Plantronics Voyager 855: Call/Music Double Duty

There are so many Bluetooth headsets to choose from these days that it's getting harder to find the ones that distinguish themselves from the field. Plantronics aims to do that with the Voyager 855.

The compact headset has a sliding boom that moves the microphone closer to your mouth for better sound; the sliding boom also doubles as an on/off switch, but there's also a call button on the top of the headset. For even better noise-canceling sound, there's a second earbud that easily attaches to the ear loop and around your neck to the other ear. It comes with a few sizes of ear loops and earbuds, obviously, to accommodate different-sized ears.

The stereo sound allows the Voyager 855 to do double duty as wireless music earbuds—if your phone's Bluetooth implementation supports A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution.) My Palm Treo 700p does not, so I was not able to test the music-listening capabilities of this model. But the second earbud may be worth the ever-so slightly geeky look when you're walking around a city trying to carry on a conversation. Plantronics says its noise-canceling features cancel noise on both sides of the conversation.

I like the size of the headset and the sound has been good for me and the folks on the other end of my calls. It is easy to use and works like Plantronics says it does. It will retail for $150.

If you're looking for the same kind of two-earbud stereo sound with noise canceling features to use with your PC, Plantronics also offers the Virtual Phone Booth - Audio 480. Attached to one earbud is a thin, bendable boom. It's good for gaming, listening to music on PC, and making Internet calls.

It comes with a nice portable leather case and sells for $90, and $110 for a USB version that works with Macs. It's designed so that you could be in a Starbucks or an airport and nobody would know. Maybe you'll forget, too.