I've had many problems with regular wired headphones when I once used them. I would get them ripped off my head when I would get up from my chair by having the wire snag the arm rests of my chair. I would constantly run over the wire with my chair and get it tangled, and when I jogged, sometimes my dog would run up behind me, leap, her front paws would snag the wire, and then she would yank my headphones off as she landed. I don't know how my ears are still attached.
Before I pick it apart I need to say that I really really enjoy this pair of bluetooth headphones. Since I enjoy dissecting things so much and getting very detailed in my description, I feel this review has its place on this blog as well. I'll make an attempt to put this review up on a couple of websites as well.
I decided to buy a pair of Logitech Freepulse headphones.
I got them new on J&R Music and Computer World for $56.94 which includes shipping. This was a great price because now they're selling them for $84.99. And the cheapest on a google search is around $70 currently. Since I've used them extensively I decided it was time to write a review about them.
The first thing that stands out about them, is that they only have a 6 hour battery life. Now, that seems like plenty, unless you always have headphones on while you work. I sit in this computer chair anywhere from 9 to 12 hours a day. I also use my headphones when I workout. So I probably have headphones on from 9 to 13 hours a day during the work week. This will clue you in that these headphones are at least tolerable to wear for long periods of time.
So I still had to go back to the old wired headphones at the end of the day and plug up the headphones to charge. I wish that these headphones had a removable battery so that I could have one battery charging while using another, but the battery is sealed inside the headphones and so I ultimately ended up buying another pair later on at Circuit City for $76.64 taxes included (they'll match their online price).
The marketing for these headphones seems somewhat misleading because they push that these headphones will adapt to any iPod on the market. I don't have an iPod. This set of headphones doesn't come with a USB bluetooth transmitter. Instead they come with a transmitter that plugs into any 3.5mm jack which makes it much better suited for using with an mp3 player.
Included is an array of different "adapters" that snap onto the transmitter so that it squares up with the iPod when plugged in.
If they really wanted to push it for the iPod one would expect the color of this headset and transmitter to be white but this is not the case at all.
The reception is reserved for a few feet. The signal has trouble going through walls and the advertised 30 feet is probably on flat unobstructed land. I've even found that if I have the transmitter in my left pocket, the signal has trouble going through my body and will sometimes go silent for about a second periodically. But when in the right pocket the silence isn't as frequent because the bulk of the electronics are in the right side of the headset.
Since I did end up getting two pair of headphones I found that each transmitter will only work for its corresponding headset. I find this unfortunate because I have yet to run the battery out on a transmitter, and if I could use the same transmitter on both pair of headphones I wouldn't have to switch to the other transmitter, perhaps using it the entire day.
After extensive use I have found that the rubber ear pieces eventually stretch out and can be easily lost. I somehow managed to keep track of them however and have resized them -- reads cut the excess off -- and glued them to the headsets permanently. The only reason that they come off that I can see is to gain access to the tiny screw so that they can be worked on and perhaps to replace the foam ear pieces (the headphones come with extra ones) when they wear down.
As an aside I'd like to mention that I also bought a different pair of bluetooth logitech headphones that also has a mic built in for my girlfriend as a gift and it turns out that they also will not connect to the transmitter that comes with my Freepulse headphones. Nor will my headphones connect to the USB transmitter that came with her pair either.
Oh, and supposedly the Freepulse headphones sync up to cell phones, but I don't have a bluetooth cell phone so I don't care.
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