This is a review of Sennheiser EZX 80 wireless mono bluetooth headset. http://en-us.sennheiser.com/bluetooth-headset-smart-phone-headset-mobile-ezx-80#product_data
I have a feeling a number of you assumed it's going to be some new audiophile wireless headset from Senns after reading the title of my review. Why wouldn't you? The name Sennheiser is synonymous with some of the best audio headsets in the world. So imagine my surprise when I found out they also have a separate line of mono earset typically associated with smartphone users on the go. These type of mono (single ear) headsets used to be very popular back in the days when a law went in effect about using wireless headset when driving. Not too mention, it was always a staple of businessman and lawyers (Better call Saul). Today, most of the new cars have bluetooth integrated into headset but often only for a phone pair up, not always the audio media. Also, when you are driving in a car with other passengers and need to take a private call - holding a phone next to your ear is not the safest option. So with all that in mind, let's take a look at what EZX 80 brings to the table, or should I say - to your ear.
I always pay very close attention to a product packaging. In this case, I actually had to take a few extra pictures for my review because it looked just awesome with headset "floating" inside of the box. You can see a lot of attention was given to presentation of the product, and documenting every detailed feature of it on the packaging box itself. Just think about it, if you are in the store and looking at array of similar products - this will catch your attention on a spot, and without even opening the box you will familiarize yourself with every main feature of it. Once you take it out of the box, you notice right away how light this headset feels, only 11 grams. Despite light weight, it actually feels very solid in your hand and has different options to customize it's fitment. The main headset itself (50mm x 18mm x 8mm) has a very interesting earpiece design where you don't have a typical earphone nozzle with silicone tip going into your ear canal. Instead it looks like a protruding little speaker that will be next to your ear without going deep inside. It took me a minute to get used to it mentally, and then it becomes very natural and feels like you are wearing no headphones at all, although you do need an earhook. That removable/flexible earhook adjusts to right/left ear use, can turn 360 degrees, and has a bendable piece for a final adjustment behind your ear.
In addition to headset itself, Sennheiser guys also included a few useful accessories: a car charger and usb/micro-usb charging cable. Both are very unique in it's own nature. The car charger, rated at 500 mA which is more than enough for this headset, has a very slim top profile which means once plugged in it will be nearly flush with your power socket. Also, led light will be a power indicator. USB charging cable it short and can also serve as a holder due to its rigid bendable nature. You can also charge it from any usb charger source where a full charge from empty takes about 1:20h to give you 10h of talk time and 240h of standby. Furthermore, it also has a rapid boost charge where 10 min will give you 1:30h of talk time and 35 min will give you 5h of talk time. Once charged up, you can get a spoken battery level indicator by pressing and holding volume "+" button for 2s. The headset has minimum number of controls: main multifunction button, volume up/down, and a physical on/off switch which I found to be very important since in some other similar headsets you need to always guess if you turned it off or it went to sleep. Bluetooth pairing was quick, and I tested a distance range of 35ft.
With BT3.0+EDR support, this headset is not only for making calls, but also to listen to your phone audio since it supports A2DP, HSP, and HFP profiles. The switching between audio and picking up the call is seamless, but I do have to mention since earpiece is not sitting inside of your ear canal - the music sound doesn't have too much bass. The multifunction button is used to pick up and hang up the call, as well as to reject the incoming call. Also, you can redial or voice dial, transfer a call, hold the call, and reconnect lost connection - all that using a combination of multiple taps. Volume buttons, beside adjusting the sound level, also used to mute/unmute the sound and as mentioned above to check remaining battery capacity. Music can not be controlled from this headset, it just transmits passively and you can obviously adjust the volume. Actually this dual functionality of being able to stream music in addition to making calls will come very handy in the car where you can't stream audio from your smartphone to a stereo, and instead can use this headset for that functionality. Also, this headset supports multipoint pair up with 2 different sources. Just think about using it to stream audio from your smartphone, while it's paired up to your IP Phone at work where you can switch between two sources while wearing the same headset.
