Motorola lately updated their previously released Bluetooth Stereo headset HT820 with a stereo Bluetooth gateway addition (called DC800) and this combo is called the Motorola Bluetooth Home Entertainment Solution HT820/DC800.
While the stereo headset supports the standard Bluetooth headset profile (it has a small microphone in the right earphone), it also supports the Bluetooth stereo A2DP profile for music streaming as well as the AVRCP profile to remote control bonded Bluetooth devices. Basically it means you can use the headset for a couple of scenarios: as a headset for your mobile phone voice calls, stereo headset for your (stereo profile enabled) mobile device to listen music as well as remote control your mobile device media player and in combination with a PC as headset for VoIP calls.
The stereo gateway supports A2DP only and can not be used as a Bluetooth dongle with PCs since it misses the required connector. Instead, it is connected via chinch plugs to any audio source. The package includes all required cables, power plugs and chargers including a chinch to chinch cable as well as a 3.5" to chinch cable to connect the gateway either to your HiFi via chinch or any other source (like Media Center PCs or Notebooks) with the 3.5" connector.

Bonding the headset with the gateway is a piece of cake and Motorola made it as simple as possible that even non-Bluetooth users shouldn't face a problem here, if they follow the manual. After both devices are paired, the audio stream is transmitted immediately to the headset. Since the gateway is a Bluetooth class 1 device, theoretically it transmits up to 100 meters which you will not reach in reality, at least not in closed environments like apartments. However, the range is good enough that you should be able to roam through your domicile without loosing the connection between the headset and the gateway. This allows you to listen your music in stereo, without disturbing others and without staying in the same room where your media speakers are.

A specialty of the headset is to support (no surprise, since it is specified that way by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group) concurrent Bluetooth connections. This means, that you can bond the headset with your Bluetooth enabled mobile phone and can connect it in parallel to the media gateway. In case you receive a call while you are listening music, the stereo transmission mutes and you can take the call. As soon as you hang up, the stereo transmission continues. With this Bluetooth stereo/headset combo you will not miss a single call.

If your mobile device also supports A2DP, you can also bond both profiles in parallel to one single device. For instance you can listen music as well as making phone calls with your AKU2 enabled Windows Mobile Pocket PC or Smartphone (see my previous review about the stereo Bluetooth support of Windows Mobile's AKU2 here). It works similar to the wired standard headsets which comes with most of the Smartphones and Pocket PC Phone Editions where these headsets are used for both, audio and voice. And again the playback is muted or even paused if you receive a call (the mute/pause functionality depends on the mobile device).

Using the headset as a remote means you can do two things: controlling your mobile phone (as you might used to do already with standard Bluetooth headsets as well) and controlling the media player of supported devices.
Also here, Motorola tried to make it as easy as possible to remember the functions. One the left side of the headset, you have the call start/end button (which can also activate voice command functionalities of your mobile device, if supported) and the volume up/down buttons.
On the right side, you have the play/pause button and the next/previous song button.

As said, the headset functionalities are the same as with standard headsets and you can accept, reject and hang-up calls as well as you can change the call volume (as well as the audio volume if you listen music). However, even more interesting is the remote control functionality which lets you control the media player of the attached Bluetooth stereo device (as long as it supports the Bluetooth AVRCP profile which most A2DP devices supports in addition too). Here you can play and pause a song, jump to the next or previous one without taking the device out of your pocket. This is more than handy since you don't need a second (wired) control and provides the best user experience you can expect.
If you are not allowed to use Bluetooth in certain environments - like aircrafts - you can also connect the headset with your mobile device using an included seperate cable. However, if you connect it this way, the remote control functionality doesn't works at all.

According to Motorola, a single battery charge last 12 hours for music streaming and 15 hours for phone calls. That's far more than any Windows Mobile device can be used for today and should be enough.
The headset is charged with the included power adapter, which is the same power adapter like used for Motorola mobile phones like the MPx200 or Razr V3.

