Impressed, but not impressed
593666
As you are shopping for this, you will note that it has an accessory called a lifter.  This product should come with the lifter,  it should not be an accessory.  None of the product info explains what a lifter is, or what it does.  Without the lifter every time you make or receive a call, you will have to lift the receiver off the phone you have paired this with and set the receiver down on your desk.  The purpose of a device like this is to keep your hands free.  Without the lifter, you are using one hand to turn the headset on, and one to  take the phone off the hook.  When I discovered this I bought the lifter.

 The operation of the lifter reminds me of something out of the Flintstones.  You have to Jimmy-rig it to the phone with double stick tape.  Ultimately after some trial and error, 20 minutes, and my own extra supply of double stick tape I got it to work clumsily.  You can set the amount of clearance you need to lift the receiver off your phone, but even at the minimum setting  lift it lifts about 1 1/2" too high.  When it gets this high the phone handset totters precariously on the lifter to the point when I dial out I have to be very careful not to knock the receiver clear off the lifter.

 I am really surprised Planatronics does not have one integrated device that does not have to tie into your existing phone, and  that has its own dial-er.  This is how Steve Jobs would have done it.  This motivated me to look around for other solutions.  What I found is that if you want a wireless head set this is the best solution.  So as Micky Mouse as this is, its the best thing available, it does work, and the sound quality is very high.
2245988
After using this for a few weeks, I'm underwhelmed.  This is not Makita's best effort.  I recently invested in some Makita LXT tools (which are great) and I wanted to maximize my investment by replacing my cheap Black & Decker BDH2000SLB vac with the Makita so I only have one set of batteries and chargers.  It hasn't worked out as I hoped, and here are the reasons why...

CON:
* Suction is poor, compared to the $38 Black & Decker.  The B&D has almost twice the suction that traps your hand against the nozzle almost like a fullsize vac.  The Makita is weak and wimpy by comparison.  Those who praise this model's suction must not have compared to other decent hand vacs.
* Expensive - costs more than twice as much as the B&D and is half as strong - I expect to get better for the Makita premium price, not worse.
* Dumb spring-loaded trigger switch must be continually held.  B&D has a slide switch that makes much more sense.  If you vacuum for an extended period with the Makita, you have to switch fingers as they get fatigued.
* Poorly designed filter with little surface area that easily gets clogged, and hard to clean.  I find a paint brush works ok to clean, but the B&D has an automotive-style pleated filter that you can just whack against the inside of the garbage pail, much more dirt capacity, resists clogging, and easier to clean.
* Poorly designed dirt compartment attachment.  Perfectly round with no keys, so it's possible to place it in the wrong position where it won't latch.  Dumb.

PRO
* If you already have Makita LXT tools/batteries/chargers then this vacuum can use the same batteries
* Comfortable rubberized handle
* Nice that it comes with an extension and floor attachment.  If it had more suction power, the floor attachment would work much better tho.
* Fairly quiet for a vac of this type.

Now before you rush out to buy the Black and Decker, that also has some annoying design flaws: the air exhaust is directed straight down at the back, where it scatters whatever you're trying to vacuum up, doh!  And it makes a really high-pitched and loud noise like a screaming banshee.  So, it's not perfect either, but once you learn to always move forward over the mess instead of backward, and if you wear earplugs, then at least you get really strong suction for your money with the B&D.  Ah well, must keep searching for the perfect hand vac...
2951072
I just received my IM510 speakers tonight.  If you haven't seen this at a store and order it online, you may well be surprised at how small and light this unit is.  I honestly was expecting the sound quality to be much, much worse based on the look and feel of the case.  Imagine my surprise when I turned on my Sansa and heard surprisingly full sound coming out of this little box.  Right now I'm playing music in the next room through the IM510; while I wouldn't confuse the sound as coming from my home stereo, these speakers still sound pretty good even from the next room.

