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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
lapierre
547 posts
 
Tough to beat the iPhone. The user interface and resolution is much better experience from my Palm Treo.
albertporter's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
albertporter
4,949 posts
 
Agree with all the above comments. As for audiophile cell phones, actually there was one but it was a long time ago.

In 1985, for about $2000.00 you could get a Motorola analog cell phone that required an antenna in the center of your cars roof and required a 12 gauge copper wire run directly to the car battery because it drew so much current.

On more occasions than I can recall, if I stopped the car in a parking lot to return a call viewed on my pager (answering service) the person on the other end assumed I was in my office.

Several times I gave my cell number in case we had to get off, explaining it was my car. Then the questions, when will you be in your car? Will I be able to reach you?

When I told them i WAS in my car laughter rolled as they thought it was joke I was playing on them. This is absolute truth, those old Motorola phones that were the size of a suitcase that trunk mounted and analog only operation were incredible.

Funny thing was, they were so powerful i could drive for miles before it clicked to another tower. Those damn things would broadcast forever before they would die.
zieman
339 posts
 
When I could no longer get service for my analog mobile phone, similar to the one Albert describes, I simply gave up mobile service altogether. They are all terrible. Home service is now digital and I think my blood pressure goes up when the phone rings. "What?" is the most frequent word I use when on the telephone. I pray for an analog resurgence, I will pay any price.
magfan
1,583 posts
 
Provided you EyeSight is holding up OK, you could always learn to TEXT.
etbaby
138 posts
 
The iphone has terrible audio quality. I don't know what apple was thinking when it release this product! I am so tired of asking my callers to repeat what they said over and over and over again. Clarity is not a strong feature of this phone. You must use a head set when using this product.
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