I’ve recently received a trial pair of BH-604 headphones from womworld.com. The sound quality is quite impressive, but it does come at a bit of a hefty price. The headcans are massive and this of course help to make them comfortable for extended periods of time- which is great because the battery lasts a long, long time- but takes a hit in the portability factor. The Bluetooth 2.0 EDR spec’d headphones offer A2DP (advanced audio distribution profile) as well as AVRCP (audio/video remote control profile) though only the class two range of 10 meters (30 feet).
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Once paired with a compatible device, the headset offers playback controls such as track advance or back up, volume, pause/play and receive/end call with easy to operate buttons on the right headset. The only problem is that the track advance controls are situated on the side of the ear pieces, and as I seem to like gripping them there when adjusting the volume controls, I’ve advanced more than once to the next track rather than turning up the volume of a song I really wanted to hear.
The headset is quite bulky- it definitely takes some effort to lug these around with you. I generally carry them in my swiss gear laptop pack, and while the ear pieces will fold down flat to streamline them a bit- it’s not something you’re going to toss in the pocket of your pants, your jacket or probably your wife’s purse. Mine thought I was joking, so I’m denied the benefit of knowing how good of a fit they might actually be…
At any rate, this bulk does come at an advantage. First off, they cover your entire ear- so they do a decent job of blocking out a bit of the ambient noise around you, offering a more pleasant listening experience. They’re also large enough to provide a damn decent fit that is suitable for hours of listening. As the 500mAh battery is stated to last up to 18 hours talk time and 19 hours of music playback with a standby time of two weeks after an hour and a half charge (via an included standard pinhead sized Nokia charger)- with the sound quality of the headset you’re likely and able to wear them for a very long time indeed. At 250 grams, they’re quite light weight as well, and the soft and extremely supple leather like material of the padded bit that rests on top of your head and the ear pieces themselves are terrifically comfortable ensuring longtime operation to be a pleasure.
The super clear HiFi sound produced by the headset is fantastic. They do reveal the limitations in the N95 and N82 sound quality with a discernable amount of hiss during the track breaks and silences- though when connected to my laptop, the sounds was absolutely crystal clear with zero noise. Despite the bit of hiss that is only really noticeable if you really try to hear it while the music is playing, the bass is deep and rich, and the trebles lively and crisp when paired to the my N95 or the N82. I met up with Brandon a few days back to have a listen to them with an N81- as it’s touted to be more of a music and gaming device than anything I was curious to see if I could detect any hiss when paired with it. Unfortunately I was unable to give them a good listen as it was quite noisy in the café we met up at- though I assume if the hiss is not present with that device during music playback with a quality wired headset, it’s not going to be present with the BH-604s, as I didn’t notice a bit of hiss when connected to my laptop.
As well as listening to music and video with the headphones, they also work brilliantly for calls. I’ve not done any good testing with this really to see what kind of noise reduction they might offer, but the caller during the brief test had no difficulty hearing me, and as the head cans do a decent job of sealing my ears off from the rest of the universe, I certainly had no difficulty hearing myself. The call quality on my end was remarkable- though it’s not exactly an ear hanging BT headset. 
The build quality is quite nice. The ear pieces are appropriately articulable and the soft ear pieces and head padding is well stitched that give the look and feel of a product that will last a good long while. There are no shiny surfaces to keep polished or show greasy prints, which is welcomed by me after the last few grease magnets recently released from Nokia.
The following is included in the sales package-
- Nokia Bluetooth Stereo Headset BH-604
- Nokia Compact Travel Charger AC-5
- carrying pouch
- user guide
Overall, my experience with the BH-604 has been a pleasant one so far. At 115-130 dollars depending upon where you shop, I’m not exactly rushing out to get a pair just yet- but to someone who spends a lot of time listening to music on long commutes or other times that would make these a handy item, the build quality, comfort and sound quality could be well worth the price tag.
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Marcus W
said:
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Great review! A very good review! I'm looking to see if there has been reported any issues with HTC Tytn II. If no one has got any really big problems then I'm going for them  Thanks again for a superb review |
PseudoFinn
said:
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... Glad you found it useful. They really are a great set of wireless headphones. Thanks for the comment. |
PC
said:
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Nice review I agree that the bulk does come at an advantage for this type of headset - as well as blocking out the ambient noise, they feel comforable to wear. I was considering waiting for the Philips SHB9000 headset http://bluetoothinsight.blogsp...adset.html to be released but after reading your review I may reconsider and get the BH-604 bluetooth headphones instead. |
Juha
said:
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... Thanks for this. Can you tell is it possible to change/replace the battery when it dies ? |
PseudoFinn
said:
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... Hey, Juha. From what I can tell- it's not intended to be user replaceable. I'll try to get a better answer for you. |
NiftyShifty
said:
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n73 Hello everyone , Really a great review, good job ... but since i lost my n95 , now i am stuck with my old n73(great phone really, dont get any wrong impression of "old") ... so i was wondering has any1 tried pairing this headset with n73 ME ? And if so .... what was it like ? |
Al
said:
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... @ NiftyShifty, Make sure your N73 has the latest firmware. I dont remember which firmware has it, but the new firmware supports A2DP @ PseudoFinn How good is the sound isolation on this? If you crank up the volume, do you disturb others? |
NiftyShifty
said:
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... Ok . Ty for the info . I am gonna buy the headset in a couple of days and i will report what has happened |
almostdone
said:
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... Thank so much for your review. What would really make this even more useful is how they compared to good quality wired headphones such as a pair of shure, senheiser, ultimate ears etc. This is the only review I've found... Actually there is very little discussions about these headphones. |
IJM
said:
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nice on mate Just picked up a pair on Ebay, second hand, but purchase receipt was from 3 weeks ago. ( Compatability issues) picked them up for £47. Can't wait to test these! |
PseudoFinn
said:
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... IJM- You won't be disappointed, mate! Let us know how you get on with them. :-) |
IJM
said:
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... Received these yesterday. I'll probably stick a review up on 95users shortly. Won't be as good as yours though |
Jacques
said:
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Decent sound but NOT for Skype I bought these for use with my PC. From my experience: if you want a wireless headphones (music, games, movies etc) than BT604 is pretty good idea (subband codec only), but if you'd like to use it for skype or modem calls, or any mic recordings look somewhere else. It is a nightmare to get bluetooth headset profile to work. BlueSoleil shows like everything is ok but it is not. Believe me I did try a lot (2K, XP, Vista, 7, Linux, four versions of BlueSoleil, Toshiba stack, three USB BT dongles with right spec), PCs and laptops. It works only when it wants, one out of 20 maybe 50 attempts. Very frustrating. Got no idea how it performs with mobiles. |
Olda
said:
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Its good even for Skype Its working pretty good even for Skype and all others microphone enabled application. Core is just select right profile as BH604 offer three different profiles and Windows (during pairing) usually autoselect Audio Sink. (This is why it performs with mobiles.) |
viderbit
said:
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I'm with this headset. It's great. Thats because: Work Great with all my devices!!! For skype just use the latest BlueSoleil and before connect handsfree service, just unpair and pair your device from Classic View... This is need because when you pair with mobile devices, pairing options reset automaticaly.... And check if handsfree is muted (: |
