Plantronics Voyager 510  

Ear Pieces and Wind Sock                                Unit, Charger and Accessories with Manuals

Comfort: Comfort is always one of those subjective things that can be hard to quantify and what I may find comfortable you may find intolerable.  With that caveat, I am going to go out on a limb and say this is one of the most comfortable headsets I have tried bar none!  In a match up with the Flamingo unit, it is a close call.  The Flamingo is a little more comfortable when wearing glasses but you can still wear glasses with this unit.  The in ear piece is more comfortable than the Flamingo's since it just sits nicely in the ear with no pressure at all if you select the right size.  I used the smallest and it is really comfortable.  It does not block out other sound to the ear so you don't have that head cold feeling.  I wore it almost all day today and that is better than I was able to do with the Flamingo.  I have small sensitive ears and they seem to fatigue easily.  The worst aspect is the battery behind the ear (too bad it isn't just a little thinner because you would completely forget it if it was).  The rubber loop piece is soft and very comfortable.  With the ability to switch ears fatigue is less of a problem.  The Flamingo is right ear only.  Given the pros and cons of each I would call it a draw.  The flashing indicator light is near the tip of the microphone and is not overly obtrusive.  It flashes blue when paired and red when the battery is low.  It flashes an alternate blue and red when pairing and it flashes red when on the charger until the unit is charged when it turns to blue.

Connectivity: Pairing is easy.  You put the unit in pairing mode by holding down the call control and power button at the same time until the indicator starts flashing alternate red and blue.  You search for the device from your handset and then enter the pairing code 0000.  It will pair with at least two devices (maybe more, it doesn't say) hence the ability to pair with the phone and the land line adaptor.  Plantronics claims it has a fast switching ability but it is not covered in the small user manual.  If the phone supports it, it supports additional features including: voice dial, last number redial, call transfer back to the phone, and call reject.  I have not yet tested all of these features.  It also supports muting.  I found the Bluetooth range to be very good with good quality up to about 20 ft using a Bluetooth dongle.  I haven't tested range on the handset yet.  I suspect that it will very much depend on the handset and software version.  I noticed that there was almost no sound degradation when using the headset on the opposite side of my body from the phone.  The recording made here were made with the headset on one side and the phone on the other.

V510 With Walls Between it using Bluetooth Dongle on PC.

V510 line of sight to Bluetooth Dongle on PC.

Sound Quality: Plantronics has a reputation for producing high quality sounding headsets that are heavily used in commercial environments.  This unit lives up to that reputation.  The actual sound is better than what you hear in my recording because they are recording of recording using MS SoundRecorder at telephone quality.  For some reason SoundRecorder introduces a slight echo and some distortion that is not present in the original. I have recorded a variety of tests for you to allow you to make your own judgments.  I don't try and edit or improve on them.  They are what they are.  The volume this unit is capable of will blast your ear drums out so you need to have it turned down pretty low.  I could still clearly hear the other party even when I had the volume up loud on my car radio and the air conditioner blasting me in the face.  Too loud and you will get some distortion.  No one complained of any echoes and I did not hear any echoes on my recordings.  The unit stayed paired all day and did not disconnect but it does run the handset battery down a little faster.

Base 7100t with 3.8 software.

Base 7100t with 4.0 software.

V510 Near Bluetooth Dongle.

Noise Cancellation: Noise cancellation is very good but probably not quite as good as the M3000.  Then again it weighs almost half as much.  Even a strong wind at 15 knots did not make the unit unusable.  Yes you can hear the wind but you can still plainly hear me talking.  The test with the radio in the car is really severe.  You would not normally even attempt a conversation with the radio that loud in your car and you sitting in the front near the speakers.  I tried a further test with the air conditioner blasting me in the face on high as it was very hot today.  The result was not as good as yesterdays with a little less fan speed.  You could still hear my voice but the wind sound is very noticeable and would irritate the other party.  It is still far better than other sets I have tired and wind noise is the hardest to deal with.  The TV noise test also had the TV very very loud but I was about 6 feet from the TV's speakers.  As you can hear in the recording, it cancels out a great deal of the noise.  The reality is that no noise canceling technology is perfect yet; however, this does a good job without making the sound digital and artificial sounding.  It is better than the Flamingo in this regard.

V510 in a Noisy Environment Test

V510 in a light breeze.

V510 in a 15 knot breeze.

V510 very Windy Conditions

V510 in a worst case environment.

Ease of Use: The unit is easy to use.  The boom is designed to fold so you can just put the unit in your shirt pocket and it is quick and easy to put on.  The volume control is a rocker switch with a plus and minus sign to increase or decrease the volume.  Unlike some headsets I have tried, the handset volume control seems to have only a minor impact on the volume setting. (It does have an effect but there is a slight delay.)  Answering a call is easy.  On an incoming call there is a beeping tone that you will hear about the same time you feel the vibrate.  The last number redial feature works by pressing the call control button twice very quickly.  The power button when pressed quickly mutes the phone or un-mutes it (acts as a toggle).  To reject an incoming call, press and hold the call control button and hold it until you hear the second tone.  The call has then been rejected.   Answering or hanging up a call is accomplished by a single quick push of the call control button.  To place a call using voice dialing press and hold the call control button for 2 seconds until you hear a second tone.  To switch to an incoming second call when you are on a call use a short press of the call control button.  It shouldn't take anyone long to learn how to use this headset.

Other Comments: The landline base unit is not cheap but I will probably order one along with the holster and USB adaptor.  The dual use in my house seems like an attractive bonus.  I would love to try this with a handset that supported voice dialing.

Signal Strength Data from 1ft and 25ft:

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