Final Conclusion

The stereo gateway and the headset works perfectly together simply trouble-free and allows you to listen your music up to 100 meters away from the source. Pairing both devices couldn't be easier. So far so good.
I'm a little bit disappointed about the stereo gateway potentials which is a pure and dumb audio "converter". Even if it has a mini USB connector, you can not use it as a Bluetooth dongle with your PC, let's say a Media Center PC. This mini USB is the power plug only, not a communication plug. This misses the opportunity to get the music transmitted fully digital, end-to-end, but it takes the analogue signal from the chinch plug and converts it back to a digital Bluetooth signal. Also it means you have to buy a second Bluetooth dongle, if you want to use the headset for bidirectional communication, let's say as your headset for VoIP. At the end it means you don't need the whole combo, if you plan to use the headset with your Media Center PC but better buy the headset only plus an additional Bluetooth dongle which supports the A2DP stereo profile as well. In this case, you can stream the music from your Media Center to the headset as well as you can use the microphone of the headset for VoIP communication. Here, Motorola missed a real opportunity, especially because Motorola also provides such A2DP enabled Bluetooth USB adapters.

The headset is comfortable to wear (even/especially for me as I'm wearing glasses as well) and the use and navigation functionalities are placed well. It's a great headset for both, listening music as well as making phone calls, even if I have to admit it's a little bit too silent. If you tune the volume to the maximum, it's still lower than a comparable wired headset. While it is loud enough in rooms and silent environments, you will notice it in streets with lot of traffic or loud environments. Also you can definitely hear weaknesses in bass and highs playbacks. Nothing which makes it unusable but in the direct comparison with high-end HiFi headsets you can notice the difference.

Maybe the biggest problem, depending how strong your ego is, is the size and bulkiness of the headset. It's thick, really thick and it looks a little bit like the hairstyle of Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia in Star Wars.
Not a big problem in Winter, where most of the folks around you might think you are wearing earlaps but anyway, it looks a little bit strange and therefore I always get (too) many looks if I'm walking around with the headset.

On the other hand, I don't want to miss the headset anymore for voice calls in loud environments. While it is not stereo for phone calls, both speakers are used and therefore you can hear your partner crystal clear.

All together, the headset gets my recommendation, even if it looks and is bulky (hope v2 will becomes smaller) but the handling is perfect. The stereo gateway missed the opportunity to be a Bluetooth adapter as well which makes it more useless for me, since I use a Media Center as my only HiFi but on the other hand it saves money if you want to use it with your TV, DVD or regular HiFi only where you don't need a full blown Bluetooth adapter solution which would makes the gateway more expensive.

The Bluetooth Home Entertainment Solution HT820/DC800 combo is available from Motorola for 149 Euro, the headset allone is available for 99 Euro.

Cheers ~ Arne

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Arne,

You wrote that the AVCTP and the AVDTP profiles are responsible for the remote control but isn't it the AVRCP profile that controls that?

I have the set also tested and after one hour wearing the headset, my ears are really hurt.

Robert Webbe

Robert, you are right, my fault (have changed it). I was so deep in the specs when I wrote the review that I've lost the overview! Sorry!

Hi,

You wrote that in some areas where using bluetooth is not allowed, it can be connected to the mobile phone via cable!

If attached via cable, is it possible to pick up, make and hang up phone calls? Is the cable a 2,5 mm or 3,5? Can it be attached to the i-mate magician (mda compact) via cable without any further extension?

The information would be very important for me in order to purchase Bluetooth headphones!

Thank you very much for your help in advance!

Taliaa

I have both the HT820 headset and the DC800 Bluetooth Audio.  They work great together.  I have plugged the DC800 into an audio jack off my PC.  I get a bit of a electical hum / destortion.

The Motorola HT820 does not fully support A2DP reception from a Nokia 6682 phone with 3rd Party A2DP profiles loaded(MSI Bluplayer).

I have a Nokia 6682 and I just bought a Motorola HT820 (Bluetooth Stereo Headphones).

I just attempted to install MSI BluePlayer on my Nokia 6682.