When I say these speakers sound "good," however, I mean that they don't sound overly lean or thin.  These things don't exactly deliver audiophile sound -- not even close to neutral.  The midbass is exaggerated, more than likely to cover up for the lack of real low bass.  The highs are recessed as well -- not a bad thing when you consider that a mellower tone is much more pleasant to listen to long term than one that's bright and agressive.  The overall sound quality, therefore, is on the "tubby" side -- sort of slow and bloated.  It's certainly good enough for casual enjoyment, but I wouldn't want to spend a lot of time listening to things on a regular basis.

In comparison, you can get much better sound quality from a decent pair of headphones that list and retail for a similar price.  While the Altec Lansing IM510 is a convenient and decent portable speaker solution for the Sansa e200 line of players, the price is beyond reason for the sound quality delivered.  I'm not unhappy with my purchase because I did want a lightweight speaker solution for travel with my Sansa; I just think these things should cost about half what they do.

Update on 8/6/07:

I didn't notice this defect when I first hooked up my speakers a couple of weeks ago, but I now notice a high pitched ringing noise that emanates from the unit.  It's likely some power supply noise since it makes some amount of noise even when it's turned off; it is louder when my Sansa is connected and the Altec Lansing is turned on, though, and it gets a little quieter when I touch a control on the Sansa.  Unfortunately I prematurely had thought I was satisfied with the unit so I threw away all of the packaging and have no way to return it now.  Fortunately the noise isn't so loud that it drowns out the music, so I guess I'll still be able to enjoy the unit while traveling.  I definitely don't want to hear this high pitched noise on a regular basis, however, so I doubt I'll use this unit much at home.  I downgrade my rating to 2 stars and cannot recommend anyone buy this unit given that I don't think this noise is an individual defect since it was mentioned by at least one other reviewer.
3165921
Well, I'm glad I got it, but I'm not crazy about it. Sound quality is -- pretty good for the price, but not great. The plastic it's made of seems cheap and brittle to me, but maybe I'm just too picky.

My main thing is that the user interface is just bizarre. I haven't bought this kind of equipment for quite some time, but surely things haven't changed so much in the intervening years that it's nearly inscrutable -- ?? For example, there's a button labeled "Standby," which is the on/off button. Where the heck did that come from? In the off position, a tiny red light is on at all times. That seems odd to me -- I don't need a light to tell me it's off when no lights would work just as well, although I guess that does help you distinguish between Off and a power outage, if that's important to you.

Another thing that annoys me is that some functions are only accessible via the remote control. And wehereas the unit has more light indicators than needed, the remote has no lights at all -- you can't tel if it's on, off (I think it's on all the time) to let you know if the batteries are any good or not, and when you press a button, no light then either.

Like I said, I'm glad I've got it, but it's -- bizarre.
3685564
Okay, so, I know that once again, I am buying the cheapest product and getting frustrated, so let me start out with that.  I bought this in hopes that I could take my video camera to our church camp this year and record the kids for a video for our camp.  I've done some experimenting with it on our local sports field during some of our church extracurricular activities (ultimate frisbee and football).  I think the only thing I can really say is that the microphone does help offset wind noise when used, but aside from that, I can't say I'm much impressed by the quality of the recorded sound.  I will say that I am pretty much an amateur at this and will probably experiment more to see if I can get any better performance, but my hopes are not high.  Wind noise is still there, audio quality is nothing to write home about, and even in shotgun mode I still get a lot of ambient background noise from around the target.  Overall, I'm not impressed, but it IS better than the built-in mike ... a little.
4641968
Overall, disappointed. Quality and workmanship is incredible, but unfortunately just wasn't crazy over this one.
3900191
A very nice book, but I was not as impressed as some of the other reviewers (maybe I missed something?)
3336229
I'm not new to the etymotic brand...but I am to this particular product. Having owned the 6i model and reviewed a number of the comments posted on ER23 HF3, I was in a positive frame of mind about my latest purchase. Sadly, I'm not convinced the product lives up to the hype.

On reading some of the many comments written on the ER23, you'd be forgiven for expecting a depth and breadth of audio that borders on front row concert seats. That's not what you get. What you get is a pretty good quality of audio - certainly better than the average. But I wouldn't put it anywhere near the quality of concert hall.

