First commentary on my new Nokia BH-905 noise-cancelling stereo bluetooth (and wired) headphones.
In one word...Spooky.
After opening the rather heavy and large box I found a large carrying case (made in Turkey), a charger, connector cable, extension cable and 5 adapter plugs. Truly, the box itself (without the innards) is heavy, but the BH-905 and it's case has some heft to it...a little more than I'd like to carry around all the time and just a little to big to fit into my computer bag.
After charging which took about 2 hours, I tried them on in my study. Ambient noise was my desktop computer and network laser printer.
Turning on the ANC (Active Noise Cancellation)...after about 1-2 seconds, it was like I was in an abandoned building with the power turned off--not a sound. Granted the computer and printer were primarily fan sounds so they were in the dominant noise bands and are almost entirely filtered.
Wearing into the living room with the TV going, I was still able to hear and understand the TV, but it was as if the audio with turned down 10x over what it was before.
I paired the BH-905 with my N97 and made a phone call to check my office voice mail. Call volumn was surprising clear though using the Options->Dialer to be able to send touchtones to the Audix system was intermittent as it is when using the N97 on speakerphone.
Taking the connector cord and plugging into my iPod nano was disquieting at first. The permanent plug on the end of the cable is for stereo+microphone (as if you were plugging into a phone), so I heard some garbage in the audio stream.
Finding the adapter to match the iPod, stereo was very clear and even bass response was good! I was bothered a bit since the plug+adapter gives about a 4" section of non-bendable stub.
** In retrospect, I would have preferred an angle adapter to save a little length.
Taking it to the office, it worked well to cancel out the fan noise of the HEPA filter under my desk and even the conversations in the next cubicle.
With ANC active and listening to music, I found the most value use of the BH-905....listening to your music at a low volume as background while ambient noise is cancelled out. I find loud volume music a bit tiring to my ears after a while.
Letting one of my co-workers try the headphones I found that he put them on with the band over the back peak of his head rather than across the top. This puts the earpieces (which do not rotate) in a position which don't completely cover the ear canal. Thus...you don't want to wear them exactly like you might other headphones.
I also found that as an "on-ear" headphone, if you have a warm body like me that they tend to get a little hot and make you sweat a bit (which is why I don't like to wear the "over-ear" style studio headphones).
I did have a little panic....while listening to music with ANC on I found that if I adjusted the left ear piece I had annoying piercing static in the left channel. With ANC off this doesn't happen. I guess that this is a drawback of the technology, so do your adjusting before you turn on the ANC.
The green LED that indicates that the ANC is on is a little hard to see, so you have to pretty much invert the headset when you take them off to ensure that you turn them off and save the battery.
No numbers yet on battery life...that will take a while to determine.
Also...nowhere on the box or in the multilanguage instruction manual (printed on CHEAP thin newsprint...why isn't there a laminated card with summary instructions?) is there a picture of where everything should go in the carrying case. I did find a place on the internet (not a Nokia site) which had a picture which was close to my guess as where to put which cable.
The charger is NOT USB or micro-USB so you'll have to carry it around with you.
Also, there was the familiar little 5" square black polishing cloth with the Nokia logo on it in the package, though there isn't much to polish up on the headset.
Bluetooth pairing was easy (after reading the instructions) and trouble-free with my N97.
More later!