The installation appeared to complete normally.

I was able to see the mp3's stored on phone fine.

When I started the application, I was asked,
The cell phone is connected with Motorola HT820
Do you want to play music to it?

I answered Yes

When I selected the song to play, I receive the following error message:
Remote device
does not
support Mp3.

Then a new message:
Rejected by
remote device

Please note I have not found the A2DP and AVRCP profiles loaded yet.
Can you let me know where I can find them?
Does MSI BluePlayer support AVRCP?


Here are some more items that don't work:

The pause/stop/play, Skip Forward, or Skip Reverse buttons do not work.

Don't get me wrong .....  I really do love the audio quality of the HT820 headset.

I can hear mono music from the phone and I can make a call.  The call is very clear and the people I call have said that I don't sound like I'm using a headset.  I've had several headsets and I've never heard that before.

Please fix the issue with the Nokia 6682 compatibility!!!!
Thanks,
Chris

Hi

Could you please help me?
I have just purchased Motorola bluetooth stereoheadset HT820. It paired perfectly with my Sony Ericsson W800i and i can make calls easily and the sound is clear.. But it doesn't want to control the music player.
The same problem is with my computer, It has installed BlueSoleil software to enablle bluetooth communication. I paired it with the headset and it is indeed playing, pausing and stopping the audio/viedo, but there is no sound! Could you tell me where i go wrong?

Thank you very much for your help

Andrea

Hi I have a W800i and the motorola bluetooth headphones, I cant get mine to work when playing music, it only comes out of the speaker, but I can make calls through the headphones. Its weird, could yould you please tell me how you got your pair to work as I would be most greatfull!

Thanks

Jonnie

From what I can tell, the W800i doesnt support A2DP which is the protocol thats needed for the music to stream. If anyone knows a way around this, please share - I can't find one but would love to use these with my W800i too.

I would really really like to know if this headset is good enough to use for gaming as well, good quality and surround (i have a i-mate jam and would like to use it for gaming as well, but for this i need good virtual surround)
to compare i need a medium quality level, like the Logitech® Precision PC Gaming Headset
Sensitivity: -58 dBV/uBar, -38 dBV/Pa +/-4dB

Frequency Response: 
Headset: 20-20,000 Hz 
Microphone: 100-16,000 Hz

what are specification from the HT820 ?

Bugger ... I just bought the W800i a month ago ... I was hoping that the headset would be compatible ... now I need to upgrade the phone again ... within a month ...

Another useless device for the 'majority' of mobile users ...

ta,

can you use in on a pc to talk via teamspeak???? can it be used in place of a regular wired headset with mic??????

JJB wrote:

can you use in on a pc to talk via teamspeak???? can it be used in place of a regular wired headset with mic??????

No, it's only supporting A2DP (in both directions) but not headset or handsfree as Arne said in his review.

I bought the HT 820 a week ago, to use with my new Razor V3x. The music sound quality is terrible and I certianly can't control the built-in v3x music player with it. I had assumed this would all work together ... oh well.

i just bought the ht820 ive got a v3i and it does calls but no music play whats up can anyone help me out hear ..

coneon wrote:

i just bought the ht820 ive got a v3i and it does calls but no music play whats up can anyone help me out hear ..

As far as I know, the V3i does not support A2DP, only the V3x should.

Hi,

Have finally come across a forum where I hope to get answers to questions that I have regarding the Motorola Bluetooth Headphones(HT 820).

I recently saw them on the net and was so enamoured with what I saw that I bought a pair. I now want to build my communication/music needs around this.

I want to buy a cell phone which has at least 1gb of memory (internal or extendable) for my music, 2 Megapixel camera and is completely compatible with these new Motorola headphones. Initially I thought the V3i (the new razr) was a good option but have heard it's not fully compatible.

Am a little unclear as to whether I can listen to music on my phone (the new one which I buy), answer a call and then switch back to the music on the phone?
Is my understanding right? Can I do that?
If I can then with which phone?

Am planning on buying it this weekend so any inputs would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Shavir