Overall, I was pleased to see that Sennheiser stayed true to their German engineering roots, and delivered a solid product backed by 2 year warranty. The idea of on-ear speaker might be new to some and will require to get used to, but at the end it will feel natural, although if you are serious about listening music you need to go with a quality in-ear sealed headsets and in-line remote. Another thing that might raise a question is a price. Currently being offered for $80, its more expensive than other mono headset in this category. Just keep in mind that you are paying extra for quality, extended warranty, and extra features. It would be the same as comparing headphones where some budget ones might cost half the price of Senns and one might argue they both deliver "sound", but you know which one has a better quality! I can't tell you it's a must have accessory for your phone, but if you are looking for this type of mono headset - add EZX 80 to your comparison since it's selection of features well worth it.
Here are the pictures.
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This is a review of Anker portable bluetooth 4.0 rechargeable speaker with multimedia controls: http://www.amazon.com/Anker-Portable-Bluetooth-Rechargeable-Handheld/dp/B00C4Q61Z6/
Once I opened this new portable speaker from Anker and started to read through Instruction Manual (which btw is VERY detailed!!!), the first thought that went through my head was how much functionality they cramped into one small multimedia speaker. With so many designs out there, you will be lucky to get Call pickup button in addition to volume up/down. Here, I think the only missing thing was a kitchen sink Let me go into more details.
First of all let's start with a design, a very attractive glossy cylinder shape with a speaker inside of the main body and 3 stand-off legs connecting to the base with controls. The shape is very comfortable to handle since this is a portable speaker which you might want to move around. And once you place it down - it will stay firmly on the surface thanks to it's non-skid rubber pad at the bottom. Along with a comfortable shape, also comes a comfortable weight of about 166g and dimensions of 60mm in height and 70mm in diameter. The round design and placement of the speaker makes the sound flow in every direction so you don't have to find an optimal position facing you directly. In the middle you have a strobing blue LED light which goes all the way around the speaker. Actually, I think there are two speakers hosted inside of the enclosure with a main treble sound coming from the top and a bass pumping from the bottom.
The controls on this unit cover all multimedia basis with separate buttons for play/pause/stop, volume up/down, and next/prev track skip. These buttons all double as other multimedia controls to adjust eq setting (normal, bass, treble), to mute/unmute the microphone (built in to accept your voice commands or just pickup a call and use this speaker as a speakerphone), and a lot of phone functionality such as voice dialing, answering/ending a call; redialing last number or rejecting incoming call, transferring a call from a speaker to a phone, and some more. This is a rechargeable speaker with an incredible battery life where according to Anker you will get about 8-10 hours of play time or up to 12 hours of talk time. As a mentioned before, it supports new low power bluetooth 4.0 standard and backward compatible with all other standards. Also, it supports HSP, HFP, A2DP, and AVRCP bluetooth profiles. If you want to use it as external wired speaker, you also get an option for Audio-input (Line In) which you can use with an included high quality 3.5mm male-to-male cable.
All this looks good on a paper, but the true test was to get a hands on experience with this speaker. As I expected, everything worked great! As soon as you turn on the speaker, a voice announces about the power being on, and once you pair up with a phone, voice also confirms a successful pair-up/connection. As much as I like the idea of this voice announcement, I wish there would have been a way to quiet it down or disable it (just my personal preference). Hitting Play button started default audio player right away, and I was able to adjust the volume, skip to the next/prev track, and adjust the EQ. I didn't spent too much time with call functions, but did confirm everything working as expected. The sound quality was actually very impressive for a speaker of this size. You can't obviously compare it to some other premium bt speakers that cost 5-6x times more, but still the sound was loud and clear and not tiny at all as you might expect from small speakers. As a matter of fact, it actually had a deep bass kick to it. At high volumes you can start to hear some distortion which was more noticeable with "bass" eq setting. But overall, I had no complains and was actually impressed to hear quality sound out of such small speaker.
I think this speaker would be a great enhancement to any smart phone, which brings multimedia controls to external sound without a need to even touch the phone, to use it as a speaker phone, or to use it in your car placed inside of a cup holder for streaming music without a need for any wired audio connection to your head unit. And did I mention this little guy cost $35.99 with free shipping? And as always, you get 18-month warranty from Anker which you can't beat. I definitely highly recommend this external rechargeable speaker!
Here are the pictures.
