For some time I had been thinking about getting a headset for my 2090. The telephone style handset of the 2090 is an ergonomic solution and the sound quality is good, but I thought I was loosing out on some of the audio. I considered the headphone options offered in the Barrett catalogue, but then went along to try out the headphones from Arlan Communications. They have rave reviews on eHam and I can say that I am not surprised about that.
Dave Bottom from Arlan Communications http://www.arlancommunications.com/ and Bradford Oliver from http://www.barrettusa.com/ made the connection between the RS22CF and my Barrett 2090 possible - charging me only for the material used without markup - no charge for the development cost. Dave even custom built a cable adaptor for the KPT connector in his machine shop, without extra charge. Bradford drove with a 2090 to Dave's shop, in order to test the 2090- RS22- headphone- microphone interaction, which led to additional optimization on the part of which microphone should be matched to the 2090. So much for the service - if there was a better word than "outstanding" then I'd use it.
What about the product quality?
RS22CF with all comfort options, with custom development of cabling solution with environmental connector to Barrett 2090:
Build quality: outstanding
Audio quality: outstanding (Bose, Sennheiser, you name it - are no match)
Custom connector cable assembly build quality: outstanding
Custom order turnaround time: outstanding
Comfort options: outstanding, sure worth the little extra investment, I can wear these headphones with glasses for hours and still feel totally comfortable. Never felt anything like it.
Customer service: outstanding
Price/Value relationship: outstanding. Do the math. Compare these to commercial grade pilot or studio headphones. Compare the audio quality. Wow.
Barrett 2090:
Post-sales customer care: outstanding. Bradford accompanied this project from beginning to end. You name the project - Bradford transforms it into reality. More about this on subsequent posts.
Audio quality of the 2090: "blows my socks off" with the RS22
Noise Reduction feature: now I am able to appreciate it fully. With the handset, voice seemed to muffled with low audio, with the headset - clear with excellent acoustic quality.
Audio Mute feature: even this feature is far better than appreciated with the handset. Now I can hear that the audio mute gradually fades out when other stations stop talking. Thought that the hands free speaker feature of your cell phone or home phone was great? Notice how it often cuts off the words of the speakers? The 2090 audio mute feature does not cut off the other stations voice, it response is immediate and very pleasant to listen to.
"You get what you pay for."
With these two fine HAMs and their products, you get much more. You will not regret the purchase of the RS22 or the 2090 if you appreciate quality and want to save money. Want to buy "cheap", then don't complain later about the (lack of) quality. Buy quality once - and you save more money than buying "cheap" twice or three times or...
Disclaimer: I have nothing to disclose; I have not received any benefits of any kind for this review.
Thank you Dave and Bradford.
vy 73 de Marcus KD0JKM
2012-05-13
2012-05-12
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vy 73 de Marcus KD0JKM
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