User Reviews on Jabra Supreme

not entirely "supreme"

7/10

Jupiterthedog

23rd January 2012

I've had the Jabra Supreme for about a week (since seeing a blurb about it in the tech-toys segment of the biz section of the local rag). It's paired with my Motorola XT860. I'd rate the Supreme as "OK, but not 'supreme'".

I only ever used one Bluetooth headset, several years ago. That one, when it could stay connected to my earlier phone, sounded tinny, and was before the day of voice commands.
The Jabra Supreme connects flawlessly, but voices - both my outgoing and my callers' incoming - sound muffled and dead. Sound is understandable, but has a feel of being swathed in cotton wool. Most likely, I just need to experiment with the noise cancellation settings.

The Supreme is supremely comfortable. I can jog for miles with it, and forget that I have it on. On this point, I'm definitely at odds with the original reviewer. I agree that the foam pads are not the easiest thing to replace, but once you've persuaded them to grab, they stay. I have jug ears, and (apparently) an outer-ear-canal that spits out earbuds or doesn't like the feel of any that manage to lock in. The on-the-ear placement of the Jabra Supreme was just fine. It's light enough that it just nestled against the whorls, and laid the boom snugly alongside my cheek. In noisy environments, it seems to work well, though I've yet to try it while riding a bicycle (the wind noise...). Traffic noises were handled easily.

Where I have a problem - and the other main reason that I bought the thing - is voice commands. It's been very hit-and-miss. I'd say I have a medium-timbre voice for a guy... I can't hit the base notes, but I ain't no soprano ... and I make every effort to enunciate clearly when talking to Miz Bluetooth, but I'm constantly asked to repeat commands. Or, she's mistaking me when I ask her to call out - between "home" and "office" of all things. If I never again hear the phrase "please say again", it'll be much too soon. This morning, I had to say "Battery" four times, with increasing volume before she finally deigned to tell me how much charge remained.

Strangely, speaking more slowly and inserting a crisp pause between words is NOT helpful.

Often, I'll get as far as Miz Bluetooth (on the Supreme) querying the phone's contact list ... and the silence then stretches on... and on... and she ignores anything I say, so eventually I have to kill the (attempted) call and try again. It USUALLY works better if I just say the number. Trouble is that I don't have all my contacts' numbers memorized - that's what the phone contact list is for.

Strangely (yes I know I've already said that), when Miz Bluetooth is confirming who she thinks I've asked her to call, her own diction is loud and crystal clear.... until she gets to the actual name from my contact list, which comes out sounding like she's talking around a wool sock. This doesn't make sense, because it's her voice, not mine. All my contact stuff is text. None of the names were input by voice, so the phone is reading and she's passing on what it reads. The phone doesn't do this badly if I talk to it directly.

I have experimented with the angle of the boom mic, even switching ears, but while I effected a small improvement, I still find voice command recognition to be very spotty. The Jabra Supreme cost me around a hundred bucks, direct from Jabra's fulfillment center. (I'm Canadian, and our dollar is roughly par with the American one.)

It's good enough to keep using, but if I lose or break this one, I think I'll try Plantronics next time around.

PS: Why does every device I own seem to have a slightly different USB/charger connector? Ack!