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This is a review of Anker BT4.0 Headset with Charging Dock: http://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Bluetooth-Headphone-Charging-Microphone/dp/B00CIRGHQO/
When I received this new Anker product for review, the first thing that popped into my head was "I haven't used this type of small single wireless headset in 4-5 years". Will I even have a use for it now? Then, I started to analyze my daily routine. When I'm in my car I have bt through car audio, all great when you need to make/receive a quick call, but how many times I've been in situations where other people sit in my car and I needed to make a private call. Or how many times I needed to join a conference call in my car on a way to work and couldn't because noise cancellation of that setup is not adequate. Or I lost a count of how many times I had to call my wife to clarify shopping list while I'm at the store holding my Note 2 with one hand while pushing the cart with other hand. Then I realized, damn - I really need this headset!!! Once I started testing it, I also realized how far along they came with a technology and how much of that is offered with Anker new Headset for the price which is probably 1/2 of some of the other well known brand names.
Let me first start by saying how light this headset is: at 7g and the length of about 2.2in it's featherlight and hardly noticeable when in your ear. To extend this comfort, it comes with 2 pairs of ear-tips with two sizes of stabilizers and a bonus of two detachable thin plastic ear-loop attachment that very discrete looking and will enhance secure fit even further, for example if you planning to go running, etc. The headset comes with a single multifunction call button that you use to pickup/hangup calls, long press for pair up, and use for other functions to reject the call, redial last number, transfer call from headset to a phone, or voice dial. I was especially pleased with voice dialing. Tap it once and say "Call #", follow it with saying "OK" or "Cancel" and off it goes. Furthermore, you have a volume up/down rocker which is used to adjust the volume or to mute the call when pressed simultaneously. Wireless connection supports up to 33 feet distance. Since this is Bluetooth 4.0 and it supports HSP, HFP, and A2DP protocols - you can also listen to music from your phone. That is another huge bonus - once paired up, headset is connected to the phone and media audio. So you can listen to music or stream radio or follow navigation with turn-by-turn voice direction. The phone also supports multi-point connection to allow it being used simultaneously with 2 paired phones. Furthermore, it has standard micro-usb charging port where a full charge will give you about 5 hours of talk time. But once you are in standby mode, it can last up to 100 days.
This brings me to one of the most unique features of this headset - the charging dock. The headset snaps to it magnetically with zero alignment effort. The charging dock itself has a side micro-usb port to charge the headset as well. What makes it very interesting and takes it to another level of usefulness - as soon as you snap headset to a cradle it goes into sleep mode and disconnects from your phone. Just think about it, if you are done with your call in the car or at home, you probably just put your headset down and continue draining it's batteries while still being paired up to your phone. Turning it off or un-pairing from the phone takes multiple steps and time effort. Here, all you have to do is bring it next to a cradle and it snaps in by itself going to sleep to preserve its battery life and leaving your phone unpaired. But once you hear someone calling you on the phone, you have an option to answer it from the phone or just pickup the headset which literally within a second pairs up with your phone. I don't have experience with any other newly released headsets of similar type and don't know if some of them might have a similar functionality, but I can guarantee those will cost a lot more money and some might not even offer 18-months warranty like Anker does. For an additional convenience, the Charging dock has an option on the back with 2 included attachments, one with a sticky side and another one with universal car vent clip. Just another well thought of bonus.
Sound quality was decent. While making calls, I heard people loud and clear, and nobody complained on the other side either. Playing music was not bad either. The sound was clear and stayed undistorted all the way to the max volume setting. One thing to keep in mind, this headset is intended for phone calls as primary function, so there is no dedicated multimedia controls.
Overall, I was very impressed with functionality and build quality of this product. I can even say - I rediscovered it's functionality all over again If you are shopping for single headset and looking at other popular brand name versions, I would seriously consider giving this $29.99 headset from Anker a serious look.
Here comes pictures.
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I agree, I just received this headset and I am pretty happy with it also.
The charger is what did it for me.
For the price I can't imagine anything better at this time.
+1
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda app-developers app
I just received my Anker a couple if days ago so here are my observations.
I drive a tour bus and run a small business so I run the gamut on conditions to test in.
