Review: New Headsets Let You Shoot the Breeze

Bluetooth wireless headsets have become a lot better in the last few years at picking out the user's voice from noisy surroundings.

Three Bluetooth headsets: the BlueAnt Q1, the Plantronics Voyager Pro and Jawbone Prime, top to...

Three Bluetooth headsets: the BlueAnt Q1, the Plantronics Voyager Pro and Jawbone Prime, top to bottom, are photographed in New York Wednesday May 27, 2009. The latest generation of high-end Bluetooth headsets for cell phones is supposed to deal with a persistent problem with earlier models: It can be hard for people on the other end of a call to hear you when the wind is whistling over your microphone. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

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But a key problem has persisted: If you're in a breezy place, it's been hard to make yourself heard above the sound of the wind whistling over the microphone.

The latest generation of high-end headsets, with prices ranging from $100 to $130, promise to do a better job at wind suppression. I tested three of them in locales that included a windy rooftop and the streets of New York.

The most telling place for the test actually was an interior staircase that, because of some fluke of the ventilation system, has a steady, light breeze of about 5 mph. That doesn't sound like much, but it's enough for conversation to be impossible with a Motorola H350, a 3-year-old headset that's still on sale.

With today's better headsets, the stairwell breeze was noticeable, but I could still make myself heard. Outdoors in gusty weather, even the best headsets were occasionally overcome.

The contenders were:

— The $100 Voyager PRO, from Plantronics Inc. of Santa Cruz, Calif. This model is sort of a throwback, bucking the trend toward smaller headsets. Most of its bulk sits behind the ear, like a hearing aid. A long boom brings the microphone close to your mouth. That helps with the audio pickup at the price of making you look like you escaped off the bridge of the starship Enterprise. (By the way, I've thought of a way to make a detachable microphone that comes closer to the mouth, for even better sound. It attaches to the nose like a bull ring. Interested manufacturers should contact me.)

The Voyager is heavier than the other headsets, but sits comfortably on the ear. General noise suppression is excellent. Wind suppression is not that good, but the Voyager has a very smart feature that makes up for that: It connects the microphone to the earbud, so the wearer can hear when the microphone is picking up the wind. Often, just turning your head away from the wind will get rid of most of the noise, and the Voyager lets you figure out how to do that.