Plantronics audio-90 and the thing about hearsay

Oct 9, 2004 at 12:21 AM Thread Starter Post #1 of 3

Taurui

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Being a casual gamer, I wanted to be able to communicate with friends via teamspeaker.
Knowing that pretty much all headsets had baaaad reputation here, I tried to look for a good table desk mic with no success and so I eventually thought "What the heck" and acquired a plantronics audio.90 headset for 33 euro shipped.
I had listened to a 25 euro "Hama" headset of a friend before and thought it sucked sound-wise. Muddy, rolled-off treble, no extension at all and oh boy was it uncomfortable.
So I went with the audio.90 with my only hope being that it'd be at least comfortable...
But the sound was actually nice right out of the box. They were the cheapest headphones I bought for some years (cheaper than my KSC35s) and the sound really surprised me. Instruments were well discernible, bass extension was ok and the overall sound was pretty balanced with a slight lack of mids and a slightly boomy bass.
I tried them with all kinds of music out of my aureon 5.1 sky and they were pretty good groovalizers. The boomy bass actually fit some movies, the in-line volume attenuator is a handy thing to have when using it directly out of a sound-card, the comfort isn't bad - I feel them on my ears, but they never hurt (unlike the ksc35) and the mic is of good quality.
They're not on ksc35 level but actually come closer than I thought they would, and they best my PX200 and CD780 in terms of music enjoyment factor (Grooviness).
Bottom line: They're pretty good for their money. I bet a lot of people who regularly bash plantronic headsets never or only briefly heard them.
I don't know how they measure up to Senn PC150s, but those are twice the price too.
Thumbs up!

-Taurui

(Did that kill the little reputation I have here?
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Oct 9, 2004 at 12:51 AM Post #2 of 3
Thank you for reassuring me that I am not crazy. I've enjoyed these immensely for quite a while, but every single time I mention them, people tell me that they're horrible. Tell you the truth, these actually made me wonder at one point if the money I spent on the Shure E5Cs was justified since I could appreciably enjoy music with either. Of course, careful listening with the E5s was all it took to persuade myself otherwise, but the fact that a 16USD headset could so much as push the thought into my mind is amazing enough.

Enjoy
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Oct 9, 2004 at 1:08 AM Post #3 of 3
I think you two are crazy (not presonally, no mean spirit intended),
a90 is a good cheap headphone for computer gaming, where its bass is well suited.
but as far as music listening is concern? even my untrained ear can hear tell the difference between it and the lowly regarded sony ex71.

bang for the buck? sure, but take that out of the equation it is hard to imagine anyone praise it for its sonic quality for critical music listening.

its a90, not a900 !
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oh, I have some silly philips earbud with those retractable mechanism that cost about the same as the .a90, a90 is a lot better, a lot. but that still does not mean the sound coming out is not very flawed.
 

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