Sony DR-BT50 Stereo Bluetooth Headphones Review
The availability of stereo Bluetooth headsets has been steadily increasing this year, helping to bring prices down. In particular at the top end last month’s arrival of Nokia’s noise-cancelling flagship set, the BH-905, has led to significant drops in other premium closed-back designs. Motorola’s high end S805s have been selling for a steal recently on some sites but today I’m going to focus on Sony’s DR-BT50, which for some represented the pinnacle of stereo Bluetooth headsets until Nokia recently crashed Sony’s party. I’ll make comparisons to the S805 along the way.
First impressions
Sony debuted the BT50 at a whopping $229 but it’s now available for a around $129 or so at several e-tailers. The cans are based upon Sony’s celebrated Altus MDR-D777LP, so they carry a promise of good sound delivery. They also bring practicality, being foldable.
Physically the BT50s are extremely light, feeling like about half the weight of my Motorola S805s. The BT50’s earpads are also thinner and the buttons are smaller; more on this later. Like the S805s the Sonys sport a full set of music playback controls as well as a mic and call management.
Pairing was straightforward with my BlackBerry Bold 9000 and subsequent reconnections have gone perfectly, as has also been the case with my Motorola S805 and S9HD headsets. The days of fiddly Bluetooth connections are hopefully now well behind us!
Put them on already!
The BT50s feel great to wear and the slim earpads enclose the ears comfortably. The pads are so soft that it’s easier to wear sunglasses with the Sonys compared to the S805s, which is important if you live in a sunny part of the world. Having said that, this not so much a failing of the S805s but rather a comment on how soft the BT50’s earpads really are.
I mentioned earlier that the controls on the BT50 are small and when I first saw them I wondered how I would find them when the cans were on my head. The power and call pickup buttons are fine but the playback and volume controls are, frankly, tiny. Worse still the playback control is a flick-touch rocker switch controlling play/pause/stop and track navigation. The S805 seems like a Tonka truck in comparison, with its large finger-friendly controls.
Listen up
In use the BT50’s buttons were actually easier to locate than I had feared, although the playback rocker is too easy to nudge causing a track skip when you’re trying to depress it to pause. The call pickup button is a decent size, as is the power button, so these present no issues.
Once the music is playing the BT50s simply shine compared to most other Bluetooth headsets, trumping the S805s for both bass and mid-range although sometimes the top end detail seems to suffer at the expense of the solid bottom end frequencies. It’s not that reproduction is too overly bass heavy, but the current consumer trends favor bass and consequently the BT50s will find plenty of fans in this regard.
When a call comes in pressing the call accept button pauses music playback and answers the call. I could hear callers very clearly and they could hear me well both indoors and outside. Call quality was definitely superior to my S805s.
In order to use the stereo music and playback functions you’ll need a device supporting the A2DP and AVRCP Bluetooth profiles. Check your specs on your device manufacturer’s website. A2DP provides music playback support and AVRCP provides remote control of playback functions.
The BT50s felt both light and snug even for lengthy listening sessions and that included time wearing sunglasses. When I was finished listening I found that the folded BT50s fit perfectly into my jacket pocket.
Some room for improvement
On the downside the BT50s are picky about placement and like to have a decent line of sight to the originating device. They are far less tolerant to obstacles than the S805s and this results in occasional cut-outs unless your BlackBerry is in a shirt or jacket pocket fairly high up on your body. This issue is not unique to the BT50s, my Motorola S9-HD suffers from a similar weakness.
The BT50s must have a decent size buffer however because it takes a while for the cut-out to occur. As a result I found I could walk around normally with almost no cut-outs with my Bold in my top pocket. Part of this issue could also be attributed to the Bold, which I’ve found to have a below-average strength Bluetooth transmitter compared to other phones I’ve used.
The other niggle is that Sony fitted the BT50 with a proprietary charging port rather than a mini-USB connection. This means needing to remember to take the charger when you travel, rather than simply a USB cable to charge from a laptop. Accessories these days should be rechargeable via USB.
Stereo stars or falling stars?
Overall I can give the Sony DR-BT50 a solid recommendation at its current street price. Most listeners are likely to be very happy with their sound quality and they felt both practical and comfortable for extended use on my ears, although as ever your mileage may vary depending on your head and ear shape so try before you buy if you can!
Note: I also published an edited version of this review on BerryReporter here.
Link to Sony product page here.
Neil Berman
Red rings, yellow lights; what no blue mouth?
We know all too well about the Xbox’s infamous red ring of death and now the PS3 seems to want a piece of the action with its yellow light of failure.
This kind of attention is not necessarily the best type of attention, but they always said that any publicity is good publicity. So what about it Nintendo, are we going to see a ‘blue mouth of MotionLess’?
Neil Berman
Cheaper PS3 Still Too Expensive To Worry XBox 360
Hmmm…$299 for the lowest PS3 in the range a number of years into the current Wii/PS3/Xbox 360 cycle. Well it’s a start I guess, but let’s not expect it to turn the XBox 360/PS3 balance on its head anytime soon.
