Accessories: Nokia BH-905 – The ultimate headset?
The BH-905 makes a pretty good partner for the N97 which has been said to have stellar voice quality, trumped only by the N91.
When you thing of a good headphone manufacturer, one of the last you may come up with is Nokia. But they maybe creating a new reputation for themselves amongst audiophiles with the upcoming Nokia BH905- which Nokia claim to be the ultimate headset.
As a headset (and not just headphone) in addition to music, you can also take phone calls – and if it’s anything like previous Nokia headsets, will transition seamlessly from voice call to your songs, and all easily manageable with the host of dedicated controls on this device.
The first thing I really liked about the BH-905 is in addition to being able to connect to your music via stereo bluetooth, you’ve also got the option to go wired with the provided cable. This means that not only can you hook it up to pretty much anything, particularly since it’s supplied with several adaptors but that with the option to go wired, you can extend usage time (up to 40 hours)- useful on a long haul flight – connect to the airline’s audio system whilst active noise cancelling drowns out the noise of the engines..and/or crying babies.
What’s even better, and came unexpected, is the BH-905′s focus on noise cancelling and audio quality. Check out the video below by Nokia Conversations:
The BH-905 has active noise cancelling, containing 10 microphones of which 8 are used for extreme noise reduction.
The more common method of noise cancelling is passive, requiring a vacuum tight insulation to prevent sound. (In utmost basic terms) with active noise cancelling, as ambient sound is received through a microphone, a signal is generated to create interference which “cancels” out the ambient noise. Nokia’s previous headsets have had one speaker to do this – the BH-905 has 8 to further reduce the noise.
The other two microphones are for voice calls – which in addition to other 8 microphones for noise cancelling means that the receiver of your call should experience a crystal clear call with a lot of the ambient noise cut out. No more screaming down the phone because the environment around you is too loud.
Styling wise, it’s like the old BH-604 but not as overtly plastic. The black/chrome/brushed silver combination is always welcome, looking pretty much like much of the Bose headphone line up.
Availability and Price
The BH-905 will be available in August 09. As for price – now here’s where you have to be a serious audiophile (or just loaded): 285 Euros! Whilst that’s probably just an entry level price for the real elite audiophiles, it’s one of (if not the) most expensive Nokia accessory to date.
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Technical Specifications:
Physical Features
- 180 mm x 155 mm x 59 mm
Weight
- 175 g
Operating keys
- Multifunction key for power on/off, answer/end, voice dial, and redial
- Volume up
- Volume down
- Play/pause
- Next track
- Previous track
- Active noise cancelling on/off
Connectors
- 3.5 mm Nokia AV connector
- Supporting adapters for:
- 2.5 mm Nokia AV connector
- Standard 3.5 mm jack
- Standard 6.3 mm jack
- Standard airplane jack
Operating temperature
- -15°C to +55°C
Power
- 10 m (Bluetooth use)
- Rechargeable 600 mAh Li-Ion Polymer battery
Operating time (maximum)
- Talk (Bluetooth): 24 h
- Music (Bluetooth): 25 h
- Talk (Bluetooth, with active noise cancellation): 15 h
- Music (Bluetooth, with active noise cancellation): 16 h
- Music (Wired, with active noise cancellation): 40 h
- Hands-free phone calls and music listening (without active noise cancellation) possible even with empty battery (wired connection)
Standby time (maximum)
- With Bluetooth: 600 h
Charging time (maximum)
- 2 h
Sound and Media
- From 15 Hz to 20 kHz
Additional sound and media information
- Speaker impedance: 32 ohm
- Speaker drivers: 32 mm high performance drivers
- Number of noise cancelling microphones: 8
- 2 microphones capturing speech and advanced digital signal processing (DSP) for clear communication
- Active noise cancellation technology: Reduces up to 99% background noise
Via Nokia.com
Jay Montano
chaslam
nokiacreative
llaadd
Sergejs Cuhrajs
Andy Harsent
John Wiegand-forson
Andre
Marc Lamarie
Hi,
Is their a price estimate for this? GBP ?
i tried it today. It does a good job in cancelling noise and i can hear very clearly the sound. However, when I try to speak to the caller, the headset picks up too much noise from the surround, thus the caller were having a hard time hearing me.
Price quoted roughly 300 USD
I have it for a week, the noise canceling is excellent, sound quality it top!
The only problem is the microphone quality – people hear me too loud on the other side of the line, I tried it with BlueTooth 1.x and with a BlueTooth 2.x
With gsm handset with BT 1.x the sound quality is “metallic” – too much compressed ?
With gsm handset with BT 2.x the sound quality is too loud – less clear, than without bluetooth.
Got it! and tested it to the extreme and my god this headphone is good! used it with my laptop ( Acer 5935g win7 ) also tried with Nokia 5530 Xpress music phone, Sony Walkman Nwz-a826 wirelessly using bluetooh and all worked beautifully. pairing was easy and very good connection comaparing to other bluetooth headphone’s. Sound is as good as you would expect for the price you pay and will beat most high quality headphone’s.
noise reduction works well but i think Nokia is playing a smart game on the design of the headset rather than just technology. Very comfortable and well adjustable. Looks very elegant. Charger will need an adapter for uk but you can get one for £1 i guess. volume level is satidfactory and very clear and deep bass. Even gave new life to my 5530 phone which had lower volume using other headphone. using wired connection was also exteremely good but if you use a 3.5 jack dont just plug in the lead supplied straight away as you may need to use the adapter provided as the one on the cable is designed to plug in to adapter first. bit confusing but you will work it so try the connectors supplied. i am very happy with the product and listening to music with a lot better qulity. one thing i would say is please be very careful when you are wearing this especially if you are out and about near traffic. it is unlikely you will hear anyone. Keep the volume down to prevent any damage to your hearing. I will give this 9/10 as design on the side is slightly bulky to keep it pusing towards the ears but it does look a bit bulky then again its good if you use glasses as BH905 leaves room over your ears even if you wear a goggles. thanks to Nokia for a perfect headphone. Go and buy it beofre they dissapear! Ali
Tried with Sony Ericsson W995 and again it works so well.
I will be testing my new iphone 3gs on 14/01/2010 and will update on the sound quality.
had for few months now ans still loving it in terms of sound quality. noise cancellation become an everyday thing and everything seems too noisey when i remove this. Interestingly i travel on the bus and train regularly and these BH905 does its best as you can not hear the train, the public or the annoying school kids on the bus! Only dissapintment is if you got a big head like mine and adjust the head set regularly the clips near the adjustment are not as strong as i managed to snap one side of it but got it fixed. When adjusted it looks quite bulky from the front angle but looks ok from sides.
Now tried with iphone 3gs and works really good and gives a new life to ipod and instantly the sound becomes crystal clear. My only annyance with iphone is that AVRCP ( audio video remote control proile is limited and only lets you do play, pause only no skip back or forward as of yet. You can adjust the volume as A2DP is good and maintains a very high level of volume. Best thing with BH905 is that when you use active noise cancellation you dont really need a lot of volume as all the noise is clear you can get every detail of audio so low volume gives you top clarity. I am happy with this but i think if Nokia makes the next version less bulky with stronger material than plastic that will hit the market big time. BH905 is the best and most comfortable headset and best bluetooth headset i ever had no doubt but again please do not use the active noise cancellation on the road, while cycling, near construction site or when crossing roads as this really blocks about 75% of the outside extra noises. I hope you buy one as price is dropping as low as £140 and its worth it if you love music without the hassle of wires. Apple please get on with sorting out AVRCP mess!