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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?
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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.
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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?
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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?
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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!
Dear all,
I've made a review of the Jawbone Bluetooth Headset here: http://blog.evolvedsoftwarestudios....se-introducing-the-jawbone-bluetooth-headset/
The basis of the review was a bluetooth headset purchase with noise cancellation for use with my HTC Kaiser.
I hope that you find the review useful. Feel free to comment here or on my blog, critisism (please do not be rude) or thoughts are welcome.
Many thanks!
Good review, I like all the points you covered. I agree that the Jawbone is probably the best I've heard (pun intended) for noise cancellation. I've tested it under several conditions (extremely loud music; car at highway speeds with windows down; NYC streets) and it cancels noise well.
My only two problems are
a) I can never seem to get the device loud enough. The automatic volume works well enough, but it doesn't seem to go up high enough to cover very loud scenarios, like the NYC streets scenario.
b) I can't get the thing to fit my ear. I've tried every combination of ear buds and ear hooks, but it never fits my ear well. I always have to readjust it every few minutes so it doesn't fall off. I might try that link in your review for the custom ear bud company.
Nice review, the only additional issues I see are;
1 - The Jawbone on Kaiser has a lower inbound audio level that many other phones (an HTC problem really, but other headsets do work OK with kaiser). I use it but it's barely acceptable to me. It would be better with a custom ear bud to direct the sound better.
2 - The Jawbone's noise cancelling is awesome in a speeding car, in a room with lots of background noise, BUT, it fails miserably when exposed to direct wind of almost any velocity. In wind many callers have said that they can barely hear me until I turn and hide the Jawbone from the wind.
3 - The US price is List $129 USD but $80 Street, not bad at all.
4 - The custom charge dongle is a negative, however after you become completely attached to this headset, you'll eventually loose one, or two, and soon have spares! I now have two
Hello,
dis39tif: My Jawbone is pretty loud. The startup beep is uncomfortably loud and leaves my ears ringing if I turn the Jawbone on whilst wearing it.
Initially I had fitting problems as well (falling off), so I chose one of the hooked/lipped earpieces and hook the Jawbone earhook over my ear like putting on a pair of sunglasses. Then I hold the Jawbone with one hand and twist the front part upwards. This puts the sensor on my cheekbone and not my jawbone, but still it works well and the fit is more snug.
RemE: I've read that the Jawbone on Kaiser has been reported ot be quieter. I can't say I've really noticed when trying with the Hermes. Seems the same to me. A custom earbud should help (based on info from other users). I've also read that wind noise isn't blocked while the user is talking, but it isn't blocked on any earpiece and Jawbone still does better than the other sets on the market at keeping unwanted noise out. Re: US pricing, I live in "rip off Britain". Prices for everything is higher here. I wonder if I can get a VISA to live in Delaware Re: charging cable, I'd like to have seen a micro usb port.
liddlefeesh -
I agree, the startup beep is quite loud. I wish the volume during calls was louder. I've tried pressing the button which turns off the automatic volume and lets you manually change the volume, as well as messing with the volume on the kaiser. Don't get me wrong, it's still quite usable. I just wish it went a bit louder.
Thanks for the fitment idea. I'll try it out.
Better ear bud fitment and sound for Jawbone
dis39tif said:
. . .
b) I can't get the thing to fit my ear. I've tried every combination of ear buds and ear hooks, but it never fits my ear well. I always have to readjust it every few minutes so it doesn't fall off. I might try that link in your review for the custom ear bud company.
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Get a pair of Jabra ear gels from RadioShack, attach them to the Jawbone - better fit, better sound. The combo works great for me.
cushcalc said:
Get a pair of Jabra ear gels from RadioShack, attach them to the Jawbone - better fit, better sound. The combo works great for me.
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By chance do you still have the Radio Shack part number for these gels?
