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Telephones for Audiophiles?


This may be slightly off topic, but I was thinking of Audiogon today when looking at Blue Tooth devices.

I discovered yesterday that I have over 10,000 rollover minutes on my cell phone.

Why?

Because I absolutely can't stand the way it sounds. On reflection,I dont know how any self respecting audiophile could stand the static, the drop outs, and the general fidelity that makes a Bose wave radio sound like a cost no object, state of the art, high resolution device.

If I am dying of a heart attack and need an ambulance, I might reach for my cell phone.

But otherwise, I go out of my way to wait for a land line and feel like I am insulting anyone if I put them on speakerphone. How people talk on cell phones for hours, or try to conduct any serious business on them is beynd me.

Is anyone else here sensitive to this? Are there any telephones, whether wired or wireless that have met your audiophile standards for clarity or quality?

And if I have to use a mobile phone, is there a wired or wireless headset or earpiece that sounds better than others?

Thank you.
cwlondon
cwlondon OP
1,210 posts
 

Interesting to read about Vocoders, frequency response and other excuses for phones that sound worse than a tin can on a string in a parking gargage underwater.

This still does not explain why performance is so much worse in the US and in particular New York City where God forbid we don't spend at least 5 hours a day, jabbering away on a speaker phone, while driving our SUVs with cupholders.

Oops I forgot - in the US, it really is all about the Benjamins.
wireless200
415 posts
 
Poor performance is almost always related to high usage as you would imagine in NY City. Show me a system with few users and I'll show you a system where you almost always have good call quality. That provider will either be more expensive or about to be bought by someone else.

Normally the only way the small providers make money is through roaming agreements.

The big 2 are going all out with data now. Even the voice calls will be treated as purely as packet data calls. Voice calls won't even be hitting a traditional "switch" but will be going through routers as packet data. All this is very expensive to the service providers of course. But data and data apps is where the growth and profit is now.
rubber
30 posts
 
Are you sure the tracking force, azimuth and vta of the phone as it's applied to your ear, are set up correctly? Subtle changes in these areas make huge differences.
Also your arm's geometry, especially the forearm-wrist angle, is very important.
t_bone
1,182 posts
 
LOL, Thanks Rubber, for bringing us back to reality...
cwlondon OP
1,210 posts
 

A small breakthrough for this question, I have moved to a new office where union labor is required to do anything.

So in the end, the otherwise insanely expensive Beocom 5 telephone at $7 or 800 bucks or so was a bargain compared to hiring the union guys to run the wires.

It is nicely made, sounds pretty good, has good range, and a beautiful speaker phone charger base.

I am still learning my way around this device, but recently discovered that the speaker phone base draws its power from the handset, not the AC (or USB).

So in addition to the portabilitiy of the the handset, the speaker can also be moved around, cordlessly.

Dont know if any of you have tried the B&O phones recently, but for these or any other high quality cordless phones, can anyone suggest tricks / tips / tweaks / hacks to increase the range?

Thank you,
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