GGG: Plantronics Audio 450

As a reviewer at Good Gear Guide:

Bespectacled users rejoice: here is a compact, sturdy design that bypasses the annoyance of over-the-ear clips. Designed for notebook users wanting the convenience of a lightweight multimedia headset, the Plantronics Audio 450 delivers average sound quality with style.

The Audio 450 features what Plantronics calls a "Flex Grip" design, where the earbuds are mounted on a rubber clip that fits around the bottom of the ear, and moulds itself to the ear lobe. A microphone is attached to the left earpiece via a 180 degree swivel boom. This allows the microphone to be tucked conveniently under and away when not in use.

Each earpiece is surprisingly light, but while the grip feels comfortable and secure even after long periods of use, it does take a little getting used to. The lobe-hugging design could also be problematic for users who wear earrings, as it doesn't leave much room for jewellery.

Sound is delivered in clear stereo, and the sealed backs of the earbuds cut out background noise effectively. As is the case with many earbud designs though, frequencies at the upper and lower ends of the spectrum are slightly dampened, producing somewhat of a muted effect. This may encourage users to use the headset at damagingly high volumes.A thumb-sized, in-line remote houses both volume dial and a switch to mute the microphone. This provides good control over output audio, and the noise-cancelling microphone mutes cleanly.

The headset connects to an input/output device via a standard 3.5mm analog jack plug, which is handy, as this means it can be plugged into most audio devices. The 1.9 metre cable length should be sufficient for notebook users, but it might pose a problem for PC users with computers tucked far away under a desk.

All in all, Plantronics' Audio 450 is a decent portable headset for notebooks, and the asking price is competitive. However, users who aren't constrained by space may prefer to spend more money on larger headsets that will better reproduce the entire spectrum of frequencies.

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GGG: Plantronics Audio 500 USB Digital Multimedia Headset

As a reviewer at Good Gear Guide:

"Tried and tested" would be the nice way of describing Plantronics' Audio 500 USB Digital Multimedia Headset design. Otherwise, it's just plain unimaginative.

The Audio 500 has a headband style design. Audio is delivered through two adjustable swivel-mounted ear cushions and a boom-mounted microphone that tucks neatly up and away when not in use. Less neat is the 3 metre long headphone USB cable, which features a remote that houses volume control and mute buttons, but there's really not much to do about cabling unless you're willing to spend more money on a wireless headset.

The headset is lightweight and comfortable, and despite its flimsy appearance, sound quality is impressive. Voice, music and sound effects are delivered in clear stereo, and the microphone is well positioned to pick up the user's voice without any popping and only minimal background noise. The volume control works well, and the microphone mutes cleanly.

Setting up the Audio 500 is a simple plug-and-play process. The headset connects via USB, and Windows XP automatically recognised the hardware and installed all its necessary drivers in seconds.

In subsequent trials, however, the device still took a few seconds to initiate each time - even though the drivers were already installed. Swapping audio outputs from the sound card to the headset and vice versa while running a program sometimes required Windows to be manually prompted via the Sounds and Audio Devices dialogue box ini the Control Panel. Even so, the drivers didn't seem to allow output devices to be swapped while sounds were still being played.

All in all, the Audio 500 is a decent, sturdy headset that is simple enough to install and operate, and its retail price of $79 is reasonable. The device is especially well suited to VOIP calls due to the inline mute button, and is also a comfortable, inexpensive solution for gaming, and other multimedia applications.

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GGG: Samsung YP-F2

As a reviewer at Good Gear Guide:

Samsung's YP-F2, dubbed "the Pendant", has the look of a miniature clamshell phone. Too pretty to be a techie gadget, and too obviously wired to be a fashion accessory, the YP-F2 seems to be caught uncomfortably between two worlds.

The thumb-sized, 20.5 gram player boasts 1GB of storage and a 12-hour battery life. On the 28.1mm x 52.5mm front panel is a tiny three-line monochrome LCD, on which white text is displayed against a black background. While this proves to be effective in maximizing battery life, the size and brightness of the screen can be a strain on the eyes. Navigational buttons, volume control and connectors are kept to the edges of the unit, so there is nothing to distract from the screen and the silver Samsung logo printed proudly above it. There are four buttons on the right face of the unit: menu, play/pause, forward and back. The left face features a hold switch and volume controls.

Headphones plug into a 3.5mm audio out jack at the top of the unit. Supplied headphones are integrated into a necklace-like cord, with the player dangling off like a bizarre piece of technological jewellery. While the pendant design is a convenient way of carrying the device, the look may not be pleasing to all users. Samsung has included a clear plastic cradle that attaches firmly to the device and acts as a belt loop. In rebelling against the pendant design, however, you'll have to either supply your own headphones, or get used to carrying the player in a shirt pocket, since the necklace is not long enough to reach anything below chest-height.

Sound quality is good, and the player's five-band equalizer can be either tweaked manually, or tuned to one of seven preset settings: normal, rock, classical, jazz, house ballad, R&B and dance.

Disappointingly, navigation is clumsy at best. Holding down the top right "menu" button gives access to all the major functions, including the playback screen, file/folder navigation, playlists, FM tuner and settings options using the volume controls. All these are scrolled through using the volume control buttons, with both forward and menu buttons acting as select tools. The play/pause button takes you back to the playback screen. It was difficult to figure out the buttons initially, especially since the 10-page manual is no big help, and while you do get used to them, the experience could still use improvement.

The YP-F2 does not support sorting by artist, title, album or genre, and displays songs by filename only. Like its sibling the YP-U2, it does offer the very useful ability of organizing files into multi-tiered folders and navigating that way.

The FM radio feature was unable to produce a satisfactory sound from any of the radio stations tested. While the sound was clear, the constant interference quickly got annoying and gave the impression of holding a seashell to the ear. The unit stores six preset radio channels, and switches between them with the press of a button. Scanning for radio channels can be difficult however, as the device had a habit of skipping over prominent stations from time to time.

A proprietary USB 2.0 cable is used for data transfer, and doubles as a charging mechanism. It takes only two hours for the battery to fully charge.

The device is drag and drop, although Samsung Media Studio is also included, and can be used as an alternative. The software allows music to be sorted by artist or genre, and a search function allows the user to call up files by title, artist or album name. The software is basic and unpolished, and as an added annoyance, some menus appear in the Korean language, making the program quite difficult to navigate.

The device is drag and drop, although Samsung Media Studio is also included, and can be used as an alternative. The software allows music to be sorted by artist or genre, and a search function allows the user to call up files by title, artist or album name. The software is basic and unpolished - some queries appear in a foreign language.

All in all, the YP-F2 is a decent unit that does what any basic portable music player should do - load music, and play it.

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