize I'm wearing headphones at all...
- They generally sound good
- The controls on both ears allow you to start/stop phone calls, raise and lower the volume, start/stop music and change music tracks
The cons (as compared with the HT820):
- Battery life is not wonderful -- the HT820's provide 14 hours or music, the S9 seem to provide more like 8
- Phone call audio plays only in one ear (the left one, to be exact). I had gotten used to phone calls in stereo...
- The middle button on each ears' control panel is a bit hard to use -- and those are the buttons which are used to start/stop phone calls and play/pause music
Overall, the sound quality is good. I dont usually have many dropouts during music and almost never during phone calls. People have never complained that they cant hear me speaking when using the S9 for calls.
Hope this helps....

Music sounds pretty decent. Not on caliber with a nice set of wired phones, but compared to the Shure Ec3, I'd give them a 7. On the plus side, if you can get a good fit for your ear, the bass response is a bit better than some of the "reference" quality earbuds. I think this is a matter of taste though.
Comfort is OK, but my ears do get a bit sore after an hour or so, but never to the point where I feel the need to take them off.
Music controls work fine, but I have not had great luck with activating incoming calls from the headset. Sometimes it works, others not. The buttons don't have a great tactile feel, so I may not be hitting the accept call button squarely. I also notice the music does not always pick right back up after using the head set activation button, so for these reasons, I usually hit the call accept button on the phone. This works fine.
I do get occasional skipping, but this seems to be related to Activesync.
I get occasional droped connections. Just turn the headset off and back on to reconnect. Happens maybe 1 out of 7 times I use them, and usually in the first few minutes - odd.
Phone call quality leaves a lot to be desired. For some reason, they only play through one ear when on a call and is seems that no matter what I do, the incoming person is too loud and boomy, even when I turn it way down. Usually this is passable for a short conversation, but if the person on the other end has an unfamiliar accent, I wind up having to switch over to the handset. People in general say they can hear me fine, but I don not use them in an environment with a lot of ambient noise.
That being said, I still use them very often at work as I don't get a lot of personal calls during the day. Battery life is usually sufficient for most of the day on a full charge. If you are at your desk the entire day, you may find they are drained before the end of the day (6-7 hours).
For home, I was thinking about picking up a pair of the Bluetrek phones. From the reviews I have read, if they fit you well, the sound quality is good, the battery life is a bit longer (though not much), they play phone calls in both ears and come with a nice carry case.
One final consideration, for some reason they do not get very loud with the Kaiser connection. It is still adequate, but if you like your music really loud, they may be lacking. I wouldn't rile them out on this though as they are plenty loud when connecting to my laptop, so there might be some software limitation on the volume which can be tweaked in the registry. I have seen some others mentioning this too and have not come across a fix yet, but I'd be willing to bet there will be one as soon as the BT headphones start getting more use.

Blue Ant or Jawbone?

I would like some advice specific to these to bluetooth devices. I'm going out to get one this week and would like to purchase the best of the two. Basically I'm looking for good audio quality on both ends. Stable compatibility with the tilt. Good looks, of course. The Jawbone seems to be pretty popular, how does the Blue Ant compare? Pros and cons please.

Like most of these questions, you're going to get both opinions. Bought them both - ended up keeping the Blue Ant. Better price (got mine for $60 delivered). Upgradeable firmware. Great call quality/voice command quality. Liked the noise suppression better. Smaller (more comfortable for me and I always thought I had bigger ears). Again, you'll probably find others that will disagree with me.

Thank You... I'll do a little more research

OK. So I got the Jawbone ($129.99) last night and I am very happy, so far. I thought it would look too Star Trekish, but actually, its not too bad. Certainly, considering you have some atrificial device hanging from your ear anyway. How I arrived to this state of happiness: Last week I bought the Jabra BT8040 ($79.99) and after about 6 hours I took it back because it did not sit firmly in my ear (didn't try the extra ear buds), the sound quality was poor, and people complained about noise in my background (noise that I hardly considered). The Jawbone fit perfectly, right out the package and sound quality was perfect on both ends.
I would still like feedback on the Blueant Z9, please.

I have lots of Jawbone experience and I like it the best so far. I've just checked out the BlueAnt site and have now ordered one to test side by side. I do like the idea of downloadable firmware, we'll see.

Did you guys order from the BlueAnt site or from another retailer?

lopezpm said:
Did you guys order from the BlueAnt site or from another retailer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do a pricegrabber search, I used Tiger cause I know them but there were lower prices, $60-70 range

Best Buy. i'm impatient.

