In this post, I thought I’d give you my impressions using Motorola’s MotoRokr SD9-HD wireless bluetooth headphones with my iPhone 3G. I bought these headphones for a few different uses; I wanted something so I could listen to music when I’m at the gym, and headphone wires tend to get in the way when I’m working out. They sometimes get caught on my clothing or workout equipment. I also needed something to use while I’m driving, as it’s now against the law to hold on to/or use a portable device when driving that isn’t hands free!

Construction & Design
The headphones are made from a hard plastic and rubber construction. The rubber makes them easy to grip, and the hard plastic is quite durable. They easily slip over each ear in a sort of backward sunglasses type fashion, then around the back of your head. The headphones include these little rubber ear tips that fit over metal speaker housings, then fit into your ears. This design is quite comfortable for short periods, but not as good for longer listening sessions. I found that the rubber ear tips tend to come off (I already lost one), so you have to be a bit careful. Make sure you line up the tabs on the ear tips to the metal speaker housings when replacing them. Fortunately, you can buy replacement ear tips on-line on Motorola’s web site. 2 sets of different sizes are included with the SD9-HD. They also come with an AC charging unit, and a nice little soft carrying bag, to store them in when you’re not using them. Also, the battery time on the unit lasts impressively long at almost 6 hours between charges. Overall, I like this design and found that the behind the head design really didn’t annoy me too much unless I was trying to lay back on a pillow, while I was laying in bed.

Sound Quality
The improved sound quality of the SD9-HD (over the original SD9) is mainly noticeable in the bass response. It is full, big, and bad-ass. Most of the music I listen to (when working out) is mainstream rock, pop, and dance. Occasionally, I listen to podcasts (voice narration). Stereo separation was good and the top-end is crystal clear. They are not quite loud enough to listen to on an airplane during a flight if our source audio is a bit soft.

Bluetooth Function
The SD9-HD bluetooth controls are conveniently mounted on both left and right sides of the earpieces. The left side has two volume (up/down) buttons, and you can answer or hang-up calls with another button between the volume controls. The right side has track control (forward/back) buttons, and a play/pause button between. The play/pause button seemed to work fine, however the forward/back buttons didn’t due to the iPhone’s less then perfect implementation of the bluetooth specification. Apple, please fix this! Bluetooth range on the SD9-HD is quite impressive; I left my iPhone downstairs with the music playing and walked to the other side of my house and up the stairs before the music started cutting out on me. Another nice feature they added on this model is that the caller’s voice (when using the phone) is heard in both ears, as opposed to only the left ear on the original SD9 model. The microphone is cleverly located on one of the earpieces, and has noise reduction built-in.

Price
Expect to pay somewhere around $100-130 USD for these headphones.

Conclusion
I have no major complaints with the SD9-HD’s, other than those little rubber ear tips coming off from time to time. Overall, I highly recommend the SD9-HD and give it a huge thumbs way up!

(Posted by Paul)