Bluetooth Source

CNET gives the Plantronics 855 Bluetooth headset a very good score in their recent review. The Plantronics 855 functions as both a regular mono headset and as a stereo headset by attaching an earbud cable. The reviewer liked the stereo option because of its added functionality, though the small controls and sliding microphone boom were a bit of a concern. Overall, the Plantronics 855 received a 8 out of 10 in this review.

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BlueTomorrow reviews the the Plantronics Pulsar 260 Bluetooth stereo headset.

As it stands, the device is difficult to promote as an ideal solution for listening to music and talking on the phone. We give it credit for its slightly better than average sound quality, and cannot discount these headphones as a possibility because they may work for some users in a quiet setting. However, we would think there are better multifunction products out there.

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Seeing a picture of the new Plantronics Voyager 855 may make you look twice. The new Bluetooth headset doubles as a pair of stereo Bluetooth headphones. It uses a detachable cord with an earbud on the other end to give you A2DP compatible Bluetooth headphones. It is a very unique design, and I can definitely see a market out there for the Plantronics Voyager 855.

Product page [ via Engadget ]

The BH-903 stereo Bluetooth headset is the latest from Nokia. It features a massive 15 hours of talk or music time, and supports a number of profiles including A2DP, AVRCP, PBAP, HFP and HSP profiles. You can use the built-in OLED display for call management and music controls, when supported by your device. The Nokia BH-903 will cost you a pretty penny (about $270 US) and will be available later this year.

PC Magazine has the scoop on a new lossless audio codec that could soon be coming to an A2DP Bluetooth headset near you. Currently, Bluetooth A2DP headsets have to reencode the audio signal first to PCM and then to the current codec, called the Subband Codec (SBC). The SBC codec, like MP3 files, is also lossy. This means that audio information is lost already, and reencoding to yet another lossy codec means even more audio is lost.

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Three new headsets from Nokia, the BH-803, BH-604, and BH-602, were recently announced. The Nokia BH-604 is a stereo headset with media controls for your Bluetooth media player. The Nokia BH-803 and BH-602 are regular headsets for making and receiving calls. You can expect to see these headsets in the Fall of this year. Read on for the specifics. (more…)

Keep an eye out for a new stereo Bluetooth headset from Ubixon in their Lubix series. The new headset will sport a Qualcomm MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical System) display that does not use a back-light lamp and yet still remains highly contrasted indoors and outdoors.

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Legit Reviews has their Plantronics Pulsar 260 review posted and ready for your perusal. Sound quality was good, although not the best they had hear, but it did reproduce frequencies quite well. There were no problems with syncing, and video files played without losing audio sync.

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Much like another such review, DigitalTrend’s Plantronics Pulsar 260 review gives the inexpensive stereo Bluetooth headset an 8 out of 10 rating. The reviewer was impressed with the sound quality of the headset, and found that the earbuds isolated sound very well. Battery life was also very good, giving 7 hours of listening time and 9 hours of talk time. The only real negative the reviewer found was that the Pulsar 260 was problematic when working with Skype, although Plantronics does not specify that the headset is compatible. This definitely seems like a good stereo Bluetooth headset for the money.

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As Bluetooth stereo headsets get smaller and smaller, Philips keeps it on the larger side with their over the ear headset. TechDigest has their Philips SHB6102 review posted and comes to the conclusion that these particular headphones might sound great, but will also tire out your ears after an extended period of time. Apparently the volume level also suffers a bit, so if you like your music to bump you may want to look elsewhere.

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