Jawbone sound is spectacular, function is pretty good, but for me the fit was terrible. Spent so much time fiddling with the wire ear loops they both broke -- my fault, not a quality issue.
Let me know how the BlueAnt works out. So far, I pretty much *hate* the fit of every headset ever made.
gt

I have Jawbone. They are fantastic. A little bulky on the ear but the technology is wonderful. I have no complain from people telling they hear static or winds noises.
my only complain is, the earbud keeping falling off here and there (interchangable depending on your ear). The earloop sometimes doesn't fit properly due to my status.

RemE said:
I have lots of Jawbone experience and I like it the best so far. I've just checked out the BlueAnt site and have now ordered one to test side by side. I do like the idea of downloadable firmware, we'll see.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Looking forward to your test results.....

So far I'm still happy with Jawbone. However (grins), I wish it would alert me when I get text and other messages. If my phone is at my desk and I'm at my workbench I miss incoming text messages. Can this be set up?

Keeper of the Grail said:
So far I'm still happy with Jawbone. However (grins), I wish it would alert me when I get text and other messages. If my phone is at my desk and I'm at my workbench I miss incoming text messages. Can this be set up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://teksoftco.com/index.php?section=bluemusic
or
http://teksoftco.com/index.php?section=freeware
Does this answer your question?

I've been reading reviews on the Z9 and the Jawbone, and every review contradicts the other. I couldn't make up my mind from reading reviews so I bought both and tried them out myself. Here is a comparison as I saw it.
1. Loudness - The Z9 has separate volume buttons for up and down and is plenty loud to hear in a noisy place. It’s loud enough that when I was in a quiet place or in my car with out the radio on I had to turn the volume down a bit.
The Jawbone doesn’t have an up and down volume button. It has a button that every time you press it, it raises the volume one level. Once you reach level 5 it goes back down to the lowest level and you have to start raising it again. It relies on it’s audio enhancement technology that will automatically adjust the volume depending on the surrounding noise. Overall, I felt that the Jawbone just wasn't loud enough for me.
2. Fit - They both fit really well but the Z9 hurts my ear after I take it off if I've had in for more than 30 minutes. The Z9 goes on fast when you get a call if it isn’t in your ear.
The Jawbone fits nice also, but it takes a little longer to put it on if it’s not in when you get a call. The good thing is that I can leave it on longer than the Z9 because it doesn’t hurt my ear at all. It just takes time to find the right combination for your ear, between the 4 ear pads and the 4 ear loops. But once you do it fits great. There is a shake test on YouTube showing that if you shake your head rapidly the Jawbone falls off while the Z9 stays on. I tried it and it's true. But who the hell goes around shaking their head like that.
3. Noise cancellation - This one was too close to call, I tested with the radio turned up in my truck and called my voicemail at work. They both did a great job. You could barely hear the music playing in the background and the music would cut in and out, while I was talking. It sounded like you had music in the background at a very low volume. As for the voice, it came across loud and it never cut out.
4. Size – Now this is a huge difference, the Z9 is about third the size of the Jawbone. This doesn’t mean that the Jawbone is overbearing or anything it just means that the Z9 is really small.
After testing them both for a couple of days, I am keeping the Z9. The deciding factor was that the Jawbone just wasn’t loud enough for me. Both are great noise cancelling headsets. If the Jawbone were louder I would be keeping that one because of the comfort level.
If you guys and gals have any questions let me know and I will try to answer them.

Keeper of the Grail said:
So far I'm still happy with Jawbone. However (grins), I wish it would alert me when I get text and other messages. If my phone is at my desk and I'm at my workbench I miss incoming text messages. Can this be set up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this free app, BTaudio toggle, it directs all sounds out thru the BT headset. It works great on the Kaiser. I map a a key to make it easy to direct all sounds when needed. Search for it to get the thread about it.
I tried Bluemusic and found that it did NOT work well with my Kaiser in that it seems to kill the voice dialer function. When pressing the headset button voice dialer does not work, bluemusic seems to use it to toggle the sound between the headset and phone, showstopper for me.

