[Jeepz]

What is bad about the mic? I’ve used them pretty much everyday since they were released and no one has had any problems hearing me.

They're OK for basic communication. They sound like a low quality MP3 played back through an old school rotary phone. Probably due to the SCO codec. I wouldn't do any conference calls with them.

 

[ceeloChamp]

They're OK for basic communication. They sound like a low quality MP3 played back through an old school rotary phone. Probably due to the SCO codec. I wouldn't do any conference calls with them.

Lol, I did 3 conference calls with them today. People heard me fine, on paper they may not be as technically savvy, but unless you are calling an audiophile I think they are more than sufficient.

 

[Jeepz]

Lol, I did 3 conference calls with them today. People heard me fine, on paper they may not be as technically savvy, but unless you are calling an audiophile I think they are more than sufficient.

Let's be honest, in practice they don't sound great and could be improved a lot. As I said, I go back to using my EarPods microphone (the cheap crappy headphones that came with my iPhone) if I want people to hear me more clearly. It doesn't take an audiophile to hear the difference.

 

[ceeloChamp]

We are both entitled to our views. I maintain that as long as someone can hear me when I speak the Mic has enough clarity, it's fine if you want more than that. Maybe the next iteration of Airpod will improve on that, but it sounds like all they are adding is wireless charging and hands-free 'hey siri' which is a waste of time.

 

[Jeepz]

We are both entitled to our views. I maintain that as long as someone can hear me when I speak the Mic has enough clarity, it's fine if you want more than that. Maybe the next iteration of Airpod will improve on that, but it sounds like all they are adding is wireless charging and hands-free 'hey siri' which is a waste of time.

next gen AirPods will definitely be incremental. possibly W2 chip with Bluetooth 5.0 support for better battery, connection and range.

 

[picapau]

Lol, I did 3 conference calls with them today. People heard me fine, on paper they may not be as technically savvy, but unless you are calling an audiophile I think they are more than sufficient.

Let's be honest, in practice they don't sound great and could be improved a lot. As I said, I go back to using my EarPods microphone (the cheap crappy headphones that came with my iPhone) if I want people to hear me more clearly. It doesn't take an audiophile to hear the difference.

Personally I've used the Airpods a lot for conference calls as welland not had any major issues. The biggest benefit I found with the Airpods was that when outside in noisy environments people could still hear me which couldn't always be said for the other headsets.

Also I take your point that the bar has been set very low. After testing all the mentioned earphones the microphone was consistently the worst performing aspect. Probably due to the fact the the earphones are quite a long way away from there mouth and thus are having to pick voice out from all the background sounds. A traditional headset wont have that issue as the microphone is right next to the mouth.

Overall, not a single headset was perfect. Ideally the best headset would have the following:

Connection - Jabra/Airpods
Audio - Bose
Isolation - Sony
Video Sync - AirPods
Voice - Airpods/Jabra
Controls - Samsung
Fit - Jabra
Looks - Samsung

Incidentally Samsung had the best Ambient noise feature out of all of the them and in a quiet environment the microphone was great. Outside around traffic etc.. the microphone was awful.

 

[nc8000]

For my use the E8 is good enough. I’ve had no complaints from people the other end of phone calls (I don’t do very many phone calls though), sq is fine for on the go use, ambient works well enough, fit and isolation (with large spinfits) is good and the few gestures I use work fine and it’s nice that there are no fiddly buttons. Just wish there were no left unit drop outs, but they are short enough and far enough between to not really bother me. And the totally wireless experience on the go is truely addictive.

 

[david8613]

I am surprised the Samsung iconx 2018 rated so low, I am going to have to try these newer models.

 

[FieldingMellish]

Plantronics Voyager 5200 is my wireless choice for calls. Uncanny ambient sound cancellation. Instantaneous Bluetooth connect when switched on. I don’t walk around wearing it unless prepared in the field to call clients. I see too many retired folks wearing these all day as though they’re perpetually at the ready to receive calls.

B&O E8 I’ll begrudgingly use for a call, as when it’s incoming and it’s in my best interests to immediately answer.

 

[picapau]

For my use the E8 is good enough. I’ve had no complaints from people the other end of phone calls (I don’t do very many phone calls though), sq is fine for on the go use, ambient works well enough, fit and isolation (with large spinfits) is good and the few gestures I use work fine and it’s nice that there are no fiddly buttons. Just wish there were no left unit drop outs, but they are short enough and far enough between to not really bother me. And the totally wireless experience on the go is truely addictive.

I am surprised the Samsung iconx 2018 rated so low, I am going to have to try these newer models.

I really liked both of these actually and would have kept either as my daily set had it not been for personal issues with them.

I make a lot of calls out and about and the E8’s microphone just wasn’t good enough for what I needed. Otherwise was pretty happy with them.