When coupled with the iPod or iPhone, the ER23's sound may be full of content, but to my hearing, it seems to lean towards the thinner side of town. Unless you jam the buds deep into your ear canals (which actually becomes quite uncomfortable reasonably quickly), the bottom end simply doesn't feel all that bottomy. In the most basic terms, the buds just seem to lack warmth.

As for the phone interface, I think this is where the E23 comes up totally short.

The button arrangement feels a bit clunky and the moment you hit dial, the earphones are active and the microphone immediately begins transmitting ambient noise to the buds. Once the ringing kicks in, the ambient sounds disappear. It's mildy annoying without being a deal-breaker. But it's one of those things that bugs you even more when you realise that the $35 Apple buds don't present that issue while the $175 Etymotics do.

The sound quality of a phone call seems very thin and scratchy in comparison to the cheap apple product. And before you remind me that I need to wedge the buds home in the ear to get the best quality, I can tell you that's exactly what I have done. But it yielded no significant improvement and only hastened the onset of discomfort. I've actually ceased using the Etymotics for calls...preferring the warmth and tone of the apple buds. It sounds ridiculous...but it's true.

I wouldn't roundly criticise the ER23 HF3, but I wouldn't recommend the headset either. It may be a superior fit than the apple buds with an overall better sound. But it's not the 5 times better experience that the price differential tries to suggest. Two and half stars...maybe three at a pinch. Cheers Kevin
465075
When I read the reviews on this device, I was admittedly rather skeptical. It occurs to me that this device is little more than a knock-off Raspberry Pi with soldered-on connections for USB, SD, dual-AV and HDMI. The connections themselves are a bit finicky; it took several tries before I realized the HDMI port was deeper than it appeared to be. The power port also seems a bit shallow, and I decided to just leave the cord end partially exposed for fear of inadvertently damaging it through excessive force.

The instructions say that the output has to be selected on the remote every time the unit is powered on. You would think that the device would auto-detect the output, but it doesn't. Navigating the interface with the remote is simple enough, and you can set videos to shuffle or repeat.

In terms of build quality, here's my issue: the device runs a bit too warm for my liking. I bought this with the express purpose of keeping it on as a 24/7 media server, so I'm terrified of the board frying in the future. It's been about a week and things seem okay, so hopefully I'm proven wrong on this.

My advice: If you can buy a Blu-Ray/DVD player with built-in USB/SD support, then do so. This provides a cheap alternative, but it's also a rather questionable one.
3537230
I feel like this headset is mostly bells and wistles. It is presented marvelously, but many of the extra features aren't that great.

It is a good feeling quality for the most part. I'm just not really impressed with the performance. I've had cheaper headset that sounded better and the mic positioning is just awful and the only good answer is to detach it. Pretty annoying to try to eat with this headset on.

I'd really like to give it a worse rating, but I still use them and they don't tangle so meh close enough.
780489
I gotta say, I'm very surprised at how many reviews describe the sound quality of these as 'awesome,' 'terrific', 'stupendous,' etc. I'm not a big audio snob, but the very first time I fired these up, I felt a pang of disappointment. My 'Menzingers' tracks didn't sound bright, bassy, or full. I would actually use words more like 'muddy,' 'distorted,' and 'sizzling bacon.'

It's really unfortunate, because the overall hardware design and ergonomics seem really nice. They're not made of the most premium materials, but that keeps them light and easy to wear. The + and - buttons (click once for volume, hold for track change) are fairly easy to feel out with your hand and intuitive. It was a cinch to pair, although I did notice about three minor hiccups in an hour's use, despite having my phone within arm's reach the entire time.

The wireless is super compelling, of course. It's really awesome to not have to deal with a cord at all. I was actually using them in the car (because my car's sound system is pathetic), and it's cool to be able to hop out, music still going, run my errands, drop them around my neck when I interact with a person. Super cool.

They sound better than my phone's speaker, but that's not really a comparison I want to be making. They would be fine for podcasts. Some music tracks are better than others  but I found myself ultimately more distracted than enjoying my tunes. Not for me.

