I bought these in an international terminal in the Atlanta airport. They worked perfectly for the flight and for about 2 days when I landed. The VERY first time I took them to the gym with me to work out they stopped working and haven't worked since then. I didn't drop them or jerk them around in any manner that might cause a short. The only thing I could think of was sweat getting inside them but seriously, the WHOLE reason for me buying wireless headphones was for gym purposes.
I've tried to call altec lansing every day for the past 4 days now and I keep getting an answering machine every single time. Not even an automated menu just some lady saying "we're unavailable please leave a message". I leave a message every time I call and still haven't gotten any correspondence at all with them. I tried their website but for some reason I can't get past the "Select your Region" screen because there are no regions to select!
I loved this product the first 2 days I had it. Now I am very upset and out $150 with no one in customer service to help me out.
In my top 5 of worst purchases ever. Plantronics BackBeat 906 Stereo Bluetooth Headphones Set [Retail Packaging]
I use the Bose Quiet Comfort 3 on-ear headphones for casual listening, but for running and gym usage, the BackBeat 906's are AMAZING. I recently bought the Nike+ running sensor to go with my iPhone 3GS, and tried running with standard sports headphones. Given that I didn't have an armband for the iPhone, and the wires from my sports headphones were tucked through my shirt, it was really aggravating to run 5 miles with the wires rubbing me and flopping around.
I found the BackBeat 906/R on Amazon for [...] less than at Apple.com, and the reviews really helped make my decision to purchase it, so here's my giveback. I've listed out the PROs and CONs below:
PROs
* Opened the packaging, charged for an hour, held the power button for a few seconds to enable pairing mode, and my iPhone 3GS immediately paired WITHOUT needing the dongle, and no passcode required - AWESOME
* Telescoping and rotating ear pieces with rubber ear canal shaped molds made for customizable comfortable fit - and they are so light I forget that they're on
* Streaming music from iPhone had no lag time whatsoever, and I walked all the way across the house through two rooms before losing connection
* Music and phone controls are great - one click on left ear answers and hangs up, two clicks on left ear redials. One click on right ear pauses / unpauses music and turns on external mics, which slightly amplifies external sounds, hold right ear button for two seconds to enable / disable bass boom. Volume control extends down from right ear and simple push forward or back turns volume up / down.
* Phone calls are in stereo! I've only made a few phone calls, but callers say that they can hear me fine, and it is really nice hearing conversation in both ears. I am on the road a lot for work, and having both ears plugged really reduces car noise and makes conference calls a lot easier to hear (Plantronics noise reduction seems OK, better than standard bluetooth headset without it, but probably not as good as Jawbone).
* After running 5 miles last night, the headphones never lost connection to my iPhone, never skipped once, never came off my ears although I was dripping with sweat, sounded great, and I could hardly tell they were there (I also bought the Imation XtremeMac SportWrap armband for iPhone 3GS from Amazon for $24.95 and highly recommend it too)
* The included dongle will be great for plugging into the TV in the bedroom for late night watching while my wife is trying to sleep
CONS
* Track forwarding / reversing doesn't work on iPhone. This is a limitation of bluetooth functionality on iPhone OS 3.0. Apple is adding support for this feature in OS 3.1 later this year
* No voice dialing / call initiating from headphones on iPhone. Again, this is a limitation of iPhone OS 3.0, and Apple is adding this support in OS 3.1, so I expect both of these great features to begin working on the headphones after the OS update
* That's it! I have only had the headphones for two days, and there are a few reviews that said they stopped working after 3-5 charges, but I have not had them long enough to comment on that. They work great so far.
I forgot to turn them off last night, and they were still connected to my iPhone this morning, having been on standby for over 15 hours now. Battery life is claimed to be 7 hours of play time, and that is probably fairly accurate. [...] and they really sound great comparatively - especially when you factor in not having to deal with wires ever again! I'm ordering my wife a set now that I've tested them out - I love Amazon Prime - I'll have them tomorrow!
I've owned several high-end bluetooth stereo headsets and these Altec Lansing simply put are far and away the best of the lot.
Pros: 1) Sound 2) Battery Life 3) Fit 4) Controls;
1) Sound, sound, sound! I've had other headphones with better specs on paper (higher db rating which usually translates to better and/or louder sound) but the Altec Lansing are loud! Loud enough that I NEVER have them at full volume. I used to turn my Jaybirds up all the way and still find them not loud enough on about half of my mp3 library. The Altec Lansing have a lower db rating but in the real world the volume is unbelievable. Volume without quality is basically worthless. Not only are these headphones loud, they are also crystal clear. The bass boost enhances some music but not all. Overall the sound quality is in keeping with the Altec Lansing name. That is to say outstanding.
