NJ has passed a law soon to go into effect regarding no cellphone use while driving unless hands-free system is used.

In anticipation, I purchased a basic Plantronics earbud with boom mike unit that works wonderfully with my 7135, EXCEPT.....

I have a convertible automobile and I discovered given the recent warmer weather that with the top down, while I can hear the person calling me in the earpiece just fine, the mic is essentially useless given the road/wind noise. Cupping/shielding it with my hand doesn't help one iota and I'm tired of whipping off the headset to use the phone alone (and soon this will be illegal anyway).

Does anyone have any experience with another headset that might have a mike with a windscreen or some other means to combat this problem?

I had for my old cellphone a handsfree unit (not a headpiece) that was designed for convertibles with a special mike that clipped onto the visor--this worked quite well with the top down, as I just adjusted the visor towards my voice.

I'm not really annoyed, since I can still use the Plantronics unit outside of the car and it was relatively cheap ($20).

(There IS that odd occasional wind-generated noise in the earpiece while not in use that sounds almost like someone calling my name, but we won't go there...... )




Rich

I don't know if it works but my handsfree unit I had with my 6035 worked great. Like yours the mic clipped to the visor and I could move the visor down towards my voice like yours. You might want to try that not sure if it will fit the 7135 but something worth looking into.

__________________
Ice

The hands free for the 6035 won't work with the 7135. But the mic's are interchangeable. I used the mic for my 2035 hands free unit (same unit works with the 6035) with my 7135 Hands free unit. I don't know how well it will work with the top down. Maybe I'll try rolling down the windows and talking to someone my head sticking out the windows as a test.
mg

__________________
Luck is where opportunity meets preparation.

Look for a headset with a noise cancelling microphone. I use the Plantronics M117, but anything that says noise cancelling should work fine. Noise cancelling microphones will have two microphones at the end of a fixed boom just in front of your mouth. It is usually very hard to see both microphones because one or both may be just a small pin hole. One of the microphones should be pointed towards your mouth and the other pointed away from your mouth. Electrically these two microphones are out of phase 180 degrees. So, if both micorphones hear something equally well then that noise will be cancelled out (the motor or wind noise). Important operational fact, if the boom twists then make sure one of the microphones are aimed toward your mouth. The Plantroics M117 has a fixed boom therefore it is always positioned correctly. I use mine with a convertible and the noise cancelling feature works really well. I wish the headphone volume was a little louder, but I am a little hard of hearing anyway. You may find it fine. Buy one from Best Buy or whatever then test it. If it is not to your liking then return it.

It's one thing to cancel out the noise caused by wind and quite another to prevent the noise caused by wind hitting the mic directly. That's why you see those guys on TV using those mics with the huge muff on them.

The Jabra ProBoom claims that it is engineered for better wind noise elimination. I'd love to hear from someone trying it before I buy one (and put up with the useless amp/volume box that's attached in the cord). hint, hint,

-Quick

I remembered reading about a company that made specialty headsets. They have lots of patents in the area of hearing aids, and studio quality ear phones.

They also had unique technology in the area of noise reduction.

They just released a new product that is a cell phone head set, and hear's a review of the product.

Sounds like a winner( Sorry about that)

http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/etymoti...et-review.html

The ety.com headset sounds promising for use in a convertible. Anyone actually try them in a convertible?

I use the Jabra ear-gel hands-free thingie with the 2 inch boom that has a foam wind-blocker around the mic. It works fine when my top is down. It comes with 6 ear-inserts (3 right, 3 left) so you can find the right size for your ear.

-Warr

I can vouch for their stereo "earbuds" which I use when I fly (for substantial noise reduction) and when I listen to MP3s on my 7135. When I was first looking into getting them, I spoke with a very friendly and helpful person at Etymotic. I would expect that their cell phone head set would live up to those high standards. In fact, now that you mentioned it, I'm starting to think I might spring for it.

dL

Just ordered mine . This is *exactly* what I've been looking for. A really good in-the-ear headset without all the crap on the cord like volume control, mute, amp, etc. I was just about ready to try the Jabra proBoom planning to cut the amp out of the cord and splice it back together...

I have a set of Ety ER-4S earphones so I know what they are capable of and how ear canal phones feel and work (not for everybody).

-Quick

Quick, be sure to post to the thread your impressions.

I think that it will be some time before a substantially device is better than the 7135. So I expect to be using corded headset for a while.

I have to say that "The-Gadgeteer" site does a nice job reviewing a wide variety of products, so I'm leaning in the direction of ordering one of these very soon.

So, has anybody used the Etymotic headset in a convertible yet?

I just got mine. I don't have a convertible (can I borrow yours for a few weeks to test with? ).

Initial observations:

1) I had a hard time getting a tip to fit. Remember this is an ear canal ear piece. I have had a pair of the ER4s ear phones for years so I'm used to ear canal devices. The same tip I use on my ER4s' didn't work because the barrel part of the housing is about 25%? larger in diameter and won't fit past the opening of my ear canal. Apparently with the ear phones it goes slightly past the opening. The extended version of the same tip was way too long and the earset sort of flopped around on the end of it. The 2 flange standard tip seems to work fine. Not ideal, but fine with respect to function, stability, and comfort.

2) The earset is truly minimal. *Exactly* what I'm looking for. Extremely thin, light, boom and mic. *No* useless pod in the wire for all those useless things like volume, mute, amplifier, etc. (I've never owned a phone where the inline answer/hangup button worked and can't see a huge utility in that either).

