Plantronics Pulsar 590A Bluetooth Headset Review

[Apoptosis]

Plantronics Pulsar 590A Bluetooth Headset Review

The Plantronics Pulsar 590 Series Bluetooth Stereo Headsets are said to deliver the ultimate in wireless freedom. With up to 12 hours of talk time and 10 hours of listen time, you can enjoy wireless stereo listening on laptops, PCs, TVs, DVD and MP3 players. Legit Reviews has had the 590A on the test bench and is ready to report the results!

The Plantronics Pulsar 590A Headset:


The Travel Case:

Using the Plantronics Pulsar 590A to listen to music in the office, computer lab, or while traveling is sweet since Plantronics has given the user everything they need to connect and communicate with any device out there. The Universal Adapter is worth its weight in gold. Being small and rechargeable the Adapter goes wherever you need it to go to interface with whatever device you need. Even though the headset had limited (i.e. Non-stereo) Bluetooth connectivity with Bluetooth-ready PCs, the Pulsar 590A worked great for Internet chats and Internet telephony.

Article Title: Plantronics Pulsar 590A Bluetooth Headset Review
Current Pricing: Live Pricing

[Digital Puppy]

Seriously, these have to be one of the best Bluetooth headsets out...and it's icing on the cake that they integrate nicely with any AV source.

[DMB2000uk]

Im intruiged, when playing with a PSP or DS, what did you do with the wireless adaptor?

These look awesome though, what I have been waiting for in terms of bluetooth headsets... now to just find some money to buy them

Dan

[Digital Puppy]

When playing with the PSP, the little dongle just hangs loose. It is very light so the awkwardness that you experience initially goes away after you fire up a game and start enjoying wireless.

[koneill]

Now that my son has killed my third set of Sennheiser headphones I've decided to go wireless.

Since I'll be using this for PC gaming both stereo and a mic are important. I wasn't clear if the 590A will work for me. In the summary it is said "Even though the headset had limited (i.e. Non-stereo) Bluetooth connectivity with Bluetooth-ready PCs, the Pulsar 590A worked great for Internet chats and Internet telephony."

Does this mean that if I want to use the mic I have to forfeit stereo? Or can I use the mic via bluetooth and the adapter (into my sound card) for stereo?

Thanks.
Keith

[Digital Puppy]

Keith- First of all, welcome to the LR forums!

When we wrote this article we were able to use the Plantronics in a couple of different ways: 1. VoIP/Cellular phone use - the sound wasn't hi-fi/stereo, but it was very clear; 2. Stereo music listening with the BT dongle. When we tried to use the set to listen to BT stereo and chat via computer (or with the cell phone) we were unsuccessful. This wasn't really the fault of the headset though as it was the only protocols available. Since then, we have experienced BT headsets that would allow both - stereo music listening with the ability to chat over VoIP. I'm expecting that since over a year has passed, upgrades to both the headset and dongle protocols have improved. We haven't evaluated the set in a while so I don't want to give you any false hope.

You might want to reconsider using this BT set (or any wireless headset) for gaming since they all have an intrinsic lag/delay. This is okay when only listening to music or even chatting via VoIP, but when you are watching movies or gaming it can be a pain and very inconvenient. There are a bunch of quality headsets out there that can be used for gaming, chatting, and music listening that are affordable. The Plantronics is very nice for those who need a BT device for their cellular and who want to listen to music (via phone, computer, or whatever device has a headphone jack). It is versatile enough to be integrated into a computer system for VoIP, but I'll have to stop my recommendation short when it comes to performing as a Gaming headset.

Hope that helps!