Sound is loud and clear and I didn't receive complaints about how I sounded. One thing I didn't like but I'm not sure if it's a function of the phone (Note 2) or the headset but the call waiting beep overpowered the person on the other end so that I couldn't hear them and had to ask them to wait a second and repeat what they said. Notifications like that should be in the background so you know they are there without interrupting your current call.
The fit sometimes feels like it's going to let the headset fall off but it's more secure than you think once you get it right. I didn't use the ear hook during this time.
I do wish the headset would natively read text messages like Blueant headsets do instead of needing a third party app.
Overall, for $30 it's a good value. I had considered another Blueant or even the Bose (only at BT 2.0) headset but am happy with my choice so far.
Sent from my SCH-I605 using xda app-developers app
This is a review of Bolse 12W Smart NFC Bluetooth wireless speaker. http://mybolse.com/product/detail_B00L4IDA04.html - the speaker is already available on Amazon UK, and soon will be available on Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/Portable-Bluetooth-Speaker-Function-Playtime/dp/B00L4IDA04/
I have reviewed a lot of wireless speakers, and have been impressed with either their design, or sound quality, or controls, or compact form factor. I can always find something positive and negative about each one, but never have I came across a speaker where I can't even think of one negative comment. But all this changed when I received a review sample of the new Bolse 12W wireless speaker. I'm not hyping it up, but honestly telling you that Bolse came up with a perfect combination of every feature you can think of to include in a portable wireless speaker. And to top it off, they still were able to keep it's pricing under $50. Here is what I found.
The speaker arrived in a nice compact package with a clear description of it's VERY impressive spec. With dimensions of about 7"x3"x2" it looked very compact and easy to handle with one hand, but once you pick it up you do realize a nice 15oz weight to it. This extra weight comes from two quality 6W 40mm drivers packed inside of this little monster. Drivers of such caliber are typically found in over-the-ear headphones. Closer examination of BTS-12 revealed a plastic frame surrounded by front and rear metal mesh grills. Both 40mm drivers are front facing, and rear panel has a bass port functionality. The bottom of the speaker has 4 rubber feet for a non-slip grip with a surface. All the controls are located at the top, and all the ports on the back at the top. Among included accessories there was usb to micro-usb cable, 3.5mm male to male audio cable, a nice velor drawstring storage pouch, and a detailed instruction manual.
Starting with ports on the back, you actually get a physical on/off switch which is very refreshing to see when so many other companies cramp up controls under multi-function buttons. Here, you know for sure when speaker is on and when it off. Another great thing, once you turn it on - there is no annoying guidance voice. Next to the power switch is a standard micro-usb charging port. And speaking of charging, this speaker has a whooping 2000 mAh battery that enables up to 15 hours of playback!!! To use this speaker with non-Bluetooth devices, you have Line In port which you can use with included audio cable. If that wasn't enough, Line OUT port is right next to it which allows daisy chaining of this speaker to another wired or wireless speaker or connecting headphones. One thing you have to realize, this Line OUT port can turn ANY other connected speaker into a wireless speaker. You can consider that as a bonus feature!
The control buttons on the top are equally impressive with touch controls. These are not physical buttons, but a backlit touch buttons, each one assigned to a specific functionality except for a lock button. You get a separate touch button to pick up a call, a dedicated volume up/down buttons, a play/pause button, and skip next/prev buttons. Long press of skip prev locks touch controls so you don't bump them accidentally, and double tap releases the lock. So many other speakers include just a volume up/down and phone control, and that becomes very inconvenient because you have to go back to your phone to play/pause or to skip the track. Here, you have a full remote control of the playback. Also when you receive a call, you can use BTS-12 as a speakerphone.
When it comes to a wireless connection, you have two ways to pair it up with your phone or tablet. Either using direct Bluetooth pair up or NFC area on the speaker (labeled with an icon on the top) worked flawlessly to pair up with my Note 2. Once paired up, it gets connected to both phone and media audio so you can enjoy the sound from this powerhouse speaker 20-25ft away from your phone or tablet. I'm sure you all are curious how does it sounds. Thanks to a total of 12W of combined power between each speaker, it filled up our big family room and I was still able to hear the music 2 rooms down the hall. I actually found the music to be more enjoyable and clear once you take a few steps away from the speaker. That's where you appreciate a clear detailed sound with a punchy bass. As expected from such drivers, the bass didn't have powerful enough sub-bass extension, but I still heard a nice bass punch and a warm deeper layer to make music sound full and enjoyable.