Has anyone had issues using the TF to video call and the mic not being loud enough? I use Google Talk and while I can hear the other side ok, they usually have a problem hearing me. I can't find any settings in Google Talk for the mic volume. I end up trying to shout in the direction of the mic (which I think is located on the right side next to the audio jack). I also use the SE MW600 bluetooth headset with the TF a lot and Google Talk doesn't seem to output to headsets. That would solve the low volume issue as well. Any insights or confirmation would be appreciated.
The mic on my wife's transformer is defective, but my transformer is fine. We are going to have to send hers back. Try google voice search, if it has a hard time hearing you when talking normally, then you may have a hardware problem too.
Looks like I have the same issue. I tried using google talk today with no luck. SO I tested the mic with both the sound recorder and the voice search. The volume indicated with those shows a problem.
Its very directional. If I angle it so my mouth has some line of sight to it then its fine but facing head on I have to speak up. I wonder if a small plug in mic angled to the front would help.
I am surprised that the BT headset did not work. I use one all the time on my laptop with Skype.
I have the OG Droid as phone and have gotten quite used to speech input, particularly with Vlingo. THe recognition is surprisingly good.
So I was disappointed (probably my only disappointment) when the speech input on my A500 wasn't producing equivalent results.
Part of the problem, I thought, was that Vlingo doesn't run yet on the A500. Part of the problem might be the tiny little microphone in the crevice between glass and frame (I think), which is coverec by the Acer case that came with the A500.
So I tried my Motorola S305 stereo headphones on bluetooth and imagine it was a little better, but still not like the old droid.
So I am wondering if someone can guide me on what to do to improve speech input on the A500. Also find myself wondering if there is a really good headset (stereo + good mic) that works well with voice input.
I'm having similar mic issues. I find the mic to be sub par in talk and absolutely awful with skype. So far after almost 2 months solid use this I my only gripe with this lovely device. I'd also love to have a recommendation on a headset to use with the A500.
Thanks.
I've been wondering this too... for use with GTalk and/or GrooVe IP.
mic is sub standard.
i got my a500 replaced and found the mic on the new one much more effective.
Where is the microphone exactly?
If you hold the tablet with the multiport at the bottom, the mic is just above the screen where the black glass part of the bezel meets the metal part... there's a tiny hole you can see there, and that's the mic. I vaguely remember reading in the dev section that someone took it apart and there is some noise cancelling thingy that's causing issues. I even tried recording using a high quality recording app like PCM Recorder (set at 44.1KHz), and it sounds like it was recorded off of someone's old landline telephone... kind of a shame.
excuse my stupidity but I still can't find the mic.
By "multiport" you mean the dock port at the bottom?
I have noticed an issue that did not exist with the Galaxy Nexus.
When not on speakerphone the microphone sensitivity is down-regulated significantly from the way it is when it is on speakerphone.
Frequently people connect the phone via auxiliary cable in the car (as a hands-free approach), but in order for it to route the audio to the speakers for the car, it cannot be on speakerphone. However when not on speakerphone the sensitivity of the microphone is limited, it is not the same as on speakerphone, therefore unless you have the phone right beside your mouth, the other party will be unable to hear you (due to low volume).
I assume this is an software change in 4.2, I have tested the issue on two Nexus 4's. When turning back on speakerphone, the microphone increases sensitivity again, and the other party is able to hear clearly again.
This poses a problem if you want to have the phone in your car connected to auxiliary and not right beside your mouth/face. I assume they added this because they assume that if the phone was not on speakerphone then it would be right beside your mouth/face during a call, however this is not at all always the case, especially if you connect your phone via aux in the car.
Anybody else experienced this? Any work-around?
Yes, thats really a shame.
I think, it is the noise cancellation. Nexus One has Niose Cancellation, too.
There I've found out, that I have to make a change in the build.prop to disable this
but I really don't know, where to find the line in build.prop to disable the noise cancellation.
And: You have to root your phone to do this.