I haven't had much luck with a headset that fits my ear properly, and is loud enough. I've had a bunch ... have/had a Jawbone. I just can't get it to stay in my ear regardless of which hook or bud I use.
On a whim i bought a Moto H375 at Costco with wall and car charger (std mini USB) for $40.
I can charge it from any standard mini USB cable
It fits and stays in my ear
It is so loud I often have to turn the phone volume down
Battery life is good
It has some kind of auto pairing, so all you have to do is turn it on and tell your device to search. I didn't have to fumble with some odd button press to put the headset into a pairing mode. Both my Tilt and BB 8310 found it immediately ... laptop too.
When my phone rings I actually hear my ringtone in my ear ... not some generic bleep bleep sound.
It worked fine with MS Voice Command, without any hacks, with the current STOCK AT&T ROM, does name announcement just fine.
My only complaint is that the ear hook isn't super comfortable if you wear it for longer than an hour ... but then I don't walk around like a drone all day wearing one anyway.
for $40 it certainly is worth checking out.

Thanks lopezpm for your review.... if RemE comes to the same conclusion..(soon)... I'll go for the Z9

Jawbone
I got the Jawbone for the last 4 months with it's amazing audio. The only thing that "burn" it is the charging cable, They use their own type of connector which require me to take the only cable they supplied with me when I travel for something longer then 3 days.
I tried contacting throught the web site in order to get another cable but after 2 months of waiting I understood they won't reply.
I got my'n at the MobilityToday.com shop for 80$ (the red version)

Got my Z9 and so far I have to say that I'm impressed. I downloaded and updated it's firmware from their web site. It was a bit of a project but the instructions were good. The Z9 is truely tiny compared to the Jawbone and the Z9 has many more call control features, controlled with button combination presses.
Fit for me is good, the clear plastic hooks are slightly less comfortable than the Jawbone but with careful adjusting while looking in a mirror can help you get a fit that works well. The Z9 weighs next to nothing and can be adjusted to be almost invisible to your senses. They give you two spare ear hooks.
Sound incoming is loud and clear and I do appreciate the dedicated up and down controls. I wear my headsets on my left ear so that puts the buttons on the bottom in my case which is not as good from an operational standpoint, especially when using button combinations.
Charging is done with a dedicated charger with micro usb type connector (looks identical to Jabra's). The Z9's charger is rated at 5v, the Jabra is 6v. The Z9 also comes with a micro USB to standard USB charge/data cable. The cable's have labels stating to ONLY use them with the Z9.
Noise Cancellation, so far so good. One difference from the Jawbone is that the Z9's noise cancelling is default at "standard" at call connect where the Jawbone's NC is "On" at startup and can be turned Off while in a call by pressing it's rear button (where you get a multi-tone indication that it's Off) The Z9's NC can be turned from "standard" to "Max" with a tap on the call button and it actually says "noise cancelling max" in your ear with a male Austrailian accented voice tag. A 3 sec press on the call button is needed to "end call". I called a friend with a Jawbone and did quality tests and was told that the quality was very good. I did walk around outside and the Z9 did fairly well in wind compared to Jawbone, maybe slightly better. I have not had a chance to torture test in the car at high speeds yet but so far I'm pretty happy.
Annoying Bits, should you walk out of range of your phone (eg. left phone on desk and walked out of room), the Jawbone gives a single "lost connection" tone while the Z9 gives it's lost signal tone, every 2 seconds, over and over for about a minute or two, then it powers down. When you are back in range it won't auto-pair like the Jawbone, you need to tap the call button to wake it, then it re-pairs quickly. Also I'm finding that the single tap of the button during a call (disconnects call with Jawbone, changes Noise Reduction Level with Z9) with the Z9 I often change NC level by accident because I'm so used to tapping the button to hang-up, they really should reverse the two features and tap-hold for 3 sec to change noise cnx level since it's not used as much as hanging up! At least we could rally for a firmware change
All in all for the price ($70 USD in my case) the Z9 is a contender!
Edit, after a few days use I will say that the Jawbone is the most comfortable. The Z9's clear plastic ear clip does hurt after a while, more than the Jawbone.
Edit, after driving with it a few hours today, well, it was better than my Jawbones! (and I love my Jawbones) It was way louder, in fact I had to turn it down! I called a fellow nit-picking, Jawbone using friend and did many in-car tourture tests, speed, wind, etc. The Jawbone might have a slight edge in noise cancelling but overall I was loud and clear to them and they were loud and clear to me.
So in my book both are great headsets, I'll keep and use both.

