Doctor FrankenPhones: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love My Headphones.

Posted by: dgoldring on May 15 2007

 

Now that I have had the opportunity to review quite a few different headphones, I am frequently asked which one was my favorite.  After  a moment of hesitation, my answer is always the same, "this one is good, but…"  It always feels like buying a new home.  I liked the kitchen in this one, but the bedroom in that one…if only we could put them all together, we would have built my dream house.  Likewise, if only we could mix up the features of these headpphone, we could build my dream headphone…if only…

Well, let me back up, there are several headphones that I use on a daily basis:

• The V-Moda Vibe is a fantastic earbud style headphone.  It is by far  the most comfortable set of headphones I use, and offers the best sound quality.  It also offers some convenient features such as the Moda Wrap cord keeper.  On the downside, it is wired, which makes them very inconvenient for everyday use.
• The Plantronics Pulsar 260 are among the most original headphones I have used.  They are also earbud-style, but they connect to a pendant receiver which allows them to connect wirelessly to my media player via Bluetooth.  I love the pendant controls this offers (including the ability to act as a telephone headset), however, the headphones are not nearly as comfortable or crisp sounding as the V-Moda. 

My first challenge was a face-off between these two headphones.  I needed to find a way to combine the sound quality and comfort of the V-Moda Vibe with the Plantronics Bluetooth Pendant.

My second challenge came in my choice of media player.  I currently have two from which to choose.  I frequently listen to music on my Dell Axim x50v.  This has the advantage of being a Bluetooth device, but offers only as much music as I can hold on my four gigabyte CF card.  Additionally, if I am using my Axim for music, then I cannot use it for other purposes, such as accessing my calendar or testing programs for review.

I also own a 20 gigabyte Creative Zen Portable Media Center.  This is a great player which can play all of my Windows Media Audio and Video, as well as display my pictures in a slideshow.  Unfortunately, it is a brick of a player, and does not feature Bluetooth, which means I have to carry this bulky player in my hand in order to listen to it with wired headphones.  This is considerably less than convenient.

So, my challenge grew.  Not only did I need to find a way to add Bluetooth functionality to my non-Bluetooth headphones, but I then needed to find a way to connect them wirelessly to my non-Bluetooth media player.  A daunting task to say the least.

I had almost given up on this challenge, content to listen to music on my Axim with the wired V-Mode Vibe headphones, when I discovered the Logitech Freepulse headphones.  The Freepulse offers Bluetooth functionality along with a Bluetooth receiver allowing it to connect with any non-Bluetooth device.  While I liked the receiver on these headphones, the headphones themselves did not fit well on my head, and I found they were not as comfortable as some of the others I had used.  Additionally, since they are held together by a semi-flexible band, which does not fold or wind up, it is somewhat unwieldy to carry around with me on a daily basis.

When I began using the Freepulse headphones, I absolutely fell in love with the ability to listen to a non-Bluetooth device wirelessly with the Bluetooth receiver.  Initially, I mistakenly believed that the receiver would only connect with the Freepulse headphones.  An astute JAMM reader pointed out, however, that there is an undocumented method which allows you to pair the receiver with any Bluetooth headphones.  I tested this solution and found that I could pair the Freepulse receiver with the Pulsar pendant control. 

Suddenly, I found myself over the first hurdle.  I was using my Plantronics Pulsar 260 to listen to music played over my non-Bluetooth media player via the Freepulse receiver.  After considerable testing with this, I realized that not only was the connection between the receiver and the Pulsar pendant better than the connection between the pendant and my Dell Axim, but there was no significant deterioration in sound quality when I paired the two together.

So, now that I had added the ability to connect my headphones wirelessly to my non-Bluetooth media player, the question shifted to how I could add the non-Bluetooth V-Moda Vibe headphones to this equation. 

My first solution was to simply plug the Vibe headphones into Pulsar pendant.  I quickly found that like a square peg, the 3.5mm plug simply will not it in the 2.5mm jack, no matter how hard you push (and I tried).  So, I determined an adaptor would be required.  I tried several 3.5mm to 2.5mm adaptors, however, all gave me the same results: mono sound in a stereo world.  This probably would have been the end of it, if not for a second astute JAMM reader.  This reader mentioned that the problem was likely the microphone connection in the Pulsar pendant.  Neither the adaptor nor the Vibe headphones had a microphone connection, however, the Pulsar pendant does.  This means the connections in the adaptor were not lining up properly.

Fortunately, our JAMM reader also pointed me in the direction of a solution: PPC Techs, they are one of the best resources for accessories for a myriad of devices.  They are also one of the few places most users will trust with any kind of repairs to their devices, including the always popular memory upgrade for the Dell Axim.

PPC Techs offered exactly the adaptor I needed.  A 3.5mm to 2.5mm plug adapter with a built-in microphone.  Now, not only would I be able to listen to music wirelessly with my Vibe headphones, but I would hopefully also have the added bonus of being able to answer telephone calls, a function which I had resigned myself to loose when I began this project.

After a mere three days of waiting (which probably would have been less if not for the fact that there was a weekend involved), the adaptor finally came from PPC Techs.  I would love to be able to tell you that this was the perfect solution, and everything works fine now.  Unfortunately, although it did work much better, it seems that the Pulsar pendant does not have a standard connection orientation, so the adaptor did not quite fit perfectly.  A little shimmying, however, solved this problem.  By not inserting the adaptor all the way into the Pulsar’s jack, it played stereo music like a dream over my V-Moda Vibe headphones.  Success at last!! At least until the plug shimmies itself out. 

So, now that this is all working relatively well, am I finished?  Have I designed the perfect headphones?  Well, yes and no.  For now, I have incorporated all of the elements that I had hoped to incorporate.  I doubt this project will ever be truly finished, however.  I am still hunting for an adaptor that will line up perfectly with the Pulsar jack so that I will not have to shimmy it about in order to get rich stereo sounds.

I also would like to test this setup with other non-native Bluetooth headphones such as the Bose in-ear headphones.  A comparison between the V-Moda Vibe and the Bose in-ear headphones would be extremely interesting (Bose has thus far refused to send me a sample pair of headphones to review).  Likewise, new stereo headphones are being released on an almost daily basis; while Bluetooth technology continues to grow and evolve.  As such, I am hoping to have the opportunity to review additional headphones and Bluetooth receivers (such as the Jabra BT8010 which has the amazing capability to switch between a mono headset and stereo headphone in second).  It will certainly be interesting to see how the FrankenPhones continue to change as technology improves.

Finally, my media player itself is now getting somewhat old.  While I love the enormous 20GB capacity, it will not sync with Windows Vista.  This means I cannot add new pictures or music to it.  Ultimately, I would like to be able to replace this player with something smaller and slimmer, which will connect to Vista.

Now, when people ask me what are my favorite headphones…well, my answer really has not changed at all.  I still like this feature from this one, and that feature from that one.  The only difference is that I have not managed to find a way to mash all of my favorite features from each headphone together into one monstrosity (and all without robbing any graves) of a FrankenPhone.

Technorati Tags: v-moda vibe - plantronics pulsar 260 - logitech freepulse - creative portable media center - ppctechs - frankenphone - just another mobile monday

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