| duhren@sbcglobal.net 2006-01-18, 5:48 pm |
| After reading the reviews on google groups, I decided to test these two
products in a more scientific way. I took turns pairing each headset
with a Cardo BTA II receiver for non bluetooth phones. My phone is a
Sanyo VI 2300. Rather than ask what others subjectively hear from the
different headsets, I called my home answering maching to record the
incoming messages and listen for myself. The Scala 500 was the newer
version with the charging plug in the headset rather than the charging
cradle. My hope in the experiment was that the Cardo Scala combination
would be the best and I would only need to carry around one charger
since the same charger is used for both the 500 headset and the BTA II
receiver. Other than varying the headsets, the BTA II has a gain
control button to boost microphone volume from the headset. Since my
phone has voice recognition dialing which I use regularly, I tried to
auto dial with my voice. Both paired flawlessly with the BTA II. Now
to the results.
The Motorola HS 820 was clear and quiet under all connection
conditions. The sound was clear and audible, even when I stepped
outside. When the BTA II gain control was not turned on, the
answering machine would not record a message because the voice volume
was too low. With the gain control turned on, the HS 820 performed
flawlessly and responded to voice dial commands extremely well. With
the phone in my pocket, the sound was as good as a land line connection
with no static or crackling. As I walked away from the phone about 25
feet in direct sight, I heard some slight crackling but the connection
was clear on both ends. As I walked into another room about the same
distance away but with 3 walls separating, the voice became garbled but
cleared up with acceptable static once I stopped walking.
The Scala 500 had crackling and static under all test conditions even
with the phone in my pocket. The microphone volume was sufficient to
trigger the answering maching regardless of the gain boost on or off on
the BTA II. The 500 could not activate the voice dial regardless of
the gain setting and that usefull function of the phone was not
available. The walk away test started with annoying static and
crackling that just kept getting worse. At the 25 foot range with 3
walls separating, the voice was unintelligble. The earpiece sound
volume was louder than the HS 820 but the background noise was too high
to tolerate.
Conclusion: The Scala is going to be returned. I may test the HS 820
against the HS 850. By the way, the HS 820 paired flawlessly with my
Axim X50 PDA. All test products used bluetooth version 1.2, which is
the latest standard. The Cardo Scala BTA II works super with my non
bluetooth phone. I have been told by those listening to my calls on
this HS 820 headset that they could hear the radio playing in the
background and some wind noise when outside. However, they could still
hear my voice clearly. I judge that a minor negative since the sound
qulaity overall was so superior to the Scala.
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