Overall, I was VERY impressed with Bolse BTS-12 speaker and think it represents one of the best values currently available on the market. Everything from touch control panel with a complete playback, volume, and phone controls, the convenient of BT and NFC pair up, an impressive 2000 mAh battery which supports 15hrs of playback to physical on/off switch and both Line In and Out, and being able to keep all this under $50 - this speaker definitely gets my high recommendation!!!
Here are the pictures.
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this is simply great !
shivam2004 said:
this is simply great !
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's among the best I tested. Heard Amazon US will have about 30 units for sale toward the end of this week, and more coming next month.
Hi Vectron. Would you suggest me buying this one or the UE Boom Mini, which costs just 10$ more?
I think this one would be louder and has bluetooth 4.0 and 4''driver.
The UeE has 1,2'' drivers and bluetooth 2.1
nessuno1234 said:
Hi Vectron. Would you suggest me buying this one or the UE Boom Mini, which costs just 10$ more?
I think this one would be louder and has bluetooth 4.0 and 4''driver.
The UeE has 1,2'' drivers and bluetooth 2.1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bolse is definitely better!
This Bolse 12W bluetooth speaker use to be thelove of my life!?
Now she dont work no more?
Only had it a year and I plug it in to charge and eveyrthing seems ok
but then when I try to pair it nothing. Not even any signs of life.
Do you think the battery has died? I cant even see how to open it
up without wrecking the nice steel gauze speaker covers?
Maybe that way Id be able to see if something has come loose?
Anyway would appreciate feedback, let me know if you or anyone else for that matter has experienced same or similar problems and has solutions?
Cheers and thanks in advance
leahcimewol said:
Now she dont work no more?
Only had it a year and I plug it in to charge and eveyrthing seems ok
but then when I try to pair it nothing. Not even any signs of life.
Do you think the battery has died? I cant even see how to open it
up without wrecking the nice steel gauze speaker covers?
Maybe that way Id be able to see if something has come loose?
Anyway would appreciate feedback, let me know if you or anyone else for that matter has experienced same or similar problems and has solutions?
Cheers and thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why not contacting manufacturer, maybe they can help you?
hmm yes might try that, its just sitting gathering dust and taking up space in a drawer!? cheers
Bolse a tiny speaker with a huge sound
This is a review of Monster SuperStar wireless speaker. http://www.monsterproducts.com/speakers/superstar/
It takes a lot of confidence to label your product "The world's smallest audiophile speaker". That's exactly how Monster refers to their latest wireless speaker. I do have to agree, it's among the smallest speakers I have tested, considering a unique flat rectangular footprint with rounded corners resembling a smartphone shape. I also have to agree that it has a very detailed clear sound, not typical for wireless speakers. Here is more about this little SuperStar!
Following their flashy tradition, you don't expect anything less from Monster product packaging where SuperStar doesn't disappoint with a high quality box, detailed graphics, plenty of description, and traditional magnetic flap cover revealing a gift box setting of the product inside of it. In addition to a speaker, a usb to micro usb cable and storage drawstring mesh pouch was included. There is no exaggeration, but the speaker is small!!! Weighting only 230g and 140mm x 75mm x 22mm it had a footprint smaller than my Note 2, and about double in thickness. It was small enough to fit in the palm of my hand, and soft rubbery texture felt very good to the touch which also should help to absorb a shock if dropped. Furthermore, the speaker has IPX-4 rating for water splash protection, so you will be safe around the pool or at the beach as long as you don't submerge it into the water. Also, the speaker itself was designed to work placed flat on the surface or in a sturdy upright position.
A closer examination of the speaker revealed some very unique design details. First of all, it has 2 top firing drivers placed in the corners under the perforated grill. In the center on the top and the bottom of the speaker you have a pair of cleverly designed passive bass radiators to enhance low frequency performance of SuperStar. One of the main problems with small speaker enclosures is not being able to fit enough of regular active drivers to cover a low frequency sound. Some speakers use bass ports to direct the sound outside through some clever filtering, while in here you get a pair of passive radiator cones pumping the air out. Don't expect an earth shattering bass you can feel, but you will be surprised to hear a decent bass punch with injection of sub-bass to make sound feel solid. With a lot of the smaller speakers, you typically get a thin high frequency sound or muddy bass distortion, but with SuperStar you get a well rounded detailed clear sound. As a matter of fact, I pumped it up to a max volume and experienced minimal distortion, only noticeable in low frequency range due to exaggerated pumping of radiator ports.
