I hate cables. I really really do. So I have always been a fan of all things wireless and for music on the go, bluetooth seems to be the technology of choice. Support for the A2DP stereo profile has been slow coming though, particularly slow with Apple. Only since Leopard do they support A2DP in their desktop OS, but the performance is flaky at best. Since iPhone 3.x they finally support A2DP on the iPhone, but just to make things less fun they chose to not implement the AVRCP profile to allow remote control via bluetooth. However before I had an iPhone, I used a Nokia N95 along with a set of Plantronics Pulsar 590A stereo bluetooth headset. All was well, but the Pulsar's broke and the N95 just isn't so well integrated into OSX (the main reason why I have an iPhone is to be able to rate songs on the go). At any rate due to my recent tour of the US (10 flights in 16 days) I figured it would make sense to go noise canceling and so I ordered myself Nokia's newest bluetooth headsets the BH-905 that feature everything under the sun it seems.
First up the sound is great, which is to be expected from a headphone that lists at 399 Euros, though I was able to pick them up for 186 Euros at a webshop in Germany. They are open with nice leather cushioning. Actually these are probably the most comfortable headphones I have ever tried on. The draw back this is that they fall off easily when leaning forward let alone when getting into too much of a head banging groove. Being open, they of course also filter out less outside noise, which is fine, since I was planning to use them while riding my bike where I of course want to hear a bit about what is going on around me.
On flights I was hoping for the noise canceling to do the trick. However I was quite disappointed. When turning it on, you do notice a change, but there is still plenty of background noise that makes it through so after a while you are even unsure if the feature is turned on or not. Putting on music brings up the "good noise" level high enough that you hear little to nothing of the air plane anymore, so in a way the problem is solved. So I guess the noise canceling just makes them behave like closed headphones would naturally do already. Of course for live DJing these headphones will also not fly, since the noise canceling can only counter constant monotone background noise and not the noise in a club, but thats fine, I have my trustee Sennheiser HD-25-1 II for that.
Overall I am quite happy though. The sound is good, the mic also works quite well. Battery life is also great (though I cannot seem to be able to charge it with the USB adapter I was with my N95). Since they are so comfortable to wear, I can have them on my head for an entire travel or work day. Plus since they are open I deem them safe for use when riding my bike. The noise canceling makes them useful for airplane use where other open headphones would simply not be acceptable. The adapter set is also a nice touch and so is the high quality leather casing, which I have already adopted to hold my portable drive .. after all the headphones are on my head 24/7 :-)