Along with a couple other little gadgets, the FREETALK Wireless headset arrived in the mail from InStoreSolutions (ISS). This product – before even getting into it – holds a special place in my heart, as it uses a chipset from Avnera that I helped design and target at precisely this usage model. That all started six years ago… but amazingly enough this is the first 2nd Generation model to emerge from one of the chipset’s adopters. The other first generation products from Logitech, Plantronics, and Creative are still out there, and going strong (save for Creative’s which is hard to come by… unfortunately because their mic boom was h-o-t).

Cracking the box open, plugging it in… all worked without a hitch. Devices were paired out of the box, so no setup, and plugging it into the MacBookPro was seamless. Plug and Play, as usual, painless.

The high points

Compared to the first generation FREETALK, the new model is more comfortable, sports a folding design, and comes with a protective and compact carrying case. Definite improvements. The mic boom is the same variety that Creative used, and so it is awesome in feel and manipulation, however the mic tip itself is kinda chunky and blah.

While heating my dinner in the microwave, there was slight interference, but no interruptions… just some warbling and slightly chirpy distortion which is a result of the error concealment algorithms employed by Avnera. To further make life difficult for the FREETALK, there was WiFi active in the same room, as well as one other AvneraAudio device sending audio within my home-theater space. Basically, it’s nice to see after a couple years, the wireless audio chipset holds up to even some pretty insane usage stress.

Range performance was particularly good on the model I received. I easily had 45 feet through two walls. Slightly better than the Plantronics .Audio 995 I usually use, and where my head position can cause drop outs when I am on the other end of the my space. Nothing of the sort with the FREETALK. I’m sure the manufacturer has taken their learnings from building the first generation model which always helps maintain RF performance and consistency. It’s not unusual for a high level of variability to plague wireless performance on one piece versus the next. It’s maddening for makers, and more important those poor users who get stuck with one… just make sure you save your receipts for a day or two.

Switzerland

A few points to note regarding this model that I am fairly neutral about. This second generation FREETALK Wireless has a proper dongle without the wire tethered “puck” of the the first generation model. I guess I like it for cleanliness sake, but it also bugs a little me because I am always worried I will wrench it while plugged into my MacBook Pro.

I noticed the addition of microphone sidetone added into the headphone audio – something the Logitech had, and I personally could care less about.

The other aspect of this model I could take or leave is the new style.   The design has a very generic industrial design on the cups, and if I had to sound negative here in Switzerland, the silkscreening was a bit garish and clumsy looking.

My one (real) disappointment

Where this particular model really fell short of its pioneering predecessors was in the sound quality – both in tonal aspects, and in audible noise level.

To my ear, the 2nd Gen FREETALK sounds a little tinny and less precise than the Logitech and Plantronics models, and perhaps even less forgivably, worse than the 1st Gen FREETALK (which trumped them all to be frank).  I am disappointed that ISS didn’t follow through on the most stealthy, audio value device in this space.

The second issue is noise. When there is nothing playing through, there is an audible amount of noise to be heard. A shame, and a blemish on what could be a much better SNR given the core system employed. I admit I’m a little more critical than most, and it’s really only noticeable when music isn’t playing… but as a hint to technical folks associated with this product, the noise I am hearing does not change with the volume level of the headphone DAC which (I think) means that the audio is coupling into the speakers themselves directly from the circuit itself.

Again, all three models I’ve used extensively before this did not exhibit this noise problem, which to me is a factor of the maker and product development decisions made while bringing this product to market.

Hopefully some tweaks improve this as production moves forward, or perhaps I had a bad unit in some respect.

Overall

For US$79.99, this product is a considerably good value for the features and experience it provides.  It’s no secret my personal favorite Avnera-based headset is the Plantronics .Audio 995, but considering the latest FREETALK gets better range, is more compact and carry-friendly, and assuming they can fix the one needling audio quality issue, I would say it’s a toss up between these two models.

Many users stand to be very satisfied. It’s also great that ISS has stepped up their support levels and so much user frustration from the early days of the first model will be addressed in a better manner going forward.