For sure, this speaker sounds VERY good for its size and has clarity surpassing a lot of other speakers I have tested before. Beside sound quality itself, you also get an impressive volume level where I compared it to another 12 Watt wireless speaker I recently tested and found SuperStar to be louder. Another big advantage is the use of Apt-X codec which helps transmit audio wirelessly without too much of bandwidth compression. It really felt like listening to a wired speaker. Speaking of that, there is 3.5mm Input port if you want to connect this speaker to your mp3 player or devices that don't support bluetooth. The port is located on the side and has a rubber flap to keep it's IPX-4 certification. On the other side of the speaker, there is micro USB port with a flap cover for battery charging and also for audio-over-usb connection. The battery should last about 5-6hr at moderate volume use, and micro-usb port also doubles in functionality to be connected to compatible devices where you can send audio through usb port.
Now, let's talk about the actual wireless performance. It wasn't very clear to me if it supports BT3.0 or 4.0, but regardless of that pair up with my smartphone was flawless, and it easily covered 30ft of operating distance. You have 4 dedicated sealed buttons on the top for power, volume up/down, and bluetooth, two led lights for power and bluetooth indication, and mic opening. Pushing Power turns the speaker on and pushing Bluetooth either puts it in a pair up mode for the first time or starts pair up if there was some issue with disconnect. Once paired up, it shows up connected to your phone and media audio, so it can be used to play audio from the phone as well as functioning as a speakerphone with a build-in mic. Volume adjustment is self explanatory. There is also one hidden control which is not obvious and you can only learn about it from manual. Bluetooth button actually functions as Play/Pause button where during a playback a short press will pause and resume playing the song.
Overall, I was a little skeptical when I approached this review thinking it's going to be another "small" speaker claiming to have "big" sound. But as soon as I paired it up and start playing music, I realized it wasn't just an empty promise. This speaker truly does sound great, it looks very cool, has unique design elements with passive bass radiators, hidden playback control (only play/pause, though I would have liked to see track skip next/prev as well), and audio over usb playback. The negative comment I have, which could be a matter of a personal preference, I don't like voice guidance announcing "power on", "paired up", "power off/goodbye". It provides a clear feedback of functionality, but I wish it could be disabled. Price tag is a bit steep, currently on sale for $129.95 where $99.99 would have been a more reasonable price in my opinion. At the same time, you are paying a premium for its unique features packed into a very small footprint. Personally, I was very impressed with this wireless speaker and would definitely recommend it if you want a loud detailed sound and a design to make you stand out from a crowd!
Here are the pictures.
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This is a review of Don Scorpio DP-H1 Smart BT wireless headphones/receiver. http://penonaudio.com/DONSCORPIO-DP-H1 and from Penonaudio in their ebay store: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Donscorpio-...23188290?pt=US_Headphones&hash=item58b6c07542
Every time I post a new review of wireless headphones, it always ends up generating a lot of attention. Wireless headphones give us a freedom of cutting the "umbilical" cord attached to our phones so we can move without worrying about pulling the headphone wires or enjoy outside activities with a phone out of sight. That is a reason why so many wireless headphones I reviewed were geared up toward active lifestyle where a sound quality is not the highest priority. Usually it's not an issue with a bass since most of these headphones are bass-heavy to get you pumping during the workout. The problem comes up with clarity of mids and treble without being able to hear details of vocals and other instruments. Unfortunately, that's where most of these wireless headphones fall short and require some heavy EQing. You can certainly correct a lot of sound problems with EQ, but it also becomes annoying to keep adjusting the sound when you switch to another pair of headphones or want to listen to your phones built-in speaker. That is a reason I'm constantly on look up to discover and to test new wireless headphone options. The new one from Don Scorpio just raised a bar pretty high! Let's take a closer look at what I found.
