Best bluetooth earphones for phone calls, video calls etc?

[anonymous-user]

Hi all,

Spent the last 12 months conducting my meetings and calls using my iPad Pro, as I’m sure many have. Teams, Zoom, Skype, etc.

Been at home the whole time, so no need for a headset or earphones, but I will be back in offices shortly, and no doubt the video meetings will continue to a large extent, so I would like some Bluetooth earphones to use for this purpose, so that the whole office doesn’t have to listen to my meeting.

I current have a couple of pairs of Bluetooth headphones, but neither are suitable for the job.

I have some large Sony over-ear headphones which are great, but too big and silly looking to be sat wearing in the office, and I have some Cambridge Audio Melomania in-ear Bluetooth phones which are absolutely amazing for music. They are tiny, sound incredible, get rave reviews, and the battery life is 8 hours per go... but they are terrible for calls and make you sound like a muffled robot. All the professional reviews agree that the mic in them is very poor and they shouldn’t be used for calls, which is a shame.

So I need some in ear Bluetooth phones that have a really good mic on them so that people can hear me clearly. Preferably something that sounds great for music as well, so I can sell my Cambridge audio Melomania and just stick to my new ones for music as well as calls.

I use Apple everything, and am therefore wondering if the AirPods are any good for calls, or even pushing the boat out and getting the £250 AirPods with noise cancelling?

Any advice welcome.

Thanks!

[Chocolate Sausage]

I have the air pod pro, the noise cancelling feature is excellent. I use them all the time best place is the supermarket it makes for a far more enjoyable experience when you can't hear the other shoppers / kids!!

I would recommend them for sure. My pros were £198 from amazon. I'm sure there are better cheaper ear phones out there but apple work straight out of the box no messing around.

I like apple and the pros are just another apple product that works as it should. I can't think of any down side to them.

The sound is decent and the microphone is good. Again there will are other options with better sound etc. But a big thumbs up from me for the air pod pros

[walamai]

It's worth understanding that *no* bluetooth earphones will be particularly good for calls. Bluetooth has different 'profiles' depending on what it is used for. When you're listening to music it will use Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) which is a high quality audio signal and sounds pretty good. But when you are making a call it will use the 'Headset Profile' - which is an old legacy profile and sounds rubbish.

On a mobile phone, it just automagically switches between them for you, and you never notice. If you're listening to music (with A2DP) and then get a call, your phone will switch profile for the call, then switch back when you hang up.
If you connect bluetooth headphones to a Windows computer you will actually see both profiles connected and can switch between them manually. Doing this it's really obvious just how awful Headset Profile is!

So in the office, some wired headphones might be a better way to go. Even a cheap pair of headphones that came bundled with a mobile phone are likely to sound better to you and the person you are speaking to while on a call (since you have to use 'Headset Profile' on the call.)

If you want to also use them for music, then plumping for a slightly nicer pair of *wired* headphones would probably be better - or just use your Sony's or Cambridge Audio's for music.

[devnull]

if you have an iPad, airpods are the way to go. Used to work in telecoms, so i have a plethora of headsets given to me as samples, and airpods just fking work!

[craig_m67]

AirPod pro.. quite simply they work perfectly for the use case described, and the active noise cancellation (incl. pass through) is really, really good.

That said, if you want to use them jogging, forget it. The pressure boom from every step you take (sealed ear canal) drove me absolutely nuts, and I ended up returning them. Unsure what to get now…

[anonymous-user]

Thanks for the replies, and thanks to Walamai for the explanation as to why Bluetooth never sounds great for calls.

I went and bought the AirPods Pro, they arrived this morning and I have been trying them out.

I went for the AirPods Pro as I use a MacBook Pro and iPad Pro daily for work, as well as my iPhone, so wanted something that just worked and could switch seamlessly between devices.

I also ordered aftermarket memory foam tips for them, as I’m fussy about quality of fit and sound, and the foam tips are better than the supplied silicone.

First impressions of the AirPods Pro:

Disappointed with the sound quality when listening to music.

They are vaguely ok-ish, but get destroyed by my £99 Cambridge Audio Melomania. I would also add that the Melomania have hugely better battery life, and the charging case is a lot smaller than the AirPods Pro case.

For £250 the sound quality is a disgrace. There is no good way of putting it.

I have fiddled around to get a good fit with the different foam tips, and also tried the supplied silicone, but no, the sound quality issue is purely the product.

It’s a total cliche, but when I listen with music with the Melomania earphones you get that whole “hear things in songs that you never heard before” experience. It just sounds so real, like you are actually there.

I have watched a few AirPod Pro reviews where the sound quality was described as ‘ok’ or ‘slightly thin’ or ‘lacking a bit of bass’ and I now understand why.

On the plus side, the seamless switching between my devices is great, the clever listening mode of Transparency is a good idea.

Haven’t had a noisy environment to try the noise cancelling yet, but I’ve wanted some noise cancelling earphones for a while, so it’s good I finally have some!

I’ll be keeping them. I’ve made a few calls with them to friends, and used them for a couple of video call meetings in the iPad already and they work great.

The convenience of how they work and the quality of the mic, which is notably better, means I will likely use them often.

I will just grit my teeth and ‘get used to’ the sound quality.

The Melomania earphones will be getting kept as well for use when I have no great need for calls or noise cancelling and will mostly be listening to music. Their foam tips do a good job of blocking out most background noise anyway.

Horses for courses and all that.

[s70rmp]

I've been using Bose NC 700's for the last 9mhs daily connected to my phone and windows laptop and on Teams/Slack call a lot and no issues wit them
very comfortable and the battery lasts longer then it says on the app.

noise cancelling is excellent, also had tv on in the same room and the microphone doesnt pick that sound up when on calls in phone or laptop