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

Showing 4 responses by almarg

My Motorola E815 on Verizon isn't too bad. But I still prefer to use the landline for important calls.

A little OT: My pet peeve is answering machines. I've been through many, selecting them based on user comments I've seen, and looking for the best sound quality regardless of price. But I just can't find one that sounds decent, either playing back incoming messages or recording the answering message. That includes the very expensive Bang & Olufsen. There have been times when it's taken me several seconds to even recognize my own wife's voice on some of these machines.

Regards,
-- Al
The digital sampling rate is so low thus the crappy sound

I believe traditional analog landline phones have a bandwidth of 300Hz to 3.4kHz. Pretty narrow, but still quite capable of pleasing sound with a good mic and earpiece. I don't know what the audio sample rate is in cellphones, but I suspect it is capable of capturing something approximating that bandwidth or better. I suspect the most major culprits are the cheap tiny microphones, which on a flip-phone or bluetooth headset are alongside the face instead of in front of the mouth, and the cheap tiny earpiece speakers.

Regards,
-- Al