Sony SBH-80 Stereo Bluetooth Wireless Headset

Design Functionality

Sony Launch a new product a Bluetooth Wireless Headset. It's a wearable headphone headset. All the circuitry and all the buttons and battery forms are enclosed in a single housing worn. Which can be wear at the back of neck. So all the thing include NFC, USB charging port and power button located. From there, semi-rigid wires are attached from the side of wearer's neck. Which has two small pods are attach with these wires and hold the microphones. Both two mics are used for high quality voice sending to the receiver at next end both pods have button control. Left pod have Play/ Pause and Nex/Previous song or track button.  On the right side are the volume controls and a button that controls headset functionality with phones. It doesn't have Siri/ Google Now or any type of voice control.

8 Inches wires (20cm long) which are from pods ends. The cords used here are light and thin in cross-section, the exact opposite of the MH1C cables. They don’t get in the way and the earpieces can even be worn over-the-ear if necessary, which eliminates excess cable slack.

Wireless Sony SBH-80

The SBH-80 utilizes a Bluetooth v3.0 chipset with support for the aptX codec as well as NFC and Multipoint. aptX a proprietary audio codec designed to encode a CD-quality (16-bit / 44.1kHz) audio stream without loss of sound quality. It is capable of consistently good audio quality, with the caveat being that both the headphone and the source must be aptX-capable – if either one lacks aptX support, the default SBC codec will be used instead. My Nexus 5, for example, does not support apt-X, nor do Apple devices such as iPhone's and iPods.

Like all Bluetooth headphones, the SBH80 will use the SBC codec with devices that do not support aptX. SBC is capable of audio streams with bit rates of approximately 330 kbps at its best, but is also capable of mid- and low-quality streams. If you’ve ever experienced compressed, unnatural audio from a Bluetooth headphone in the past, a low-quality SBC stream was most likely to blame. In the absence of aptX, high-quality SBC will deliver very decent audio quality. However, low- and even medium-quality SBC streaming is undesirable for music and should be avoided.

With headphones that support high-quality SBC streams, such as the SBH-80, sound quality over SBC wil depend on implementation on the transmitter side. A USB Bluetooth transmitter I picked up for $2 from a Chinese deal site, for instance, sounded absolutely atrocious because it defaulted to the lowest SBC quality. Installing a better dongle in its place produced much better results. Sony SBH-80

NFC and Multipoint provide the SBH-80 with additional functionality. NFC is a wireless standard used as a “handshaking” shortcut to establish connection. Bluetooth devices that support NFC can be paired and connected by simply bringing the NFC chips together, without ever opening a Bluetooth menu. The caveat is that that both devices have to support NFC for this to work.

NFC allows me to pair and connect the SBH-80 with my Nexus 5 much more quickly and easily than with other devices by simply tapping the NFC area of the headset (located under the NFC logo) against the appropriate spot on the back of my phone. This doesn’t seem like a big deal at first, but it is surprisingly convenient in everyday use.

Multipoint, too, is very handy, allowing the SBH-80 to maintain two Bluetooth connections simultaneously. With Multipoint, I can have my computer and phone, for example, both connected to the headset at the same time. If I am listening to music from my PC and a call comes in on my phone, the headset will allow me to take the call and then resume music playback from the computer automatically once the call is over.

Sound Quality of Wireless Headset

Bluetooth Dongle which supports aptX on windows 7 with x64 LG Nexus 5 with high-quality SBC (source) Fiio E7 and HiFi Man HM-901 with IEM card were used as baseline sources While testing of this headset for the Sony MH1C.

The first thing I did was compare the SBH-80 to its corded predecessor, the MH1C.

The MH1C and SBH-80 sound extremely similar at their best. It makes sense that they should, as they are based on the same transducer. To my ears the SBH-80 seems to have a touch more low end presence, especially in the subbass region, relative to the midrange. It is also a little smoother through the treble. Combined, these changes make it sound a little warmer and overall even more forgiving than the MH1C. I personally like the slightly more crisp and edgy treble of the MH1C as it’s still an extremely smooth earphone, but for some listeners the SBH-80 will be clearly preferable. In any case, the newer model provides a warm, clear, and smooth sound on a performance level I have not previously experienced with a wireless set.

Full and deep bass with an rhetoric on sub-bass rather than mid-bass, as this sony stereo have great bass quality. If you talk about the enhancement of the bass it provides good control. Although it’s still not as tight as the bass of Sony’s similarly-priced balanced armatures models, for example, or less bassy dynamic-driver sets such as the HiFiMan RE-400 and LG Quadbeat.

The mids of the SBH-80 are not as prominent as the low end, but they are pleasantly warm and full-bodied. The treble is extremely smooth and inoffensive. The sound through the midrange and treble is quite natural, as with the MH1C. I did sometimes wish for better overall balance as the bass can be a hair intrusive at times, but clarity is not lacking. The enhanced low end should also be great for use outside, especially loud environments, as the bass of a headphone can easily end up losing authority in such situations.

This earphone have excellent high volume performance. It also maintains itself when played loud and have no distortion. Well quality open sound and surprisingly despite the warm tone. Having good treble reach.

Sony SBH-80 Stereo