3) It appears to be of the same outstanding construction and quality to be expected from Etymotics.

4) Sound volume. Excellent. I've noticed that the 7135 seems to have a low volume earset circuit. The regular plantronics that I've used many times in the past is too soft. So far, only the Jabra earsets have had good volume. Most of the time I've had the volume set towards the upper end (but not maxed). With the ear canal ear piece I am now setting the volume about in the middle.

5) Sound quality. Excellent. Of course you can't find much better in this field than Etymotics (ear piece speakers). It's not as "warm" as people may be used to but extremely accurate. There is that artifact common with ear canal phones of physical acoustic noise caused by the cord rubbing against your clothes etc. This can be eliminated by wrapping the cord (which is very thin and pretty flexible) around your ear. Cord comes out of the headset, goes up and over your ear lobe coming down behind your ear -- slightly twisting the cord the right way before clipping the clip to your shirt holds it in place quite well.

6) mic quality. Still testing. Haven't decided yet. Certainly works very well (that means better than 80% of the rest). Crisp, accurate reproduction. The noise canceling I haven't figured out yet. I sat in front of the TV. You could hear a "swishing/swiping" sound as the noise canceling eliminated the TV sound. Actually I don't think they did noise "canceling" but employed a very directional, short range mic so the TV sound wasn't being cancelled but was on the edge of being picked up or not picked up (yes, there is a difference but I can't describe it). In the car with the radio on I could hear the radio in the background clearly. Possibly more clearly than when I was sitting in the car! I think this was because having the window up or down had little effect. Sitting in the car I was listening to a lot more ambient noise than when listening to the voice mail. As I said I haven't figured out the "noise canceling" yet. My initial impression is that it sounded better in the car when I had the window down than when I had it up. When the window was up (and the car much quieter) there seemed to be a decent amount of background noise. No idea from where. Not really static, not real consistent, not sure... This background noise seemed present when at home as well. I will try to determine if it's a characteristic of the mic that it's super sensitive to some higher frequency sounds.

7) --- wind noise ---, so far, with cursory experimentation, only slightly better than your run of the mill mic. It doesn't come with any sort of foam piece you can slip over the mic. It does seem to be better in that the wind noise seems to be more consistent than other mics. My Jabra (the special one they did for VZW) is very bad in that if you turn so that the wind blows *into* the mic the effect is very intense. This occurs as the wind "eddys" around the mic at times too. The Ety seemed less prone to this variation and the wind noise was at least a bit more constant. I only got one sample in a very light breeze.

Comes packed in a very nice pouch... The pouch is too small to close without bending the boom. The boom is very flexible and looks like it will withstand constant bending but then you have to adjust it every time you put it on/in.

I need to use it for a good while now.

-Quick

Just as a follow up, I have yet to find a suitable headset to use in my Miata.

I have tried two more units that I ended up returning, one another Plantronics and a Jabra, but they both have the problem with the wind noise from the typical "eddying" one gets in a convertible auto pretty much not allowing the people on the other end hearing me.

I will probably now try hands-free products since my previous phone's worked excellently in my car. I think the positioning of the mike is critical, as my old phone's handsfree let me clip it on the visor, which I guess is out of the air flow.

I did see in a tech mag last month that someone will be coming out with a headset that has a sensor that rests against the user's face and electronically reads the vibrations of the user's voice, which then allows the mic to screen out wind and other interfering noises (it then intelligently knows each user's voice frequencies, rather than basing it on assumed noise frequencies) actively. Supposedly, the thing is foolproof since its adjusting to the user's actual voice in a real time basis.

One humorous note: I had referenced hearing voices in my original posting here with my first Plantronics (which I still have). I realized the other day that I'm actually hearing something real-- its the phone's voice recognition/voice calling software activating itself ("Say a Name" and "Exiting Voice Recognizer").....I think the wind noise at high speeds is being misinterpreted by the phone as the command to start this up, since I am not hitting any buttons.

I didn't realize one could activate it by voice command to start--I thought you had to hit the proper button!



Rich

-Quick

Does anybody know exactly what the difference is between Etymotic ER-22 and ER-22T? The web site says that ER-22T is for Treo600 – but does not say what the difference is. Can either be used with 7135?

I have 7135 and my wife has a Treo600 and I’d like to get a set that works on both.

Thanks!

It takes practice to learn how to adjust the mike, but when you get the hang of it, this headset is quite good.
They have a wide variety of inserts that can go into the ear. They can also set you up to have a custom made earpiece that is made by an audioligist.
One of their engineers also recommended that in a lound environment, it would be better to use one of their noise canceling earplugs in your opposite ear.
This would work great in a convertable car. I purchased the ER22 model of the ETY-Com headset

Anybody try a Harley Davidson store yet. I see motorcyclists with microphones on the front of their helmets. I would think if it works for motorcycles it should work in convertibles.

I use a plantranics headset. I don't care for Jabra in the ear.

The plantronics workds well except when I talk people comment that it sounds like there is a waterfall behind me. Other than that they can hear me fine...sometimes too loud.

Here is the link to the webpage about that new headset technology that I mentioned above---pretty cool if it works as well as they say it does!

http://www.jawbone.com/

now that it is convertible time again (finally).....

I purchased the boom (www.theboom.com). It works great in my convertible. The only drawback has been the magnet that holds the ear piece often comes off and goes into the nooks and crannies of the car. It uses noise cancelling. On the being heard side, I have found it to be the best. I recently tried playing the call through my casette deck with adapter recommended in a nearby thread. The person sounds great but they can't hear me too well....



cheers