It's really a shame, I can't use my Nexus 4 in my car plugged into the auxiliary input
hmm anyone can disable it via build.prop?
reminds me a of the days in Nexus one..
I've opened an issue on Google.
Hoping for many votes, that they can see it.
UKROB86 said:
I have noticed an issue that did not exist with the Galaxy Nexus.
When not on speakerphone the microphone sensitivity is down-regulated significantly from the way it is when it is on speakerphone.
Frequently people connect the phone via auxiliary cable in the car (as a hands-free approach), but in order for it to route the audio to the speakers for the car, it cannot be on speakerphone. However when not on speakerphone the sensitivity of the microphone is limited, it is not the same as on speakerphone, therefore unless you have the phone right beside your mouth, the other party will be unable to hear you (due to low volume).
I assume this is an software change in 4.2, I have tested the issue on two Nexus 4's. When turning back on speakerphone, the microphone increases sensitivity again, and the other party is able to hear clearly again.
This poses a problem if you want to have the phone in your car connected to auxiliary and not right beside your mouth/face. I assume they added this because they assume that if the phone was not on speakerphone then it would be right beside your mouth/face during a call, however this is not at all always the case, especially if you connect your phone via aux in the car.
Anybody else experienced this? Any work-around?
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Thank you so much for bringing this up. This is my main beef with the phone coming from my Gnex. Hopefully a fix can be found soon.:good:
My suspicion is that this has to do with noise cancellation. The way noise cancellation works is that there are two different microphones at opposite ends of the phone; the one farther away from your mouth picks up ambient sounds and, more faintly, your voice. The one nearer your mouth picks up ambient sounds and, more loudly, your voice. What gets sent over the phone connection is, effectively, the difference between the signals from the two microphones, leaving mostly your voice.
If the two microphones are roughly equal distances from your mouth, they both pick up your voice about equally strongly, meaning that your voice is mostly filtered out with the rest of the ambient noise. Speakerphone mode disables the noise cancellation, so your voice comes through strongly.
.... as I've said in the second post. Other phones don't have trouble with it.
Send from my iPhone 6s
FormelLMS said:
.... as I've said in the second post. Other phones don't have trouble with it.
Send from my iPhone 6s
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Exactly. This is not simply a noise cancellation problem IMO. Other phones have noise cancellation too but don't have this problem.
FormelLMS said:
.... as I've said in the second post. Other phones don't have trouble with it.
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Sorry for inadvertently repeating what you said in that post; it's been nearly two weeks since then, and I had forgotten it had been previously mentioned.
Perhaps the other phones with noise cancellation that don't exhibit this behavior simply turn it off if a headphone is plugged in. That would make sense for a speaker-only headphone, but not necessarily for a headphone with an inline microphone, where the voice microphone would still be nearer to you than the auxiliary microphone. If that's the case, it would be nice if that setting were exposed as a controllable option.
Please look here and add as many stars, as you all can:
http://code.google.com/p/android/is... 4&colspec=ID Type Status Owner Summary Stars
I'm the only one who has told it to google and with one star I think no one will see this problem there.
So we have to gewt as many stars and comments as possible.
Any developers can help with the build.prop line to disable this?
I remember pm founder of cyanogen mod and he pointed me the line to disable in nexus one..
I heard if you get an external mic it is much better but I haven't tried myself. This is annoying because I usually just use the aux with my nexus s with no problems >.< Anyone out there got any other solutions?
Yea seriously bump on this topic. This is a massive problem..
Have you all voted on Google page for this problem?
FormelLMS said:
Have you all voted on Google page for this problem?
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I voted for 1, lets make another
Yes big problem.. I am driving using speaker phone and I can't hear ****..
mgear356 said:
Yes big problem.. I am driving using speaker phone and I can't hear ****..
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It's the other party not being able to hear when on aux.
Misread.. But Yea if using speakerphone to avoid this problem ull barely be able to hear them, simply not loud enough