At $199 the XBox 360 arcade is still the obvious choice for the recession conscious consumer and it comes with access to a huge selection of games compared to the PS3. The Wii continues to be the broad-based family-fun choice. With many of Sony’s businesses languishing, is it really the right time for its cheapest PS3 to still be a Benjamin more expensive than the cheapest XBox 360?
Neil Berman
theONbutton@CES – Sony brings out the stars for its keynote…and the Vaio P
Tom Hanks, Usher, Reggie Jackson and Dr. Oz all starred in Sir Howard Stringer’s Sony keynote this morning. Oh, and the Vaio P also appeared out of Sir Howard’s suit pocket for a brief outing. Gallery below…
Sony promises to increase prices, meanwhile Dell offers PS3 for $319.99
Now here’s a good holiday deal. If you’ve been waiting for Sony to drop the price of the PS3 you may need to wait a little longer. But…if you head on over to Dell’s US website pretty sharpish you can snag one for 20% off for a limited time. Not sure if that will help Sony catch the monthly sales of 2 MILLION Wiis shipped in November alone, 
but it might help prolong the PS3’s agony a little longer…especially as how it was crushed 2 to 1 by the XBox 360 and 5 to 1 by the Wii last month. NPD’s reported sales figures for Nov were Wii: 2,040k units, Xbox 360: 836k units, PS3: 378k units.
Interestingly the ratio of Xbox 360 sales to PS3 in October was 1.87 to 1, whilst in November the 360 pulled ahead to 2.21 to 1, probably due to the price cut. Microsoft clearly doesn’t need to do much to ward off the PS3 anymore, rather it seems to have it’s eyes on the Wii’s spot instead…although I can’t see it happening in this console generation. It’s sure turned out different to the way we all thought back in 2005 though, the Playstation franchise needs something big now and these days Sony is in big trouble.
Back on the home front, I’ve been nurturing an ever-growing addiction to Halo 3 on the XBox 360. I have 
been joining the faithful army of online Spartans and when I say army, think mass hordes…there are typically 250-300,000 Halo 3 gamers online each evening, US time.
Helping to make all this happen for me is a new Trendnet router. 
Replacing a Trendnet 108mbps b/g, this 300mbps b/g/n speed demon has gigabit ethernet and flies along with rock-like stability. Installation was a breeze, but pretty please Trendnet next time add a MAC address import feature; typing in all those addresses gets tiring!
I’ve also been giving the new HTC Touch Pro (at&t Fuze, the one the half gig ROM and 288mb RAM) and Samsung i907 (at&t Epix, the one with the optical mouse) a good workout recently…reviews to follow shortly. Suffice to say they’re not too shabby.
Neil Berman
Game on at the library
But like the phrase’s democratic ideal of share and share alike, ‘Game on at the library’ brought the wonders of modern consoles to anyone to try for free.
CES 2008 News: Laptops & UMPCs Part 2
The Aigo’s implementation of screen, keyboard and power make it one of the most promising UMPC designs out there currently.
The beautifully patterned red lid is striking and Lenovo had made a great effort to make the keyboard user friendly with large keys. The U110 will be available with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, choice of 64 or 32 GB SSD or regular 160 GB HD and a 11.1 inch screen. 
Communication features include bluetooth, WiFi and a 1.3MP camera. The ultra-thin design ranges from 0.7 to 0.9 inches at the thickest point. This dream machine will be available in April priced at around $1,800.
The keyboard to the right of the screen sports a mixed key use arrangement. This is currently a prototype with no production details available.
Samsung also expanded its Q1 range with the launch of the Q1 Ultra Premium. The Q1’s thumboard, which I have generally found difficult to use, has been supplemented with a large software keyboard. Dial keys is gone. The Q1 Ultra Premium will be available with a 64 GB SSD and has a range of Intel processor options from 1.06 to 1.33 GHz. A Samsung representative said the current Q1 Ultra range would continue to be sold for the time being.
The Amtec U650 has again a different form factor, where the screen slides up to reveal a well designed thumboard.
In the face of competitors from Aigo and LG, the unit feels pretty chunky for something with a 5.6 inch screen. 
Sony has updated its Mylo communicator, which comes with Skype preloaded.
has a range of available accessories, including a snap-on keyboard. It also uses Intel’s new Silverthorne / Menlow CPU range which goes up to 1.6 GHz.
Finally Toshiba’s eMotion Feel UMPC is yet another different form factor proposition. 
Currently a working concept, the eMotion Feel looks expensive and heavy but amazingly weighs under one pound. The front panel’s pointer and buttons seem limiting as the main controls, along with a stylus. Its unique feature is tilt scrolling, 
which is activated by pressing a button on the left side and then holding the unit at an angle to scroll through a page. An interesting and intuitive design feature.
Read part 1 of the CES 2008 Laptops & UMPCs News here
Neil Berman
theONbutton
Turning the world on, one gadget at a time.
