Bluetooth Plantronics Pulsair 590A

Ohoooo! Time for a new PC hardware related blog. Nothing extreme though, just a pair of headphones. Basically, over the past year or so I changed quite a few headphones and I wasn’t 100% happy with any of them. I tried a few Logitech, I tried the Steel Series, Razer, Creative ones. I liked the Creative gaming headphones more or less, but still I wasn’t overly impressed. The reason of so many changes was that the majority of current headphones do press against my ears enough to cause discomfort from just a few hours of gameplay or music listening as I am wearing glasses. Lately I did also feel the need for wireless headphones, so I decided to see if Bluetooth headphones can fit my needs. As time wasn’t particularly something I was short of for the past few months, I did my home work well in researching what to buy. As they say – measure 7 times and cut once, and reading about the Plantronics 590A, seemed exactly what I needed – portability, long battery life with excellent sound specs – 20hz to 20Mhz.

My main purpose was to be able to walk around the house and listen to music from my laptop, or media centre, get the same headphones with me and connect them to my HTC mobile, play games, use them for skype and occasionally conect them to TV if I need to, without bothering anyone around. Isn’t it too much you may ask? I am sure it is, but thanks to Bluetooth – it’s all possible.

So I ordered the kit and have been using it for the last few months and finally decided to make a quick report on my impressions. Well to start with, they aren’t the cheapest, however you feel like the money have been well spent from the moment you open the box. It comes with a lot of different cables for different needs as well as a carry around box which feels quite solid as you can see below.

Lets break it down as what they are all about and how to they fit into the today’s needs.

PCs and Laptops. All the modern laptops come with Bluetooth, so pairing is simple – just a few button clicks, enter the difficult to remember password ‘0000’ and job is done – play games, use them for Skype, listen to music – everything. And if the Bluetooth response time is not good for your gaming – you get a 3.5mm jack cable from Plantronics where you can plug it into your high end gaming card and you can then take advantage of all the advanced gaming effects. Personally I haven’t noticed any sound delays, so I never had to use the supplied 3.5mm jack cable. Additionally, if you plan to use this method, please note you won’t find it very useful if you do a multiplayer round as the mike doesn’t get connected via the 3.5mm jack.

Mobiles. Again, Bluetooth is not something any mobile will lack today and as my windows HTC mobile phone doesn’t take normal headphones – I was limited to the standard supplied ones as the sound connection is made via the mini-USB socket, but thanks to the Plantronics Pulsar 590A I can connect in both modes – Hands-free and Wireless Stereo, getting to listen to music while on the go and if someone rings, the music will get paused and the call can be taken by a simple touch of the button on the headphones. The mike is very sensitive, I must warn you – sometimes too sensitive and people can hear everything around.

TV and media centre. The kit comes with a special Bluetooth adapter, that plugs into the 3.5mm jack and with a simple button press gets the headphone paired and you are all set for watching the late night TV without waking up anyone around…

The overal wireless experience has been great – loss-free sound transmission with pretty good range and no radio interference of any kind as well as superb battery life. The other not less important factor that makes me recommend these headphones is the fact that they are foldable, so you can easily carry them around, especially useful if you plan a long flight and you don’t want the headphones to take much of your space at the same time.

Battery life is over 10 hours of constant music play, so it’s more than enough for any single day and the recharging is quite short too – never had a problem. I am particularly happy with the fact that Plantronics has thought the charging process pretty well, so it provides a classy base for charging as well as allowing the while-in-use charging via the supplied USB-charger cable, so even if you find yourself in the middle of gameplay with the dying battery – you just simply connect them to charge and carry on having fun.

Last, but not least, Plantronics designed these headphones with the spectacle wearers in mind – light and flexible – now I can listen to music all day and no pain!

The overal experience from this little gadget has been faultless and I couldnt be happier to be honest so I can strongly recommend it for gaming and modern digital media needs to anyone that needs wireless headphones. Bear in mind that I am quite difficult to please. Or so I heard…

Please feel free to comment and share your experience with Bluetooth headphones and thanks for reading