I have owned headsets by Jabra, Plantronics, Sony and Cardo (god-awful, threw it at my window and broke it after only two days) and I must say that my Jawbone blows everything else I've previously owned out of the water, the fit is great for me, sound quality is excellent, no one complains when talking to me except when I'm in heavy wind. You can't really go wrong with the Jawbone!

Am I expecting too much from my Bluetooth? (Z9)

I own the BlueAnt Z9. I had a Cardo before that which didn't last long as I didn't really like it.
Both of these headsets advertise noise-cancellation.
I have noticed when I am outside on a slightly windy day (caveat: I do live in Chicago ), it is very difficult to use my BT.
Microsoft Voice Command won't even hear my commands at all and so I can't dial a call (this is not an issue with MSVC, for as soon as I step inside and there is no wind, it picks up just fine).
My callers complain that I am very hard to hear (even with noise cancellation set to max).
It is hard to hear my callers (i know this is partly due to the Z9's headset which doesn't fit too deep into the ear canal and this is the last of my concerns).
Am I expecting too much here? Shouldn't these noise-cancellation headsets be able to ignore the ambient whooshing of wind? Again, I'm not standing in a hurricane...just an average Chicago day.
I need to set my expectations. I obviously don't expect to be able to have a conversation at Wrigley Field...I can barely hear my cellphone there... but what are the current limits one can expect from these newer headsets?
I have read mixed reviews between the Z9 and the Jawbone, and don't really expect the Jawbone is going to be significantly better.... so in total, can someone give some examples of the upper limits that I might expect from these things?
thanks

bengalih said:
I own the BlueAnt Z9. I had a Cardo before that which didn't last long as I didn't really like it.
Both of these headsets advertise noise-cancellation.
I have noticed when I am outside on a slightly windy day (caveat: I do live in Chicago ), it is very difficult to use my BT.
Microsoft Voice Command won't even hear my commands at all and so I can't dial a call (this is not an issue with MSVC, for as soon as I step inside and there is no wind, it picks up just fine).
My callers complain that I am very hard to hear (even with noise cancellation set to max).
It is hard to hear my callers (i know this is partly due to the Z9's headset which doesn't fit too deep into the ear canal and this is the last of my concerns).
Am I expecting too much here? Shouldn't these noise-cancellation headsets be able to ignore the ambient whooshing of wind? Again, I'm not standing in a hurricane...just an average Chicago day.
I need to set my expectations. I obviously don't expect to be able to have a conversation at Wrigley Field...I can barely hear my cellphone there... but what are the current limits one can expect from these newer headsets?
I have read mixed reviews between the Z9 and the Jawbone, and don't really expect the Jawbone is going to be significantly better.... so in total, can someone give some examples of the upper limits that I might expect from these things?
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Noise and Wind are 2 totaly different things and as far as Im aware noise cancellation on any headset will not filter out Wind.
From my understanding of the Z9 is it uses 1 mic to capture your voice and the other is used to capture the background noise and then overlays both signals to remove your voice and sends that signal only. Now if the wind is hitting both mics then the Z9 will not be able to tell what it should be filtering out and what it shouldnt be.

retrac75 said:
Noise and Wind are 2 totaly different things and as far as Im aware noise cancellation on any headset will not filter out Wind.
From my understanding of the Z9 is it uses 1 mic to capture your voice and the other is used to capture the background noise and then overlays both signals to remove your voice and sends that signal only. Now if the wind is hitting both mics then the Z9 will not be able to tell what it should be filtering out and what it shouldnt be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your input. If this is the case, is anyone aware of any headsets that offer better "wind" cancellation. I was under the impression that the Jawbone and Z9 were the top headsets out there right now...but maybe there is something better.
Of course my first goal is to have everything work like I want... but short of that I wanted to ensure that my experience it typical of other user's experiences.

A Z9i is forthcoming...sometime in May. http://www.myblueant.com/z9i_black_headset.htm

[Q] Phone call quality on headset

Does anyone actually use the phone as a phone? I'm finding that the echo cancel really limits the quality of the phone. I can hardly carry on a decent conversation in the car using the supplied headset.
Does anyone else have this problem?
Try this: connect the headset. Call your phone from another phone. Listen to both at the same time. You can clearly hear when you talk that the phone is suppressing noise.
What I find is that when I'm in the car, it actually seems to suppress the volume of the person on the other end! So, it can be very frustrating as I miss words that they say.
Combine this with AT&T's marvelous AGC (where if you don't talk, it cranks the volume so that when you do talk, it blows the person on the other end away!), and the total quality of the call is horrible.
I've been using cell phones for almost 20 years. This is the worst phone quality I've ever experience.