2) Battery life. My Jaybird headset would last 4-5 hours no matter how I used it. That was one reason after getting and liking the Jaybirds I kept looking for a better headset. These Altec Lansing are rated at 7 hours continuous for music and/or talk, HOWEVER, (and this is a big however) they get repeatedly 10-13 hours depending on how I use them! No matter how I've used my former stereo bluetooth headsets (including Jaybird, JVC and Blue Ant) I could never got more than 5 hours use out of any of them. The Altec Lansing have NEVER gone for less than about 8 hours continuous and usually are good for 10-12 hours! Simply amazing! I attribute this to volume levels. It must be 7 hours continuous at max volume, with lower volumes rendering longer battery life. Again, these headphones are so loud that I never max out the volume and in many situations I'm somewhere in the lower to mid volume range for extended use, thus, giving me amazing battery life. I'm tempted to wear my Altec Lansing to work as my primary bluetooth because they work so well.
3) Fit. This is a tricky one. My previous favorites were my Jaybird JB200s, but in addition to insufficient battery life, fit was an ongoing issue. (In fairness to Jaybird, fit is very personal and I'm sure for some the Jaybirds fit well. For me, I was constantly fussing with mine while they popped out often or I'd just leave them out after getting tired of messing around with them.) The Altec Lansing at first feel like they're not in properly, however, that is apparently part of their "open air" design. They rest nicely on your ears/head and don't come off even with a vigorous headshake. The reason they don't feel like they're on is the earbud design is NOT an INNER EAR bud but and outer ear bud. The bud sits outside the ear canal leaving you exposed not only to the music but to ambient environment sounds as well. Once you get used to this design and fit concept its super comfortable and secure. I forget I have them on all the time. Not only does the music sound great at all levels, you can also engage in conversations with people around you while wearing them and listening to music. It's actually quite amazing. The music sounds so good it's almost as if the music is being piped in over some quality loud speakers in every room you enter while you're free to converse with anyone and everyone around you. The only aspect of the fit that I found difficult was the beefy behind the neck band connecting the two earpieces. It is so beefy and oversized that when it hit my collar or I laid down, it would knock the headphones out of my ear. I remedied this by twisting the band into a phone cord type coil behind my neck. Once the band held the memory of the phone cord-like coil the problem was solved. Not only did this solve the neckband problem , but it actually made the headphones fit superbly while also making them less noticeable while wearing. (The do-it-yourself phone cord coil fix may void the warranty so do this at your own risk. Being the uber-geek that I am, I'm willing to risk breaking something if it holds any promise of making it better.)
4) Controls. The controls of the Altec Lansing are simply outstanding. They work so well and have so many features at your fingertips that your head becomes a walking remote for bluetooth calls and stereo mp3 playback. You can take calls, end calls, mute calls, ignore calls, adjust volume, fast-forward, rewind, pause, play, standby, bass boost and even battery life check your way into oblivion with this headset. The controls are well laid out and perfectly balanced so as to flawlessly execute all of the functions with little to no effort. Listen to music loud and never miss a call. Listen to music at mid to low levels while carrying on a conversation with those around you and never miss a call. And so on.
Cons: 1) Fit;
1) Fit. (I know I just listed this a "pro." So obviously it's both.) Fit takes some getting used to. The beefy behind the neck band is a little on the long side, and a little on the thick side. This makes for a fit that mimics the Motorola S9 behind the neck band vs. the stealthy behind the neck "wire" of the Jaybird JB200. If I wore a t-shirt at the gym the beefy neckband wasn't a problem. If I had any shirt with a collar or wanted to lay down while using the Altec Lansing, the neckband got in the way. Once I got the idea that a phone cord-like coil setup might take up some slack and get the neckband closer to my head and off of my collar the problem was solved. I now have a custom Altec Lansing Backbeat 906 with coiled (DIY) behind the neck neckband that hugs my head vs. hitting my collar. It took a while to coil the neckband in such a way as to create some memory in the coil, but it was well worth it. It fits more snugly on my head, is less noticeable wearing and never ever gets in the way of a shirt collar or pillow. (Be careful if you try the DIY memory coil as it clearly could cause a short in the wiring if not done right or done carefully.) All things considered, this "con" is no longer a problem.
Summary: The Altec Lansing Backbeat 906 is an absolutely amazing mix of sound performance with "sound" design. I've stopped scouring the internet for the perfetct stereo bluetooth headset. This one is darn near perfect and the pros seriously outweigh the minor cons (especially compared to other bluetooth headsets). - Bluetooth - 906 - Wireless Headphones - Altec Lansing'
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