For those familiar with my Don Scorpio Dolphins review, you already know how much I was impressed with a design and a sound quality of those "fun" headphones. So naturally when I heard they released a new product, it got my attention. This wireless headphone/receiver combo arrived in a nice little package with a clear all around display presentation. Though the box has only Chinese text, I was pleased to find a set of bi-lingual instructions included with accessories. In addition, they also included 4 sets of replaceable eartips and usb to micro-usb charging cable. Of course, the star of this package was DP-H1 unit which consists of two parts. You have a wireless BT4.0 receiver and a set of headphones with a short 0.6m cable. The whole idea of this smart gadget it to be able to use included combo as a wireless headphone set or to unplug included headphones and attach any of your own headphones turning them into wireless. As a bonus, Penonaudio includes a free extension 3.5mm cable ($10 value) which is actually a high quality OFC cable.
The wireless receiver itself is shaped like a pack of gum, only 3" in length. It's made out of plastic and has a very solid build. As I mentioned before, it has a clip on the back to attach to your cloth, if necessary. At the top there is 3.5mm headphone jack to plug in any pair of headphones. On one side you have skip next/prev, play/pause, and a power buttons - those are clearly shaped and easy to id even without looking at it, just by touch. The other side has micro-usb charging port and volume up/down buttons with up button having a little raised bump to id without looking at it as well. On the front side you have a round "call" button with Don Scorpio signature shape and also a little speaker opening. YES, it has a tiny speaker!
When you pair it up, it connects both to your phone and media audio. Bluetooth connection was seamless and you get a guided voice to confirm pair up. I also tested the connection over 30m distance without any problem. When you receive a call and use attached headphones, you push the Call button and speak into the unit (where mic is located) while listening to conversation through headphones. But if the headphones are not plugged in, you just bring it up to your ear and use it like a portable wireless headset where you can hear the other person from that tiny speaker which is actually loud enough when you bring it close to your ear. I never seen such flexibility in any of the devices I've tested before! The sound was very clear on both sides of the connection.
We are typically not as critical when talking on the phone, as long as we can hear the other side loud and clear without interruption or background noise. But when it comes to critical audio listening, just a basic wireless connection is not enough. So how do these sound playing music? First of all let me start by mentioning that Don Scorpio included a set of high quality headphones with an evenly balanced smooth sound. They do look like Don Scorpio Bass Color in-ear headphones, but it's just a resemblance of outer shell. These are not bass heavy at all. Paired up with a receiver, these headphones sound really good with excellent level of clarity and details across entire frequency spectrum, and the bass was not as boomy, but rather had a nice punch with some sub-bass texture support. What is great, I was also able to unplug these headphones and compare how they sound wired when plugged directly into my phone.
You don't get this chance with other wireless headphones where receiver is permanently attached and you have to accept the sound as is. In addition, I was also able to plug in a number of my other hi-fi multi-driver headphones, turning them into wireless headsets and being able to compare how they sound wired versus wireless with DP-H1. To my pleasant surprise, they retained almost an identical sound signature from mid-bass to mid-treble. The only difference I noticed was a lesser quantity in sub-bass and some upper treble roll off when used wirelessly. That was expected considering wireless transmission compresses the sound, but I didn't expect how little the sound going to be degraded, only affected at the bottom of low end and the top of high end. I have tested a few similar BT receivers in the past, and found sound to be butchered where all the details of high frequencies were gone and low end sounded muddy. With DP-H1 the best part of the sound was preserved!
Overall, I was impressed with this wireless receiver, or I should probably call it "transceiver" since it's not just a one way receiver for the audio but also a transmitter which allows you to control playback of your music (play/pause/skip) and to use its mic for phone calls. It has a flexible functionality to turn any attached headphone or a speaker into wireless, or turning a speaker into a speakerphone. You can even use it standalone without headphones to pickup a call and hear the other person thanks to a tiny built in speaker. Included headphones are great, though with a short cable you can use it only plugged into DP-H1 or use an included free extension cable otherwise (only offered from Penonaudio). But the most important feature of DP-H1: it doesn't degrade a sound too much, preserving most of the details when receiving audio wireless from your phone. For under $40, this is definitely a bargain!
Here are the pictures.
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