When I use the phone directly for calls, everything sounds clear and at a consistent volume with one exception, while waiting for the other party to answer, the call ringing tone goes up and down in volume.
I've paired 3 different bluetooth headsets to the phone and found that the volume in my headset goes up and down quite a bit. Usually it's the worst at the beginning of the call. Sometimes I can't hear the other person answer but then it levels out a bit and the volume fluctuations are less extreme. I've tried an old Sony Ericsson, a Jabra Extreme, and have settled on a Plantronics Voyager Pro+. The Voyager is about the best I've tried but still exhibits the volume fluctuations but not as bad. It also supports A2DP so I can listen to podcasts through the headset.

I use it with the Sync system in my ford f150 and have no problems at all. It works great. I dont use headsets so..........only my sync system

I thought it was just me. My Plantronics 925 does this as well. Calls from the phone are fine, but the headset volume cuts in and out. Is this a bad Bluetooth stack or other problem? I think I remember another phone (WM 6.5) that had to get hacked to fix this. I'm a little miffed on this. Did anyone at Samsung or ATT test the bluetooth on this phone before selling it?

I have had very good call quality whether using the "phone as a phone", the phones speaker phone, or a blue ant bluetooth headset. I have had poor call quality only when trying to call someone in very low signal area. That has only been once. Otherwise overall clarity and volume have not been an issue, actually phone volume on high is too loud for my ears!

adding to my earlier post. I exchanged my Focus due to an unrelated issue. Both handsets had the same fade out issue with the bluetooth headsets. I've experienced it on every call so I don't think it's signal related. I don't see any volume fluctuation at all when using the handset without the bluetooth headset. I've tried the same three bluetooth headsets on my wife's iPhone 3GS and all work fine. I've also streamed at least a couple of hours of podcasts from the Focus to my headset and the volume is perfectly level. Whatever the issue, it's only related to phone calls. Very frustrating.

I've experienced the same issues. I have an Aliph Jawbone Icon. Before I updated the firmware on it I could barely hear someone on the other end. With the new jawbone firmware I have the ability to control the volume in the headset and only when I have it turned all the way up does it work ok. I do, however, still have trouble when people are talking that when the first start and or finish talking what they say seems to get clipped. Further, the volume seems to fade in and out. Also, if I'm using the AT&T navigator software and have my headset attached it will give me directions through the headset, but the end of every direction gets chopped off. So, the avene or street part of a direction doesn't come through.

I've been following this issue in a few different forums. Today a moderator in the Microsoft Answers forum jumped in and said they were experiencing the same problem and they would escalate the issue.
http://social.answers.microsoft.com...4ce-30ee-4734-9dab-28ce0d561132?prof=required

Can't recommend this phone
I was so excited when I first got my Focus. I thought it was such a huge step forward for MS mobile and actually had some chance at being mainstream. Sure it lacked a few features but there was the hope that MS would update the phone quickly. After all, they seemed to have made such phenomenal progress in getting the phone to market, seemed like fixing a few things and adding a few features would be a no-brainer.
Well, here we are 3 months later (Apple released the first update for iPhone 1.0.1 only one month later) and lots of rumors but nothing substantial on the long-awaited update. We'll see cut/paste but it's not at all clear if they will address anything else.
Here in CA we have a law that says we can't talk on the phone unless it's hands free. For the first time since that law was imposed, I've been regularly breaking it. I can't use a handsfree headset. Even the wired one that comes with the phone is so damn inconvenient that by the time I get it going, the caller is long gone. So, seemingly MAJOR features like BT headsets appear to get no notice at all from MS. I've looked through all the threads and there's nothing from MS. They don't even acknowledge the problem.
Looking at the thread from mcraine, I don't see where MS is going to do anything about this. Also, don't see any indication that it's part of any forthcoming updates.
Too bad. I thought this MS had a chance with this phone but they are blowing it big time. Momentum is gone now. If we have to wait another 3 months to get the browser fixed then the phone is destined to be like the Palm Pre. Good phone but can't keep up with the 'big' boys. This horse jumped out of the gate and was looking really good for the first couple of strides but then completely fell down and they are trying to coax it to get up again.

same issue here as well. mine is only a month old. it is not as noticable when sync'd to the car, but still noticable. and as said before more at the beginning of the call. if there were not issues, it would not be M$