Logitech FreePulse Wireless™ Consumer Wireless Headphones

I received these headphones as a replacement for the now discontinued "Logitech Wireless Headphones for MP3" when the neckband developed a crack in the middle after 6 months of use. Logitech was very helpful, and had no problem sending me these as a replacement, so I give their tech support an A+.

Anyway, on to the product at hand. These headphones are excellent, period. I can't think of anything bad to say about them! I use these with my iriver H10 5GB MP3 player. Here's how it breaks down:

Style: These headphones are very sleek, with the earpieces having a semi-thick transparent covering containing the Logitech logo, giving a very nice 3D impression. The volume up and down are on the right ear but are not tactile buttons as you would normally think of them. Yes it clicks when you press it, but it's just the bottom or top of the earpiece that you press and it pivots across the horizontal, like a see-saw almost. The connect/power button on the top of the right earpiece has a nice bright LED, blue when connected, red when there's something wrong. The neckband (fatal flaw of the predecessor) is very nice now, covered with rubber for comfort but you can tell there's actual metal in there, not just plastic. Logitech says it's a "high-carbon spring-steel" headband, and I don't doubt that at all, it feels very durable. The receiver is just as sleek as the headphones, being glossy black with the Logitech logo on the front and back, and having the connect/power button on top with a status led, again blue if connected and red if there is a problem. A nice feature is Logitech has included plates that fit on the bottom of the receiver to adapt it to various generations of iPods, and the 3.5mm plug can slide from the center to the edge to allow for MP3 players with off-center 3.5mm jacks.

Comfort: These headphones are beyond comfortable. I can wear them for hours on end without my ears hurting at all. The rubber comfort rings hold them nicely on your ears without any discomfort whatsoever.

Range: Logitech claims to be using Bluetooth 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate for enhanced audio quality. I am not completely up to date on the latest happenings with Bluetooth, but whatever they did made these suckers transmit like a champ! I have left my player in my bedroom on one side of the house, and walked into my living room and still had the transmission. That's at least 30 feet as the crow flies, with a couple of walls in between. When it does finally lose signal, it doesn't get static, just cuts out for a moment, then regains the signal clear as a bell when you get back in range. I haven't tried it, but I believe if you left your player in a central point in your house, I'd bet there's a good chance you could walk all around and never lose the signal. Way beyond my expectations, Logitech gets a gold star for this technology.

Performance: The sound quality is excellent on these things, crystal clear. It also has a bass boost function (hold the connect and volume up buttons until you hear the funny noise) which really impressed me as well. For the size of the earpieces, the bass really sounds nice. Obviously it's not going to vibrate your head or anything like that, but for all you bass freaks out there, this should definitely keep you satisfied. The volume is also impressive; with my player at max volume and these headphones at max volume, I can take them off and hear everything that's playing almost as if I have a small desktop speaker sitting there. I haven't had the guts to try it, but I'm sure you could damage your hearing or at least get a good ringing going by using these and your player at max volume. You could be on the tarmac at an airport and hear these things just fine with as loud as they get.

Battery Life: I have yet to run out of power on these headphones. I listen to my player several hours a day, and plug it and the headphones in every night. Logitech claims 6 hours of play time, and although I haven't ever actually timed it, it seems like that's either on the spot or possibly even an understatement. Of course your mileage may vary, I'm sure volume level and other factors come into play with battery life.

Cons: I don't really have any true "cons" for this, more like a minor nit-pick. A couple of the sounds the headphones play to indicate an action or status (such as the bass boost) play the same sound for on and off. If you're listening to a quiet song, or you are in between songs, you won't know if the bass boost is on or off until you get to a song with heavy bass. Like I said, this is a VERY minor annoyance, nowhere near worth causing a second thought about these headphones.

Conclusion: If you are looking for a nice pair of wireless headphones, look no further. These headphones are sure to impress, Logitech really hit the nail on the head with these!