Basically, I wanted a somewhat lower-profile pair of headphones to take on a plane, and these looked like they would fit the bill, but I was so upset with the audio quality that I ended up returning them the same day, and going with the Sony MDR-XB650BT wireless 'phones instead. They're $100 versus the $50 I paid for these, but oh my god, so worth it. After about an hour of using those tonight, they sound 10x better, haven't hiccuped at all, and just as easy to control.
2950542
I've reviewed a lot of headphones. From Bluetooth, to gaming, to earbuds and so on. The 808 has some interesting features, but how do they stand up to the competition?

The 808 Performers are really targeting the DJ market. Things like the suspension system holding the speakers and the 90 degree cup swivel are designed to entice spin-wizards while the price tag is designed to make them an accessible purchase for even the casual listener.

Overall, I'm not all that impressed. Don't get me wrong, the clarity is there, the bass does bump and they're a solid set of cans all around. However, being marketed to audiophiles and DJs, I don't think the 808s are putting nails in the coffins of they're competition.

Sound quality is clear, but abrasive at higher levels. I've always felt that the mark of a great set of headphones is that as you increase the volume, it doesn't sound louder, it sounds clearer. I don't feel that the 808s deliver that clarity. While I do hear a more dynamic sound, additional instruments and effects, than when I'm listening to my apple earbuds - I get that on most over-ear sets that are half the price of the 808s.

The two "DJ" features are the swiveling cups and the suspended speakers. The swiveling cups is cool. It works well and seems to be well constructed. It's nice to be able to turn one of the cups up instead of needing to take the headset off or hold it to one ear. The suspended speakers is supposed to enhance the bass without distorting. I don't feel like it made any difference though.

All in all, it's a very solidly constructed set of headphones. The sound quality for the price leaves much to be desired, however.
1600723
I spent the last 2 days giving these headphones a thorough listening and to be honest the hype does not meet reality. Maybe I got a defective pair? I don't know. I've got a lot of experience with good quality headphones, I own a pair of Sennhieser HD600's for mixing and have recorded music on near fields such as Event and Dynaudio monitors, so I know what I want in a pair of in-ear headphones. In one word I'd describe the Triple Drivers as lifeless. Weak imaging, weak low-end, bad transients, and to top it off there is definitely a balance issue going on that causes the music to sit further to the left in my head, so I'm assuming one channel is weaker/stronger than the other. My current pair of in-ears which I've owned for a couple years (Sennhieser CX215), which are $40 headphones, sound better to my ears in every aspect, except perhaps the detail in the upper-mid freq. These 1MORE buds do not sound good, I'm listening to them as I type this I'm shaking my head at how bad they sound, particularly the stereo imaging and how dull percussion hits sounds. Their only saving grace could be the fact that they are pretty quiet so Im certain they could benefit from a headphone amp and maybe that's what they need to shine. But that means if you're looking for a pair of buds for your ipod or phone, count these out. All in all, this is performance I'd expect out of 20-30 dollar headphones, though with the balance issue I have going on I wouldn't pay 5 bucks for these things.
2219209
I was not impressed...okay, I was disappointed with the appearance... but it does seem to be holding up well so far
2154118
I do not find the device to be very helpful... it feels more like a gimmick than anything else. The speaker is good quality and that's basically its greatest use.
1895643
I found this at Walmart tonight, and after reading the reviews on Amazon, decided to give it a try.  For such a small speaker, it's surprisingly good, meaning it will actually surprise you with sound quality and quantity.

With pop vocals I know well (Gordon Lightfoot) it sounds really great, and does fill a large space pretty well.  But I'm mostly a classical music listener; I found the sound a bit thin for that kind of music.  I plan to spend a few more hours with it while visiting Kipnis Studios, where we can give it a much better workout with diverse repertoire and highly trained ears, and will revise this review if I can actually edit it later, or post a followup.  However, I think for classical music I'll be looking for something a bit smoother and a bit richer.  If Logitech delivered a revised version that did those things, even somewhat larger, it would get that elusive fifth star.
1941849
Much better than good, but still lower quality than I expected.