Antec a.m.p. Bluetooth Headset Review

Today we are going to take a look at the latest product to be released in Antec’s Mobile Products range, the Pulse Bluetooth headset. This is the first full-size headset in the a.m.p. range building on the success of the more compact wireless earphone models. We are excited to see how it performs, both when used with a computer and with a mobile device. We were very impressed with the a.m.p. SP-1 speaker that we looked at a while back. This was very visually striking and delivered a great combination of excellent sound quality and solid build quality. The only slight drawback we noted was the price which was somewhat overinflated in our opinion. It will be interesting to see if the Pulse headset can offer better value for money. Specifications Wireless: Bluetooth V3.0 Range: Up to 10m Speaker: 40mm Frequency Response: 20Hz~20KHz Inbuilt Microphone Weight: 180g Battery Type: Rechargeable Li-Polymer It is clear from the packaging that Antec are trying to push this headset up market. It is almost 'Apple-esque' in its design, featuring an all-white livery with few elements cluttering the front of the box. Turning it around reveals details of the features and specifications of the headset in a number of different languages. The box itself feels very good quality and should do an excellent job of protecting the headset in transit. Inside the box there are a number of accessories included. These consist of a USB cable for charging, a 3.5 mm cable and an airline adapter. It is clear from the aesthetic design of the headset that Antec are targeting this particular model at those users who are very style-conscious. The headband is very thick and takes the form of an almost uninterrupted curve of gloss plastic. Our sample of the headset is finished in blue, but it is also available in orange, white, black and pink. We are very impressed with the build quality of the Pulse. Even though the headset is finished almost entirely in plastic, there is a metal backbone supporting the headband. Both the gloss and matte plastics used feel good quality, although we imagine the white and pink versions of the headset will pick up dirt and scratches quite readily. Antec has chosen to use an on-the-ear design of this headset, meaning the earpads rest up against your ears. The earcups themselves are very small, making the Pulse much more discreet than most gaming headsets. Antec has still managed to fit 40mm drivers into them, though. The compact nature of the included carrying case is a hint that this headset folds up for transportation. When folded up, the headset is very compact indeed and should reduce the potential for damage. The wireless nature of the Pulse means that there are a number of buttons dotted around the right earpiece. There is a rather stealthy phone button integrated into bottom of the headband, in addition to Play / Pause, Forward and Backward buttons on the front edge of the headband. There is also a tiny microphone located here for calls. The volume up and volume down buttons have been relegated to the back edge of the headband alongside the power / multifunction button. One of our only criticisms of the Pulse from a design point of view is the tiny size of the buttons and the lack of definition between them. There also aren’t any markings to indicate what each button does so you have to closely study the user manual before use. On the bottom edge of the headset there is a micro-USB connector for charging alongside a status light and a 3.5mm jack for use with the included cable. We were pleasantly surprised by the level of comfort offered by the Pulse during use. It isn’t particularly heavy considering it has an inbuilt battery – although we did find that the battery ran out after around five hours use which was a little disappointing. The headband can be easily adjusted on either side and has a wide range of variation so the headset should fit most people comfortably. There is a small amount of padding on the inside of the headband but this makes little difference to comfort in practice. Antec has chosen to cover the earpads with a grey-coloured faux-leather material which is perforated to allow sound to reach your ears. The padding is very soft indeed, meaning they adapt themselves nicely to your ears. We didn’t experience any discomfort when wearing the headset for extended periods of time, although we wouldn’t recommend using it at the gym as the faux-leather earpads can get quite sweaty. We focused our testing of this particular headset on music playback as we feel that this would be fairly representative of the usage profile of the target customer. Our testing procedure commenced with Elisabeth Leonskaja’s performance of Chopin’s Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 in Eb Major which often identifies weaknesses in the upper registers. We were fairly impressed with the performance of the headset in this test where the high frequencies were rendered precisely and, for the most part, weren’t over exposed. Moving on to Hometown Glory by Adele, we were particularly impressed by the richness of the mid-tones and the clarity of the lower piano notes in the backing track. It is clear from our testing that this headset is most at home when playing more bass-heavy music though as the sound balance is slightly biased towards the lower registers. In our movie playback test, we watched the opening scene of The Dark Knight. The slight bass-bias of the Pulse helped the deep bass notes to resonate, creating quite an immersive experience and sound panning was impressive for a stereo headset. Overall we are very impressed with what the Antec a.m.p. Pulse Bluetooth headset has to offer. It’s clear that Antec are putting a lot of effort into their mobile product range as we have been very impressed with all of the products we have reviewed to date. We love the aesthetic design of the Pulse - it is very attractive indeed. We aren’t usually partial to expanses of gloss plastic but Antec have really made it work. The wide range of colour options available should satisfy the preferences of most users too. In terms of sound quality the Pulse doesn’t disappoint. It feels most at home when listening to bass-heavy genres although it did perform fairly well throughout all of our tests. We had no trouble connecting the Pulse up to an iPhone and Dell Inspiron 15 laptop via Bluetooth either. We only noted two slight negative aspects of the Pulse. Firstly, the buttons are all very small and are tricky to distinguish between, making it difficult to use the different functions of the headset. Secondly, the battery life of the headset isn’t great. We only managed to achieve 5 hours on a full charge. At a price of around £65 from CCL Online, we feel that the Pulse offers reasonable value for money. It is ideal for those users who are looking for a quality set of wireless headphones to use with their mobile devices. Discuss on our Facebook page, over HERE. Pros Beautiful design. Solid build quality. Decent sound quality. Attractively priced. Cons Small buttons. Average battery life. KitGuru says: A good option for those who want a stylish wireless headset to use with their mobile devices.

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Antec a.m.p. Bluetooth Headset Review

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