The Samsung ICONX 2018 were very good and i think are the best looking earphones of the bunch but I just couldn’t get the right one to fit properly. Had the fit been better their score would have been better as well and even with the microphone not being great they might have been my overall favourite. They also had the best ambient noise feature. It amplifies conversations and sounds around you and feels as if you are wearing a hearing aid. I did have some issues setting it up, as it wont work out of the box with an iphone unless you sync the earbuds once using the android app. Works fine with an iPhone after that.

I would personally try them both out yourselves. Overall there was really not much in it between any of the earphones I tested.

 

[picapau]

Plantronics Voyager 5200 is my wireless choice for calls. Uncanny ambient sound cancellation. Instantaneous Bluetooth connect when switched on. I don’t walk around wearing it unless prepared in the field to call clients. I see too many retired folks wearing these all day as though they’re perpetually at the ready to receive calls..

Now, that is one proper headset for calls.

 

[dkstott]

I'm interested in the Jabra Elite 65T... The battery life is good, they're smaller than most....

The Bose are absolute junk in the real world... They have almost zero isolation, that mass sticking out your ear is not only ugly, they are monster wind noise problems.

Anyone have any "real world" review for the Jabra or others?

Real world for me =

#1 How is isolation while riding a bus, train, subway?
#2 How are they while Walking / Jogging outdoors, Are they susceptible to wind noise?
#3 how is Bluetooth while outdoors or riding on public transit?

 

[picapau]

I'm interested in the Jabra Elite 65T... The battery life is good, they're smaller than most....

The Bose are absolute junk in the real world... They have almost zero isolation, that mass sticking out your ear is not only ugly, they are monster wind noise problems.

Anyone have any "real world" review for the Jabra or others?

Real world for me =

#1 How is isolation while riding a bus, train, subway?
#2 How are they while Walking / Jogging outdoors, Are they susceptible to wind noise?
#3 how is Bluetooth while outdoors or riding on public transit?

#1 How is isolation while riding a bus, train, subway?

I’m happy with the level of isolation. Like other IEM's they block out a reasonable amount of noise. On the tube I can still hear faint background sounds with music paying but I don't need to turn the volume all the way up. Not as good as proper noise cancelling headphones but then again no where near as bad as with the Bose’, which were awful.

#2 How are they while Walking / Jogging outdoors, Are they susceptible to wind noise?

I haven't noticed any major issues with wind noise but haven't been out running in them.

#3 how is Bluetooth while outdoors or riding on public transit?

When out and about the bluetooth connection is not as good as the AirPods and occasionally has some skips with audio breaking up due to interference but generally not so annoying that I have to stop using them.

 

[FieldingMellish]

Jabra Elite 65T: 93% recommendation across 77 reviews on Best Buy.

8.2 overall rating on Cnet

If few here have real world, those 77 reviews lends some pretty good idea of some of your concerns.

 

[jhoff80]

I went for it and picked up the Jabra 65t to try myself. I would say there is a tiny bit of wind noise, but not too much. The other set of Bluetooth headphones I use are the active-cancellation Bose QC30 and those have far more problems with wind noise. It's been a while since I've had headphones that require a seal... I forgot how annoying the bone conduction can be while walking. Otherwise, they block out a ton of noise.

The Jabra Sound+ (Android) app is annoying because it puts up a constant notification while connected, so I had to block that in the OS. The Bluetooth connection is rock solid with my Note8 (which does support Bluetooth 5.0 if that matters at all). I was able to walk 29 feet away from my phone before any dropouts... and I live in a city and my apartment is a torture chamber for 2.4GHz signals (seriously there's 35 wifi networks available in the room where my phone was located for this test). Had no dropouts on a 40 minute walk yesterday, but I'll have to continue to use them to see how that goes.

Sound quality is pretty good. I'm not as picky about that as I once was, but it sounded fine. Not spectacular, not as good as my Bose QC30, or any of the wired headphones or headsets I've got, but it was fine. Fit is very secure for me and very comfortable. It did start raining on my walk home yesterday and I was wearing a hood. I will note that the hood rubbing against the earphones also transmitted a lot of noise. Again probably because of the seal, and just not something I'm used to recently.

Form factor-wise is perfect though. The neckband style of my Bose ones has always annoyed me. I suspect the active noise cancellation of those means I'll continue to use them when travelling, but I think day-to-day will probably switch to the 65t.

I think this is partly because of better headset support in preview builds of Windows 10, but the support on my PC is better than headsets in recent memory. I know I've had to fight with the PC sometimes to get older headsets to work right but like I said I know there's been work done in Windows as well.

I do wish it could switch between which earphone is the master so that it wasn't just always the right one, but I can tolerate that.